Andrew J. Weigert

Self-Esteem and Religiosity: An Analysis of Catholic Adolescents from Five Cultures

On the basis of a social contextual model this paper hypothesizes: first, a positive relationship between adolescent self-esteem and religiosity across twelve purposive, middle-class, Catholic, samples from cities in five cultures: New York and St. Paul; Merida, Yucatan; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Seville, Spain; and Bonn, West Germany; and second, on the basis of traditional sex-role theory, a stronger relationship between the two variables is hypothesized for females than for males. The findings yield consistent support for the first hypothesis, and mild support for the second in the Latin samples only. The cross-cultural support for the first is underscored and speculation concerning the apparent contradictory evidence for sex-role theories is offered. The emergence of a Latin/non-Latin dichotomy is discussed. Suggested expansions of the topic include motivational and church-sect issues.

Identity Loss, Family, and Social Change

The painful loss of an irreplaceable and personal indentity is a common theme of human existence. Reflection on social sources of such loss leads to recognition of the unique particularistic relationships constitutive of the family as a source both of identity bestowal and identity loss. The archival function, the retention and display of symbols of highly personal identities, furthers the familys potential as a reactive and proactive source of identity loss. Furthermore, if social change is characterized by differentiation and rationalization, maintenance of traditional family structures may result in high potential for painful personal identity loss for which there is low social support and legitimation. Moderns would thus face the dilemma of whether to seek strong affective ties but risk nonlegitimated and meaningless identity loss or to avoid the sources of such identity loss but weaken affective relationships.

Parental Support, Control and Adolescent Religiosity: An Extension of Previous Research

T his note reports a study based on and extending previous research into the relatively neglected area of socialization and religiosity among adolescents. In a series of studies, Thomas (1971), Weigert (1970) and Gecas (1970, 1971), found consistent relationships between the degree of support, or positive affect, which adolescents report receiving from their parents and a range of dependent variables (e. g., self-esteem, conformity, and religiosity). Although discipline or control from parents was related weakly or not at all to the dependent variables, it was found that the joint effect of control and support produces fairly consistent results. Thus, adolescents receiving a high degree of both support and control tend to have the highest self-esteem, to conform most to parental expectations, and to adhere most strongly to traditional forms of religiosity. Those receiving a low degree of control and support tend to rank lowest on each dependent variable. The second and third rankings usually, though less consistently, followed in the order of high support and low control, and then low support and high control. Of most interest here is that the finding linking religiosity to parental support and control holds for purposive samples of male and female adolescents from three out of four contexts (New York; St. Paul; San Juan, Puerto Rico; but not in Merida, Yucatan); and from preliminary unreported analysis for samples from Seville, Spain; and Bonn, Germany. All of the respondents, however, are Catholic and from relatively large cities. The present research extends the application of the support and control variables to aspects of religiosity for a non-Catholic, small-town sample.

To Be or Not: Self and Authenticity, Identity and Ambivalence

What does it profit a person to gain the whole world but suffer the loss of one’s soul? Jesus’s dictum can be translated into contemporary idiom simply by changing one word: What does it profit a person to gain the whole world but suffer the loss of one’s self? Indeed, in the moral discourse of Western thought, some sense of selfhood may be the nearest empirically available basis for a sense of personal transcendence (Harre, 1984). Surging social scientific attention given to the concept of self after its near abandonment during the positivistic heyday suggests that the phenomenon to which it refers may be a historical and cultural universal (cf. Marsella, DeVos, & Hsu, 1985). In the modern context, however, we find the construct identity working as a competing catch-all scientific and folk term to refer to what we take to be the unique human experience of self as selfconsciously known (Weigert, Teitge, & Teitge, 1986). We briefly discuss self and identity in order as we present a perspective on contemporary self-understanding.

4. Perceived Parent-Child Interaction and Boys' Self-Esteem in Two Cultural Contexts

The problem under consideration in the present paper deals with the relationship between parent-child interaction patterns and the child’s self esteem. The relationship between these variables will be examined in the context of samples drawn from two societies: Saint Paul, Minnesota and San Juan, Puerto Rico.’ It is hoped that a cross-cultural investigation of the effects of parent-child interaction on the child’s self esteem will enable us to make a

Lawns of Weeds: Status in Opposition to Life

The modern high status lawn is a recent cultural form that motivates human responses with emerging negative physical outcomes. From a dualistic theoretical perspective, this article analyzes the modern lawn in terms of cultural dichotomies and applies a theory of status construction to show how the lawn becomes both an indicator of status and a component of identity and motivation. Then, it reports selected indicators of negative physical outcomes. The dual outcomes illustrate the empirical challenge of “Simmel’s lemma” stating that culture is in opposition to life.

Symbolic Interactionist Reflections on Erikson, Identity, and Postmodernism

Erikson theorized about identities as both typified epigenetic outcomes and adaptations to cultural-historical circumstances. Neo-Eriksonians have emphasized the former, with a more narrow focus on the identity struggles of adolescents. Postmodern theorists have strongly emphasized the latter. Reflecting a postmodern perspective, Rattansi and Phoenix (1997) emphasized the ephemeral and manipulated aspects of contemporary identity dynamics that diminish self and weaken core self-understandings. We argue for a symbolic interactionist perspective that incorporates both perspectives on identity within a theoretical scope that posits selves as embodied agents struggling for meaningful identities by adapting to their social and physical environments and sometimes working to change these environments through individual and collective action.

Determining Nonequivalent Measurement in Cross-Cultural Family Research.

English and Spanish questionnaires designed to measure family and social-psychological variables were randomly distributed to bilinguals to determine the proportions of items and scales which produced nonequivalent scores after using back translation procedures in the questionnaire construction. The nonequivalent rate for demographic items was below that expected by chance while the nonequivalent rate for family and social psychological items was greater than chance with approximately 25 percent of items and scales producing nonequivalent measures. The data point to the need for cross-cultural family researchers to pretest their instruments on a group of bilinguals and then discard those items and/or scales which produce nonequivalent measures before the research is carried out. This is seen as a necessary step in the research process in order to increase the probability of equivalent measurement across cultures.

Secularization and Religiosity: A Cross-National Study of Catholic Adolescents in Five Societies

This study interprets datafrom twelve purposive samples of male andfemale Catholic adolescents in five societies ordered according to an a priori macro continuum of secularization. Measures of traditional religiosity according to thefive dimensions schema are used to operationalize secularization at the individual level. Results tend to corroborate secularization theorizing, but with important differences, e.g., on the belief and practice dimensions if compared with adult samples and the knowledge and experience dimensions if compared with the a priori continuum. Alongside cross-national variations in the degree of religiosity, a consistent ranking of the associations between pairs of dimensions suggests a similar structure with belief as the keystone within individual religiosity across societies. In light of the similar structure, the weakening of traditional belief in the more modernized societies presages powerful changes in the entire configuration of traditional individual religiosity within Catholicism.

Scientific and Religious Convergence toward an Environmental Typology? A Search for Scientific Constructs in Papal and Episcopal Documents

Although scientific and religious perspectives often give different interpretations of physical phenomena, there are indications of a shared concern for understanding human-environment relations. Biological, social, and behavioral sciences provide constructs for a typology to describe and interpret human-environment relations. Using the typology to analyze recent Catholic papal and episcopal documents concerning human-environment relations suggests overlap as well as differences in the use of scientific constructs. The main difference is the relative absence of two biological constructs in the Catholic documents, carrying capacity and population, that may affect possible convergence of scientific and religious environmental understanding.