Exploring three correlates of thought suppression: attention, absorbtion, and cognitive load

Previous studies evaluating the probability of successful thought suppression (attempts to rid our minds of repeated unwanted thoughts) have relied solely upon internal mental distracters (Wegner, 1989), characterizing thought suppression to be a controlled rather than an automatic process. As an alternative approach, the effects of attention actively focused on limited external stimuli were studied in order to achieve easy, effortless, and successful thought suppression. Participants included students enrolled in undergraduate psychology courses. Experiment 1 showed that the presence of cognitive load (computerized tests of perceptual skills) occupied conscious capacity sufficiently so that attempts to suppress both mundane (tree) and exciting (sex) target thoughts were successful. Experiment 2 revealed that the physiological effects of exciting thoughts (measured via electrodermal activity) were higher for participants who were rated as having a predisposition toward successful suppression, although contrary to the results of Experiment 1, cognitive load did not have any effect on suppression or expression of target thoughts. Experiment 3 found that the type of cognitive load (motoric or attentional) was a factor in achieving successful thought suppression. Collectively, these findings suggest that experience seems to be a more effective thought distracter relative to traditional internal mental distracters, but only when attention is captured involuntarily and by an appropriately challenging level of cognitive load

Gender and Leadership: Reflections of Women in Higher Education Administration

Scholarly work on leadership, both inside and outside the academy, has been male-centric, in that it most often has been conducted by men and focused on male leaders. As a result, male behaviors and characteristics in leadership roles have been the standard against which women leaders are assessed. Reflection research is employed in this article to examine the leadership experiences of three women higher education administrators in order to provide insight into women’s behaviors as academic leaders. The insights gained will help us understand how women navigate the male-centric realm of higher education administration, and can provide guidance for women in academic leadership positions and to those who aspire to academic leadership

Family Engagement Impact Project: Phase II Evaluation Report

In September 2013, the Heising-Simons Foundation (the Foundation) launched a new initiative called the Family Engagement Impact Project (FEIP). The purpose of the initiative is to offer new ways to build capacity for family engagement to promote positive educational outcomes for low-income immigrant children from birth through age 8 in California's San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. The initiative leverages existing resources and strengthens public-private partnerships in order to coordinate and integrate efforts across organizations in the funded communities. The partnerships' efforts focus on building the skills of parents and professionals, with an emphasis on enhancing family engagement at home. The FEIP also supports partnerships in replicating at least one evidence-based family engagement model. The Foundation awarded 8-month FEIP planning grants to six communities (Phase I) in fall 2013. During this phase, the selected communities secured partners, defined their family engagement goals, and planned strategies and approaches to achieve their goals. In June 2014, five grantee partnerships received 24-month implementation grants (Phase II). During this phase, the partnerships were tasked with implementing the plans that they had developed during Phase I, including delivering coordinated family engagement programming in their geographic focus areas and implementing at least one evidence-based family engagement program. Table ES1 provides an overview of the five grantee partnerships that received Phase II implementation awards, including the grantee lead, the geographic area served, and the key activities and programs offered by the grantee partnerships

Don\u27t You Remember or Ben Bolt / music by Nelson Kneass; words by Thomas Dunn English

Cover: Photos of Gecko, Svengali and Trilby, Mme. Vinard, Little Billee- Taffy- The Laird, Angele and Zou-Zou; Text reads: as sung by Miss Phyllis Neilson-Terry in the play of TRILBY; Publisher: Dana T. Bennett Co. (New York)https://egrove.olemiss.edu/sharris_f/1012/thumbnail.jp

The methodological inclinations of gender scholarship in mainstream sociology journals

This article examines the types of research methods sociologists studying women and gender use in articles published in mainstream journals. The research is based on an analysis of 1,826 gender-content articles published between 1984 and 1993 in 15 major sociology journals. Specifically, we explore whether feminist-oriented articles use different types of data, data collection methods, and statistical techniques than other articles addressing women and gender. The relationship between the rank of an academic journal, author's sex, and type of research method is also examined. We find that a large majority of gender-content articles are based on secondary, quantitative data. When the first author is a man, articles are somewhat more likely to be based on secondary data and to use quantitative statistical techniques. In general, we find that feminist research in the discipline is based on a melange of methodological approaches,reflecting the contested nature of feminist epistemologies

A View from the Top: Gender Differences in Legislative Priorities Among State Legislative Leaders

Women are no longer token participants in the governing process in U.S. state legislatures. Rather, they comprise more than one fifth of the state legislative membership and have become a visible force in leadership, holding about fifteen percent of all leadership positions. Unfortunately, there has been no systematic effort to examine the differences between the issue priorities of men and women leaders. Given the growing number of women in leadership and the importance of leaders as agenda setters, this question warrants attention. Our results indicate that while women are a growing part of modern legislative leadership teams, they are less prominent in key leadership positions. Women leaders in our sample do have legislative agendas distinct from their male counterparts. Specifically, women leaders are more likely to report issues of traditional concern to women: health care, social services, women’s family and children’s issues, and the environment as priorities. They are less likely than are men to emphasize taxes, budget matters, public safety, institutional regulation and matters of insurance or product liability as legislative priorities. Further, we find that differences between women and men leaders remain significant when controls for party, race, experience, type of leadership position and region are included in the model

Learning by doing: group projects in research methods classes

In this paper we describe an approach to teaching research methods that involves student group projects.1 Many authors acknowledge the merits of group or collaborative learning at the college level (Bouton and Garth 1983; Bruffee 1984; Helmericks 1993; Hilligoss 1992; Hylton and Allen 1993; Ingalsbee 1992; Katz and Henry 1988; King 1990; McKinney and Graham-Buxton 1992; NIE 1983; Rau and Heyl 1990; Taub 1991; Whipple 1987). The literature suggests that group learning requires careful planning and implementation; yet strategies to support this form of learning have not received sufficient attention (Atwater 1991; Hayes 1989). Our purpose is to describe the rewards of using group research projects and to discuss some ways of coordinating, organizing, and evaluating the projects

The Incorporation of Gender Scholarship into Sociology

The prospects of an intellectual revolution in sociology informed in part by a feminist perspective loomed large in the early 1970s. Following Ward and Grant's (1985) empirical examination of gender and feminist scholarship in sociology journals between 1974 and 1983, our research provides an empirical assessment of the "second ten years" after the feminist critique of the discipline, 1984-1993. Specifically, we examine the incorporation of gender content scholarship into mainstream sociology journals. Our research also assesses the extent to which gender-content scholarship published in these journals is feminist-oriented or not and the extent to which this is influenced by the sex of authors, the type of journal, and the sex composition of editorships and editorial boards. Our findings indicate that although there were more gender- and feminist-oriented articles published in the recent ten-year period proportionally there were fewer feminist-oriented articles than in the previous ten-year period. Our findings suggest that a feminist revolution in sociology is not likely to occur anytime soon, although the assimilation of feminist scholarship into sociology is occurring along the lines of other critical intellectual movements in recent decades

Gender inequality in education and employment in the scheduled castes and tribes of India

The complex stratification systems in India give rise to a multiplicity of social categories which often obscure the relative status of women and men within the more disadvantaged segments of the population. The focus of this study is on the situation of women in scheduled castes and tribes - groups which are referred to as "weaker sections of people' and granted special safeguards and concessions under the Indian constitution. Women in these underprivileged groups are doubly disadvantaged: their minority group status interacts with India's patriarchal culture to produce deplorable living conditions. Drawing from both ethnographic and statistical sources, the paper presents a descriptive profile of scheduled caste and tribe women's status in Indian society. Using Indian Census data, the study documents extreme degrees of gender inequality among the scheduled groups. Findings indicate that relative to men, women in these groups have far more limited access to both educational and employment resources. This research also suggests that socioeconomic development serves to reduce the disadvantage of scheduled group women relative to men. Among the scheduled groups considered to be more developed according to standard indicators, findings indicate less gender inequality in education and employment

Psychic Powers, Astrology & Creationism in the Classroom? Evidence of Pseudoscientific Beliefs Among High School Biology & Life Science Teachers

Many authors and researchers have noted the popularity of pseudoscientific beliefs in the United States.1,2 Although pseudoscience is not a new phenomenon (it has been around at least as long as science itself [Trefil 1978]), some suggest that pseudoscientific beliefs have become even more widespread in recent decades.3 The last three decades have also seen a decline in scientific literacy in the general public (Hively 1988). Unless the simultaneity of these two trends is purely coincidental-which seems highly unlikely-it may well be that understanding the mechanisms behind the origin and transmission of pseudoscientific beliefs will shed some light on the decline in scientific literacy.It is scarcely necessary to argue that knowledge and understanding of science has become more and more vital in this increasingly complex, high technology world. A much wider cross-section of the population is today asked to decide on matters involving issues with a substantial high technology component (e.g., SDI, space and environmental programs). To the extent that the promulgation of pseudoscientific beliefs is interfering with this knowledge and understanding, it must be addressed if we are to reverse the rising tide of scientific illiteracy. This paper examines one important potential source of pseudoscientific belief in the population-the extent to which those given the responsibility of transmitting knowledge of science to our high school students actually hold pseudoscientific beliefs themselves. The first section of the analysis presents evidence for the prevalence of pseudoscientific belief among the general public. Previously suggested sources for pseudoscientific beliefs are explored in the second section. We then focus in detail on one potential source of pseudoscientific belief-science teachers. The extent and specific types of pseudoscientific belief held by a sample of high school life science and biology teachers are examined, as well as the demographic and social correlates of such beliefs. Finally, the implications of high school science teachers' pseudoscientific beliefs for science education are discussed