Nicholas Emler

Differential Involvement in Delinquency: Toward an Interpretation in Terms of Reputation Management

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the concept of self-presentation into that of reputation management and explains how this clarifies the aspects of pattern of differential involvement in delinquency. Clues to sex differences in delinquent involvement are provided by the possibility of sex differences in several of the factors that are otherwise related to delinquency. These include differential parental supervision and consequent segregation of audiences, the differential significance of educational achievement for boys and girls, and possibly differences in relevant knowledge. The strong sex differences that have been found in attitudes to authority are more a reflection of differential inclination to choose a delinquent identity than an explanation of it. The generality of individual differences reflects not so much a common psychological structure as communality of social meaning. Those activities that distinguish the high from the low scorer on self-report measures are those that exemplify and express a delinquent identity. These diverse activities have similarity of social meaning in common. The chapter also discusses that the age pattern reflects the fact that the contingencies in the social environment, although relatively stable, are not entirely so. Between childhood and adolescence, the pattern of social participation changes as the individual moves increasingly beyond the supervision and protection of the family home, from a small school to a bigger school and from parent–child to peer–peer relationships. It changes again with the progress of educational career, with the move beyond school and possibly into work, and with a shift from single-sex to mixed-sex participation and possibly marriage.

Orientations to Institutional Authority in Adolescence

AbstractFollowing Weber (1947), we argue that legal socialization entails a commitment to ‘legal-rational’ or institutional authority and that variations in attitudes to such authority emerge in adolescence. Attitudes to institutional authority as represented by the police, the law, and the school or university, were examined in three separate samples with ages varying from 13 to 20 years. In all the groups studied, males were found to have more negative attitudes to institutional authority than females. This corresponded to a sex difference in degree of compliance with legal requirements as assessed by self-reported behaviour in relation to laws, regulations and other institutionally approved standards of conduct. In all but one group, attitudes were significantly, and usually highly, correlated with behaviour. The results are interpreted as lending support to an attitude model of legal socialization.

Moral Orientation as a Cue to Political Identity

Previous research has indicated a relationship between the political orientations of conservative versus radical and the styles of moral reasoning characterized in Kohlbergs (1976) cognitive-developmental theory as the Conventional and Principled levels. Conservatives are more likely to reason at the Conventional level and radicals at the Principled level. The only interpretation of this relationship consistent with Kohlbergs theory is that radicals are relatively more morally mature than conservatives. An alternative view is that the Conventional-Principled distinction in moral reasoning is not developmental but reflects differences in the content of politicomoral ideology. Consistent with this view it was found that expression of these alternative moral reasoning styles conveys to others clear information about political identity but none about relative cognitive sophistication.

Staying at school after sixteen: Social and psychological correlates∗

Abstract In the last decade increasing numbers of young people have been staying on in full‐time education after 16 to pursue a non‐academic curriculum. That is, they have not been staying on to gain qualifications leading into higher education, and their period of additional schooling has typically been a year or less. Drawing primarily upon data from the 16‐19 initiatives survey in Kirkcaldy, we examine the characteristics of this group and compare them both with the group who left education at 16 and with the group pursuing academic qualifications. We examine various possible influences on this choice — social class background, the policies of individual schools, the state of the local labour market, attitudes to the major alternative, YTS, and the attitudes to school. We attempt to untangle what is cause and what is effect in the distinctive attitudes and expectations of this group, and also ask what benefits if any this additional period in school has for these young people. ∗The research described ...

The sexual distribution of benefits and burdens in the household: Adolescent experiences and expectations

An examination of self-reported contributions to housework and use of resources in the home by 1296 Scottish 16- and 18-year-olds revealed sharp differences between the sexes in both areas. In only one area of housework sampled, household repairs, did boys contribute more often, and in only one area of resources, use of space for friends, did girls benefit more often. Moreover, with respect to housework, sexual inequality was inversely related to social class. Beliefs about sex roles were broadly egalitarian, but weakly related to housework done; among both male and female, contributing to more areas of housework was associated with more egalitarian beliefs. Neither access to resources nor contributions to housework were related to financial contributions made to the household. Generally, the results indicate that sex was the most powerful determinant of both housework and use of resources. It seems that young people are already extensively prepared for inequality in adult sex roles within the family by their own direct experience, if not their sex-role beliefs.