Why Does Occupational Prestige Affect Sentencing Outcomes?: Exploring the Perceptual Mediators

Research on the effect of an offender’s occupational prestige on criminal sentencing shows mixed results, with some studies showing a positive association between prestige and sentence severity and others showing a negative association. We revisit this question using an online vignette experiment. Drawing on affect control theory and its computer program, Interact, we hypothesize that an offender’s occupational prestige will increase the recommended sentence and that post-crime, or transient, impressions of the offender’s potency will mediate this effect. We find support for both hypotheses: Occupational prestige increases the recommended sentence, and post-crime impressions of the offender’s potency mediate this effect. The mediation is partial when potency is measured with semantic differentials, and it is complete when potency is measured with a set of explicit, denotative items. We also explore the mediational role of post-crime impressions of the offender’s evaluation and activity. Although offender activity does not function as a mediator, offender evaluation plays a minor mediational role when offender potency is also controlled. We also find an interaction between post-crime offender evaluation and potency, with participants recommending a lighter sentence for offenders they see as both weak and evaluatively neutral. We discuss the empirical, theoretical, and methodological implications of these findings and outline avenues for future research

One Germany, Two Worlds of Housework? Examining Single and Partnered Women in the Decade after Unification

Despite much recent changes in gender relations, housework remains an area where women bear primary responsibility. This paper examines the role of policy and employment context on housework, not only for women who live with partners, but also for single women. I study German women's housework in the decade after unification, which allows me to simultaneously assess the impact of the ideological legacies of the FRG and the GDR, while also studying the role of different levels of labor market participation. I find that women with partners do more housework than singles, and that part-time employees do more housework than those working full-time. The results show no regional differences in singles' housework performance. However, among women with partners, West German women do significantly more housework. The analyses reveal that differences in the housework levels of full-time and part-time workers can be explained by the differences in mechanisms for the two groups. Full-time workers reduce their housework in response to their paid labor involvement to a lesser extent than part-time workers, in particular in East Germany, where women's full-time employment has long been normative

Information vs. inspiration: Evaluating the effectiveness of mental illness stigma-reduction messages.

Numerous countries, communities, and organizations have conducted campaigns aimed at reducing the stigma of mental illness. Using an online experiment, we evaluate the relative effectiveness of three types of campaign messages (information about the biological origins of an illness, information about the psycho-social origins of an illness, and inspirational information about the competence of those with an illness) for reducing the perceived stigma (how I think others feel) and personal stigma (how I personally feel) tied to two illnesses (depression and schizophrenia). Drawing on expectation states theories (EST), affect control theories (ACT), and past research, we expected all three messages to reduce both types of stigma, with their relative effectiveness following this order: competence > psycho-social > biology. We find that the messages are more effective at reducing personal stigma than perceived stigma and that the competence message reduces both types of stigma more effectively than the other messages. More specifically, we find that (1) none of the messages reduce the perceived stigma of depression, (2) only the competence message consistently reduces the perceived stigma of schizophrenia, (3) only the competence message reduces personal stigma toward individuals with depression, and (4) all three messages reduce personal stigma toward individuals with schizophrenia and do so equally well. The findings provide support for propositions in EST and ACT and suggest that stigma-reduction campaigns that focus on the competence and capabilities of individuals with a mental illness will be more effective than those that focus on information about the origins of mental illness

Social status determinants of control in individuals' accounts of their mental illness

We examine the determinants of patients' accounts of their own mental illness. In particular, we examine the factors that affect the likelihood of attributing one's own mental illness to controllable factors rather than non-controllable factors. Our quantitative measure of attributional control is derived from the coding of in-depth interviews with people with severe mental illness seeking treatment for the first time (N=144). We find that those who occupy positions of social disadvantage (particularly African-American males and those who receive public assistance) are less likely to attribute their illness to controllable sources, suggesting that personal mental illness attributions are systematically related to a person's social location. We outline the significance of these findings for research on the psychological consequences of mental illness attributions.Mental health Attributions Control Social status USA

Stigma Sentiments and Self-Meanings: Applying the Modified Labeling Theory to Juvenile Delinquents

We use “stigma sentiments” as a way to operationalize the stigma associated with a juvenile delinquency label. Stigma sentiments are the evaluation, potency, and activity (EPA) associated with the cultural category “a juvenile delinquent.” We find consistent support for the validity of the evaluation component as measures of these conceptions. Then we assess hypotheses derived from the modified labeling theory: we expect each stigma sentiment to be related positively to the corresponding dimension of self-identities among juvenile delinquents but unrelated to the corresponding dimension among non-delinquents. We find support for this hypothesis on the evaluation dimension. We also find two cross-dimensional results that were not anticipated. Specifically, among teenagers and young adults who have been adjudicated delinquent, the evaluation of “a juvenile delinquent” is positively related to self-evaluation, the potency of a “a juvenile delinquent” is negatively related to self-evaluation, and the activity of “a juvenile delinquent” is positively related to self-evaluation. By contrast, among teenagers and young adults who are not adjudicated delinquent, the meaning of the cultural category “a juvenile delinquent” is unrelated to self-evaluation. The results suggest that the cultural conceptions associated with the category of “a juvenile delinquent” do affect the self-meanings of individuals charged in juvenile delinquency court, although the connection is sometimes more complex than a one-to-one relationship between a stigma sentiment and its corresponding dimension of self meaning