Available evidence does not support the notion that aging is associated with increasingly conservative social and political attitudes, or the idea that attitudinal rigidity is the norm among older cohorts. To examine whether aging is associated with attitudinal rigidity, nine surveys from the National Opinion Research Center were analyzed to…

The author reviews the evolution of man to stress the role of psychology in a nation's social and technological development. It is especially important for developing nations to realize that technology must be coordinated with human social and psychological needs. To clarify the type of being man is, the author provides an account of human…

The effects of the amounts, sources, and kinds of support available to adolescent mothers on their patterns of interactions with their children are examined in this study. Subjects were 50 adolescent mothers ranging in age from 15 to 19 years and selected from the 1978-79 birth records of a mixed rural/suburban county in the outskirts of…

In Nigeria, various forms of polygamy and monogamy are practiced; however, monogamy is more or less practiced by many Christians and a greater percentage of younger men. A survey of marital success and failure was conducted with samples of Nigerian Diploma students and selected educated community members. Subjects completed two instruments, the…

Women who are able to acknowledge their distinctive perceptions and to relate them to their lives are the ones most likely to expose the oppressiveness of a power-driven society. Nathaniel Hawthorne's fictional character, Hester Prynne ("The Scarlet Letter") illustrates a crucial theme: a woman's faculty for critical awareness and her ability to…

A language attitude survey was conducted in Toronto in the winter of 1978 in which 457 people of various ages, social classes, geographical backgrounds, and of both sexes were asked to listen to 20 voices representing five varieties of English and to rate them on a series of character traits and on a socio-economic status scale. The purpose was to…

Leisure is a function of the individual's interaction with the environment, both social and physical. The sense of freedom from obligation (or the "leisure experience"), and the context in which this experience might take place, differ significantly from person to person. These factors depend on each person's individual background and…

The special problems faced by black women in sports and in American society are discussed. Ways of bringing about change in social attitudes and in interaction between the races and the sexes are considered. Special emphasis is placed on the need to develop a sense of worth and an understanding of the basic social structures which breed racial and…

While existing research suggests that schools have only indirect effects on students' racial and political attitudes, the social and demographic characteristics of desegregated classrooms may produce certain normative and behavioral outcomes which encourage children to accept human diversity encountered in concrete situations. This pattern of…

A correlational study was done on the effect of acquiescence response set upon Kogan's Attitudes Toward Old People (OP) scale. Couch and Keniston's Agreement Response (AR) scale was used as the measure of acquiescence tendency. Both scales were administered to 61 second year medical students and 44 individuals who were undergoing training in…

The paper analyzes the development of the women's movement, indicating how this particular movement empirically documents the theoretical suppositions of a sociologically defined social movement. A social movement is defined as "a group venture extended beyond a local community or a single event and involving a systematic effort to inaugurate…

The mental health implications of sex discrimination as considered by the Subpanel on the Mental Health of Women of the President's Commission of Mental Health are discussed. The status of women's mental health and the problems of women in the mental health delivery system are considered in relation to the larger societal context. Prevention of…

Personal dispositional variables conflicting with social pressure and the resulting behavior, which follows a cusp catastrophe, were investigated. Female undergraduates (N=200) completed a set of attitude questionnaires using a Crutchfield console. Results indicate that: (1) when social pressure is low, behavior is a smooth, monotonic function of…

Risk-taking attitudes and behaviors among young and elderly adults were investigated. Elderly subjects, from both a nursing home and the community, and college students responded to choice dilemmas involving aged central characters. Each subject responded twice, once under "self" instructions, and once as the "average elderly person" would…

This paper discusses some of the problems faced in working with competing theories of basic writing and suggests its own kind of theoretical analysis of nonstandard writing. A brief overview of basic writing theories is presented, and the theories are categorized into two approaches: a traditional approach of teaching by prescription in an…