Rebecca F. Guy

Career Identification and Women's Attitudes toward Retirement.

This study seeks to heighten understanding of the retirement process as experienced by women through an examination of working womens attitudes toward retirement. The subjects for this study were 201 female teachers employed in the public school system in a central Oklahoma district. The survey instrument used was a questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic and work-related variables. The findings indicate that overall, females with stronger work identities have significantly more negative attitudes toward retirement than those with weaker work identities; this difference remains significant when controls are introduced for years of teaching experience, expected age of retirement, and attitude toward work. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Religion, Physical Disabilities, and Life Satisfaction in Older Age Cohorts.

Concern here is with the relationship between religious affiliation and life satisfaction. Past research points to religion as an important factor in adjustment of the aged. However, there have been contradictory findings on aging and church attendance. Church attendance patterns are examined in relation to aging and personal adjustment. The intervening variable of the elderly persons physical disabilities is offered as an explanation for declining church attendance with age.

The Neutral Point on a Likert Scale

Abstract It was hypothesized that the exclusion of a neutral point will not significantly affect an individuals composite score on a Likert-type scale. A sample of 200 undergraduates at Memphis State University was drawn from upper division sociology courses. Four unique arrangements of the Comrey and Newmeyer Radicalism-Conservatism scale (both forms A and B) were administered randomly with four and five response alternatives. A comparison of each Ss composite score on form A with his composite score on form B for the entire sample showed no significant difference, thus confirming the null hypothesis. However, when dependent comparisons were made, taking into consideration the different scale arrangements and the number of response alternatives, significant differences emerged. These findings were contradicted by the independent comparisons which were made by holding form and position of scale administration constant. These polarized findings raise questions concerning the issue of awareness and sensit...

The Relation of Sex Role Stereotyping to Body Image

Summary Past research has demonstrated a relationship between personality characterisics and body types and also a clear relationship between personality traits and sex role stereotyping. The present research focuses on delineating a relationship between sex role stereotyping and body types. Three hundred sixty (360) male and female undergraduates enrolled in lower division sociology and psychology courses were asked to assess one of six silhouettes (three male and three female body types) by using the Bem Sex Role Inventory. Findings suggest that the male mesomorph is clearly sex-typed masculine, while the female ectomorph is clearly sex-typed feminine. The remaining male and female body types appear to be “androgynous.”

Discrimination in mortgage lending: The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act

There exists a long history of legislation at the national and state levels in the United States designed to have an impact on the home mortgage lending market. The present research makes use of data available through one national legislative act, the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, to ascertain if some census tracts in Memphis, Tennessee are experiencing lower than expected rates of mortgage lending from conventional and governmental sources due to the percent of their population which is black. The data indicate that even after instituting objective controls, i.e., income, neighborhood conditions, and two dimensions of demand, the percent of the population which is black significantly affects (negatively) lending rates. These results are discussed in regard to (1) the implications for patterns of city growth and development, and (2) further legislative action required to make the study of such dis-crimination easier for a public charged with that responsibility.

Locus of control and self-esteem as correlates of role orientation in traditional and nontraditional women

This research attempted to establish relationships between locus of control, self-esteem, and traditional-nontraditional behavior. It was hypothesized that (1) women tending toward internality and high self-esteem should be more likely to manifest nontraditional behaviors, as evidenced through career-oriented roles, and to rank these roles as their primary source of satisfaction; and (2) women tending toward externality and low self-esteem should be more likely to manifest traditional behavior, as evidenced through family-oriented roles, and to rank these roles as their primary source of satisfaction. The sample consisted of 91 White females in a southern metropolitan area. The data were collected using a survey design. As expected, high self-esteem internals were more likely to manifest nontraditional behavior. Contrary to expectation, low self-esteem externals were more nontraditional in role orientation.

Anticipated Discrimination in the Home Lending Market

Racial discrimination in the housing market has been a topic of research for at least three decades. The present study extends this line of research by exploring how a newly considered factor, anticipated discrimination in the home lending market, differs by race and affects the probability of owning a home. Using data from a sample of households in Memphis, Tennessee, we show that significant differences in anticipated discrimination by race exist and that, certeris paribus, these expectations help to explain racial differences in home ownership. Combining our results with the findings of two homeownership preference studies, the implication is that anticipated discrimination reduces the demand for homes by creating a situation where blacks are less likely to apply for home loans because they feel that credit will be denied.

Racial Discrimination as a Determinant of Home Improvement Loans

While there is a sizeable body of literature which points to racial discrimination in the mortgage lending market, few studies have examined racial discrimination in home improvement lending. Using data made available through the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act, this study is concerned with determining if areas with a large proportion minority, in this case, blacks, are being systematically denied home improvement loans by the major lending institutions of Memphis, Tennessee. the findings presented here provide mixed support for the argument that racial discrimination in the home lending market also includes home improvement loans. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Racial Discrimination in Home Ownership: A Reevaluation of the Preference Hypothesis

AbstractResearch on racial discrimination in mortgage lending has proposed three alternative hypotheses for the disparate home-ownership rates between blacks and whites. Although one hypothesis, “differences in ‘taste’ for ownership”, for the most part, has not been tested and has only been assumed to be false, critics suggest that this hypothesis is true and home ownership preferences actually vary by race. The present study tested the difference in taste hypothesis for a sample of nonowners. Two hundred twenty nonowners were selected for interviews in Memphis, Tennessee using a stratified cluster sample. The interview schedule included items aimed at ascertaining home-ownership preferences. As hypothesized, blacks and whites do not differ in “tastes” for home ownership. However, factors affecting home-ownership preferences vary across racial categories when separate black-white preference structures are evaluated.