Self-attitudes and deviant behavior: The case of the charismatic religious movement

Hypotheses are tested concerning the relationship between level of and changes in self-attitudes on the one hand and the adoption of membership in the charismatic religious movement on the other hand. The hypotheses are derived from a general theory of deviant behavior. Subjects (generally aged 13–25) were 65 members of a local charismatic religious group and a comparison group of 47 members of three, more traditional urban Protestant churches. Self-attitudes were measured by a self-derogation scale responded to with reference to two points in time: the present and 6 months to 1 year prior to the test administration. The three hypotheses were supported. (1) The charismatic subjects, relative to the comparison subjects, displayed significantly higher levels of self-derogation at the time of adopting membership in the charismatic group. (2) Individuals who adopted membership in the charismatic cults, relative to the comparison group, displayed a significantly greater tendency to decrease the level of self-derogation between the earlier point in time and the point in time when the subjects were interviewed. (3) Significantly greater decrease in self-derogation on the part of the charismatic cult subjects resulted in comparable levels of selfderogation for the charismatic and comparison groups at the time of the interview.Received M.D. from the University of Ottawa in 1960, did his fellowship in psychiatry in Mayo Clinic, 1968–1970, and is a fellow of the American Board of Neurology and Psychiatry (1973). Major interest is religion and psychiatry.Received Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1958. Current research interests are social psychiatry and, more specifically, the reciprocal relationship berween self-attitudes and the adoption of deviant response patterns.     

Increase in self-rejection and continuing/discontinued deviant response

It was hypothesized that adoption of deviant response patterns regardless of subsequent continuation of the act would be associated with an antecedent increase in negative self-attitudes. Subjects were seventh-grade students who responded to a questionnaire three times (T ₁,T ₂,T ₃) at annual intervals (N=3,148). Self-attitudes were measured by a seven-item self-derogation scale. Change in self-derogation was determined by expressing the posttest score as a deviation from the posttest-on-pretest regression line. Deviant responses were defined in terms of self-reports of each of 22 highly independent responses. In all cases, as hypothesized, for each of the 22 deviant responses both (1) subjects who adopted and continued the act and (2) subjects who adopted and discontinued the act manifested greater increases in self-derogation than subjects who did not adopt the deviant act. The differences, all of which were in the hypothesized direction, were significant in 34 of the 44 comparisons. The results were interpreted as supporting the position that the adoption of any of a broad range of manifestly dissimilar deviant responses is preceded by the genesis of negative selfattitudes.Received his Ph. D. in sociology from New York University in 1958. Current research interests are social psychiatry and, more specifically, the reciprocal relationship between self-attitudes and the adoption of deviant response patterns.     

Deviant behavior and self-enhancement in adolescence

The hypothesis that “among initially high self-derogation subjects deviant response patterns (alcohol and drug abuse, delinquent patterns, etc.) are related to subsequent decreases in self-derogation” was tested with data from a longitudinal survey study of adolescents. Among higher and lower socioeconomic status (SES) males initially high self-derogation subjects who adopted (relative to those who did not adopt) any of several deviant patterns manifested significantly greater subsequent base-free decreases in self-derogation. For higher SES females only narcotics use (and among lower SES females no deviant pattern) was significantly related to subsequent decrease in self-derogation. Together with collateral data, these results indicated that where the deviant patterns were compatible with valued social roles and the subjects were able to defend against negative responses by others (but not under mutually exclusive conditions), deviant patterns functioned to reduce self-rejecting feelings among initially highly self-derogating subjects.     

Implementing Change in an Urban School District: A Case Study of the Reorganization of the Little Rock School District

In July 2005, the Little Rock, Arkansas, school district implemented a new policy to reorganize its management structure in order to create a more efficient bureaucracy. Using Richard Matland’s ambiguity‐conflict model of policy implementation, the authors examine the implementation of this school reorganization policy. Interviews and surveys were conducted with the superintendent and his executive assistants, school principals, teachers, and staff. In line with Matland’s model, the findings suggest that successful implementation is directly related to the policy characteristics of ambiguity and conflict. However, the authors point to the importance of recognizing particular characteristics for different groups of stakeholders within the policy implementation process. Discrepancies among groups of policy actors in the degree of policy ambiguity and policy conflict lead to strikingly different implementation strategies.     

Violence,fear, and development in Latin America: a critical overview

This introduction presents the core concepts that shape this special issue on the impact of violence and the processes of development in Central and South America. The understanding of development is considered in terms broader than the economic context alone, in order to assess wider social and political aspects. With a similarly expansive scope, forms of violence are addressed that range from direct physical harm and bodily attack to the often more subtle aggression of racialised abuse or the pressures on community-centred production from dominant market forces. In these contexts, violence, economic initiatives, and political allegiances form unintended and often dangerous networks of consequence for development matters. All the articles in this volume exemplify further the spatial environments of violence and diverse ‘landscapes of fear’ that shape our existence and help to define our actions, territories, and understanding of what happens around us.