Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Genevan And Cattell-Horn Conceptions Of Intelligence Compared: The Early Implementation Of Numerical Solution Aids, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

The Genevan and Cattell-Horn theories of intelligence are compared. The theories are found to be similar in the following respects: Intelligence (operative intelligence and fluid ability) is conceptualized as adaptational in function; the products of everyday learning and crystallized skills reflect the impress of experience; one category of intelligence (operative intelligence, fluid ability) is conceptualized as prior or more fundamental than the other (learned products, crystallized skills). Important differences were also found: Whereas fluid ability is characterized as formless and fixed, operative intelligence is viewed as highly structured and evolving; a compensatory relation between noegenetic crystallized skills and fluid ability …

Working At Home And Being At Home: The Interaction Of Microcomputers And The Social Life Of Households, Jamie Horwitz

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Not until the recent upsurge of interest in microcomputers and home work has attention been devoted to the household as a setting for technical learning and invention, or organizational and independent work. Drawing upon theoretical implications of research on industrial technology and the household, this study contributes to the development of an empirical basis for understanding the first ten years of microcomputer use at home.

The environmental approach to this psychological study includes two stages. In the first, a survey and content analysis of over 400 articles in mainstream periodicals and national newspapers revealed that since 1976 the representation of …

Children And The Environment: Work, Play And Learning In Rural Sudan, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

In agricultural economies, environmental learning and the use of environmental knowledge are central practices of social reproduction. The former is important because it encompasses the acquisition of important vocational skills and knowledge, and the latter because it is often integral to the work of providing or procuring basic needs goods and services. In these societies children learn about the environment--that is, about agriculture, animal husbandry and the use of local resources-- largely in the course of their work and play in a variety of settings. In rural areas of the Third World the transition to capitalist relations of production is …

Dropping Out Of High School: An Inside Look, Michelle Fine

Publications and Research

In September, 1984, I began an ethnography of student life in and out of a New York City public high school to figure out why urban students drop out of high school at such extraordinary rates. By December, why urban students stay in high school through graduation struck me as an equally compelling question.

The Perils Of Laura Watson Benedict: A Forgotten Pioneer In Anthropology, Jay H. Bernstein

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Status Of Venezuela’S Biological Diversity: An Overview. A Reportpresented To The Nature Conservancy International Program, Washington, D.C, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Xenofobia Científica, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Ciencia Útil, Ciencia Inútil, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

El Futuro Es Ahora, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Prohibido Investigar, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

The Political Economy Of Populist-Nationalism In Argentina, 1943-55: Peronism As A Transitional Stage In The Development Of A Dependent Industrial Economy, Thomas M.H. Kappner

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Focusing on the Peronist period from 1943 to 1955 as the high point of a transitional process between two patterns of dependency on foreign capital, the study explores the dynamics underlying the pendular cycle so characteristic of Latin American political life–the dialectical movement between some variant of populist rule and that based on military power as a means of repressing popular aspirations. Peronism emerged in the context of contradictions within a developmental pattern based on an alliance of the export producing, landowning oligarchy with foreign, primarily British, commercial and financial groups. The developmental model promoted by the Peron government in …

Trouble-Shooters And Trouble-Makers: Witchfinding And Traditional Malawian Medicine, Arnold Paul Wendroff

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation describes and analyzes the system of traditional medicine operating in northeastern Malawi, especially those beliefs in witchcraft and spirit possession which cause people to seek out traditional rather than Western healers. Although a wide range of illustrative material is presented, the discussion focuses on an analysis of client correspondence to traditional herbalists (nganga) and diviner-witchdoctors (nchimi). Such correspondence is apparently the first reported in the anthropological literature of central and eastern Africa, and the letters that comprise it are used to elucidate the role of traditional healers and the nature of the healer-client relationship. An examination is also …

Réquiem Por Una Idea, Aldemaro Romero Jr.

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

Analyzing Country Risk: Estimating The Probability Of External Debt Repudiation In The Post-Oil-Embargo Decade, Thomas Joseph Webster

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines the use of logit analysis as a tool for assessing the likelihood that a sovereign risk cannot, or will not, adhere to the terms of its foreign debt obligations as a result of adverse political, social, economic, or financial disruptions. The discussion is divided into two parts. Part one is devoted to a review of the topic of assessing the likelihood of debt servicing difficulties by borrower nations by first tracing the growth of international bank lending activities by U.S. commercial banks, followed by a general discussion of the international debt crisis and a brief survey of …

A Methodology For The Study Of Children's Environmental Knowledge In Other Cultures, Cindi Katz

Publications and Research

This paper presents a methodology which I used to study the content and acquisition of children's environmental knowledge as central to the social reproduction of a rural agricultural economy in the Sudan. My approach was forged drawing on methods of geography, linguistics and anthropology to provide information on (1) how children learn to interact productively with their environment, (2) the nature of their interactions and (3) their knowledge of environmental processes and resources. In this paper I will describe first the methodology adopted including participant observation, ethnosemantic interviews, child-led walks, environmental modeling and "geo-dramas". I will then discuss its use …

Critical Note On The Usefulness Of Attention Deficit As A Clinical Syndrome, David Shaffer, Irvin Sam Schonfeld

Publications and Research

Parental ratings of overactivity are unrelated to teachers' ratings of overactivity or to laboratory measures of inattention. Teachers' ratings of overactivity correlate strongly with teachers' ratings of inattention as well as to laboratory measures of inattention. Teachers' ratings of inattention, however, are unrelated to laboratory measures of inattention when IQ is controlled. There are considerable definitional problems relating to the symptoms of hyperactivity and inattention, making it difficult create a behavioral definition of the psychiatric syndrome of attention deficit disorder.

Burnout: A Survey Of Library Directors' Views, Izabella Taler

Publications and Research

Reports on a survey survey designed to find out whether or not library directors are able to recognize the existence of burnout among the library personnel

The State And Underdevelopment In Spanish America: The Political Roots Of Dependency In Peru And Argentina From The Conquest To 1895, Douglas Stuart Friedman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study challenges the dependency perspective claim that Spanish American countries developed agro/mineral export economies in the nineteenth century as a result of their integration into the capitalist international economy. It offers an alternative interpretation which argues that the process of State building and the response of the emergent Spanish American States to internal political class struggles were chiefly responsible for setting the direction of their economies as well as the degree and character of their integration into the international economy.

Rather than focusing on the effects of the international economy in explaining the roots of dependency and underdevelopment in …

The Utilization Of Communicational Cues By One- And Two-Year-Old Children, Rhianon Allen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The relationships between three models for describing pragmatic response to utterances were surveyed and the application of these models to young children's response patterns evaluated. Of particular interest was how children might discriminate action-directive and information-testing usage of language.

In order to empirically test the validity of these models, sixteen one- and two-year-old children were visited in their homes. Each child participated in two video recorded play sessions with an experimenter, during which he or she was asked complex What-questions that could take either informational or action responses. Gestural accompaniments and preceding discourse were systematically varied in Experiment I. Each …

Neighborhood Change In New York City: A Case Study Of Park Slope, 1850 - 1980, Timothy James O'Hanlon

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This is a case study about social and economic changes in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Since the 1960's communities in New York City have been undergoing the process of deterioration and abandonment, or alternatively, the conversion of homes and warehouses for upper income families in high rent districts. In Park Slope both of these trends have been occurring. This study aims through an examination of a single community to provide both a comprehensive and comprehensible account of the process of neighborhood change in New York City.

This research describes the pattern of change in Park Slope within the context of the …

Capgras' Syndrome, Robert J. Berson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Capgras' Syndrome, the delusion of doubles, is a rare delusional phenomenon in which a person believes that identical doubles have replaced significant people in his life and/or that there exist identical doubles of himself. These delusional doubles are almost always believed to be malevolent. The delusion occurs in a variety of psychotic states, usually schizophrenia. It occurs in both women and men in a wide age range. This dissertation reviews early French reports by Capgras and his associates as well as over 100 cases reported in English. Previous efforts to explain the Syndrome have stressed both organic and psychodynamic factors. …

An Integrated Information Capability For Policy Analysis, William (Bill) H. Williams

Publications and Research

AN INTEGRATED INFORMATION CAPABILITY FOR POLICY ANALYSIS INTRODUCTION AND SUMMARY 0 Consideration of optimum organizational structures for maximum effectiveness of quantitative information flows in support of policy decisions seems to be haphazard, nonexistent, or at best secondary to other organizational issues. As a result we undertook to examine data bases, data flows, and their related models and analyses, with a view to developing reconnnended organizational characteristics. "Study of information organizations and their supporting data and models reveals that common data bases, models and analysis all coincide with common uses. Further, common use equates to common levels of organizational (dis)aggregation. The …

Disabled Women: Sexism Without The Pedestal, Michelle Fine, Adrienne Asch

Publications and Research

The position of the disabled woman in current U.S. society deserves political, theoretical and empirical attention. In this paper we have delineated the economic, social and psychological constraints which place her at a distinct disadvantage, relative to disabled men and nondisabled women. We evaluate the ways in which having a disability is viewed as an impediment to traditional or nontraditional sex role development. The construct rolelessness is introduced, defined and examined. We conclude with reconmiendations for needed research and policy.

A Path Model For Black And White Educational Achievement, David George Null

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This research is an attempt to further develop intergenerational research in educational achievement by refining the "Wisconsin Model of Socioeconomic Achievement." The data source was the 1972 wave of the "Panel Study of Income Dynamics" (popularly known as the "5,000 Families") collected by the Survey Research Center of the University of Michigan. This data, which contained families originally sampled and "spin-off" families that were created by the establishment of a new family by a member of a sample family, was reprogrammed so that the parental characteristics were linked with those of their offspring. The subsample was of all spin-off male …

The Economics Of Corrections: An Exposition, Gail S. Funke

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The purpose of this dissertation is to present an exposition of the applications of economics to corrections. The approach includes a synthesis of knowledge in the area, suggestions on how economics might be further brought to bear on correctional issues, and recommendations for future research. The overall framework is one of policy analysis, in which objective, scientifically-based information is used in the action setting of public programs.

A review of the history of corrections is included to provide an appreciation for the multiple, conflicting goals under which corrections functions today. A review of the state-of-the-art in corrections provides a sense …

Rules Of Order: Or So To Speak, Arthur Emanuel Blank

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

How members of a social unit acquire their shared knowledge about the social world was approached in Sherif's (1935, 1936) writings on norm formation and in the phenomenological descriptions of Schutz (1971, 1973) and Berger and Luckmann (1967). Both traditions presume that shared understandings originate in face-to-face encounters, but they diverge in that the phenomenologists argue that talk, and the construction of "typifications," plays a prominent role in the acquisition of shared knowledge. For the phenomenologists, a "typification" enables members to categorize behavior as a known event and permits individuals to consider disparate behaviors as belonging to the same class …

Minority Group Blame-Orientation And Reactions To Social Protest, David W. Greene

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

No abstract provided.

Money, The Dynamics Of Inflation And The Balance Of Payments In Latin America, 1947-1976, Anthony Cassese

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The main focus of this dissertation is to empirically test a number of assumptions of simple monetary models of the balance of payments using annual data on sixteen Latin American countries. The usual assumption of rapid price arbitrage is shown not to hold for most of these countries. Moreover, by using the technique developed by Granger, it is shown that the domestic rate of inflation is not an exogenous determinant of the respective official settlements balance of payments for most of these countries. Therefore, single equation models of the balance of payments which use the domestic rate of inflation as …

Mother And Infant At Play: Reciprocity In Gazing Behavior, Goldie Alfasi-Siffert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Twenty mothers and their 3-month-old male infants were studied in an attempt to isolate and describe some of the motivational components that contribute to infant gaze. Infants were videotaped in two conditions: playing with mother and playing with a female stranger. The videotapes were then analyzed on a second-by-second basis with respect to infant gaze and a variety of maternal/stranger behaviors. Results show that infants spend more time gazing at the stranger than at mother and that looks at the stranger are of much longer duration. In addition, high levels of infant gaze tend to be associated with facial and …

How Bad Can Good Data Really Be?, William (Bill) H. Williams

Publications and Research

Bias has different sources. Measurement errors create "bad" data and biased estimates. But selection biases occur even with "good" data and can be both subtle and large in magnitude.