Compromise formation in social conflicts: The influence of age,issue, and interpersonal context

Adolescents' understanding of societal conflict and of compromise resolution in the context of peer and authority relations was investigated. Six conflict stories were prepared for three social issues. Each issue included two similar stories that were counterbalanced for presentation in peer or authority context. The adolescents—ages 11, 13, 15, and 17—were asked to develop dialogues by continuing conversations from the stories with the aim of resolving the conflict. Responses were categorized on a 3-point scale: (1) noncompromise, (2) routine compromise, and (3) constructive compromise. In addition, one moral and one political dilemma were presented in order to relate conflict resolution to moral and political development. The major findings were an increase in frequency of constructive compromise with age and in peer vs authority context. Further, both moral and political development were significantly related to conflict resolution scores in peer but not in authority context. Results corroborate an interpretation that considers peer communicative relations of mutual respect and cooperation as a primary path to mature stages of social reasoning.Received Ph.D. in 1986 from Catholic University of America. Research interests include conflict resolution, adolescent sexuality, and substance abuse.Received Ph.D. in 1960 from Portland University. Research interests include Development of knowledge.     

Older adolescents' thinking about academic/vocational and interpersonal commitments

Sixty-eight college students listed the factors they consider or would consider when making the following commitments: choosing courses, choosing a major, choosing a career, choosing a friend, choosing a romantic partner, and choosing a lifelong partner. In addition, subjects provided their own definition ofcommitment in an unstructured essay. Subjects listed more factors, more distinct types of factors, and more original factors for interpersonal commitments than for academic/vocational commitments. There were few gender differences found in these measures, contradicting the idea that men and women think differently about different commitments. In addition, few gender or class year differences were found in the themes present in the essay definingcommitment. Conceptions of commitment, as described in essays, predicted thinking about specific commitments only slightly.Received Ph.D. in Psychology and M.S.E. in Computer Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and has research interests in the areas of cognitive development and reasoning and decision making.Received Ph.D. in Counseling and Guidance from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and has research interests in adolescent development and adolescent psychopathology.     

The Farm Crisis and the Future of Rural Local Governments

America's farmers are facing difficult financial times, andtheir problems are spilling over to rural local governments.Declining farm incomes and farm property values erode the localtax base. At the same time, demand for publicly provided servicesmay increase, creating a squeeze between falling revenues andhigher costs. This article documents the impact the farm crisishas had on local government tax bases in eight multi-countyregions in the Midwest. The impacts found, while severe, wouldgenerally be manageable in the absence of other shocks. However,when changes in the intergovernmental aid system–suchas the elimination of General Revenue Sharing and other cutsin federal aid—are factored in, local governments in agriculturallydependent areas can encounter financial stress. Higher taxesand lower service levels may permanently change the qualityof life in rural America.     

Cannabis use and the transition to young adulthood

Despite the significance of role changes during the process of transition from adolescence to young adulthood, there have been few investigations of how transitional problems may result in increased illicit drug use. Recent structural changes in the economy may have produced a greater likelihood of such transitional difficulties. The present research uses longitudinal panel data from a sample of graduating high school students in three Canadian cities to test a model that predicts change in cannabis use from late adolescence to early adulthood. Young adults with less job stability, weaker occupational and educational commitment should be freer from informal social controls and therefore more at risk for an increased level of cannabis use. However, none of the measures of informal social control processes was an important net predictor of change in cannabis use. Rather, prior cannabis use in high school was of overwhelming importance in predicting use two years later. There was also evidence that having delinquent friends led to increased cannabis use. These results are discussed and suggestions are given for additional research on this topic.Revised version of a paper presented to the American Society of Criminology, November 1991, San Francisco. Financial assistance was provided by the Solicitor General Canada through the contributions grant to the Centre of Criminology, University of Alberta. Major funding for the larger project was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Alberta and Ontario governments, the cities of Edmonton and Toronto, the University of Alberta and Laurentian University.Received Ph.D. from Indiana University. Current research interests are attitudes toward young offenders, role transition and crime, and female crime trends.     

A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF ELECTRONIC MONITORING IN CORRECTIONS

Electronic monitoring is a recent advance in information gathering for correctional program administration. To be effective in achieving correctional goals, electronic monitors must be applied to offenders when there is some risk of performance problem. Advocates of electronic monitoring argue they can promote public safety, save tax dollars, and enhance correctional performance. Because corrections systems find it so difficult to innovate with offenders who represent a risk to society, these claims are overstated. Electronic monitoring raises short-term concerns concerning damage to correctional program credibility and long-term concerns about the enhancement of social control.