Past research shows that people use local social comparison information more than general social comparison information when both are given (Zell & Alicke, 2010). The present studies examined the extent to which people seek local comparisons when they have already received general comparison information. In Study 1, students received their…

Assessing pragmatic knowledge in the instructed setting is seen as a complex but necessary task, which requires the design of appropriate research methodologies to examine pragmatic performance. This study discusses the use of two different research methodologies, namely those of Discourse Completion Tests/Tasks (DCTs) and verbal reports. Research…

With the aim of deepening understanding of young children's identity construction, the study explores small stories produced in a Finnish day care center context. Small stories are understood as identity-constituting social practices that occur and recur in day care settings. Taking ideas on narrative ethnography as starting point, research…

With the relaxation of the system of command in China's public schooling sector and the decline of ideological coercion in the post-Mao era, the Chinese state has reshaped its control over individual teachers. Much effort has been made to analyse the state's influence on teachers' academic activities at school, but little attention has been paid…

In view of the importance of taking student preferences into account while establishing educational practices, this study explores which faculty member characteristic fourth year students mostly prefer in a higher education institution. A faculty member characteristics form that includes ten characteristics was administered to 419 fourth year…

This study had three primary goals: to explore the relationship between narcissism, participant roles, and aggression; to examine the role of gender as a moderating influence on narcissism-based aggression; and to examine how these variables work together to influence aggressive outcomes in a sample of aggressive middle and high school students.…

Borrowing the critical lenses of social structure analysis to rearticulate the language of struggle, this article focuses on a new social group, migrant teachers in urban Chinese cities. Nevertheless, the formation of this new social body with all of their struggles can no longer be described or politicized as mere class or gender struggles as…

Sixty university students in three different participant roles--perpetrator, the target and the bystander--took part in a role-play incident of bullying. Participants were asked to describe (i) their perspective on the incident; (ii) their views of the target and the perpetrator and (iii) their solution to the problem. The findings suggest that…

Researchers have made significant progress in the investigation of how physiological measures can inform the study of adolescent peer functioning, including peer processes involving antisocial behavior, victimization, and peer social status. This paper highlights how the inclusion of physiological processes in research studies can address several…

The moderating effects of three specific conditions (status hierarchy, attractiveness hierarchy and sex ratio) on the link between status (popularity) and physical and relational aggression were examined in a large sample of adolescent boys ("N" = 1,665) and girls ("N" = 1,637) ("M" age = 13.60). In line with the…

Research on the ways that Russian college students in St. Petersburg view upward mobility shows that they typically want to achieve a higher social level than that of their parents, but that the ways in which success may be achieved differs according to family status and location of residence. (Contains 9 tables.)

Unemployment is a stark reality in today's economic climate, and many Americans report a fear of loss or decrease in social status as a result of unexpected unemployment. Despite vocational psychology's emphasis on work as a domain of life, very little exploration on how social class shifts impact workers has been conducted. One way to rectify the…

While much prior research has documented the negative associations between aggression, peer relationships, and social skills, other research has begun to examine whether forms of aggression also may be associated with prosocial skills and increased social status. However, few studies have examined these associations within diverse samples of…

This article contrasts a common conceptualization of the interview in applied linguistics, referred to as an "interview as research instrument" perspective, with an alternative, referred to as a "research interview as social practice" orientation. It illustrates implications of the two perspectives on interviews by contrasting…

Given educators' call to equalize educational opportunities, research is needed to illuminate promises and tensions in schools that resist negative labeling and sorting of nondominant youth. This article examines an urban high school that challenges traditional expectations for low-income, Latina/o students by engaging in "relabeling," a…