FOR THE GOOD OF OTHERS: CENSORSHIP AND THE THIRD-PERSON EFFECT

The third person effect hypothesis, which states that individualsexposed to a mass media messaage will expect the communicationto have a greater effect on others than on themselves, may helpto explain the growing trend in support of media censorship.It is suggested here that overestimating the effect of mediaon others may play an important role in the forces underlyinga willingness to restrict various types of communication. Toexamine this relationship, this study focused on the discrepancybetween perceived media effects on others and self, and itsrelation to pro-censorship attitudes within three major topics:the media in general, violence on television, and pornography.The results of this study support the existence of the third-personeffect in mass communication. The findings also indicate thatas the gap between perceived firstand third-person effects increases,individuals are more likely to manifest pro-censorship attitudes.This relationship remained for all three topics even when avariety of potentially confounding demographic, media use, andattitudinal variables were controlled. The data also suggestthat for pornography the effects gap is related to a willingnessto act in favor of censoring.     

Brown and black in white: The social adjustment and academic performance of Chicano and black students in a predominately white university

This article explores the academic and social experiences of Chicago and black students at UCLA. The analysis proceeds by examining differences in social backgrounds, high school and college experiences, and explores the relationship between these factors and college adjustment and achievement (GPA). Drawing upon recent theory on class reproduction and schooling we show particular concern with the role of social class in explaining differential outcomes. The findings indicate that blacks are more likely than Chicanos to feel alienated and perform poorly, and that social class makes no difference in these outcomes for blacks. However, middle class Chicanos perform better and are better adjusted than working class Chicanos. We discuss our findings in the light of theories of class reproduction, cultural capital, and racial signaling, suggesting that theories of reproduction must acknowledge the role of race in unequal school outcomes.     

Child on child sexual abuse: psychological perspectives

OBJECTIVE: This study describes the emotional and behavioral responses of children who have been sexually victimized by juveniles (CC) 17 years of age and younger compared to child victims of adults (CA) 18 years of age and older. METHOD: A total sample of N = 194 children and adolescents participated in the study, with 26% (n = 51) comprising CC and 74% (n = 143) encompassing CA. The mother/caretaker was administered a demographic form, Achenbach's Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), and the Family Assessment Measure (FAM-P). The child was given the Family Assessment Measure (FAM-C) and the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC). The clinician completed the Parental Reaction to Incest Disclosure Scale (PRIDS). RESULTS: No differences were found between the two groups for the type of sexual abuse, penetration, or the use of force. CC were younger and more likely to be males who were abused in a school setting, home, or a relative's home by a sibling or a non-related male. CC endorsed clinically significant sexual preoccupations and manifested borderline clinically significant symptomatology. CONCLUSIONS: Children victimized by other children manifested elevated levels of emotional and behavioral problems and were not significantly different from those who had been sexually abused by adults.     

Being hurt and hurting others: children's narrative accounts and moral judgments of their own interpersonal conflicts

Children's narrative accounts and moral evaluations of their own interpersonal conflicts with peers were examined. Girls and boys (N = 112) in preschool (M= 4.8 years), first grade (M = 6.9 years), fifth grade (M = 10.9 years), and tenth grade (M = 16.2 years) provided one narrative of a time when they had been hurt by a peer ("victim"), and one of a time when they had hurt a peer ("perpetrator"). Victim and perpetrator narratives were equally long and detailed and depicted similar types of harmful behaviors, but differed significantly in terms of various measures of content and coherence. Narratives given from the victim's perspective featured a self-referential focus and a fairly coherent structure. When the same children gave accounts of situations in which they had been the perpetrators, their construals were less coherent and included multiple shifts between references to their own experience and the experience of the other. Children's moral judgments also varied by perspective, with the majority of victims making negative judgments and nearly half the perpetrators making positive or mixed judgments. These differences in moral judgments were related to the distinct ways in which victims and perpetrators construed conflict situations. Age differences were also found in both narrative construals and moral evaluations, but regardless of their age children construed conflict situations differently from the victim's and the perpetrator's perspectives. By integrating, within the study of moral development, children's interpretations of the social interactions that are at the basis of moral thinking, this approach brings us a step closer to conceptualizing the study of children's moral behavior.     

Video games vs. reading and school/cognitive performances: a study on 27000 middle school teenagers

Video games are a very common leisure activity among teenagers and the aim of this study is to analyse their relations with cognitive and school performances. This study is part of a broad survey, conducted on 27,000 French teenagers (14.5?years old) in middle school (9th grade). The survey contained both a questionnaire on leisure activities practised by teenagers and school/cognitive tests: Comprehension tests, Math, School Knowledge, and Reasoning. The activity frequency (‘never’ to ‘every day or almost’) is studied on five kinds of video games (i.e. action/fighting) vs. seven reading activities (i.e. crime/thriller/fantasy). Results show that there are no correlations or very slight ones between Video Games and cognitive/school tests. Reading activities have potentially important associations with cognition and especially school tests. To conclude, video games are primarily recreational activities and the cognitive stimulation they produce is very different from the one involved in specialised academic subjects     

Supporting a School in Special Measures: Implications for the potential contribution of educational psychology

This article describes the experiences of an Educational Psychologist (EP) attached to a school placed in Special Measures following its OFSTED Inspection in October 1997. Requests for increased EP time were met with a specific piece of project work looking at the ethos of the school and relationships within it. The article draws out the strengths that EPs can bring to working with schools in Special Measures. These include a psychological knowledge base, skills in systems analysis and project evaluation, the delivery of training and working within a multi-agency setting. The article suggests that this is an important area of work to which EPs can make a contribution.     

Challenging the productivity mantra: academic writing with spirit in place

Academic writing groups aim to improve the quality and/or the rate of academic publications. In this article, the authors reflect on a writing group with academic and non-academic members that evolved over two years to uphold a deeper and arguably spiritual purpose. The group commenced with the aim of increasing its members' publication rates, but it developed to be a safe space for members to search for meaning as part of a fellowship of writers. This transition was based in the members’ shared commitment to social justice values and individual concerns to generate meaningful research and writing experiences. The group’s distinct processes, the shared values of its members and the site of the group meetings in a socially stigmatised community, all work to deepen its purpose beyond academic productivity. Though the group functions to strengthen individual and group norms that contribute to academic productivity, emergent norms and the fellowship of the writers foster a spiritual dimension in the group. This exploration of the spiritual dimension of a writing group adds to the long list of benefits of fellowship through academic writing groups.     

Children´s play and affective development: affect,school adjustment and learning in preschoolers / El juego infantil y el desarrollo afectivo: afecto,ajuste escolar y aprendizaje en la etapa preescolar

Preschool education is a privileged setting where social development and the progressive achievement of emotional adjustment occur. During this stage, affect plays an important role in social interaction. Furthermore, children’s play has been described as an activity with a great potential for promoting development. This article reports results from the systematic observation of 38 five- to six-year-old children in four different school activities on two separate occasions. A total number of 304 registries, totalling 1,520 minutes, were made during the observations, which were conducted with the objective of comparing affective expression in different activities and inquiring into its relationship to school adjustment and performance in preschoolers. It was found that affect’s intensity and quality is higher during play. Results are discussed taking into account positive relationships between affect and school adjustment and performance, concluding that children’s play is a privileged activity for affective development and should be promoted in preschool education.