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The purpose of these studies was to examine the predictors of African American and European American adolescents’ attitudes toward affirmative action (Study 1) and school desegregation (Study 2) policies. It was hypothesized that support for both policies would be higher among adolescents who (1) attended more racially diverse classes, (2) held less prejudiced racial attitudes, (3) were more aware of historical and continuing racial inequality and discrimination, (4) described themselves as politically liberal, and (5) had engaged in more racial identity exploration. Participants in both studies included African American and European American adolescents ages 14 to 17 attending a high school in the Midwestern U.S. On the first day of data collection in both studies, adolescents completed assessments of the hypothesized predictor variables in the context of their high school social studies classrooms. On the second day of data collection, adolescents learned about either an affirmative action (Study 1) or a school desegregation (Study 2) policy that had been proposed for their school. Immediately following the policy presentations, adolescents reported their opinions of the policy in open-ended and forced-choice formats. Across studies, results indicated that African American and European American adolescents often held significantly different views of race, racism, and race-related policies. In general, African American adolescents were more aware of racial discrimination, endorsed more positive views about African Americans, and were more supportive of affirmative action and school desegregation policies than European American adolescents. Predictors of individuals’ views of race-related policies also varied by participant race. Among African American adolescents, higher awareness of interracial disparities and discrimination predicted stronger support of affirmative action and school desegregation. Among European American adolescents, in contrast, higher awareness of interracial disparities and discrimination predicted weaker support of affirmative action and school desegregation. More work is needed to examine the origins of differences between African American and European American adolescents’ understanding of, and beliefs about, race in society. / text

Increased smoking by attractive celebrities in films may be one source of influence on young people's increased smoking behavior. Theories of observational learning and cognitive scripting suggest that actions and perceptions may be influenced by viewing behaviors of attractive models and that observers may be more likely to imitate the observed behaviors when they are in specific contexts similar to the ones viewed. We investigated the effects of viewing characters either smoking or not smoking while having either positive or negative experiences on participants' perceptions of the characters, smoking urge, and intentions to smoke. We found that viewing characters smoking in negative scenes decreased likelihood of smoking for participants. Females were more likely than males to report a likelihood to smoke after viewing negative scenes, regardless of whether characters smoked. Female regular smokers were more likely to smoke in negative scenarios than in positive scenarios, and male occasional smokers and nonsmokers were more likely to smoke in positive scenarios than negative scenarios. / Department of Psychological Science

This study focused on influential factors affecting the career maturity attitudes of rural high school students with learning disabilities. A variety of variables were studied in each of the following areas: personal demographics, learning disability characteristics, ability/achievement levels, vocational preparation, and family characteristics. Variables from each of the clusters were entered into a variables selection program designed to depict the best combination of variables for use in a multiple regression equation. Through this process the twenty seven original variables were refined into a final combined pool of the eight most powerful variables which impacted upon the student's career maturity attitudes. The eight top contributors were entered into a multiple regression equation to determine their relative contributions to career maturity attitudes. Family appeared to play an important role in the career maturity attitudes of this sample as variables from the family cluster accounted for four of the eight variables selected for the final equation. Two of the those family variables were the family systems constructs of adaptability and cohesion, as measured by the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scale (FACES II). To gain further insight regarding the impact of family dynamics on the functioning of students with learning disabilities, six stepwise multiple regression equations were also run, one for each scale of the Career Maturity Inventory-Attitude Scale. The results suggested a small but negative relationship exists between perceived family adaptability and career maturity attitudes. Students who perceived their families as less adaptable, or less flexible, tended to demonstrate higher career maturity attitudes. Cohesion, however, demonstrated a positive and stronger relationship, showing closer bonds among family members to be an important element supporting maturity in the student's career attitudes. / Ph. D.