Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Abstract
The social construction of certain areas in medicine has enabled physicians to affect many individuals, which in the past, would not interact with the medical profession. In the area of mental health, increasing medical technology has enabled identification of Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, this diagnosis has to be made post-mortem. To compensate, the medical profession applies the label of “dementia” to address “abnormal” cognitive decline. How individuals adjust to the label of dementia and the effects of social structure in the adjustment process is missing in the sociological literature. In order to understand the illness experience and its effects on society a mixed methods approach is necessary. How the dementia experience affects individuals must be determined from the individuals themselves. When people are encouraged to report their feelings about instances in their lives, valuable information can be collected and analyzed. The illness experience of dementia needs to be added to the sociological agenda. Establishing social patterns within the dementia experience can compliment the existing caregiver literature to provide a comprehensive view of dementia’s effects on society. This paper will show how application of the stress paradigm is a valuable tool to study this phenomenon.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper uses a CAII survey experiment with nationally representative data to examine the degree to which thinking systematically about various choice criteria improves vote quality, defined as the correspondence between voter value priorities and candidate preference, or whether the induced "analysis paralysis" from such an exercise overwhelms the choice process. Conducted during the 2004 campaign season, these data provide support for both propositions -- particularly among sophisticated voters.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Content analyses have examined the frequency and context of romantic conflicts on television. Drawing on this work, this paper explores the relations between television viewing and emerging adults’ use of control in romantic relationships. Findings showed small, marginally significant associations between relational control and (a) viewing television featuring interpersonal conflict and (b) reality television viewing. Soap opera viewing was significantly related to relational control. These relations were moderated by participants’ perceived realism of television content.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: This paper examines the electoral impact of thinking carefully and systematically about a wide and divergent range of choice criteria (value priorities, candidate trait preferences, issue orientations) before casting a vote for president. Using a nationally representative sample of voters prior to the 2004 election, I used Computer Assisted Internet Interviewing techniques to randomly assign one group of voters to a decisionmaking tool designed to force them to consider these various criteria and compare their stated preferences to another group who were asked their preferences before being exposed to the tool. Fitting with theories drawn from extant social psychology research, I found that voters forced to systematically process were (a) less sure of their vote preferences, (b) less likely to report an intention to turnout, (c) less likely to support George W. Bush, and (d) more likely (though only slightly) to express candidate preferences that were consistent with their stated value priorities and preferences. These findings suggest that encouraging greater cognitive deliberation among the electorate has mixed outcomed from the perspective of normative democratic theory.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The buying and selling of goods has
long been a social context in which trust is essential. As Arrow (1972)
notes, “Virtually every commercial transaction has within itself an
element of trust, certainly any transaction conducted over a period of
time.” And yet to date the literature on cultivating trust in customers
and the social psychological literature on trust as it relates to
political and social capital have seldom crossed paths. In this study I
bridge that gap by discussing the implications of supra-local commerce
via internet purchases for generalized social trust.
The widely accepted argument about why political systems benefit from
social trust is fundamentally an economic one: Economies will perform
more efficiently when individuals and entrepreneurs do not have to
expend time and resources protecting themselves from one another.
According to this line of thought, high levels of trust are valued in
citizens because trust leads to more efficient economic behavior, and
thus a higher standard of living. Given that most data substantiating
links between economic performance and trust have been at the aggregate
level, and most research designs in this area have been observational,
evidence confirming the proposed direction and mechanism for this
causal relationship has been in short supply. In this study drawing on
experimental and survey data, I argue that there is another, largely
unexplored, explanation for why social trust and strong economic
performance tend to go together. The supra-local economic transactions
that characterize well developed economies are not just the consequence
of trusting populations; they also serve to create higher levels of
social trust. If consumers perceive relatively high levels of risk when
engaging in transactions with impersonal others, yet those interactions
are typically successful, then generalized social trust is increased as
a result. In this study I examine the relationships between social
trust, perceived risk and consumer behavior. To what extent do
successful commercial transactions encourage greater trust in people
that one does not know personally? Conversely, to what extent does
one’s generalized trust in people influence purchasing behavior? Do
successful internet transactions have a greater influence on
perceptions of the trustworthiness of others than similar transactions
with brick and mortar stores or companies? The results of these studies
have implications for a revised theory of the relationships between
generalized social trust, alienation, and supra-local economic
transactions.