In keeping with the special issue theme of "Remembering the Future," this article provides a selective review of research on how memory for social information (i.e., social category representation) influences future processing and behavior. Specifically, the authors focus on how categorization and stereotyping affect how we perceive others and…

Maintains that Shweder, Helwig, and the other respondents to Gabennesch attribute to Gabennesch a denial of moral law and that this is a misinterpretation of the argument. Maintains that the critics deny the implications of the social construction of reality, leading them to reject the concept of transparency. Describes alleged shortcomings of the…

Provides an analysis of America based on the travel accounts of several foreign visitors and diplomats over the course of U.S. history. Viewpoints are expressed that reveal an America with many contradictions and a dark side. (GLR)

Discusses several features of the feminist critique of objectivity (part of the ongoing project of feminist theory and practice), as well as two possible responses to the questions it raises. Comments on some of the implications of the feminist critique of objectivity for communication research and proposes criteria for feminist communication…

The shaping of social reality has become the task of the mass media due to the fact that audience members base interaction and social judgments upon the information they process from the mass media. Theorists have developed various paradigms linking individual media use and interpersonal communication with cultural effects and mass media. Although…

Argues that the scientific community cannot evoke the desired response from the general community concerning environmental problems, such as climate change, simply by warning the community of its dangers. Discusses the need for new meaning systems arising out of new ways of relating and communicating with each other about our ecology. (MDH)

The moral realism of everyday life is neither Piaget's childlike egocentrism nor Gabennesch's reification. Natural moral law is seen by Turiel, a cognitivist, as a code of harm, rights, and justice. Other cognitivists accept codes of duty and natural order. (BC)

Replies to Billig's (1995) critique of his paper on the relations between language and ideology. The article argues that the paper critiqued is tentative and maintains that social cognition should not be reduced to structures of interaction or rhetoric. The article also emphasizes that ideologies are crucial in the cognitive and social management…

Some studies indicate that individuals recognize conventional norms as social contrivances; others, that individuals reify social formations as something other than social products. Questions about comparatively transparent rules and the use of simplistic questions for complex phenomena give an exaggerated portrayal of individuals' awareness of…

Reports on a year-long study of how children's literacy practices enhanced their understanding of themselves and their social worlds. Finds that children's reading and writing benefited them personally and socially, enabling them to understand a complex urban landscape, to explore new social identities, and to wrestle with social problems and ways…

States that as long as society rates careers outside the home as more valuable than parenting, it will be impossible for the status of child-care professionals to improve. When children become valued, their caretakers will be. Three child-care professionals respond with their points of view. (ET)

States that Paulo Freire distinguished between authoritarianism and the legitimate exercise of authority, aligning legitimate authority with the assurance of freedom. He also linked freedom with the process of struggle, indicating a strong relationship between freedom and social justice. (NB)

Historically, Americans have employed the rhetorical motif "reaffirmation of principle" to cope with the social evils in their midst. This concept refers to the tendency of groups to respond to outside hostility by regrouping and reaffirming their ethos through a form of self-address. Reaffirmation of principle, like managerial rhetoric,…

Contends that Paulo Freire's ethical agenda is situated in ontology, or more particularly, in the ontological vocation of humans. At the same time, his deepest motivation is an ethical one, seeking justice for the oppressed. Argues that these two factors-ontology and ethics-are in competition for the status of first philosophy in Freire's work.…

Used a standard picture-ranking task to assess preschooler's attitudes about orthopedically handicapped individuals. Found that children as young as preschool age can hold a functionally related preference for a normal over a physically handicapped person. Children who held this preference interacted differently in social situations than children…