Laurence Armand French

Height and Perceived Competence of U.S. Presidents

The 4 “great” U.S. Presidents, as listed in the 1982 Murray-Blessing Poll, were significantly taller (M = 74.63 in.) than the 5 considered “failures” (M = 70.80 in.), consistent with previous research on height and status.

Alcohol and Other Drug Addictions Among Native Americans

Abstract Native Americans have the highest addiction rate of any group in the United States as well as one of the most difficult treatment records. Part of the problem is a long history of contravening U.S. Indian policies that contributed greatly to the phenomenon known as psychocultural marginality. In addition to alcoholism, notably fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) and fetal alcohol effect (FAE), inhalation abuse is also rampant among this population. Incarceration, and not treatment, has long been the official federal reaction merely exacerbating these problems. It has only been since the mid-1980s that a cultural perspective has been taken toward Native American addiction. Here, the premise is that one needs to foster a positive cultural ethnic identity before one can effectively address the root causes of addiction.

Native american alcoholism: A transcultural counseling perspective

Abstract Alcohol-related mental and physical health problems are critical problems among Native Americans. The intensity of these problems increased proportionately to the destruction of traditional/aboriginal ways. Despite centuries of attempts at physical and cultural genocide a semblance of traditionalism survived to the presence among many tribal groups. Nonetheless the vast majority of contemporary Native Americans are ‘marginal’—caught between their traditional culture and the demands of the dominant United States society. Treating Native Americans merely from the conventional clinical perspective spells of ethnocentrism while a pure traditional approach often serves to restrict both off-reservation mobility and inter-tribal interactions. Here the transcultural approach offers a needed bridge for effective Native American alcohol and mental health counseling.

Adapting projective tests for minority children

Child abuse reporting laws have placed new demands upon law enforcement, human service agencies, and clinicians alike. For the clinician, these demands are compounded when minority children are involved. Few of the standardized measures seem to fit all cultural groups. In our situation the cultural mix involves Hispanic, Mexican, and American Indian children. We found a combination of two projectives, the Draw-A-Person/Draw-A-Family and the Thematic Apperception Test, to fit our multicultural needs. Specifically, we use the D-A-P drawings of the child and his/her family as “plates” and then apply the TAT “tell me a story about this picture” technique.

City of order: crime and society in Halifax, 1918–35

Professor Boudreau presents a complex picture of society in the Canadian city of Halifax, Nova Scotia, in the era between the two world wars, 1918–1935. Halifax was going through the throes of adapting to a rapidly modernizing world, which was further complicated by economic depression and extreme social programmes such as prohibition and female suffrage. The book discusses the role played by the Halifax police in the attempts of the white male-dominated society to preserve what it considered to be traditional values in face of the currents of change affecting Canada and the rest of North America. Knowing the part Nova Scotia played in transforming colonial North America is helpful in understanding the strong adherence of ‘Haligonians’ to the status quo. Nova Scotia featured significantly in such historical events as the expulsion of the French Acadians (1755–1764), the American Revolution (1775–1800) and the War of 1812. Both white and black loyalists came in large numbers to both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick during the American Revolution and were awarded land grants that infringed upon the ever-dwindling native lands of the Algonquin Wabanaki tribes. Many regarded the War of 1812 as an attempt by the United States to annex the Canadian maritime provinces. This contributed to solidifying the movement that ultimately led to the confederation of Canada. Another important event occurring shortly before the time of the period under study was the devastating explosion that took place in Halifax harbor on 6 December 1917 as a result of a collision between two ships, one of them carrying munitions. The blast killed 1950 people outright and injured 9000, 6000 of them seriously. An immediate and generous crisis response from Massachusetts led to renewed friendship between Halifax and Boston. Such sociocultural factors as these are important to understanding the efforts to maintain law and order in Halifax during the 17 years between the end of the First and the beginning of the Second World War. During this period, Halifax was only just emerging from the morality, laws and practices of the nineteenth century which, despite Halifax having come to terms with its religious differences between Catholics of French and Irish descent and Protestants of British descent, reflected the dominance of white male values and norms and supported a superior white male economic status. Halifax comprised 53.8% Roman Catholic and 46.2% Protestant during the study period, and de facto segregation based on race, ethnicity and economic status existed. Affluent whites disproportionately held sway over the mechanisms of social control. Boudreau describes how:

Anomie and Violence among Native Americans

Cultural anomie and the marginality that results from it are important considerations when viewing Native American disorganization, both past and present. Indeed, a major consequence of Indian disorganization is intra-group aggression, a phenomenon manifested by high alcoholism and suicide rates (self-aggression) as well as assault and homicide. And while the problem of cultural anomie has long plagued Native Americans, few attempts have been made to analyze it within the appropriate culturally-relevant, social conflict (majority/minority) perspective. This article makes such an attempt by providing a psycho-historical analysis of the significant policy controls which have served to regulate American Indians since the advent of white contact. It explores the affect of primary conflict generated by the policies of slavery, Indian wars, Removal, Allotment, Reorganization, Termination, Relocation, and Self-Determination. The analysis goes beyond these policy controls by linking them to the ensuing secondary ...

Law enforcement in Indian country

Policing American Indians in the United States of America has always been contentious especially from the tribal perspective. First they were regulated by the US Army and the Department of War and later by the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Department of the Interior. Few realize the Major Crimes Act and the ‘Index Crimes’ made famous by John Edgar Hoover and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were initiated as a method of imposing federal control in Indian Country. Today the controversy continues with federal, state and local jurisdictions attempting to intervene in tribal policing.

Assessing Navajo Psychological and Educational Needs in New Mexico.

American Indians have a disproportionately high incidence of social and health problems which impact on education. Further, there are many American Indian tribes that represent a wide range of cultural differences and belief systems. The Navajo Tribe represents the largest concentration of American Indians in the nation. This paper highlights one school district in Western New Mexico, the Gallup McKinley School District (geographically the largest in the U.S. with 73% American Indian, mostly Navajo) and analyzes the overall needs of Navajo Indian children and youth, and their families. The article explores specific Navajo acculturation variables creating culture conflict, problems affecting the community, test results, interpretation issues resulting in inappropriate placement decisions and the profile of the high-risk Navajo child based on research data. It concludes with specific recommendations for interviewing, testing, and counseling.

Locus of control, depression, and anger among African-Americans

Subjects, 98 African-American college students, were given a measure of belief in locus of control, a self-report measure of depression, and three scales from the Buss and Durkee Hostility Inventory. Depression and belief in control by powerful others correlated only for subjects with low scores on Assaultive, Verbal, and Indirect Hostility. The findings, using nonwhite subjects, replicate a previous study in which the racial composition was not indicated.

The Minority Perspective on Violence

Minority violence has long been a critical issue in American justice with members of the ‘visible’ minorities (Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans) being overrepresented as both offenders and victims of serious personal altercations. Moreover, these same groups are underrepresented as members of the formal, legal control process (law enforcement, judiciary, corrections, and legislative bodies). In spite of this situation few attempts have been made to examine this phenomenon from the minority perspective. Indeed white/majority interpretations of minority violence often reflect ethnocentrism. Here violence within United States ‘visible’ minority subcultures is examined from the cultural perspective. And within this perspective majority/minority relations are assessed according to structural and behavioral factors.