Although physical activity has been identified as important for children and adolescents health, a majority are not active enough to receive health benefits. Given that physical activity lapses have been identified in adolescents, and social influences have been related to physical activity, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to explore the social influences that occur following a lapse by using a social control framework. Three studies were conducted to examine whether physical activity lapses would be associated with parental use of social control (Study 1 and 2) as well as whether this use of different social control types would be associated with changes in behaviour (Study 2 and 3) and affect (Study 3). Results from Study 1 revealed that parents reported the use of three types of social control (i.e., positive, collaborative, and negative) following a hypothetical physical activity lapse. Results from Study 2 revealed that adolescents who experienced a lapse reported greater increases in the use of positive and collaborative social control if they had an active family. Changes in social control also were associated adolescents recovery from a lapse, with collaborative social control emerging as the strongest social control type. Results from the third study revealed that each of the three types of social control were associated with behaviour change, but in a different way. Behaviour change was associated with the use of collaborative social control, the need for congruence between preferences and use for positive social control, and the perceptions of negative social control as supportive. Perceived supportiveness for all tactics was related to affect. These results provide preliminary support for the suggestion that social control may be one framework to help explain the use of parental social influences following a lapse. Future directions and complementary theories are discussed.

Between 1931 and 1960, Salvadoran praetorian regimes combined repression and reward to convince the public, nationally and internationally, that they were best equipped to rule the tiny nation. Shortly after taking power, in 1932 the military repressed a peasant rebellion, killed 10,000 people and blamed rural oligarchs and Liberal demagogues and communist agitators for the revolt and massacre. Both the regimes of General Maximiliano Hernández Martínez (1931-1944) and those of Colonels Oscar Osorio and José María Lemus (1948-1960) of the Revolutionary Party for Democratic Unification (PRUD) provided rewards for their political clients and repressed their enemies, who they often labeled Communists and subversives and linked with the chaos of the 1932 rebellion. In order to marginalize political opponents and centralize rule, they aggressively repressed "plots" against the regimes to reassign, exile, beat and sometimes kill their enemies. By manipulating newspaper coverage they also portrayed a social order that despite not matching the lived reality of Salvadorans contrasted with the chaos of 1932. Because the country changed dramatically, growing in population and rapidly urbanizing, political leaders under the PRUD allied themselves with different groups than did Martínez, or in the martinato,. Under the martinato, peasants and indigenous Salvadorans provided tacit support but the Revolutionary Party was much more focused on the cities. Fearing an urban opposition, they reorganized the police, but neither regime convinced the public of their goodwill. Despite their inability to substantively reduce crime or juvenile delinquency, the military convinced people that they made genuine efforts to provide social justice to the majority of Salvadorans. Embracing traditionalism and patriarchy, as well as social order, the military built alliances with, and glorified the image of the women of the urban markets. In contrast, prostitutes and street peddlers did not meet the standards of the praetorian social order and were demonized and repressed. Although the military was unable to provide effective social services, successfully repress dissent and criminality, or eliminate dissent, they nonetheless convinced a substantial majority that the costs of opposition were greater than the benefits of working with the regime.

No description available.

This dissertation advances our understanding of the structure of social relations between small groups and the larger organizations within which such groups are situated. Specifically, I examine structures of leadership and authority to gain an in-depth understanding of group organization in one nondenominational and one Southern Baptist megachurch. Methods include in-depth interviews with church clergy, staff, and group leaders; participant observation in groups and other church activities; and a written survey for group leaders. Using this combination of methods, I investigate how small groups are structured in terms of their connections to the megachurches within which they reside. I examine the extent to which the church staff provides oversight and exerts control over groups, and I connect variation on this dimension to how groups relate to their members and to the outside world.My findings include, first, that market metaphors permeate the organization of groups in these two megachurch organizations. The diffusion of ideas and practices from other institutional realms is notable in these two sites, and this may be true for megachurches more generally. Second, I argue that understanding strictness in religious groups is at least as much about the structure of relations between church leadership and membership as it is about beliefs. Third, small groups in megachurches look very much like small groups in American religion more generally, and church oversight may not make much difference in solving problems in small groups identified in previous research. Finally, I find that the level of oversight and control exerted by church leadership on the organization of groups may have a critical influence on the function of groups. Loose and tight connections appear to encourage a more outward and inward focus, respectively.Sociologists studying religious strictness or small groups in any setting should pay particular attention to the structure of relations connecting groups to the larger organizations within which they reside. Religious leaders interested in organizing groups of members should understand that the structure they create to connect with group leaders is at least as important as beliefs they teach leaders, in terms of influencing the focus of the groups.

This thesis articulates a conceptual understanding of police power in North America, identifying how this power manifests itself on the street, in hopes of illuminating the power dynamic that enables instances of misconduct to occur. The works of Michel Foucault, Frantz Fanon, and Louis Althusser are deployed as the theoretical frameworks through which police power is analyzed. The Foucauldian perspective presents police power as a function of juridico-scientific disciplinary forces in society. This analysis is supplemented with an examination of police power as a post-colonial phenomenon, drawing on Fanon's work as a framework through which discriminatory police practices are examined. Finally, police power is examined within the context of capitalist production, and the repressive and ideological state apparatuses, as theorized by Althusser, to identify the class dimension that influences policing in North America.

This thesis analyzes the social significance of the integration of the home into computer networks. The social significance of home networking is grasped when these systems are understood in their relationship to emerging forms of electronic social control. The thesis establishes this connection through an analysis of structural trends in the videotex industry which demonstrates the value to the corporate sector of cybernetic information generated by interactive systems. The North American tradition of privacy policy is reviewed and demonstrated as inadequate for the protection of personal privacy in home networking. It is further shown that privacy policy does not represent an adequate theorization of social control in computer networking, since it does not account for practices of aggregate social control, which have been termed in the thesis "social management," so vital to the cybernetic economy of late capitalism. Finally, the thesis argues that current conceptual frameworks and policy mechanisms cannot assure the socially beneficial development of home networking, given the tendency towards the integration of such systems into structures of social control.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--McMaster University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available via World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-306). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [182]-190).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Ted Chiricos, Florida State University, School of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 21, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.