Steven A. Peterson

Church Participation and Political Participation: The Spillover Effect

The spillover effect postulates that participation in nonpolitical realms of peoples lives will affect their political orientations and behavior. Data from the 1987 NORC General Social Survey are used to test these expectations with respect to participation in religious organizations. Results indicate that greater involvement in churches goes with more conservatism and somewhat greater politicization, although there are some variations by race, sex, and denomination.

Determinants of citizens’ attitudes toward police

The essence of community policing is a police‐community partnership for identifying, prioritizing and resolving citizen problems. The nature of community policing demands that attention be paid to public expectations of police, and implies listening to citizens and taking their problems seriously. A critical precursor to community policing is identifying citizens’ perceptions of police and their local neighborhoods. This paper presents findings from the Harrisburg Citizen Survey – 1999, in which citizens were asked a series of questions regarding their attitudes toward their local police, their fear of crime, and their perceptions of physical and social incivilities in their neighborhoods. The overall research question for the paper is “Can attitudes toward police be predicted by citizens’ perceptions of physical and social incivilities, their fear of crime, and contact with police, controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, household income, and level of education?”

Methodological problems associated with a biologically-oriented social science

Abstract Recent advances in biology, particularly in ethology, have created a growing interest among social scientists in exploring the possibility that biological factors may significantly influence human social behavior. This article focuses on the methodological pitfalls of which ethologically oriented social scientists should be aware. It examines some of the conceptual issues from which these methodological problems often stem; the general methodological problems encountered in the ethological study of behavior; and, in conclusion, the special difficulties encountered when Homo sapiens becomes the subject of investigation.

Personality Changes in the Old–Old: A Longitudinal Study

Although many studies have examined the issue of personality stability in early and middle adulthood, few have explored the limits of personality stability in the very old, who are often confronted with major changes in their health and life circumstances which can severely impact adaptive behavior. We conducted a longitudinal study of 74 elderly women with a mean age of 80. They were assessed on the personality traits of Neuroticism, Extroversion, and Openness. Although multiple regression analyses revealed moderate stability on all 3 traits, their stability was found to be influenced by negative changes in life circumstances. For example, decreased social support and increased unmet needs were associated with more Neuroticism. Less Extroversion was associated with poorer health and greater psychosocial needs. The trait of Openness was very stable and was the least affected by life events. These contradictory findings are reconciled by considering personality development within an interaction framework.

Living While Black A State-Level Analysis of the Influence of Select Social Stressors on the Quality of Life Among Black Americans

This article examines the effects of select social stressors on the quality of life among Black Americans. Specifically, the authors created a state-level Living While Black index, which includes the Black poverty level by state, the number of Black prisoners by state, the lack of access to health care per Black population, the Black infant mortality rate, the Black homicide rate, and dollars per Black population of Black businesses. Using multivariate statistical techniques, the authors carried out a first-order test of the influence of the living while Black measures on a quality of life index comprising the following measures: number of days per month 5 or more drinks, percentage of Blacks indicating they have mental health problems, suicide rates by state for Blacks, and years of life lost per state for Blacks. The article concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and directions for future research.

Death Experience and Religion.

There has been much speculation about death experiences impact on peoples religious orientations and behavior. The most common hypothesis linking the religious domain with death experience has it that death experience leads to greater religiosity as one way for people to gain comfort. Data from the 1984 National Opinion Research Center (NORC) General Social Survey are used to test this expectation. Results suggest that death experience is related to greater levels of religious behavior and stronger religious orientations; however, the relationships are rather weak. Results are discussed in light of these findings.

Biology and Political Socialization: A Cognitive Developmental Link?'

Cognitive development theory provides a dynamic framework for studying the political learning process. This article argues that cognitive development may be a link between biology and political socialization. First, it seems clear that the developmental perspective has considerable promise for helping to understand political learning. Second, biological components of the process have been posited. Noted here are possible evolutionary, ontogenetic, and physiological bases of cognitive development. To the extent that there are, in fact, biological elements present, it follows that biology is one feature which must be acknowledged in studying political socialization.

Birth Order and Political Behavior: Clearing the Underbrush

Birth order has been implicated in a wide variety of human behaviors. One aspect of this is the contention that those who are first born differ in important respects politically from later born people. Actual findings from empirical research are surveyed to see the extent to which birth order affects both mass and elite political behavior. The meta-analysis suggests no clear pattern of findings supportive of the posited birth order-politics linkage; furthermore, the bulk of the studies that do indicate some relationship are methodologically flawed. It appears that further, more refined research is necessary to demonstrate that the linkage exists.

Political Socialization's Primacy Principle: A Biosocial Critique

The primacy principle of political socialization claims that those political orientations that are learned early persist and shape later political learning. A survey of literature produces little empirical support for the principle. Furthermore, both the Piagetian cognitive development framework and Kagans developmental perspective raise questions about the theoretical underpinnings of the primacy principle.

Social Exchange in Research: Toward a "New Deal":

This paper calls for the enfranchisement of respondents into research decision making. Respondent participation is one way to overcome respondent posturing to control information. Respondent posturing is produced when researchers create an unbalanced exchange where respondents have no motivation to participate, or when, through their use of rewards, researchers change the rules of the game. Typical researcher-respondent relations are explored in relation to respondent posturing, and the problems and prospects of using respondent participation to create a more open and productive research relationship are examined. We conclude by pointing to respondent relations as an area in which social researchers need to be trained.