Search

Supporting a "structural relational" view of small business success, data from 423 small business owners in Iowa suggest that links between owner characteristics, social relational processes, business structure, and success operate differently depending on urban-rural location and owner sex. Female owners had more professional training than males, but training related to success only under certain conditions. (Contains 42 references.) (SV)

Examines the victim-blaming tendency toward people with AIDS among college students in relation to gender, fraternity-sorority affiliation, classification (freshman versus others), religion (Catholic versus others), and academic major (business college versus others). Suggests that attitudes toward gay men and lesbians must change for attitudes toward people with AIDS to change. (CMK)

Recommends the classroom use of hypermedia. Observes that hypermedia allow instructors to interrupt lessons for critical evaluation, discussion, and prompt correction of mistakes. Suggests that using hypermedia in class is cheaper than setting up computer laboratories. (DK)

Until now, no general scales have been available for measuring victim or society blaming. This constraint has been an impediment to policymaking with regard to those who are affected by social problems. Four scales were constructed: stable victim-blaming scale, unstable victim-blaming scale, stable society-blaming scale, and unstable society-blaming scale. Based on the results of the preliminary exploratory factor analysis and the reliability coefficients, the unstable society-blaming scale was deleted from further analysis. Then, a confirmatory factor analysis using the LISREL 7 program was conducted to evaluate the parameter estimates of the scale items and examine the construct validity of the 3 scales. The scales were judged to have construct validity with satisfactory reliability.

Scales were developed to measure the tendencies to blame AIDS victims or the society in which victims live. Data from a sample of 874 students were used to examine the construct validity and reliability of the scales. The list-wise deletion reduced the sample size to the usable sample size of 824. The data showed satisfactory validity and reliability of the scales so they may be used to study attitudes toward those who are suffering from AIDS and related problems.

A 'reverse' Social Distance Scale was created by modifying Bogardus's Social Distance Scale, to measure minority groups' perceptions of the social distance established by the majority group between itself and minority groups. The Reverse Social Distance Scale (Guttman's coefficient of reproduciblity = 0.99) differentiated between the African American students and the other two groups of minority students in the present sample - Hispanic students and Others - but did not differentiate between the latter two groups. The relationships between the participants' choices of self-identification terms and their scores on the Reverse Social Distance Scale were varied., The social distance between a minority group and the majority group - the most powerful group, but not necessarily the largest - has been postulated by the present authors to [...]

Summarizes a study of the attitudes of local government officials toward higher levels of government with regard to natural resources management. Data are intended to provide insight into what types of policy makers are likely to depend on state and federal government. (Author/WB)

Attempts to identify the master stigma, that characteristic of an individual that he believes to have the strongest negative effects on interactions with others, as perceived by students from four developing nations. Racial background was the master stigma only for the Nigerian students and being a foreigner was for the Iranian, Taiwanese, and Venezuelan students. (GG)

Three views of prestige of home countries as perceived by students from Iran, Nigeria, Taiwan, and Venezuela were examined in relation to the students' perceptions of their academic performance, their intelligence, and their physical appearance. The three views of a country's prestige were: perceptions of views held by friends in their home countries (one set of significant others); perceptions of views held by students in the United States (another set of significant others); and the perceptions of the students themselves. Overall, the prestige ratings were most strongly correlated with the students' own physical appearance ratings and then with their intelligence ratings. Variations of correlations by view and by country were also found. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Three views of self-concept as perceived by students (N = 1897) from developing nations at selected U.S. universities were examined with regard to their academic performance, their intelligence, and their physical appearance: that held by friends in their home countries as perceived by the students (one set of significant others); that held by U.S. students as perceived by the Ss (another set of significant others); and that held by the Ss themselves. In all three aspects of self, the Ss perceived the image of themselves held by friends in their home countries as highest, that held by U.S. students as lowest, and that held by themselves ranking between the two. Additional variations in their perception of the self-concept were found in terms of their student classification, sponsorship, sex, and country of origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BSTRACT: The effectiveness of water conservation policies on reduction of water consumption was evaluated by use of a multiple regression predictive model. Data were obtained from eight Iowa communities, with regard to water consumption and water conservation policies adopted during the drought of 1977. The proposed model, which takes precipitation, temperature, month effects, and uniqueness of communities into account, is considered superior to the use of simple percent changes in evaluating the significance of reduction in water consumption due to conservation efforts. Among the variety of policies reviewed, mandatory policies with per capita restrictions were found to be most effective. However, voluntary conservation policies also resulted in significant reduction in some communities located in close proximity to other communities with severer water shortages. High credibility of local governments as to water shortage information was singled out as the most important factor in successful conservation by water resource policymakers of these communities. Use of the proposed predictive model for water consumption was demonstrated. Recommendations regarding future water conservation were made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]