SSI at its 25th year.

Beginning in January 1974, the three previously existing State adult assistance programs were amalgamated into the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program, to be administered by the Social Security Administration. This change was made to provide a nationwide floor of income for needs-based assistance, and to make such payments more efficiently by working through SSA's existing network of field offices. This article traces the 25-year patterns of growth and changes in the number of persons applying for assistance, the number and proportion of those applicants who were awarded payments, and the overall number of persons who received SSI. Three major age groups are considered separately: those aged 65 or older, disabled adults aged 18-64, and children age 18 and younger. The last group was newly eligible under SSI for payments based on their own blindness or disability and not, as was the case previously, because they were a member of a needy family.     

Becoming respectable: T. Dale Stewart and the acceptance of forensic anthropology in the academic community

Before World War II, forensic anthropology was of peripheral interest to a few anthropologists willing to assist in investigations by law enforcement agencies. A strong bias that "police work" was unbecoming to the scholarly pursuits of academics persisted into the post-war years. Changes took place as a consequence of T. Dale Stewart's case work in the identification of human remains with the FBI from 1943 to 1969, his directorship of the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution) beginning in 1962, and his work with the Armed Forces after 1948. This paper discusses the historic period of transition of attitudes and practices in the contexts of Stewart's contributions and the cases and teaching programs of one of his contemporaries. Theodore D. McCown at the University of California at Berkeley, during the period of 1939 to 1969. The establishment of the Physical Anthropology Section within the American Academy of Forensic Sciences in 1972 and the creation of the T. Dale Stewart award for distinguished service in forensic anthropology advanced those laboratory research programs and medical-legal investigations conducted by present-day forensic anthropologists.     

Determinants of peer social status: Contributions of physical appearance,reputation, and behavior

The purpose of the present study was to determine behavioral correlates of social status and the relative importance of physical appearance, reputation, and current behavior in the assignment of social status by peers. Sixty-eight children identified as either popular, rejected, or neglected by peers were photographed individually and were videotaped during school lunch for 10 six-minute segments each. In a second sample of children those identified as popular, rejected, or neglected by their peers either viewed selected videotapes or photographs of same-age and same-sex children who were popular, rejected, or neglected, and categorized the viewed child as to his/her social competence. The bids of popular children were more likely to be clear, elicit attention, and continue beyond a simple bid-response sequence than were those of rejected or neglected children. The photographs and videotapes of both popular and neglected children were rated more positively than were those of rejected children.This paper is based, in part, on a presentation made at the Southeastern Conference on Human Development, April 1986.Received Ph.D. in Psychology from Georgia State University in 1980. Primary research interests are social competence development, peer relations, and mother-child attachment.