Patrick R. Cotter

The relationship between sense of community and subjective well-being: A first look

The relationship between sense of community and subjective well-being (SWB) was tested by conducting telephone interviews with three random samples in South Carolina and Alabama (ns = 151, 399, and 442). Respondents answered the 17-item Sense of Community Scale (Davidson & Cotter, 1986), a measure of three facets of SWB (happiness, worrying, and personal coping), and questions about their demographic characteristics and subjective evaluations of their community. Partial correlation coefficients were computed between sense of community and SWB, partialling out the influence of demographic and community-evaluation variables. Sense of community was significantly related to SWB in all three samples. The effects were especially pronounced for the happiness facet of SWB. Implications are drawn for theory and intervention, and recommendations are made for further research.

Race-of-Interviewer Effects in Telephone Interviews

Previous studies have found a race-of-interviewer effect on survey questions dealing with racial issues. This effect has been found in both personal interviews and on questionnaires filled out in the presence of an interviewer. This study examines whether a race-of-interviewer effect is also present in telephone interviews. The results show that a race-of-interviewer effect does occur in telephone interviews on racial questions. Patrick R. Cotter is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science and the Director of Survey Research and Service in the Center for Administrative and Policy Studies at the University of Alabama. Jeffrey Cohen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. Philip B. Coulter is Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Political Science at the University of Alabama. Public Opinion Quarterly Vol. 46:278-284 ? 1982 by The Trustees of Columbia University Published by Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc. 0033-362X/82/0046-278/

PSYCHOLOGICAL SENSE OF COMMUNITY AND NEWSPAPER READERSHIP

2.50 1 Weeks and Moore (1981) found that an ethnicity-of-interviewer effect can occur among other groups. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.124 on Wed, 22 Jun 2016 05:39:44 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms RACE-OF-INTERVIEWER EFFECTS 279 1981). The presence of a race-of-interviewer effect has been found in both personal interviews and on questionnaires filled out in the presence of an interviewer (Sudman and Bradbum, 1974; Campbell, 1981). In recent years, survey researchers have increasingly relied on telephone interviews to conduct their surveys, primarily because of the lower per unit costs of telephone interviews. The increasing use of this method of interviewing makes it important to determine whether a factor such as race-of-interviewer influences responses in the same manner in telephone interviews as it does in other forms of surveying. There are at least two reasons why race of interviewer may have little or no effect on responses in telephone interviews. First, in telephone interviews respondents cannot see the interviewer and thus may be unable to determine the interviewers race. As a result, respondents may feel no need to avoid offending the interviewer. Second, even if the respondent can identify the interviewers race, the greater physical and psychological distance between respondent and interviewer in telephone surveys may reduce any need the respondent might feel to avoid offending the interviewer. A race-of-interviewer effect may, however, be present in telephone surveys. Specifically, during the interview respondents may use verbal cues to identify the race of their interviewers. This ability, along with a sense of politeness, may result in respondents seeking to avoid offending their interviewers, despite the distance between them and the interviewers.

The Conservative South

An hypothesized association of psychological sense of community and newspaper readership was tested using telephone interviews with 1,007 randomly selected respondents in two states. The survey contained a 5-items measure of psychological sense of community and two indices of newspaper readership, amount of interest in local, state, and national news (3 items) and breadth of reading (14 items in one sample and 23 items in another). Regression analyses indicated significant relationships between scores on the Psychological Sense of Community scale and both readership indices after controlling for 5 demographic variables. Respondents with high scores on the Psychological Sense of Community scale reported a high interest in news about local, state, and national topics. Also, they claimed to read frequently many sections of their local newspaper.

ADJUSTMENT TO AGING AND RELATIONSHIPS WITH OFFSPRING

The idea that the South is a conservative area is one of the fixtures on the American political landscape. Questions remain, however, whether the picture of the conservative South provides a complete depiction of mass politics in that region. Public opinion data are examined in this study to determine whether the South is actually a conservative area. The results of the analysis suggest that it is inaccurate to conclude unqualifiably that the South is a conservative region.

Effects of News Measure on Selection of State Government News Sources.

Structured interviews were conducted with 83 older people to determine the role of adult offspring in adjustment to aging. Satisfaction with the length of visits with offspring was significantly related to elderly peoples well-being and so was having multiple friendships. Implications were drawn about how these two social networks—family and friends—can be used as support systems for married and widowed elderly persons.

Is One as Good as Another? The Relative Influence of Pre-election Surveys on Voter Behavior.

,Evidence that the newspaper is the citizens most useful source of information about state government was presented by Joey Reagan and Richard V. Ducey; they assessed measures of selection for sources of state government news and discussed survey information from a city area of Michigan.! Our supportive data obtained during the Alabama state elections of 1982 make appropriate an addendum to their discussion. The new data treat a state rather thak a city area as the unit of analysis for assessing sources of information on state politics; the opinion survey comes from a different region of the United States. Yet the conclusions of Reagan and Ducey on effects of new^ measure are clearly confirmed. The

The Decline in Partisanship A Test of Four Explanations

Election surveys, expert opinions and man-in-the-street interviews all have about the same amount of impact on candidate preference.

Alabama: Commandments, Amendments, and Defendants

This study examines four explanations associated with the rationalistic or cognitive model of party identification for the decline in partisanship. The results of the study show that several factors affect the number of Independents within the electorate. Some of these factors have different effects on the partisanship of younger and older, and Northern and Southern citizens. Other factors have a more general influence on partisanship. Perceptions of the importance or relevance of parties, especially as a means for making electoral choices, affect the level of partisanship among all population groups examined. Evaluations of the Democratic and Republican parties affect the partisanship of both younger and older Northerners, but not Southerners.

Active and Passive Indicators of Public Opinion: Assessing the Call-in Poll

Alabama’s 2004 election was a quiet affair. Signs that a presidential campaign was occurring-candidate visits, partisan rallies, hard-hitting television commercials, or get-out-the-vote efforts-were largely missing from the state. The outcome of Alabama’s U.S. Senate race was a forgone conclusion from the beginning of the year. All of the state’s congressmen were easily reelected. Contests for the few state offices up for election in 2004 were generally both invisible and uncompetitive. The only part of the ballot that generated any interest-and even here it was limited-involved a pro-posed amendment to Alabama’s already long state constitution.