Life News (Social & Behavioral Sciences)

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A new website that measures candidate preferences shows a lack of association between people's conscious and unconscious preference for presidential candidates.

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During the 1984 presidential campaign, correspondent Lesley Stahl produced a 5-min. story for CBS News criticizing Reagan for deceptive image-making, but Stahl's analysis of Reagan was congruent with the positive images that illustrated the segment, says a Dickinson College political scientist.

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Politics as theater was a topic of discussion among political pundits, even before Ronald Reagan made his first run; now, an Agnes Scott College professor is taking a close look at campaigning as theater.

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Seventy percent of socially phobic children who engage in a new behavioral treatment program improve to the extent that they are similar to children who have never had the disorder, shows a University of Maryland study.

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A University of Arkansas professor examines the death penalty's form and function and finds it grounded in the ritual of "terror management" instead of rationality (University of California-Davis Law Review).

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A Rhodes College professor of international studies is one of America's leading scholars on U.S.-Taiwan-China relations and can provide analysis of a number of policy issues.

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Effective cooperation among police, prosecutors and professionals in child protective services, not courtroom testimony, may be the key to convicting child molesters, say University of Michigan and Western Michigan University researchers (Child Abuse & Neglect: The International Journal).

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An intelligence test designed to assess an infant's cognitive development has been authored by two Central Michigan University psychologists.

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Fear of Intimacy, a new book by Joyce Catlett and Dr. Lisa Firestone, addresses how psychological defenses formed in childhood can act as a barrier to closeness in adulthood.

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Hindsight bias can predispose a jury in a medical malpractice suit to a guilty verdict, but perhaps more troubling is the consequences it poses for the education of physicians and medical students, says an Ohio University professor of psychology.

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By improving and enforcing basic policy and practices of law enforcement agencies, approximately 20 percent more police homicide investigations can culminate in arrests, concludes a University of Maryland study.

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Programming a videocassette recorder or using a new computer can be frustrating, but when machines don't work, who do people blame? (Perceptual and Motor Skills, 2000).

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Research funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse explores how craving tobacco also increases the urge to use illict drugs if one already abuses drugs (Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2-00).

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1- A McCain win in S.C. could be the end of Bush; 2- Schools need more counselors and less cops and metal detectors; 3- Why is 2000 a leap year but 1800 and 1900 weren't? and why did Sept. 1752 have only 19 days?

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A study of 616 middle-aged men from eastern Finland that showed that men who suffered from feelings of high hopelessness were more likely to develop hypertension than men who did not suffer as much from feelings of hopelessness is reported by University of Michigan researchers in Hypertension.

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When policies are made to establish or fund services for people with disabilities, people with disabilities will have real, not token, control in the decision-making process; that is the vision of a University of Missouri researcher.

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Welfare reform has been successful in Georgia, according to a new study by researchers in the School of Social Work at the University of Georgia, which focussed on those still receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.

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Among the professors of political science at Swarthmore College are some of the nation's leading experts on national politics.

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Racial prejudice, not conservatism, is the major factor underlying white opposition to affirmative action, according to a study from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research in the current issue of Social Problems.

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A University of Illinois at Chicago nurse will lead an AIDS prevention and home-based health care program in Swaziland, under an $860,000 grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb and Cabrini Missionary foundations.

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1- Romancing a man -- think golf balls; 2. Bush could topple McCain in S.C.; 3- Forum on Russia after Yeltsin, Feb. 18.

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American society's negative attitudes toward mental illness help perpetuate violent behavior, says a Gustavus Adolphus College professor.

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1- Television's impact on elections, politics; 2- Homework should be abolished; 3- Are chance and luck the same? 4- Rhythm and blues, race relations.

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Historian Howard Zinn's lecture, "Bringing Democracy Alive," in the Vassar College Chapel is the keynote address for Equal Rights Awareness Week 2000 at Vassar.

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When asked if they would support the idea of developing more green space in their communities, people typically embrace the idea, according to a University of Illinois professor of urban and regional planning (Journal of the American Planning Association, recent issue).

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In child-adoption laws, a compromise crafted by Illinois to deal with court challenges by biological fathers has contributed to a "legal limbo" where the child loses, a UI law professor says (Arizona Law Review).

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The net worth of the average American household rose by 15 percent in the last 10 years, but the net worth of households headed by those under the age of 60 declined, while that of households headed by those age 60 and older increased.

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Sexuality is a common undercurrent that shapes a host of social phenomena such as white flight to the suburbs and ethnic and nationalist conflicts around the world, says a University of Kansas professor of sociology who is writing a book on "forbidden frontiers."

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John McCain's presidential chances would improve considerably if he abandoned hopes for the Republican nomination and ran as an Independent -- presumably on the Reform Party ticket, says a Smith College political scientist.

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Living together has gone from being a relatively rare situation to nearly the norm in the U.S., according to a University of Michigan researcher (Annual Review of Sociology, 2000).

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Questions and concerns regarding the effectiveness of "reparative" therapy -- a term used to describe treatment attempts to change a person from a homosexual or bisexual orientation to a heterosexual orientation -- are again being raised.

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Researchers at the Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories have come up with a new approach to studying how and why engineered systems fail due to the actions or inaction of humans.

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Given a chance to exact revenge, 4 out of 5 people will turn the other cheek, but beware the 1 out of 5 who don't -- they want to do more than just settle the score.

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Hindsight may be 20/20, but an Arkansas psychologist says you should give it the deep 6; looking back can cost you mental health and stability.

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Half of the baby boomers, who are now approaching the Medicare years, have been divorced, and researchers at Johns Hopkins have found that elderly people with divorce in their lives will get less care from their children than people who do not (Demography, 1999).

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Study results point to individually tailored doses of medicine together with behavior therapy as the most effective treatment for children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (Archives of General Psychiatry, 12-99).

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The winners of the 2000 presidential primaries may be those who are best at using character as a political resource, according to the author of a book on presidential leadership.

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The impact of tourism on the cultures of the American Southwest will be the focus of a symposium at Southern Methodist University, March 24-25.

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Recent cases challenging university affirmative action policies mean that many institutions should rethink both the reasons for such programs and how they implement them, contends a University of Arkansas law professor (California Law Review).

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Research suggests that people have virtually no memory for the direction of objects that rotate (Journal of Experimental Psychology, 2-00).

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1- Super bowl ads are a bargain; 2- Psychological effects of snow; 3- What the QBs need to do to win; 4- New law could lead to citizenship for Elian Gonzalez.

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Members of Congress who are most successful in getting their bills passed into law receive more campaign contributions from political action committees, a study at Ohio State has found (current Legislative Studies Quarterly).

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Today's college students may have less interest in political matters than their counterparts of the 1960s and 1970s, says a Ball State University study.

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Some of the nation's most prominent African-American political leaders and policy experts will speak at the "Black Political Issues Forum 2000" (2-4-00).

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The German government has given preliminary approval for establishing a $5.2 billion compensation fund for 1.24 million Holocaust-era slaves and forced laborers.

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1- Outdoor exercise can beat the winter blues but dress for the part; 2- While Bush and Gore play it safe, Bradley and McCain continue to impress; 3- Warning against use of anti-drug messages in media.

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The tattoo serves an important role as a medium for emotional healing and survival, according to a Lawrence University researcher.

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ABCLE is a state-wide coalition of health-care professionals, educators, and policymakers who will identify problems, make recommendations, and build public support for ways to improve care of the dying.

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Consider an oral history in tracing family tree, says the UAB historian who directs the oral history project at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute.

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An Arkansas historian's new book rips away the victim's veil from Austria to reveal a people who welcomed Hitler's troops and acclaimed his anti-Semitic policies.