Flaunting one's academic pedigree? Self‐presentation of students from elite French schools

This article starts from the puzzle that although French elite institutions enjoy extremely positive and attractive images, students from these schools generally choose to conceal their academic pedigree in their daily interactions. We show that, in a context of growing inequalities of access to grandes écoles, the strategy of hiding one's student identity may be understood as the desire to avoid six core threats associated with declaring one's association with an elite school: not conforming to group norms, confirming a negative reputation, not living up to a positive reputation, reducing one's identity, losing control of one's identity, and threatening the identity of the other. The conclusions highlight the implications of this microsociological study on a host of much wider questions useful in better understanding the ambivalent relations that exist between French society and its elites issued from the grandes écoles.     

Questionable Research Practices in Experimental Communication Research: A Systematic Analysis From 1980 to 2013

Questionable research practices (QRPs) pose a major threat to any scientific discipline. This article analyzes QRPs with a content analysis of more than three decades of published experimental research in four flagship communication journals: Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, and Media Psychology. Findings reveal indications of small and insufficiently justified sample sizes, a lack of reported effect sizes, an indiscriminate removal of cases and items, an increasing inflation of p-values directly below p < .05, and a rising share of verified (as opposed to falsified) hypotheses. Implications for authors, reviewers, and editors are discussed.     

Birds of different feathers? The relationship between multicultural personality dimensions and foreign language mastery in business professionals working in a Dutch agricultural multinational

The relationship between personality dimensions, measured with the Multicultural Personality Questionnaire (MPQ), and foreign language mastery were studied in a Dutch-based multinational company in the agricultural sector. In a survey, differences were studied between internal and external stakeholders to determine whether MPQ dimensions and language mastery allow us to discriminate between them. The internal stakeholders were divided into international and non-international employees; external stakeholders were the business contacts of the international employees (clients and business partners based or working abroad). The international employees were found to be more open-minded and flexible than the non-international employees, and the former group was found to be more emotionally stable than the group of business contacts. On average, the international employees reported speaking one foreign language more than both other groups. Also, the number of foreign languages correlated with the multicultural personality dimensions open-mindedness and emotional stability. It is concluded that emotional stability, open-mindedness, and the number of spoken foreign languages are to some extent predictive of differences between the various stakeholders distinguished in this sample.     

Language‐Switching Costs in Bilingual Mathematics Learning

Behavioral studies on bilingual learning have revealed cognitive costs (lower accuracy and/or higher processing time) when the language of application differs from the language of learning. The aim of this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study was to provide insights into the cognitive underpinnings of these costs (so‐called language‐switching costs) in mathematics. Twenty‐nine bilingual adults underwent a 4‐day arithmetic training in one language, followed by an fMRI test session in which they had to solve the trained problems in both languages. Language‐switching costs were accompanied by increased activation in areas associated with magnitude processing (intraparietal sulcus), visuo‐spatial imagery (precuneus), numerical stimulus recognition (fusiform gyrus) and executive functions (frontal areas). These findings suggest that language‐switching costs in arithmetic are due to additional numerical information processing. Bilingual education programs need to take these findings into account to reduce language‐switching costs in order to fully exploit the potential of bilingual learning.     

Positioning sex educators: a critical ethnography of a professional development workshop

In this ethnographic research, I offer an analysis of a state-sponsored professional development workshop for sex educators. Positioning theory is used to understand how the lived space of the workshop – including texts, talk and silence – positions sex education teachers as professionals and practitioners with certain (limited) speaking rights and resources.     

First Date Sexual Expectations: The Effects of Who Asked,Who Paid,Date Location,and Gender

This investigation examined the effects of who asked, who paid, date location, and gender on first date sexual expectations and related attitudes. Participants from a large southwestern university in the United States reported that men hold higher first date sexual expectations than women, particularly when men asked and paid for the date and the date occurred at an apartment versus the movies or restaurant. When women asked and paid for the date and the date occurred at her apartment, men hold higher rape myth acceptance beliefs than when the man asked and paid for the date or when either sex asked for the date and the partners “went dutch” on expenses. Additional sexual- and gender-related findings, discussion, and implications follow.     

Cable Communications

Brigitte L. Kenney (ed.) Cable Television for Librarians which is issued as Vol. 9, No. 1 and 2 of Drexel Library Quarter (Graduate School of Library Science, Drexel University, Philadelphia, Pa. 19104 — $6.00, paper)

Richard C. Kletter Cable Television: Making Public Access Effective (R-1142-NSF, May 1973, 74 pp., $3.00)

Stephen H. Unger, Technology to Facilitate Citizen Participation in Government (18 pp., $1,25)

Philip J. Brendel, Incasting and the Telephone Network (36 pp., $1.25)

Richard Calhoun, Public Television Channels in New York City: The First Six Months (55 pp., $1.25)

Ted Werntz, A Preliminary Review of CATV as a Two-Way System (18 pp., $1.25)

Noam Lemelshtrich, Design Analysis of a Home Terminal for Two-Way Communications (50 pp., $1.25)

Leonard M. Ross, Economic and Legal Aspects of CATV Systems (150 pp., $4.00)     

New Technologies

TELECONFERENCING AND BEYOND: COMMUNICATIONS IN THE OFFICE OF THE FUTURE, by Robert Johansen (New York: McGraw Hill - Data Communications. 1984—price not given

CABLE FOR INFORMATION DELIVERY: A GUIDE FOR LIBRARIANS, EDUCATORS AND CABLE PROFESSIONALS, edited by Brigitte L. Kenney (White Plains, New York: Knowledge Industry Publications, 19847mdash;$34.50/ $27.50)

THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO SATELLITE TV, by Martin Clifford (Blue Ridge Summit, Pennsylvania: Tab Books, 1984—$11.50 pape

FUTURE INFORMATION PROCESSING TECHNOLOG1 1983, edited by Peg Kay and Patricia Powell (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, August 1983- $6.50, paper),