Investigating Ethnic Prejudices among Boys and Girls in a Therapeutic Community for Maladjusted Children and Modifying Some Prejudices

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between two measures of social attraction or status: namely, the recently developed Comfortable Interpersonal Distance (CID) Scale and a traditional measure of sociometric status. Both measures were recorded for a sample of emotionally disturbed, preadolescent boys who were in residential treatment. The results indicated that the two measures were very highly correlated. This finding means that the more a boy was liked by his cottage peers, the closer these peers indicated that they would like to sit next to the boy in a room. In other words, physical interpersonal distance seems to be nonverbal way of communicating liking for a person.

24 males and 24 females paired a self-figure with 8 stimulus figures using both the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale and the Felt-figure Free-placement Technique. The two measures were strongly related although the magnitude of relationship varied by stimulus figure and sex.

This work analyzes three so‐called anti‐racist films of the 1990s; American History X, A Time to Kill, and Higher Learning. Although each film discusses why racial hatred is problematic, a variety of underlying themes contradict the message of racial tolerance. Racial hatred is depicted as largely a group phenomenon perpetrated by individuals who elect or learn to hate. Each film portrays white characters as the heroes in the struggle for racial equality, while showing black characters in stereotypical fashion. Additionally, white supremacists are allowed verbally to present their position much more frequently and more passionately than are those who are already racially tolerant. This research analyzes these and other examples of white supremacist hegemony in these three films, and discusses implications for viewers.

To study the developmental aspects of psychological distance or personal space (2, 3, 4), the present authors developed a paper-and-pencil technique to assess the effects of differential stimuli on preferred interpersonal distance (1). Results indicated that persons of different races were always kept at greater distances than stimulus persons of the same race and that opposite-sex stimuli, in the adolescent population, were permitted to come closer than stimuli of the same sex. These sex differences, using the group-administered Comfortable Interpersonal Distance scale, were not unlike those previously reported (4). The present paper reports a replication using a different population of high school students. It was expected that findings would be repeated. Ss were 31 males and 31 females, aged 14 and 15 yr., from the student body of a suburban high school in the Southeast. The method was that described by Duke and Nowicki (1). Stimulus persons were black and white and male and female. Ss were required to indicate the distance at which they would feel comfortable with a stimulus person's closeness. Analysis of variance of distances indicated that, as in the first study, stimulus type significantly affected Ss' distance (P = 84.87, df = 3/180, p < ,001). When Neuman-Keuls' analyses were applied to these data, same sex-same race stimuli were held significantly farther away than stimulus persons of opposite sex but same race (M of 45.29 mm. and 15.87 mm. respectively); blacks of the opposite sex were held farther away than blacks of the same sex (M of 57.67 mm. and 46.43 mm. respectively, p = .05). These results replicate those observed in the original sample. Also, the interaction of sex of S by race was also significant (F = 5.21, df = 3/180, p = .01) . Males tended to keep aU stimuli farther away than females with the exception of persons of opposite sex-same race, i.e., white females. Again, this replicates an earlier result. The only finding which did not hold was direction of approach. In the initial sample, Ss preferred significantly greater distances when the stimulus persons approached from behind them and out of their field of vision. This effect did not occur for the present sample. Meisels and Guardo (4) have reported that this is a developmental phenomenon which begins to appear in adolescence. It may be that the variance of differences in developmental levels in the present sample washed out any consistent effects. Generally, the Comforrable Interpersonal Distance scale produced reasonable data from this sample. Study of different age groups may help determine whether the stability and validity of the measure makes it tenable for more extended use.

White people's attitudes toward racial desegregation of the public schools are assessed by using items replicated on 22 surveys from 1954 to 1978. Myrdal's statement that racial tolerance reflects adherence to a general principle (equal access to educational opportunity) is compared to Blumer's thesis that racial tolerance varies as a function of the perceived position of groups in a racially stratified system. Depending on the racial mixture implied, whites have different levels of tolerance of school desegregation; but regardless of the racial mix, regional differences in tolerance decrease over time. Where differences in tolerance exist among other demographic subgroups of whites, those differences remain relatively constant.

What can be done with the boy or girl who baffles parents, teachers, and friends? The answer would seem to be, Send him or her to the Children's Village. Describing itself as a national training school for the study, education, and development of the problem child, the Village, located at Dobbs Ferry, New York, displays an uncanny skill in finding more or less satisfactory solutions to these flesh and blood puzzles. Perhaps one of the reasons for its success is that, instead of trying merely to do something with the child, it tries to find out what can be done for the child. The present article deals with the treatments of boys only, although inclusion of girls would not change the general picture. The Managing Director of the Children's Village is Leon C. Faulkner, who is rounding out a decade of distinguished achievement in that position.

Low correlations among personal space measures have been used as evidence against their convergent validity. This argument is analyzed and found limited to personality trait assumptions. Convergent validity more generally concerns whether findings from one measure generalize to other measures. In the present study 91 subjects completed three measures (a disguised interaction distance, figure placement distances, and the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale) under different conditions of subject sex, sex of the other person, and acquaintance with the other person. The three measures showed an average intercorrelation ofr = .034, but consistent significant effects of acquaintance. These findings demonstrate that convergence of findings may be obtained even when measures are not highly correlated. The search for convergent validity should concentrate on the generalizability of findings rather than correlations among measures.

Lefcourt and Telegdi's concepts of congruence and incongruence between perceptual skills and expectancies were examined with respect to interpersonal behavior. Four groups of subjects were formed using a portable rod-and-frame device and Rotter's locus of control scale. As predicted the two congruent groups used significantly less interpersonal distance with each of four different social stimuli as measured by Duke and Nowicki's comfortable interpersonal distance scale. There was no difference between congruent and incongruent groups on a self-report measure of interpersonal needs.

The study was designed to intercorrelate three classes of personal space measures: a naturalistic measure in which persons did not know personal space was being measured; two role-played measures in which participants approached or were approached by a stimulus person; and the Comfortable Interpersonal Distance Scale (CID), a series of four paper and pencil measures of personal space. Results showed significant correlations within each class of measurement but negligible correlations between classes. The lack of overlap in assessment techniques calls into question the validity of measures other than those obtained naturalistically.

Changes in the international situation during the last decades have become the reason for new conflicts and aggravations at the national level. The 2015 European migrant crisis (Refugee crisis), 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine have become a catalyst for increase in hate crimes. In order to recognize the criminal offense as a hate crime in the sense of the Latvian regulatory framework, it is necessary to establish two criteria: (a) the composition of the criminal offence is included in the Criminal Law; (b) a motive of hatred against a particular protected group of society can be stated in the criminal offence. It is the motive – hate or prejudice – that distinguishes hate crimes from other types of crimes.Prejudice is a negative assessment of a social group and its members. These are objectively unfounded assumptions and erroneous generalizations that, in the opinion of the offender, separate the representatives of this group from the rest of society. Persistent prejudices are called stereotypes. Unlike prejudice, stereotypes are not necessarily negative in nature. However, stereotypes are not based on objective truth either. It follows from court practice that hate crimes were directed against several groups of Latvian society: against ethnic groups (Latvians, Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, Gypsies or Roma, etc.), against representatives of various religious denominations, against asylum seekers, against people from other countries, against sexual minorities as well as against other groups. Stereotypes are often based on personal or negative cultural experiences of previous generations.In this context, it can be mentioned that it is specifically culture that is the basic factor according to which it is possible to understand, identify and reduce hate speech. Professor Aleksandrs Krugļevskis believed that with a change in cultural understanding, expanding public participation in cultural processes, the level of legal awareness will rise and tendencies, intentions to commit a criminal offense will disappear. Criminal law as a cultural factor creates a system that corresponds to the level of education and culture of the people. The above also corresponds to the vision of Latvia’s cohesive society policy “Guidelines for Cohesive and Active Civil Society 2021–2027”: mutual trust, participation, and cooperation between different social groups have improved among Latvian residents, and the level of tolerance has increased, stereotypes and prejudices against different social group representatives have decreased.Statistical data show that since the start of the war in Ukraine, the number of registered hate crimes in Latvia has increased. These show the relevance of the chosen topic. The authors of the article offer their vision of the problem of hate crimes, studying hate crimes as a cultural phenomenon, paying special attention to the experience of Latvian society in this area.

To refer to Mr. Slavson as dedicated, tireless, prolific, and creative would appear to be a monumental understatement when one realizes that his fertile mind has generated over a period of some 50 years a remarkable family of associations, journals, papers, and books devoted to original innovations in the areas of group work, education, recreation, and psychotherapy. It is even difficult to refer to him as venerable when this, his 14th book, emerges as a huge tome of almost 800 pages representing the outcome of six years of intensive experimentation at the Children's Village in Dobbs Ferry, NY, designed to seek out new psychotherapeutic tools with which to enable the to recognize his own inner life and to reconstruct his psyche. Part One explores the theoretical background of the study. The sources and meanings of the delinquent act are analyzed; then the characteristics of the boys are delineated, including

This article explores the multifaceted nature of “interpersonal tolerance” and its close connection to a person’s ability to accept diversity. The research results revealed a significant role of socio-demographic factors in student interactions. However, it was found that the impact of these factors on the level of communicative tolerance is not straightforward. This suggests that interpersonal tolerance among students is more closely related to individual personality traits such as perception, trust, and goodwill, rather than cultural and social norms.

Interpersonal tolerance is one of the most important personality traits that contributes to constructive communication and peaceful coexistence in society. It is therefore not surprising that considerable attention is paid to its development in educational settings from the earliest years of schooling. However, it is difficult to find reliable and valid tools for assessing interpersonal tolerance in primary school–aged children. Existing instruments are often not adapted to children's developmental characteristics or lack sufficient psychometric reliability. The current article presents a theoretical rationale for the development of tolerance in preschool and school-age children and reports the results of the standardization of an assessment tool for measuring interpersonal tolerance in younger schoolchildren – The Method for Studying Children's Tolerance by Dominique de Saint Mars. Although this instrument has recently been used in various studies, the absence of normative data has made it impossible to compare findings across them, which served as the basis for the present research. The total sample consisted of 554 primary school students from Grades 1 through 4, including 293 girls (53%) and 261 boys (47%). During the standardization process, the normality of the data distribution was examined, as well as the reliability (internal consistency) of the instrument. The findings indicate that the method demonstrates sufficiently high reliability and can be used to assess children’s tolerance toward peers, their attitudes toward global issues, their understanding of categories such as good and evil, and their ability to resolve conflicts within the family constructively. The appendix includes The Method for Studying Children's Tolerance by Dominique de Saint Mars and the main normative indicators, including levels of overall tolerance and scores for individual subscales.

The article presents the results of an empirical research of the relationship between interpersonal tolerance and self-attitude at student age (n = 100) on the example of university and college students. Theoretical analysis shows that modern researchers call communicative tolerance and empathy as an important manifestations of interpersonal tolerance. At the same time, the attitude to another person can be influenced by the attitude to oneself (self-attitude). The research used valid and reliable methods of diagnostics of the communicative tolerance by V. V. Boyko; diagnostics of the level of empathic abilities by V. V. Boyko; research of self-attitude by S. R. Panteleev. It was found that empathy indicators have a small number of correlations with self-attitude indicators in both sub-samples. At the same time, many correlations between indicators of communicative tolerance and indicators of self-attitude in both sub-samples were found at a sufficient level of significance. The correlation between communicative tolerance, empathy, and self-attitude differs among university and college students. In case with university students, a high level of communicative tolerance is associated with positive self-attitudes, while in general, a lower degree of communicative tolerance of college students is associated with a less positive self-attitude.

The article analyses the research methodology of levels of interpersonal tolerance manifestation among senior preschool children according to proposed criteria. Based on the structure of the tolerant personality of the senior preschool child, which consists of cognitive, emotional, motivational, evaluative, and behavioral components, the following criteria for diagnosing interpersonal tolerance of children has been singled out. These consist of the completeness of knowledge about society and about oneself, positive emotional intentions, social motives, acceptance of a human being as the supreme value, impartial assessment of actions and personality traits, tolerant behavior, and social competence. Each criterion is measured by the indicators presented in the article. Based on the existing academic literature, the following methods and techniques for diagnosing the peculiarities and levels of interpersonal tolerance formation of six year old children are analysed: conversation, observation, K. Taylor's game test Tale, the projective technique Cactus, icons, drawing, the methodology Diagnosis of socio-psychological settings of the personality in the motivational sphere by O. F. Potemkin, the test Drabinka, and the express diagnostics of values by T. Pirozhenko, S. Ladyvir. The experimental work carried out made it possible to draw conclusions about the major problems and shortcomings that take place in the structure of the tolerant personality of the senior preschool child. Furthermore, these conclusions point towards the direction of further work that is needed to increase the level of interpersonal tolerance formation. In particular, this applies to the knowledge of peoples and nations living in other countries, including their peculiarities and traditions. Additional work is also required in the sensory sphere, the ability to respond to the condition of another person, and detachment from one’s own selfish position. Therefore, it will be appropriate to focus on the development of the child’s decentralization and self-assessment. The obtained results lend support to simulating the content-technological support that will increase the level of interpersonal tolerance of children. Стаття розкриває методику дослідження рівнів прояву міжособистісної толерантності старшими дошкільниками згідно запропонованих критеріїв. З опорою на структуру толерантної особистості старшого дошкільника, яка містить когнітивний, емоційно-мотиваційний, оцінно-ціннісний, поведінковий компоненти, виокремлено наступні критерії діагностики міжособистісної толерантності у дітей: повнота знань про суспільство, про себе; позитивна емоційна налаштованість; просоціальні мотиви; прийняття людини як найвищої цінності, об’єктивна оцінка вчинків, якостей особистості; толерантна поведінка, соціальна компетентність. Кожен критерій вимірюється представленими у статті показниками. На підставі опрацьованої літератури пропонуються такі методи і методики, що дають можливість продіагностувати особливості та рівні вихованості міжособистісної толерантності у дітей 6-го року життя: бесіда, спостереження, ігровий тест К. Тейлора Казка, проективна методика Кактус, малювання піктограм, методика Діагностика соціально-психологічних установок особистості в мотиваційно-потребній сфері, (О. Ф. Потьомкіна), тест Драбинка. експрес діагностика цінностей за Т. Піроженко, С. Ладивір. Проведена експериментальна робота дозволила зробити висновки про найбільші проблеми і недоопрацювання, які мають місце в структурі толерантної особистості старшого дошкільника, і вказала на напрями роботи, яким треба приділити більше уваги для підвищення рівня сформованості міжособистісної толерантності у дітей. Зокрема, це стосується знань про народи і нації, які проживають в інших країнах, їх особливості і традиції. Також потребує додаткової роботи почуттєва сфера, уміння реагувати на стан іншої людини, відмежовуючись від власної егоїстичної позиції. Тому доречною буде і посилення уваги на розвиток децентрації та самооцінки дитини. Отримані результати дають підстави змоделювати змістово-технологічне забезпечення, яке сприятиме підвищенню рівня міжособистісної толерантності дітей.