Voluntary organizations exert great influence over how social norms and ethical codes are guided into action. As such, they have a significant impact on societal levels of social cohesion. Although social capital involves generalized trust becoming manifest as spontaneous sociability, social cohesion is determined by how that sociability is…

We investigated the effect of assailant gender on injunctive social norms (i.e., beliefs about what ought to happen) regarding violence toward an intimate heterosexual partner. In a random-digit-dialed survey conducted in four languages, 3,769 community-residing adults were presented with five vignettes in which we experimentally manipulated…

Self-help initiatives stand as a classic context for organizational studies in community psychology. Behavior setting theory stands as a classic conception of organizations and the environment. This study explores both, applying behavior setting theory to consumer-run organizations (CROs). Analysis of multiple data sets from all CROs in Kansas…

This article turns one of most cited philosopher's John Dewey's title, "How We Think" (1933/1998) back upon itself to consider how "thought" or "reason" are cultural practices that historically order and generate principles for reflection and action. The discussion proceeds thusly: (1) Schooling is about changing people; (2) Changing people…

Background: Few methodologically rigorous international comparisons of student-reported antisocial behavior have been conducted. This paper examines whether there are differences in the frequency of both antisocial behavior and societal responses to antisocial behavior in Victoria, Australia and Washington State, United States. These 2 states were…

In constructing a framework for the participation and inclusion in political life of subjects, the Enlightenment also produced a series of systematic exclusions for those who did not qualify: including "idiots" and "primitive races". "Idiocy" emerged as part of wider strategies of governance in Europe and its…

This exercise explores how organizations affect individuals' feelings and expressions of emotion. Although recent attention by management theorists suggests that emotions are an important aspect of organizational life, people's actual experience of emotions at work often do not reflect this emphasis: Work-place emotions remain, in large part,…

This year, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) conducted an expansive study of just how pervasive and how onerous restrictions on speech are at America's colleges and universities. Between September 2005 and September 2006, FIRE surveyed over 330 schools and found that an overwhelming majority of them explicitly prohibit…

The purpose of this study was to test theoretical propositions advanced by Meyer and Herscovitch (2001) concerning the interactive effects of affective, normative, and continuance commitment on focal (staying intentions) and discretionary (citizenship) behavior. Study measures were gathered from a sample of 545 hospital employees. Several a priori…

In many ways young people appear to be using and abusing alcohol as a ritual in their "rites of passage" to adulthood, perhaps as a symbolic means to demonstrate their "adultness." Anthropologists have documented the importance of rites of passage rituals for marking the successful passage from one position in a social…

Procedures concerning illegal drug use by college students were investigated at 546 colleges and universities in the fall 1986 Higher Education Survey. Seventy-three percent of the institutions had a written policy on illegal drug use by students, and more than half of them established or revised their policy within the last 5 years. Three-fourths…

In comparative studies of homicide, many theories compete. This study examined two established theories, stress theory and culture of violence theory, in terms of their ability to explain state-to-state differences in the rate of highly specific types of homicides. The separate and joint effects on homicide committed by handguns, shoulder guns,…

Ethical communication scholars frequently find national popular rhetoric unethical. Some proposed ethical guidelines for the public presentation of ideas call for such elements as habits of search, justice, preference for public versus private motives, respect for dissent, airing of all relevant arguments, and persuasion without coercion or…

A definition of leader authentication was developed, focusing on a leader's salience of self over role, non-manipulation of subordinates and accepting of personal and organizational responsibility. The Leader Authenticity Scale (LAS) was constructed to be consistent with this definition. Its validity was checked by specifying and testing…

Analysis of an informal subculture among school principals reveals the existence of norms and beliefs that may help them function in their jobs. Researchers interviewed all 28 principals in a medium-sized suburban Ohio school district to investigate their informal communications with each other. The norms identified forbid principals to be…