Cross-national election surveys: A French pre-test

In common with scholars in other leading democracies, election researchers of France and the United States rely heavily on a survey research methodology; but their respective national election surveys do not pose many of the same questions, and the dominant research paradigms in each country offer opposing explanatory models of vote choice. Herein are reported preliminary results from a joint effort of US and French researchers, which seeks to include numerous cross-national items in the French National Election Study (for 1995). The following American National Election Study (ANES)-type items receive attention: candidate feeling thermometers, job approval ratings, economic evaluations, seven-point proximity measures on social issues and party identification. Inclusion of these measures in French surveys may allow an important cross-nation extension of voting models thought to be peculiar to one political culture, such as the US.     

The public demand for smoking bans

Smoking bans are gaining widespread support in the United States and other countries. While supporters argue that bans are necessary to resolve market failures associated with negative externalities, the Coase Theorem predicts that, under various conditions, private markets internalize negative externalities. We examine the smoking issue within the framework of the Coase Theorem and hypothesize that smoking bans misallocate air space resources shared by smokers and nonsmokers. Because smoking bans shift ownership of scarce resources, they are also hypothesized to transfer income from one party (smokers) to another party (nonsmokers). Supporting evidence for these hypotheses is provided by an examination of a comprehensive smoking ban imposed in San Luis Obispo, CA.     

The State of American Federalism, 1993-1994

National political energies in 1993–1994 were focusedon major initiatives promised by the Clinton administrationduring the 1992 presidential campaign, especially health-carereform and crime. From the perspective of the states, federalgovernment action in these (and other) policy areas raised seriousquestions about preemption and mandates. The administration'sofficial pronouncements on federalism have suggested a strategyof decongestion and decentralization. Thus far, its actionshave fallen short of empowerment, taking instead the path ofregulatory waivers. Frustrated with the federal government,states and localities continued to engage in policy experimentation.     

Adoptees' portrayal of the development of family structure

Young adult adoptees and nonadoptees provided retrospective accounts of family relationships from infancy to young adulthood. Adoptive families were portrayed as more cohesive and adaptable than nonadoptive families. Adoptive fathers were recalled as being closer to their children then were nonadoptive fathers in the years preceding adolescence. Within the same time frame, adoptive mothers were drawn in a less hierarchical relation to their children than were other parents. Also, while adoptive males saw themselves as presently unconnected to their adoptive parents, adopted females perceived themselves as more connected to their parents in the present than any other period of time. Openness of communication and acknowledgment of difference in adoptive family formation varied with graphic retrospective accounts. Results were considered in terms of discontinuities between reported observations of adoptive families and adoptees' personal reflections on family developmental history.Received PhD in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Book. Research interests: adoptive family relations, social attributions of children and their parents.Received M.A. from the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada N1G 2W1. Research interests: development of identity, adoption.Received Ph.D. in social psychology from the University of Toronto. Research interests: attribution, jealousy, parents' theories of child psychology.     

Boundary Revisions: the Deconstruction of Moral Personality in Rawls, Nozick, Sandel and Parfit

The boundaries between selves and within selves are notions that have been subject to constant readjustment in the debates between liberals and communitarians. Through the archetype theories of Rawls, Nozick, Sandel and Parfit this essay re-enacts the deconstruction of one of the intuitive certainties of earlier liberal thought. Counterintuitive alliances are struck across the liberal-communitarian divide in demonstrating that the impersonality required by any theory of justice puts pressure on every notion of personality within it. Parfit radicalizes the problem of identity for everyone, permitting us to view old problems from new perspectives.     

Cognitive development,epistemic doubt,and identity formation in adolescence

This study was undertaken to evaluate the part that nascent skeptical doubt plays in shaping the course of adolescent social-cognitive development. It is argued that the intellectual changes that accompany the acquisition of formal operational competence set in motion a series of developments that seriously undermine the typical adolescent's previous sense of epistemic certainty. An epistemic model is proposed, leading to the hypothesis that, in response to such doubts, young persons adopt one of several contrasting interpretive strategies, each of which dictates much about their subsequent solutions to the problems of identity formation and commitment. To evaluate these hypotheses, 96 high school aged young people were classified as being either concrete or formal operational. Those subjects who were clearly classifiable (N=70) were administered Adams' Objective Measure of Ego identity Status and the Epistemic Doubt Interview, which permits identification of realistic, defendedly realistic, dogmatic/skeptical, and rational epistemic stances. A relationship between cognitive and epistemic development was found. Only formal operational subjects appreciated the generic nature of the doubt undermining their epistemic certainty. Predictions regarding the anticipated relation between epistemic stance and ego identity status were supported, revealing that only postrealist epistemic stances were routinely associated with membership in the moratorium or achieved identity statuses. The results are taken as strong support for the claim that epistemic doubt plays a central role in shaping the course of adolescent social-cognitive development.This research was partially supported by a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Doctoral Fellowship awarded to the first author.Obtained Ph.D. in developmental psychology from the University of British Columbia. Research interests are focused upon the areas of overlap among cognitive, epistemic, and moral development, and the identity formation process through the adolescent years.Obtained Ph.D. in psychology from The University of California at Berkeley. His research interests include epistemic and social-cognitive development in children and adolescents, and young children's developing theories of mind.