The article, The Middle Ages: Change in Women’s Personalities and Social Roles examines women’s midlife personality development and its relationship to career and family commitments. Prior research suggests that the main focus on midlife personality development is generativity and that social roles influence its start and expression. The study examines development psychologist, Erik Erikson’s concepts of identity, generativity, and intimacy. This study is a longitudinal analysis from 1960 to 2005 of 100 women from Radcliffe College. General linear modeling and chi square analysis was used to evaluate responses from a  questionnaire and open ended questions. The questions included: if you could do anything you wished in the next ten years, what would you do? Looking back over the last nine years what do you consider major high points or the most satisfying activities? Personal documents including letters, diaries, and autobiographical writings were also examined.

When interviewees brought up  career and personal aspects, identity was coded. Identity remained high at the start of middle age and then declined by late middle age. Intimacy decreased for middle age, intimacy was coded when interviewees brought up relationships. Generativity, meaning creating a legacy and guiding the next generation increased from early to late midlife. Women committed to families with no career were more concerned with generativity at age 43 as opposed to women with career and no family.

The study concluded that career women expressed more themes of intimacy and generosity. Family women expressed higher levels of generativity compared to intimacy and identity. Generativity increases during women’s midlife from 43 to 62. Social role experiences are related to personality during this period.

Psychology of Women Quarterly, 34 (2010), 75 – 84. Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Printed in the USA.

Copyright 2010 Division 35, American Psychological Association. 0361-6843/10

This article, found in Game Studies, an international journal of video game research, describes a psychological study based on observations of using oneself as an avatar in the Sims games. The Sims is a computer game with various different modifications (Sims, Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims Pets, etc) that allows the player to create a person and control their lives. The intended object of the game is to build your Sim a nice house, have them succeed in their dream job, maybe get married, have a family, and then eventually die. This article explores the tendency for players to project themselves into their created avatars.

This study was conducted while observing 30 undergraduate students’ behavior while playing Sims 2. Out of this study, two different hypotheses were created. The first hypothesis was that “personality characteristics will relate to gameplay”. For example, if a player is a more organized person, their natural tendency for efficiency will be reflected in the game, or perhaps players who are extroverted will make their Sims more social. The second hypothesis predicted that players pass their personal values to their Sims. As an example, a player who values wealth will make their Sim achieve a high paying job. These theories are based off of famous self-projecting tests, such as the ink-blot Rorschach test.

The results of the study produced many different correlations in several different tables and graphs found in the article. There were many real-life/video game social correlations found depending on the players. For example, women players were more likely to make their Sim have a baby. Players with married parents in real life were more likely to keep their Sim families together than players with single parent/divorced households. This, along with many other observations, prove that players project their values and experiences on their avatars.

For me personally, I definitely relate to this article. When I play the Sims, I sometimes just create myself and pick personality traits that I apply to myself. I can make a dream life and a dream house, and it can feel good to achieve something, even if it is fake.

Source: http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/griebel

In “’Scared Straight’ and Other Juvenile Awareness Programs for Preventing Juvenile Delinquency” by Anthony Petrosino, Carolyn Turpin, and John Buehler they aimed to answer whether Scared Straight programs and other juvenile awareness programs aimed at preventing delinquency has an influence in the at-risk youths’ participation in delinquent activity after attendance of the program. In total Petrosino, Turpin, and Buehler used nine randomly picked scared straight programs and collected data on the post program offending rates of the “scared straight” participants. In the end they found that “Scared Straight” programs put at-risk youth at a much higher chance, about 28% higher, of becoming a delinquent compared to the no treatment control group.

This research uses a nine Scared Straight programs and a control group. The randomly chosen Scared Straight programs included varying facets of their programs, often including a tour, an inmate presentation, and perhaps a day as a prisoner. The researchers relied on self-reports as to whether they have become delinquent or not after the program. This research is very interesting and is laid out very well. It is astounding that a program aimed at scaring at-risk youth into being law-abiding citizens can have such negative outcomes. This research is used as evidence by The Justice Department as to why they do not support Scared Straight programs for at-risk youth.

In a study done by Richard A. Scribner, David P. MacKinnon, and James H. Dwyer, researchers sought to find to what extent alcohol outlets in a community influence assaultive violence. An ecologic analysis of the 74 larger cities in Los Angeles County was performed for the year 1990. This method was used in order to determine whether there was a correlation between alcohol outlet density and assaultive violence rates in terms of geography.

According to the study, sociodemographic factors were responsible for the seventy-percent variance in the rate of assaultive violence when a multiple regression model was used. When the alcohol-outlet density was included in the in the model, the graph then showed a positive correlation. The results of the study revealed that for every alcohol-outlet, 3.4 assaultive violence offenses occurred. These results were based off of the general data gathered from Los Angeles County in 1990 with 50,000 residents, 100 alcohol-outlets, and 570 offenses per year.

Scribner, MacKinnon, and Dwyer concluded that a “higher levels of alcohol-outlet density are geographically associated with higher rates of assaultive violence.” This study also concluded that factors such as unemployment, income, race/ethnicity, house-hold size, and city-size were “independent” of the study. This would require further research to determine every one of these factors. However, because all of these factors vary per family and geographic location, it would be extremely difficult to make conclusions based off of one population. Further researching this data could potentially draw conclusions with all of these factors only for Los Angeles County and a generalized idea of another area.

Scribner, Richard A., MD, MPH, David P. MacKinnon, PhD, and James H. Dwyer, PhD. “The Risk of Assaultive Violence And Alcohol Availability In Los Angeles County.” <i>American Journal of Public Hea;th</i> 85.3 (1995): 335-40. Rpt. in N.p.: n.p., n.d. 335-40. Web. 14 Feb. 2016. &lt;http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.85.3.335&gt;.

“The Future of Football.” By William Beaver

http://0-search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/sociology/docview/1366780080/895EAB578B0648E5PQ/3?accountid=14729

This article discussed the over view of football and were it has came from and were it has started. In the article it talked about the rise of youth sports and how back in the day they did not have youth sports for football 9th grade junior varsity was the youngest that they had organized football for. For instance in the 1960’s they had 3,000 teams playing pop warner youth football and today we have over 250,000 players playing youth football. This ties into the head injuries that the article also discussed. They touched upon the idea of men getting their bell rang and getting a concussion and how some men report their injuries but there are those few that do not and use the term shake it off. They discussed why some people do not report their injuries is because they do not want to loose the credability of being masculine or are trying to prove their worth or their toughness to the team. They interviewed people currently in the NFL about their head injuries and they also looked at former deceased players brains to figure out if the head injuries in football take a toll one their brains after playing. They came out with the conclussion of players having C.T.E which is a diseased that causes depression, memory loss, dementia, and lack of impulse control. They have found this disease in multiple retired boxers and in numerous football players. They talked about the future of football and how the only way its gonna keep striving is if young men keep playing the game and if parents let them play the game.

This article has really opened up my eyes to actually watching my own health while playing the game of football. I have been one of those player that has got my bell rung and not said anything about it due to the always be tough and do not show fear. I did not know there was an actual disease for this type of thing but now that i know i will be more cautious. I know the NFL and College have placed rules on not being able to use head to head contact and no hitting above the shoulders. I think that those rules are very vital  player health concerns now and no matter what if you take a hit to the head you should always tell because its only going to hurt you in the long run.

This past year, Germany has been in the media spotlight both in America and Europe with its “open door” policy for accepting refugees fleeing conflict in the Middle East. Christian communities such as Protestants and Catholics have been supporting the German chancellor Angela Merkel in her decision to make Germany an accepting country for refugees. However, with recent reports of sexual assault and over-crowding of German space, religious leaders are admitting that Germany should set limits on migrant flows.

Churches and monasteries are amongst the many organizations that have been taking in and aiding this refugee crisis. In the beginning, while others opposed the refugee influx, and demanded borders to be closed, religious groups went as far to greet the incoming refugees at train stations as they arrived from their long journeys. Although these churches have opened up their spaces, and feel that it is their religious duty to take in these refugees, they acknowledge that Germany cannot be held responsible for all of the refugees in Europe. Even Angela Merkel, a Lutheran, feels that it is necessary to start imposing limits on who enters the country. Not only are refuges going to face restrictions, but also economic migrants who are not seeking asylum or facing persecution will not be welcoming into Germany.

At first, religious groups hesitated to mention anything about the restrictions on refugees, especially during the holiday season. Not until a reported 600 women filed criminal complaints about the refugee men did church groups take notice. After these incidents of sexual harassment, majority of German citizens thought that Germany needed to reduce the number of refugees. The German people are now claiming that they not only need to protect the human rights of refugees, but also the human rights of their women citizens.

Citation:

Heneghen, Tom. “German Churches Tone down Refugee Welcome as Problems Mount.” Religion News Service. Religion News Service, 12 Feb. 2016. Web. 13 Feb. 2016.

Tibbetts, J. H. (2015). Managing marine plastic pollution: Policy initiatives to address wayward waste. Environmental Health Perspectives (Online), 123(4) doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1289/ehp.123-A90

http://0search.proquest.com.books.redlands.edu/pqrl/docview/1668244114/1DD50B8007864564PQ/1?accountid=14729

John Tibbetts journal article, “Managing marine plastic pollution: Policy initiatives to address wayward waste,” expresses the need to bring about change for cleaner beaches and oceans.  The topic of this article is how marine plastic is a major problem all over the world.  The research question was how are different places around the world dealing with and attempting to fix the high amount of pollutants.  This project was mostly based on observational data with some correlation data.  The first part of the article explains where marine plastic pollution comes from and how it gets into the ocean.  Tibbetts’ data gathering method was through interviews with NOAA’s Marine Debris Program and the Ocean Conservancy, as well as collecting data through previous detached observations and public/private records of other countries.  The US is the twentieth country of coastal nations that produce the most plastic waste from land.  The countries with poor waste management with rising populations are the top leaders.  Those countries are China, Philippines, and Indonesia.  There is a correlation with marine debris and population density of the coastlines.  The higher the coastal population, the more marine debris is found off the coasts. However, Tibbetts discovered through public economic records and interviews from various countries and organizations that reducing plastic could cause a huge market failure in the economy. One of the solutions that Tibbetts found helpful was the principle of extended producer responsibility that some European countries use.  This promotes companies to reuse and recycle which will in turn cut down on marine pollution.  To bring all of his data into final analysis, he compared the amount of debris from various countries and compared that to what they are doing to cut back on the pollution.  His final section of his article deals with some of the solutions that could help clean the oceans and keep up the economy.  I believe that he had a large amount of data, and he described it all well.  I never thought that cleaning marine trash correlated with potential market failure.  I think that Tibbetts should have done more research on ‘greener’ companies that are causing less of an impact on the ocean, and how other companies can follow in their footsteps.

“The Waitressing Life: The Honor of a Second-Class Profession” by Katie Van Syckle, is an article written by a waitress, discussing some of the things she encounters on a daily basis. These range from: how to talk to a customer, why might a restaurant not be running smooth, to how to wait in a high end restaurant versus a more casual eatery. This article was fairly short, so it only gave a brief look into the restaurant culture, however gave me more ideas as to what I might want a sub-topic to be in my research on restaurant culture.
If I choose this to be what I create a research project on for a class, I think I am settling with the server aspect of the restaurant. Before I was also curious about the back of the house and the customers and their role in the culture of restaurants, but I think I more want to study waitresses and the role they play.
This article made me think about asking the question, can servers live above poverty and comfortably with only this one job? She stated that often she receives this question, “So what do you do, other than, you know, waitressing?” This is a common question asked of servers, many believe that they either have another job, just trying to pay their selves through school, or that this is just a short stop onto bigger and better things. I as a server often hear this as well, luckily I go to school, and use that as a way to make sure the conversation doesn’t turn awkward if I wasn’t doing anything else with my life.
But, is waitressing really all that bad? Why do so many people look down on waitressing? And could someone truly live comfortably off of just working as a waitress their whole life? This is one thing I would like to research, what would be their necessary hours and tips made during a week, and how would it differ from state to state? This research topic would require a lot of background information and I would most likely need government information for each of the state’s laws for waitressing as well as finding out averages of how much a waitress makes versus how much it costs to live in each state.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2011/08/the-waitressing-life-the-honor-of-a-second-class-profession/244176/

“Early Disparities in Mathematics Gains Among Poor and Non-Poor Children: Examining the Role of Behavioral Engagement in Learning” by Keith Robinson, seeks a correlation between social class and mathematical performance amongst a sample of kindergarteners. The relationship between “poverty status, mathematics achievement gains, and behavioral engagement in learning” was closely examined through multilevel modeling. According to the article, research shows the students belonging to families in poverty tend to “score lower than non-poor students on standardized tests in mathematics at school entry.” Data was collected through a sample of 11,680 “poor, low-income, and non-poor” kindergarteners from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohert of 1998-1999 (ECLS-K).

In analyzing the data, BE was essential in the explanation linking performance and poverty. In this study, BE is explained to be the “personal actions” of the kindergartens that demonstrate their “approaches to classroom learning.” The data gathered suggests that encouraging “classroom behavioral engagement” in impoverished students has the potential to balance disparities in mathematics achievement. These results were summarized through descriptive statistics and multi-level analysis. The descriptive analysis highlighted the means and standard deviations of students’ performance through descriptive variables such as identified race, parents’ level of education, and average age. The multilevel analysis compares hypotheses and their actual outcomes.

In analyzing the results, the study’s form of data gathering suggests unreliable results. Evaluations given by teachers of the students, suggest bias. Because their evaluations were thought to have been given with a consideration of the students’ poverty status, race, and performance, the study is unreliable.

Robinson, Keith. “Early Disparities in Mathematics Gains Among Poor and Non-Poor Children: Examining the Role of Behavioral Engagement in Learning.” The Elementary School Journal 114.1 (September 2013): 22-47. Print.

Violent video games have been a scapegoat used by parents to explain away adolescent violence since the early 90’s. However, in recent studies, this popular opinion has begun to break down.

In a recent study by Havard Medical School in 2010 a poll was collected to track video game usage. A staggering 97% of teenage subjects said they played video games. However, 75% of those said they preferred puzzle games with little to no violence, while 66% played violent video games. And while the most vocal parents generally preach the need to “protect” their children from the violent influence of video games, 62% of these teens’ parents said the content does not affect their child one way or the other. The article goes on to explain that any studies that claim a correlation between violence in video games and real world violence is unfounded and based in simple observation rather than cause and effect.

This article supported my own theory from my own research already; if video games truly caused people, primarily adolescents, to be more violent, the billions of people who have purchased this game would have made headlines by now.

Source