We argue that citizens distinguish the tone of a campaign from the quality of information that it provides and that evaluations on each dimension respond differently to positive and negative political advertising. We test these claims using survey and advertising data from the 2000 presidential campaign and two 1998 gubernatorial races. In each race, citizens separate judgments about the tone o…
Political relations between racial/ethnic groups in America have (a) been commonly examined in terms of the degree of “cooperation” or “conflict” and (b) have most frequently been studied in the arena of urban politics; this has been especially so in the case of Hispanics/Latinos and African Americans. This article represents the first effort to pose and to systematically assess the question of…
Following the Civil War, the Democratic Party enjoyed almost complete dominance in southern electoral politics. Democratic hegemony was particularly acute in gubernatorial elections: In most southern states, more than a century elapsed before the first Republican governor was elected. Gubernatorial electoral success is a fundamental question, given the prominence of governors in state politics …
Gossip in the workplace has generally been ignored by researchers and often criticized by practitioners. The authors apply a transdisciplinary evolutionary approach to argue that gossip is a natural part of social organizations and that certain conditions can encourage socially-redeeming gossip. They draw on case studies involving cattle ranchers, members of a competitive rowing team, and airli…
The authors use social network analysis to understand how employees’ propensity to engage in positive and negative gossip is driven by their underlying relationship ties.They find that expressive friendship ties between employees are positively related to engaging in both positive and negative gossip, whereas instrumental workflow ties, which are less trusting than friendship ties, are related …
This article presents findings on the nature and operation of gossip that emerged from an empirical study of organizational communication during a chief executive officer (CEO) succession process. By studying gossip within the context of a broader study of change-related communication, new insights were gained that extend, and in some respects challenge, commonly accepted views of the nature of…
Drawing stimulus from parental acceptance-rejection theory (PARTheory) and associated measures, articles in this special issue attempt to assess the relative contribution of perceived teacher and parental (maternal and paternal) acceptance and behavioral control to the psychological adjustment, school conduct, and academic achievement of school-going youths (boys and girls) within six nations c…
This study addresses relationships between perceived maternal, paternal, and teacher acceptance and behavioral control, and adolescents’ psychological adjustment, school conduct, and academic achievement in Estonia. A total of 224 sixth graders respond to 3 self-report measures. Adolescents’ school conduct and grade point average (GPA) are reported by teachers. Study findings show that girls’ p…
This study explored the relationship between students’ perceptions of their teachers’ and parents’ (mothers’ and fathers’) acceptance, and teachers’ reports of the students’ conduct in school as well as students’ reports of their own psychological adjustment. The study was conducted on a sample of 200 high school students in Bangladesh. Results showed that, on average, Bangladeshi students perc…
This study explored the relationship between Indian adolescents’ perceptions of their teachers’ and parents’ (mothers’ and fathers’) acceptance and behavioral control, students’ conduct in school, and students’ psychological adjustment. A sample of 217 high school students in India was enrolled in the study. Results showed that the students perceived their teachers, mothers, and fathers to be w…
The goal of this research was to explore the relationship between Kuwaiti students’ perceptions of their teachers’ and parents’ (mothers’ and fathers’) acceptance and behavioral control and students’ conduct in school, and psychological adjustment. A sample of 205 middle school students in Kuwait was enrolled in the study. Results showed that both boys and girls perceived their parents and teac…
This study investigated the effects of perceived teacher acceptance as well as perceived maternal and paternal acceptance on the academic achievement and school conduct of 362 seventh-grade adolescents in the Mississippi Delta region of the United States. Results showed a significant correlation between perceived teacher acceptance and boys’ (but not girls’) overall grade point average (GPA). P…
This study investigated the influence of perceived teacher acceptance, children’s self-concept, and children’s attitude toward school on children’s academic achievement. The sample included 223 fifth-grade students in Istanbul, Turkey. The Teacher Acceptance-Rejection/Control Questionnaire, Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale, and School Attitude Assessment Survey-Revised were utilized in data coll…
The 2010 presidential election shows that Ukraine is both a surprisingly stable electoral democracy and a disturbingly corrupt one. The corruption, moreover, may have a lot to do with the stability.
With the threat of wildfire hanging over many communities in the Western and Southern United States, wildfire mitigation is evolving into a significant public responsibility for rural and urban edge county governments. Regional governance is an important piece of the effort to reduce wildfire risks although still weakly developed as a policy arena. This project explores two dimensions in which …
Climate change is conventionally recognised as a large-scale issue resolved through regional or national policy initiatives. However, little research has been done to directly evaluate local climate change action plans. This study examines 40 recently adopted local climate change action plans in the US and analyses how well they recognise the concepts of climate change and prepare for climate c…
Current US regulatory air quality monitoring networks measure ambient levels of pollutants and cannot capture the effects of mobile sources at the micro-scale. Despite the fact that overall air quality has been getting better, more vulnerable populations (children, the elderly, minorities and the poor) continue to suffer from traffic-related air pollution. As development intensifies in urban ar…
Principles of good practice for collaborative resource management were derived from the literature and their use studied in a range of integrated catchment management processes. Desk-based reviews and interviews with participants allowed the principles to be refined and described within a framework that illustrates the interrelationships between core principles, enabling principles, precursors …
Biological diversity is an abstract, scientific concept and both evaluating its condition and, to great extent, justifying its conservation requires expert knowledge. Accordingly, regulating and managing biological diversity presupposes standardisation and methods for managing uncertainty. To be acted on, the concept must be promoted, passing, in this process, through various institutions, such…
Many inhabitants of Berlin enjoy bathing in lakes and rivers during the summer. However, so far no data exist about who goes bathing and what quality bathers expect from bathing sites. In an online survey conducted during the summer of 2007 respondents were presented with a choice experiment concerning various attributes of bathing sites such as water quality or cleanliness of the beach. Applyi…