Journal of Social Issues

This article develops a conceptual framework for advancing theories of environmentally significant individual behavior and reports on the attempts of the author's research group and others to develop such a theory. It discusses definitions of environmentally significant behavior; classifies the behaviors and their causes; assesses theories of environmentalism, focusingespecially on value‐belief‐norm theory; evaluates the relationship between environmental concern and behavior; and summarizes evidence on the factors that determine environmentally significant behaviors and that can effectively alter them. The article concludes by presenting some major propositions supported by available research and some principles for guiding future research and informing the design of behavioral programs for environmental protection.

Bài báo này trình bày một lý thuyết về các khía cạnh có thể mang tính phổ quát trong nội dung của các giá trị con người. Mười loại giá trị được phân biệt theo các mục tiêu động lực. Lý thuyết này cũng đề xuất một cấu trúc các mối quan hệ giữa các loại giá trị, dựa trên những xung đột và sự tương thích xảy ra khi theo đuổi chúng. Cấu trúc này cho phép chúng ta liên hệ các hệ thống ưu tiên giá trị, như một toàn thể tích hợp, với các biến số khác. Một công cụ đo lường giá trị mới, dựa trên lý thuyết này và phù hợp cho nghiên cứu qua các nền văn hóa, được mô tả. Các bằng chứng liên quan đến việc đánh giá lý thuyết, từ 97 mẫu ở 44 quốc gia, được tóm tắt. Quan hệ của cách tiếp cận này với công trình của Rokeach về giá trị và các lý thuyết cũng như nghiên cứu khác về các khía cạnh giá trị được thảo luận. Việc áp dụng phương pháp này vào các vấn đề xã hội được minh họa trong các lĩnh vực chính trị và quan hệ giữa các nhóm.

Dunlap and Van Liere's New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) Scale, published in 1978, has become a widely used measure of proenvironmental orientation. This article develops a revised NEP Scale designed to improve upon the original one in several respects: (1) It taps a wider range of facets of an ecological worldview, (2) It offers a balanced set of pro‐ and anti‐NEP items, and (3) It avoids outmoded terminology. The new scale, termed the New Ecological Paradigm Scale, consists of 15 items. Results of a 1990 Washington State survey suggest that the items can be treated as an internally consistent summated ratingscale and also indicate a modest growth in pro‐NEP responses among Washington residents over the 14 years since the original study.

The discipline of psychology has much to contribute to our understanding of immigrants and the process of immigration. A framework is proposed that lays out two complementary domains of psychological research, both rooted in contextual factors, and both leading to policy and program development. The first (acculturation) stems from research in anthropology and is now a central part of cross‐ cultural psychology; the second (intergroup relations) stems from sociology and is now a core feature of social psychology. Both domains are concerned with two fundamental issues that face immigrants and the society of settlement: maintenance of group characteristics and contact between groups. The intersection of these issues creates an intercultural space, within which members of both groups develop their cultural boundaries and social relationships. A case is made for the benefits of integration as a strategy for immigrants and for multiculturalism as a policy for the larger society. The articles in this issue are then discussed in relation to these conceptual frameworks and empirical findings.

Following Langer (1992), this article reviews a series of experimental studies that demonstrate that individuals mindlessly apply social rules and expectations to computers. The first set of studies illustrates how individuals overuse human social categories, applying gender stereotypes to computers and ethnically identifying with computer agents. The second set demonstrates thatpeople exhibit overlearned social behaviors such as politeness and reciprocity toward computers. In the third set of studies, premature cognitive commitments are demonstrated: A specialist television set is perceived as providing better content than a generalist television set. A final series of studies demonstrates the depth of social responses with respect to computer ‘personality.’ Alternative explanations for these findings, such asanthropomorphism and intentional social responses, cannot explain the results. We conclude with an agenda for future research.

In an experiment, job description and applicants' attributes were examined as moderators of the backlash effect, the negative evaluation of agentic women for violating prescriptions of feminine niceness (Rudman, 1998). Rutgers University students made hiring decisions for a masculine or “feminized” managerial job. Applicants were presented as either agentic or androgynous. Replicating Rudman and Glick (1999), a feminized job description promoted hiring discrimination against an agentic female because she was perceived as insufficiently nice. Unique to the present research, this perception was related to participants' possession of an implicit (but not explicit) agency‐communality stereotype. By contrast, androgynous female applicants were not discriminated against. The findings suggest that the prescription for female niceness is an implicit belief that penalizes women unless they temper their agency with niceness.

Three daily diary studies were conducted to examine the incidence, nature, and impact of everyday sexism as reported by college women and men. Women experienced about one to two impactful sexist incidents per week, consisting of traditional gender role stereotypes and prejudice, demeaning and degrading comments and behaviors, and sexual objectification. These incidents affected women's psychological well‐being by decreasing their comfort, increasing their feelings of anger and depression, and decreasing their state self‐esteem. Although the experiences had similar effects on men's anger, depression, and state self‐esteem, men reported relatively fewer sexist incidents, suggesting less overall impact on men. The results provide evidence for the phenomena of everyday prejudice and enlighten our understanding of the experience of prejudice in interpersonal encounters from the perspective of the target.

This meta‐analytic review of 232 effect sizes showed that, across five categories, attitudes were more negative toward older than younger adults. Perceived age differences were largest for age stereotypes and smallest for evaluations. As predicted by social role theory (Eagly, 1987), effect sizes were reduced when detailed information was provided about the person being rated. The double standard of aging emerged for evaluations and behavior/behavioral intentions, but was reversed for the competence category. Perceptions depended on respondent age also. Results demonstrated both the multi‐dimensionality and the complexity of attitudes toward older adults (Hummert, 1999;Kite & Wagner, 2002).