Eric S. De Vos
Professor of Psychology Appointed to SVSU in 1991
Ph.D. The University of Chicago
A.M. The University of Chicago
B.A. University of California at San Diego
ARTICLE
LindaBeth Tiedje, Claudia B. Holzman (both Michigan State University), Eric De Vos (SVSU), Xu Jia, Steve Korzeniewski, Mohammad H. Rahbar, Monica M. Goble, and David Kallen (all Michigan State University). "Hostility and Anomie: Links to Preterm Delivery Subtypes and Ambulatory Blood Pressure at Mid-pregnancy." Social Science & Medicine 66 (2008): 1310-1321.
The Pregnancy Outcomes and Community Health (POUCH) study explored various pathways leading to the incidence of preterm delivery (PTD). Pathways implicated by previous research include effects of psychosocial factors (including hostility and anomie) on maternal vascular health. We report findings based on interviews of 2761 pregnant women recruited from 52 Michigan clinics (2018 non-Hispanic White, 743 African American, interviewed during the pregnancy). Review of medical records distinguished 3 subtypes of PTD: medically indicated, premature rupture of membranes, and spontaneous labor. We found complex relations between these subtypes and the psychosocial factors. Adjusting for maternal age and education, mid-pregnancy anomie was positively associated with the medically indicated PTD subtype among African American women. Adjusting for maternal race/ethnicity, age, and education, levels of hostility , one is left to wonder what might be influencing males to stigmatize mentally ill individuals.
Eric De Vos (SVSU), Maria Schell, and Jeremiah Stanghini (both SVSU students). "Nurturant Parenting, Religiosity, Moral Judgments, and Political Affiliation: A Test of Lakoff's Model." Annual conference of the Association for Psychological Science, Chicago, Illinois, May 2008.
Lakoff has suggested that America's civil discourse about political, moral and religious issues reflects the functioning of distinct "Strict Father" or "Nurturant Parent" psycholinguistic frameworks for metaphorically representing "the nation as family." We tested predictions derived from Lakoff's ideas, in a sample of 366 rust-belt college students. As predicted, Republicans preferred an authoritarian parenting style more than did Democrats or Independents. Additionally, as predicted, Republicans reported a greater level of religiosity than both Democrats and Independents. Lakoff's model also suggests that nurturant parenting should be positively correlated with nurturant moral judgments. Indeed we found this relationship within all three political groups. However, although, as predicted, more authoritarian parenting was significantly related to greater religiosity across all three groups, only among the Democrats were these variables significantly related within the group. Additionally, among Independents, a preference for more authoritarian parenting was significantly related to less nurturant moral judgments, whereas these variables were not significantly related among Democrats or Republicans. And in direct contrast to what Lakoff's model suggests, Democrats were significantly less likely than Independents and somewhat less likely than Republicans to apply nurturant reasoning to moral judgments; they were also less likely than Independents and somewhat less likely than Republicans to express a nurturant parenting style, whereas Republicans reported intermediate-level preferences on both variables. Relationships between parenting, political affiliation, and moral judgments are complex. We suggest caution when applying Lakoff's model to rust-belt Democrats, and suggest that psychologists also explore the sociological literature relating economic status, educational status, and authoritarianism.