Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: During their research on museum attendance, Bourdieu and Darbel (1966) established that the more educated people were, the more they visited museums. This correlation has since been corroborated a number of times and has never been called into question (Ambrose and Paine, 1993; Edson and Dean, 1994). As pointed out by Donnat (1999, 2003, 2004), the result of cultural democratization appears limited after decades of public cultural action. In order to better understand the motivations of art museum visitors, we analysed the social representation of art museums for attenders, non-attenders and art museum managers. We held eight discussion groups: one with managers from an art museum, two with individuals who hadn’t visited a museum during the last three years, two with individuals who had visited an art museum in the last year and three with individuals who had joined the Friends of The Museum in a specific institution. The interview scheme for the discussion groups included questions on the museum's mission, representation and rate of attendance as well as on advertising, press relations, obstacles to museum visits, accessibility and the democratization of culture. We found that the distinction that once existed between visitors and non-visitors now also exists inside the walls of museums, from now on a bit more accessible. We hence suggest that we may be witnessing a displacement and redefinition of the forms of exclusion. Important implications for communication and marketing practice and theory are discussed.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Traditionally, comparing to men in the U.S., women are considered disadvantaged in college attendance. However, since the 1980s, women have made substantial progress in nearly all realms of higher education. Recent government report announced that women had surpassed men in college entrance and completion since mid 1980s. Although educators, policy makers and the media have been showing increasing interest in women’s achievements, there has been insufficient research on the female-leading phenomenon in education. This research uses the Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health dataset, which includes a nationally stratified probability sampling of U.S. high school students, to analyze the female out-performance in college attendance. Logistic regressions and decomposition analysis indicate that among the variables that are significantly correlated with college attendance, students’ self-reported grade point averages explain a major proportion of the female-leading gender gap in college attendance (13%-21%), while students’ devotion to school-work explains 2%-4% and parents’ aspirations explain 2-4%. In other words, female high school students in general have higher GPAs, are more devoted to schoolwork, and receive higher aspirations from their parents than males; thus, they are more likely to go to college compared to males.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: New interest in the measurement of religiousness has been spurred by the recent growth of research in religion and health. However, measurement efforts have been dominated by attention to subjective, individualized facets of religiousness such as spirituality, beliefs, and attitudes, and little attention has been paid to congregate aspects beyond the single item measuring attendance at services. We develop and test measures for religious practices and feelings occurring during regular congregational worship services. Respondents (N=576) were religiously-diverse community-dwelling adults interviewed prior to cardiac surgery. Exploratory factor analysis of the new items with a pool of standard items yielded a readily interpretable solution involving seven correlated but separable factors and one index variable, with high levels of internal consistency. We describe religious affiliation and demographic differences in these indices. Attendance at religious services exposes individuals to multifaceted physical, emotional, social, and spiritual experiences that may promote physical health through multiple pathways.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: In this paper we examine the role of disfluencies (uh, um) and discourse markers (e.g., You know, I mean) in deceptive conversations. Twenty-nine dyads, comprised of a randomly assigned sender and a receiver, engaged in four topics of conversation. Senders deceived the receiver on half the topics and told the truth on the other half. The results revealed that disfluencies did not increase during deceptive communication. You know, which functions to increase mutuality and engagement between interlocutors, was used more by senders than by receivers. In contrast, I mean, which forewarns or distances the speaker from upcoming propositions, was used more during deception than during truth-telling. The results support a functional view of discourse markers, and the pattern of results is consistent with the Interpersonal Deception Theory, which argues that liars in conversation engage in strategic behaviors to 1) manage their image as a credible communicator and 2) control their presentation of information. The role of motivation was also examined, but the motivation manipulation failed to impact the production of disfluencies or discourse markers.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: The paper intends to take a critical look at the validity of the application or operaion of the Sharia Laws in the wold in general and Nigeria in particular. The Sharia Law ids supposed to be operated on the same basis as the Customary Laws system in Nigeria. Which means,that the Sharia Law like the Customary Laws to be valid must first of all be subjected to the test of validity under the ( repugnancy doctrine ).The repugnancy doctrine provides that for a rule of custom or Sharia Law as the case may be, to be valid it must be satisfied that it accords with the principle of natural justice, equityand good conscience and by extension the basic fundamental human rights provisions.The doctrine has until recently being the basis of ascertaining the validity of application of the Sharia Law in Nigeria as contained in the Penal Codes Act. However, under the present political dispensation the Islamic fundamentalists has through participation in politics and eventual clinching of political offices around the world and in Nigeria alike succeeded in introducing a new rigid, fundamentalist dimension to the application of the Sharia Law in Nigeria.The present position of the Sharia Law in Nigeria like in many other Sharia Legal system has continued to evince problems and attract wide criticisms on the basis of it's repugnancy nature, unconstitutionality,inhuman treatment and inconsistencies with the established international human rights standards.Finally, the paper will attempt to consider various arguments adduced in support of the Sharia Law by advocates such as writers,Islamic fundamentalists and scholars.In the same vein I intend to make critical suggestions and submission in respect of the seemingly negative trend of the operation of the Law in Nigeria and worldwide.