Richard M. Levinson

Sex Discrimination and Employment Practices: An Experiment with Unconventional Job Inquiries

Males and females made job inquiries in response to 256 different classified advertisements. Clearcut discrimination was found in over one-third of the telephoned inquiries. Discrimination occurred in a greater proportion of male than female inquiries about sex-inappropriate jobs. Explanation was grounded in the degree of deviance attributed to male and female sex-inappropriate callers, the nature of “male” and “female” occupations, and employers fear of being thought to discriminate against women.

Physical activity of public housing residents in Birmingham, Alabama.

OBJECTIVES Because few data are available concerning physical activity among minority and low-income persons, we characterized physical activity patterns among public housing residents. METHODS Two separate cross-sectional surveys were conducted 1 year apart of randomly selected residents of eight rental communities administered by the housing authority of Birmingham, Ala. Indigenous interviewers completed 687 interviews in survey 1 and 599 in survey 2. RESULTS In both surveys, respondents were most frequently young adult African-American women, reflecting the predominance of women in these communities. Participants were generally poorly educated and either unemployed or working in service occupations. Thirty percent of the respondents in both surveys reported no participation in any of 13 physical activities in the previous year; approximately half reported activity levels equivalent to or less than walking 4 hours per week for 8 months of the year. Respondents who were younger and male were significantly more likely to have higher activity levels. CONCLUSIONS A sedentary life-style is common among this low-income minority group, and, thus, interventions to promote exercise in these communities are needed.

Retardation and the burden of stigma

An exploratory study of parents with mentally retarded children, plus previous research by others, suggests three hypotheses on problems of stigma that were systematically tested in mailed questionnaires returned by 319 mothers of seriously retarded children. Response to a series of statements were factor analyzed to form a scale of “stigma.”

The toy salesperson: A voice for change in sex-role stereotypes?

A field experiment was designed in which students approached sales personnel in 31 different retail settings, asking for help in selecting toys for a twin niece and nephew, 5 years of age. A majority of salesperson suggestions involved a sex-stereotypic selection of toys for both the male and the female child. Limited support was found for hypotheses that the responses of sales personnel would vary by retail setting (specialized toystore, department store, dimestore/discount store) and by sex of salesperson; responses did not vary by salespersons age, however. Because more different toys are available for boys than for girls, female role expansion in childrens play activities is a more likely outcome than sex-role convergence.

Gender homophily in preferences for physicians

Gender homophily in physician preference (desire for a physician of the same sex) and more general homophily preferences (race, religion, and gender) were investigated among a population of college undergraduate and health professional students for a variety of health problems. Findings indicated that gender homophily preference was stronger for men than for women. However, the preferences may not reflect antifemale physician prejudice, particularly “self-prejudice” of women clients. Male preferred their doctors to be men significantly more than did females, regardless of the health problem. More serious health problems requiring greater physician skill (cancer, heart disease) did not produce significantly greater preference for males than problems requiring a lesser amount of skill. It appeared that health problems requiring a greater degree of physical intimacy (e.g., complete physical exam, gynecological or prostate problem) or psychological intimacy (e.g., emotional problem) produced greater homophily preference. Whether or not the student had had experience in clinical settings as a preprofessional or professional student did not have an impact on homophily preferences. Implications for the future delivery of health care, especially increased numbers of women in medicine, are discussed.

Statutory change and 'street-level' implementation of psychiatric commitment

This paper assesses the impact of a statutory change in psychiatric commitment laws on the dangerousness of involuntarily committed civil patients in one metropolitan area. More restrictive local guidelines for commitment emphasizing assaultiveness were replaced by a new state law which expanded the criteria to those whose health might deteriorate from neglect. Using an interrupted time-series analysis, we find that changes in the proportion of persons hospitalized as dangerous (or assaultive) occurred more among normally less assaultive groups such as older, white and female patients than among normally more assaultive categories of younger, black and male patients. The less assaultive groups contained an increasing proportion of dangerous patients under the period of restrictive guidelines but the proportion dropped dramatically following the implementation of the less restrictive law. Groups typified by higher rates of assaultiveness remained at a relatively high level, unaffected by changes in the statutes or time. Given the relative stability in the numbers of OTA patients committed over time, the results suggest that changes in the proportion of patients said to be dangerous may be an artifact of the way petitioners for patients and providers make use of the mental health system.

Subjective decision making in medical school admissions: Potentials for discrimination

Medical schools place considerable emphasis on admissions interviews in the selection of students. Interviews, with unwritten performance criteria and subjective evaluation, contain the potential for unconscious discrimination against certain groups of applicants. This study investigates the contribution of interview scores to the total evaluation of male and female applicants for admission to one medical school in the United States. Findings reveal that interveiw scores are counted more heavily for females than males in arriving at a final ranking for admission. Further, females were rated lower in general than males on interview evaluations. While the magnitude of the associations is small, the combined effect points to a potential for discrimination, however unintended, against women applicants in the present case study.

Nurse Practitioners' Reactions to Persons With HIV/AIDS: The Role of Patient Contact and Education

&NA; Attitudes about caring for patients with HIV/AIDS (PWAs) were investigated in a survey mailed to all nurse practitioners (NPs) in Georgia. There was a 53% response rate to the survey (286 of 539 questionnaires were returned). It was hypothesized that exposure to continuing education on HIV/AIDS and to HIV‐positive patients would be associated with more positive attitudes and less extreme behavioral changes associated with fear of transmission. Factor analytic procedures were used to generate three scales: resentment of PWAs (RESENT), anxiety or fear about contact with PWAs (FEELINGS), and changes in personal life related to fear of transmission after contact with PWAs (CHANGE). Descriptive findings indicated that a significant minority of NPs were worried about risk, harbored some resentment toward PWAs, and had changed their behavior out of concern about the possible transmission of HIV. Differences of means and stepwise regression analyses (with several potentially confounding variables controlled) found exposure to continuing education associated with less fear and anxiety, less resentment, and less behavioral change. Exposure to HIV‐positive patients was associated with less behaviora, change, as predicted, but not with less fear/anxiety or resentment. The cross‐sectional survey design limits the attribution of causality, but offers some support for the role of continuing education in improving attitudes toward PWAs.

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL AND PREVENTION PARTNERSHIPS WITH EXTERNAL BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENTISTS ROLES, EXTRAMURAL FUNDING, AND EMPLOYMENT

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) must have strong external partnerships with behavioral and social scientists to refine and carry out its research and programmatic mission. This article examines funding, employment, and other mechanisms used to develop and foster such partnerships. The authors describe in detail funding mechanisms (especially the often-used cooperative agreement and contracting mechanisms) and identify specific sources of information about funding opportunities. Furthermore, they describe several different long- and short-term employment mechanisms that can be used to link CDC staff and external behavioral scientists. Finally, external behavioral and social scientists can serve in important roles as members of CDC advisory committees, peer reviewers of funding applications, and consultants; examples of these opportunities are also provided.

The role of family history of disease and personal morbidity in eating behavior

Abstract This study investigates the role of perceived personal morbidity and perceived family history of disease as possible determinants of eating habits. Two parallel models were examined: Model A focused on the effects of personal hypercholesterolemia and family history of heart disease on fat/cholesterol consumption; Model B focused on the effects of personal hypertension and family history of hypertension on salt intake. Using cross-sectional data, each model was tested in two age groups: 18-50 years (n ≉ 2400) and > 50 years (n ≉ 1500). In both models and in both age groups, analyses of covariance revealed a significant main effect of perceived personal morbidity (hypercholesterolemia, hypertension), but a nonsignificant main effect of perceived family history of disease (heart disease, hypertension). In both models, however, a significant interaction between family history and personal morbidity was noted among persons 18-50 years of age. Overall, the results suggest that perceived personal morbid...