scholarly journals Respecting Life or Respecting Women? Testing Ideologically Competing Explanations of Abortion Attitudes.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian Guillermo Rodriguez ◽  
Peter Ditto
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Ambivalent Sexism ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Abortion Attitudes ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Diverse Perspective ◽  
Multiple Samples

Abortion as a problem can be construed from different perspectives. Psychological research on abortion attitudes has focused on testing hypotheses consistent with liberal narratives, according to which opposing abortion is explained by religiosity and lack of support for gender egalitarian views. We propose to analyze the issue from an ideologically diverse perspective, introducing hypotheses consistent with the conservative narratives about abortion, according to which opposition to abortion is explained by respect for human life and moral concerns about sexuality. Using data from multiple samples, including nationally representative surveys over 20 years, we found that variables identified by both the liberal (e.g., religiosity and ambivalent sexism) and conservative (e.g., respect for life and sexual morality) narratives significantly predicted abortion attitudes. Overall, predictors associated with conservative narratives show the strongest association with abortion attitudes. We discuss the value of generating hypotheses from ideologically opposing views to increase our understanding of psychological phenomena.

scholarly journals Embryonic Politics: Attitudes about Abortion, Stem Cell Research, and IVF

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 459-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather Silber Mohamed
Keyword(s):  
Stem Cell ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Embryonic Stem ◽  
Human Embryos ◽  
Vitro Fertilization ◽  
Life Project ◽  
Abortion Attitudes ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Using Data

AbstractEfforts by anti-abortion advocates to introduce “personhood” initiatives, which state that human life begins at fertilization, have prompted concern among infertility specialists that these initiatives would hinder access to in vitro fertilization (IVF). Yet, our understanding of public opinion about IVF is limited. It remains unclear whether attitudes about this technology are consistent with opinions about other issues related to human embryos, particularly abortion and embryonic stem cell (ESC) research. Using data from a nationally representative survey, I fill this gap by exploring the role that religion plays in shaping attitudes about a range of embryonic politics issues. I find that religiosity, income, and ideology strongly influence whether individuals view these issues in moral terms. Respondents who are most devout and Evangelical Protestants are most likely to consistently oppose all three embryonic politics issues. Yet, the relationship between religion and attitudes about the morality of each procedure is also influenced by the procedure's outcome, with religion most influential with respect to abortion attitudes and least influential in the case of IVF. Additionally, women are less likely than men to describe IVF as morally wrong, while, in comparison to non-Hispanic whites, Latino respondents are more likely to do so.Replication Data. Replication data is publicly available on the website of the Pew Research Center Religion and Public Life Project.

Recognizing Job Apathy Patterns of Iraqi Higher Education Employees Using Data Mining Techniques

2019 ◽  
Vol 54 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mustafa S. Abd ◽  
Suhad Faisal Behadili
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Data Mining ◽  
Psychiatric Patients ◽  
Human Life ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Attribute Selection ◽  
Specific Class ◽  
Data Mining Techniques ◽  
Using Data

Psychological research centers help indirectly contact professionals from the fields of human life, job environment, family life, and psychological infrastructure for psychiatric patients. This research aims to detect job apathy patterns from the behavior of employee groups in the University of Baghdad and the Iraqi Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. This investigation presents an approach using data mining techniques to acquire new knowledge and differs from statistical studies in terms of supporting the researchers’ evolving needs. These techniques manipulate redundant or irrelevant attributes to discover interesting patterns. The principal issue identifies several important and affective questions taken from a questionnaire, and the psychiatric researchers recommend these questions. Useless questions are pruned using the attribute selection method. Moreover, pieces of information gained through these questions are measured according to a specific class and ranked accordingly. Association and a priori algorithms are used to detect the most influential and interrelated questions in the questionnaire. Consequently, the decisive parameters that may lead to job apathy are determined.

The Subjective Bases of Abortion Attitudes: A Cross National Comparison of Religious Traditions

2014 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 550-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted G. Jelen
Keyword(s):  
Human Life ◽  
Gender Role Attitudes ◽  
Sexual Morality ◽  
Roman Catholicism ◽  
Eastern Orthodoxy ◽  
Religious Traditions ◽  
Independent Variables ◽  
National Comparison ◽  
Abortion Attitudes ◽  
Cross National

AbstractThe subjective correlates of abortion attitudes for six different religious traditions (Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Islam). For all six groups, attitudes toward sexual morality exhibit the strongest relationship with abortion attitudes, followed by the effects of attitudes toward human life. Gender role attitudes are much less powerful predictors of abortion attitudes. Further, the multivariate models which explain abortion attitudes are remarkably similar across religious traditions, with inter-religious differences largely being attributable to differences in the marginal distributions of the independent variables.

scholarly journals Conceptualizing Discursive Analysis as a Culturally Contextualized Activity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen Adjei
Keyword(s):  
Data Analysis ◽  
Cultural Context ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Discursive Psychology ◽  
Gender Based Violence ◽  
Research Participants ◽  
Psychological Phenomena ◽  
Discursive Analysis ◽  
Gender Based

Discursive psychology recognizes the primacy of the social and relational nature of human life. Research participants whose discourses (empirical data) we analyze do not exist independent of material and social world. In this paper, I attempt to develop an understanding of discursive analysis of social and psychological phenomena as a culturally contextualized activity in which discursive researchers analyze and interpret participants’ discourses in the light of the cultural context in which the discourses are embedded. First, I provide a brief background to discursive psychology. Second, I discuss the cultural embeddedness of discursive analysis. I then conceptualize discursive data analysis as a culturally contextualized enterprise by drawing upon my own reflexive accounts on gender-based violence research to illustrate how discursive analysts can bring together an analysis of in-the-moment performative accounting with an understanding of the cultural context in which this accounting is embedded. I argue for and foreground research participants’ lived experiences and the embodied socio-cultural meanings as origins of the consciousness and social behavior of people with whom and about whom psychological research is conducted. I conclude that data analysis is not and cannot be an innocent activity; it involves active thinking through the cultural lens of both the researcher and the researched.

Short Stress State Questionnaire

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Helton ◽  
Katharina Näswall
Keyword(s):  
Stress State ◽  
Factor Structure ◽  
Human Performance ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Confirmatory Factor ◽  
Stress States ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Task Conditions ◽  
Multiple Samples

Conscious appraisals of stress, or stress states, are an important aspect of human performance. This article presents evidence supporting the validity and measurement characteristics of a short multidimensional self-report measure of stress state, the Short Stress State Questionnaire (SSSQ; Helton, 2004 ). The SSSQ measures task engagement, distress, and worry. A confirmatory factor analysis of the SSSQ using data pooled from multiple samples suggests the SSSQ does have a three factor structure and post-task changes are not due to changes in factor structure, but to mean level changes (state changes). In addition, the SSSQ demonstrates sensitivity to task stressors in line with hypotheses. Different task conditions elicited unique patterns of stress state on the three factors of the SSSQ in line with prior predictions. The 24-item SSSQ is a valid measure of stress state which may be useful to researchers interested in conscious appraisals of task-related stress.

Interculturalism and the Acceptance of Minority Groups

2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maykel Verkuyten ◽  
Kumar Yogeeswaran
Keyword(s):  
Minority Groups ◽  
Psychological Research ◽  
Survey Experiment ◽  
Social Psychological ◽  
Negative Attitudes ◽  
Positive Attitudes ◽  
Social Psychological Research ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Situational Effect

Abstract. Multiculturalism has been criticized and rejected by an increasing number of politicians, and social psychological research has shown that it can lead to outgroup stereotyping, essentialist thinking, and negative attitudes. Interculturalism has been proposed as an alternative diversity ideology, but there is almost no systematic empirical evidence about the impact of interculturalism on the acceptance of migrants and minority groups. Using data from a survey experiment conducted in the Netherlands, we examined the situational effect of promoting interculturalism on acceptance. The results show that for liberals, but not for conservatives, interculturalism leads to more positive attitudes toward immigrant-origin groups and increased willingness to engage in contact, relative to multiculturalism.

Openness and Self-enhancement are predictors of cultural and economic beliefs: an analysis of European countries across 15 years

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriela Czarnek ◽  
Małgorzata Kossowska
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Cultural Beliefs ◽  
European Social Survey ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Political Beliefs ◽  
Economic Beliefs ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Self Transcendence ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

In this study, we investigate the relationship between values and political beliefs and how it varies as a function of cultural context and time. In particular, we analyzed the effects of Conservation vs. Openness to change and Self-transcendence vs. Self-enhancement for cultural and economic political beliefs using data from nationally representative samples of citizens from 34 European countries from eight rounds of the European Social Survey (data spans the 2002–2016 period). We found that the effects of values on political beliefs are moderated by the Western vs. Eastern cultural context and that there is a modest round-to-round variation in the effects of values on beliefs. The relationship between Openness and cultural beliefs was negative and largely consistent across the Western and Eastern countries. Similarly, the effects of Self-enhancement were positive across these Western and Eastern countries. In contrast, the effects of Openness on economic beliefs were positive for the Eastern countries but largely weak and inconsistent for the Western countries. Finally, the effects of Self-enhancement on cultural beliefs are weak for both cultural contexts.

scholarly journals The Authoritarian Dynamic During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Effects on Nationalism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062097802
Author(s):  
Todd K. Hartman ◽  
Thomas V. A. Stocks ◽  
Ryan McKay ◽  
Jilly Gibson-Miller ◽  
Liat Levita ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Order ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Right Wing ◽  
Right Wing Authoritarianism ◽  
The United Kingdom ◽  
The Social ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Using Data ◽  
The Relationship

Research has demonstrated that situational factors such as perceived threats to the social order activate latent authoritarianism. The deadly COVID-19 pandemic presents a rare opportunity to test whether existential threat stemming from an indiscriminate virus moderates the relationship between authoritarianism and political attitudes toward the nation and out-groups. Using data from two large nationally representative samples of adults in the United Kingdom ( N = 2,025) and Republic of Ireland ( N = 1,041) collected during the initial phases of strict lockdown measures in both countries, we find that the associations between right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and (1) nationalism and (2) anti-immigrant attitudes are conditional on levels of perceived threat. As anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic increases, so too does the effect of RWA on those political outcomes. Thus, it appears that existential threats to humanity from the COVID-19 pandemic moderate expressions of authoritarianism in society.

Is Music Teacher Professional Development Becoming More Effective? Evaluating Practice and Policy in the United States, 1993–2012

2020 ◽  
pp. 002242942098252
Author(s):  
Justin J. West
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
United States ◽  
Social Interaction ◽  
Teacher Professional Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
Music Teacher ◽  
Policy Practice ◽  
Teacher Professional ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Using Data

The purpose of this study was to evaluate music teacher professional development (PD) practice and policy in the United States between 1993 and 2012. Using data from the nationally representative Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) spanning these 20 years, I examined music teacher PD participation by topic, intensity, relevance, and format; music teachers’ top PD priorities; and the reach of certain PD-supportive policies. I assessed these descriptive results against a set of broadly agreed-on criteria for “effective” PD: content specificity, relevance, voluntariness/autonomy, social interaction, and sustained duration. Findings revealed a mixed record. Commendable improvements in content-specific PD access were undercut by deficiencies in social interaction, voluntariness/autonomy, sustained duration, and relevance. School policy, as reported by teachers, was grossly inadequate, with only one of the nine PD-supportive measures appearing on SASS reaching a majority of teachers in any given survey year. Implications for policy, practice, and scholarship are presented.

scholarly journals Center-Based Child Care and Differential Improvements in the Child Development Outcomes of Disadvantaged Children

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Anne Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Child Care ◽  
Child Development ◽  
Economic Status ◽  
Value Added ◽  
Additional Time ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Development Outcomes ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact

Abstract Background Research finds center-based child care typically benefits children of low socio-economic status (SES) but few studies have examined if it also reduces inequalities in developmental disadvantage. Objective I test if the length of time in center-based care between ages one and three years associates with child development scores at age three years, focusing on the impact for groups of children in the lower tercile of child development scores and in the lower SES tercile. Method Using data from 1,606 children collected in a nationally representative Chilean survey, I apply a value-added approach to measure gains in child development scores between age one and three years that are associated with length of time in center-based child care. Results Disadvantages at age one year were associated with lower child development scores at age three years. No benefits of additional time in center-based care were found for the non-disadvantaged group, but positive associations were found between more time in center-based care and child development outcomes for children with the SES disadvantage only. Center-based care was not associated with child development trajectories of children with lower child development scores at age one year, no matter their SES status. Conclusions There is evidence that Chilean center-based child care reduces SES inequality in child development scores between ages one and three years, but only if children already were not low-scorers at age one year.

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