The Tragicomedy of Celebrity

Celebrity has an age-old appeal. In the Western tradition this appeal and its characteristic motifs can be traced back to the ancient Greeks. Celebrity populates the public stage with a range of larger-than-life actors who play out the human drama—for the edification and the entertainment of the audience. There is comic burlesque and there is tragedy. This article considers the example of the Tiger Woods scandal.     

Sex differences in the relative importance of self-esteem,physical self-satisfaction,and identity in predicting adolescent satisfaction

Theoretical discussions of adolescence tend to emphasize the importance of physical development, self-views, and a transitional aspect of adolescence. Few research studies examine these variables in combination. The purpose of the present research was to examine the interrelationships of physical self-satisfaction, self-esteem, and identity in addition to their ability to predict satisfaction with an individual's social milieu. Multiple regression analyses were conducted for six groups consisting of eighth-, tenth-, and twelfth-grade males and females. While the prediction patterns yielded no differences for grade level, differences between males and females were found. Self-esteem was the best predictor for males, while identity and physical self-satisfaction were the best predictors for females.This research is based on the author's dissertation.Received her Ph.D. in educational psychology from Temple University in 1978. Main interest is adolescent development, especially social-emotional development.     

Civic Networks, Legitimacy and the Policy Process

In ethnically divided developing countries, avenues permitting popular participation in the policy process seem essential if the state is to be viewed as legitimate. Frequently, however, mechanisms intended to build legitimacy by providing for popular participation fail to achieve this target. This article analyzes the policy process in Mauritius, and argues that it combines characteristics of both policy networks and civil society. We term this form of popular consultation on policy a "civic network," and we present research which suggests that it has been successful in building legitimacy. By comparing this civic network with other forms of popular participation, we are able to identify the characteristics which seem to make it more effective. The effects of popular participation on the policy capacity of a state are more mixed, but in the case of Mauritius, we conclude that by increasing legitimacy, the civic network also increased state policy capacity.     

Pretrial publicity,judicial remedies,and jury bias

Although past research has established pretrial publicity's potential to bias juror judgment, there has been less attention given to the effectiveness of judicial remedies for combatting such biases. The present study examined the effectiveness of three remedies (judicial instructions, deliberation, and continuance) in combatting the negative impact of different types of pretrial publicity. Two different types of pretrial publicity were examined: (a) factual publicity (which contained incriminating information about the defendant) and (b) emotional publicity (which contained no explicitly incriminating information, but did contain information likely to arouse negative emotions). Neither instructions nor deliberation reduced the impact of either form of publicity; in fact, deliberation strengthened publicity biases. Both social decision scheme analysis and a content analysis of deliberation suggested that prejudicial publicity increases the persuasiveness and/or lessens the persuasibility of advocates of conviction relative to advocates of acquittal. Acontinuance of several days between exposure to the publicity and viewing the trial served as an effective remedy for the factual publicity, but not for the emotional publicity. The article concludes by discussing the potential roles of affect and memory in juror judgment and evaluating the available remedies for pretrial publicity.