Ethnic Identity and Ethnic Organizations: The Role of Self-Construal in the Psychological Well-Being of Migrants

This study attempted to highlight the role of ethnic organizations in maintaining the ethnic identity and self-construals of migrants and see whether such perpetuations were psychologically healthy or not in a contrasting culture. Two groups of migrants of Asian-Indian origin in the USA participated in the study, one group belonging to their respective ethnic organizations and the other group not belonging to any ethnic organization. Results indicated stronger ethnic identity and interdependent self-construal in members of ethnic organizations as compared to non-members. Self-construals were found to be significant moderators in the relationships between ethnic identity and well-being in members of ethnic organizations but not in non-members. Better well-being was seen in people who were engaged in their respective ethnic organizations and thereby still maintaining their home prototypical self-construal with strong ethnic identity. Non-members showed a match of self-construal to the host culture (independent) as well as weaker ethnic identity and poorer well-being, while the member group showed higher intergroup anxiety. Results were discussed in light of the debates on cultural diversity and role of ethnic organizations and social identity

Measuring public perceptions of sex offenders: reimagining the Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale

The Community Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders (CATSO) scale is an 18-item self-report questionnaire designed to measure respondents’ attitudes toward sex offenders. Its original factor structure has been questioned by a number of previous studies, and so this paper sought to reimagine the scale as an outcome measure, as opposed to a scale of attitudes. A face validity analysis produced a provisional three-factor structure underlying the CATSO: ‘punitiveness,’ ‘stereotype endorsement,’ and ‘risk perception.’ A sample of 400 British members of the public completed a modified version of the CATSO, the Attitudes Toward Sex Offenders scale, the General Punitiveness Scale, and the Rational-Experiential Inventory. A three-factor structure of a 22-item modified CATSO was supported using half of the sample, with factors being labeled ‘sentencing and management,’ ‘stereotype endorsement,’ and ‘risk perception.’ Confirmatory factor analysis on data from the other half of the sample endorsed the three-factor structure; however, two items were removed in order to improve ratings of model fit. This new 20-item ‘Perceptions of Sex Offenders scale’ has practical utility beyond the measurement of attitudes, and suggestions for its future use are provided

Structural history of continental volcanic arc rocks, eastern Sierra Nevada, California: A case for extensional tectonics

Mesozoic metavolcanic rocks forming part of the continental volcanic arc along the eastern Sierra Nevada near Mt. Goddard and in the Ritter Range show a complex history related to extensional tectonics. The rocks comprise a thick section of tuffs, breccias, lava flows, sills, and ash-flow tuffs deposited in a subaerial to subaqueous environment, with some subvolcanic sill-like plutons. Pb/U ages of the rocks in the Mt, Goddard area range from ca. 130–160 Ma, while rocks in the Ritter Range have a somewhat wider age range as reported previously. Repetition of the section occurs by faulting, and with the exception of parts of the mid-Cretaceous Minarets Caldera, all the volcanic rocks show a regional slaty cleavage which was subsequently crenulated and/or folded locally. The first cleavage has well-developed stretching lineations, and does not appear to have been associated with significant folding. Finite strain measurements show considerable variation both in magnitude and symmetry. The Mt. Goddard rocks, however, tend to show slightly higher overall strain magnitude and greater constrictional component than the Ritter Range for rocks of comparable age. Calculations based on the strain data suggest the Mt. Goddard section has been thinned by about 50% normal to bedding, much as that documented previously for rocks in the Ritter Range. Deformation within this part of the continental arc was originally thought to have formed by regional compression during the late Jurassic (Nevadan) orogeny. However, our study indicates that (1) parts of the deformed volcanic section are younger than late Jurassic, (2) Nevadan-age breaks in deposition are not present, (3) large-scale folds expected during a regional compression event are not common, and (4) the beds were tilted to a high dip prior to internal deformation. An extensional model is proposed in which beds were rotated to high tilts early in the deformation as a result of listric normal faulting. This normal faulting is thought to have occurred above a regional tumescence related to voluminous magmatism at depth, with preservation of the steeply tilted Goddard and Ritter sections being facilitated by their downward transport along the margins of rising plutons. Flattening and steeply plunging constrictional fabrics superimposed on the tilted sections are related to strain induced by high-level inflation of magma chambers and downward return flow of the keellike pendants. The main tectonic fabric shown by the continental volcanic arc rocks in the eastern Sierra Nevada is largely of Cretaceous age, rather than Jurassic (Nevadan) as originally supposed. In addition, the deformation, both rotation of beds and subsequent tectonite fabric, appears to be genetically related to the dynamic evolution of the magmatic arc, and not the result of an externally imposed tectonic event

Breadwinning moms, caregiving dads: double standard in social judgments of gender norm violators

This study explores the role of gender ideologies in moderating social judgments of gender norm violators. Three hundred and eleven participants evaluated a male or a female target who was either a primary breadwinner or a primary caregiver. Attributions of personal traits, moral emotions and marital emotions were examined. Results showed that both traditional and egalitarian individuals applied a double standard when judging deviations from gendered family roles. However, and as predicted, traditional individuals evaluated the normative targets more favourably than the norm-violating targets, whereas egalitarians evaluated the norm-violating targets more favourably. These findings shed light on the important moderating role of gender ideologies and help account for the inconsistencies in previous findings regarding social judgments of gender norm violators

Framing and Immigration Through the Trump Era

For the last decade, undocumented or illegal immigration has been one of the most contested policy issues in the United States, with significant news attention on policies affecting the undocumented population, ranging from deportations to comprehensive immigration reform, the DREAM Act, and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals. Despite these prominent and multifaceted policy debates, scholarship on media framing and public opinion remain more focused on the portrayal of immigrants rather than policies affecting them. In general, we find that policy frames are far more consequential to public opinion than equivalency frames (variations in how news media describe unauthorized immigrants, either as illegal or undocumented ) or episodic frames (whether news articles are heavy on human-interest stories rather than policy facts and statistics). In addition, negative frames generally have stronger effects than positive frames, and these effects sometimes vary by partisanship and family migration history. Finally, the relative infrequency of powerful frames in news stories, like time spent living in the United States, provides opportunities for advocates to move public opinion on immigration policy. These findings have important implications for future battles over immigration policy in the United States, which show no signs of abating

Unequal relationships in high and low power distance societies: a comparative study of tutor - student role relations in Britain and China

This study investigated people's conceptions of an unequal role relationship in two different types of society: a high power distance society and a low power distance society. The study focuses on the role relationship of tutor and student. British and Chinese tutors and postgraduate students completed a questionnaire that probed their conceptions of degrees of power differential and social distance/closeness in this role relationship. ANOVA results yielded a significant nationality effect for both aspects. Chinese respondents judged the relationship to be closer and to have a greater power differential than did British respondents. Written comments on the questionnaire and interviews with 9 Chinese academics who had experienced both British and Chinese academic environments supported the statistical findings and indicated that there are fundamental ideological differences associated with the differing conceptions. The results are discussed in relation to Western and Asian concepts of leadership and differing perspectives on the compatibility/incompatibility of power and distance/closeness

Popularizing Party Journalism in China in the Age of Social Media: The Case of Xinhua News Agency

The phenomenon of the “popularization” of journalism has become widespread in the process of media marketization, globalization and digitalization. This phenomenon has been studied mostly in the Anglo-American context. This article instead draws attention to China, where the tendency toward popularizing (party) journalism is also occurring but taking a rather different form. It focuses on the case of Xinhua News Agency—the pioneer as well as the most representative case of traditional party journalism in the country. The article considers to what extent Xinhua’s online media content concerning the ruling party since 1949—the Communist Party of China—has been popularized both in terms of content and style. The changes to online media content made by Xinhua are indicative of the extent to which it is possible to combine the status of a state-owned central news organization with a new journalistic orientation that seeks to make the messages from and about the party more appealing to technology-savvy and entertainment-driven audiences in the new media environment in mainland China

Implicit theories and offender representativeness in judgments about sexual crime

Implicit theories structure the way people understand and respond to various human actions. Typically, people believe attributes are either fixed (entitists) or malleable (incrementalists). The present study aimed to examine: (a) whether attitudes towards sexual offenders differ depending upon one’s implicit theory about human nature and sexual offenders, and (b) whether implicit theories are associated with judgments made about different types of child abuser. A sample of 252 community participants was recruited. Their attitudes, implicit theories, and political orientation were assessed via self-report. One of three vignettes describing an incidence of child sexual abuse was then presented. The cases were identical except the perpetrator was either an adult male, an adult female, or a male juvenile. Participants then made judgments about the offender's deserved sentence and moral character. Entitists (across both domains) held more negative attitudes than incrementalists, although the magnitude of the difference was greatest when examining implicit theories about sexual offenders. Compared to those with an incremental theory of sexual offenders, entity theorists judged sexual offending to be more: (a) indicative of the perpetrator’s moral character, and (b) deserving of punishment. However, scores were greater towards the adult male relative to the adult female and juvenile. The findings suggest that implicit theories about sexual offenders are domain-specific. They also indicate that judgments made by those with an entity theory (about sexual offenders) are affected by whether a case is representative of a stereotypical sexual offender. Implications of the findings are discussed, along with limitations and future research