Equality or lasting inequality?

Jan H. Blits teaches in the University Honors Program at the University of Delaware and was previously Secretary of the Navy Distinguished Fellow at the U.S. Naval Academy. He has published two books and numerous articles on educational and political philosophy.     

The contribution of family structure and differentiation to identity development in females

We examined the relationship between Minuchin's structural family model, adolescent separation-individuation, and identity development. One hundred sixty-four female undergraduate students completed the Structural Family Interaction Scale Revised (SFIS-R), the Parental Relationship Inventory (PRI), and the Extended Objective Measure of Ego Identity Status (EOM-EIS) scale. Exploratory Factor Analysis of the SFIS-R and PRI scales indicated that two factors, Proximity-Differentiation and Generational Hierarchy-Differentiation, accounted for 90% of the variance. Canonical correlation analysis with the two factor scores and age included in the predictor variables, and the four measures of ego identity included in the dependent variables, yielded two significant roots. The results supported Minuchin's model.Received her Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Major interests are family factors influencing adolescent development and family assessment.Received her Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Major interests are family factors and the separation/individuation process.Received Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. Major interests are statistical issues related to chi-square analyses.     

Conflict resolution a pre-trial intervention

Parties involved in interpersonal disputes often use the Criminal Justice System as a medium of retaliation. This study analyzed the effectiveness of a Citizens’ Dispute Settlement Program as an alternative to criminal prosecution. The program consists of trained volunteer hearing officers mediating between the complainant and the defendant in order to resolve the conflict without court involvement. All hearings scheduled over a six month period were studied (N-264). The hearings were categorized according to type of offense and were analyzed to determine the race and sex of the parties involved, and the effectiveness of conflict resolution efforts in each category. In general, there was no significant relationship between race and being a party in conflict. However, there was a highly significant relationship as to sex, with the majority of complainants being female, and the majority of the respondents being male. Of the scheduled hearings, 93.5% (N-247) were diverted from the court system, for an estimated savings of $80,522. The authors concluded that a Citizens’ Dispute Settlement Program, through the pretrial intervention of conflict resolution efforts, provides an effective means of alleviating the congestion in our courts.     

Trust in elites and protest orientation: An integrative approach

The consensus based hypothesis that trust in political authorities is a major determinant of system stability has received less empirical support in the protest literature than its theoretical appeal once promised. We propose a major revision of the leadership-trust approach—one which integrates the conflict and consensus approaches by considering both public trust in established elites and public trust in challenging elites. Recognizing the importance of opposition leadership, we reason that thedifference between these two types of trust, which we conceptualize astrust differential, should explain protest orientation better than other trust-variable alternatives. The new trust differential variable suggests a distinctive typology of trust orientations which predict the degree of protest endorsement somewhat differently than the traditional authority-trust model. Using survey data collected in Madison, Wisconsin, in 1973, we test the integrative differential approach against and controlling for its classic competitors and find it to be a more powerful, independent predictor of protest orientation.This paper draws on findings and insights from papers that we presented at the American Sociological Association meeting, San Francisco, September 1978, and at the annual Western Social Science Association meeting, Denver, April 1978.     

When lawyers question children

This study assessed the impact of some complex question forms frequently used by attorneys who examine and cross-examine witnesses in the courtroom. Fifteen males and 15 females from each of four student populations (kindergarten, fourth grade, ninth grade, and college) viewed a videotaped incident and then responded to questions about the incident. Half the questions were asked in “law-yerese” (i.e., using complex question forms); the remaining half asked for the same information using simply phrased question forms of the same length. Lawyerese confused children, adolescents, and young adults alike. Questions that included multiple parts with mutually exclusive responses were the most difficult to answer; those that included negatives, double negatives or difficult vocabulary also posed significant problems. Results suggest that complex question forms impede truth-seeking and should be prohibited in court.     

Political business cycles at the municipal level

The present article tests predictions of rational political business cycle models using a large and previously unexplored data set of Portuguese municipalities. This data allows for a clean test of these predictions due to the high level of detail on expenditure items, an exogenous fixed election schedule, and homogeneity of Portuguese local governments with respect to policy instruments and institutions. Estimation results clearly reveal the opportunistic behaviour of local governments. In pre-electoral periods, they increase total expenditures and change their composition favouring items that are highly visible to the electorate. This behaviour is consistent with an effort to signal competence and increase chances of re-election.