The thinking underlying people's positions on complex issues is often of limited scope or complexity, yet changing minds is notoriously difficult. We investigated the thinking underlying people's positions on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Rather than seek to influence their thinking by engaging them in considering alternative…

Background: Evidence on the effects of contact and education based interventions on attitudes is limited in the intellectual disability field. This study compared the effects of brief interventions with different education, indirect and imagined contact components on lay people's attitudes. Materials and Methods: 401 adult participants were…

Significant declines in outdoor activity and engagement with the natural environment are growing concerns with negative impacts on well-being. We pilot-tested an intervention encouraging outdoor activity among adult mentor and child mentee pairs and families, in partnership with Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center. The study used a mixed methods…

The connection between evaluation practice and its ultimate goal--social betterment--is indirect. With little or no direct control over social programs and policies, many evaluators rely on the actions of stakeholders to bridge the gap between evaluation practice and its purpose. Consequently, communicating with influence becomes key. The present…

Stephan Cohen provides a unique comparative study of three queer youth groups that were active in New York City during the early 1970s, including Gay Youth, Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (STAR), and Gay International Youth Society at George Washington High School. Cohen focuses on these three groups due to the related characteristics…

This study examined the relationship between internalized and public stigma on treatment-related attitudes and behaviors in a community sample of 449 African American and white adults aged 18 years and older. Telephone surveys were administered to assess level of depressive symptoms, demographic characteristics, stigma, and treatment-related…

Concludes that no evidence exists to support the claim that advertising has the power to change human values, although advertising can be said to inform some members of the culture about the predominant value system that is used in a culture at a particular time. (RL)

While there has been an increasing liberalization of attitudes toward legalized abortion in the past 15 years, by 1975 the trend began to change and attitudes became slightly more conservative. By 1978, the conservative trend was pronounced. These changes are a function of selected demographic variables. (Author)

Of 219 people interviewed within a week of the broadcast of the miniseries "Roots," 104 people were reinterviewed one year later to determine the program's long-term effects, including its perceived and experienced impact on race relations in the United States and its stimulation of viewers to search for their own roots/heritage and to…

Examines changes in attitudinal support for the women's liberation movement from 1972-1976. Attitudes in all age groups became more favorable, but shifts were greater among the older members of the panel. The findings provide no support for the notions that attitudes become more conservative with aging. (Author)

A study examined the behavior patterns of patrons arriving at theatres that showed both "X" rated and "PG" rated movies. The study was undertaken to update the findings of the President's Commission on Pornography and Obscenity, which conducted similar research in 1970 and 1971. Patrons entering the theatre's X and PG rated…

The history of educational services for mentally retarded persons in Denmark is traced, along with the evolution of attitudes toward the population from a protectionist philosophy which promoted segregation to current thinking about normalization. The role of the national parents' association in influencing service review and reform is stressed.…