Charles Cappell | Northern Illinois University (original) (raw)

Papers by Charles Cappell

Through support from the National Science Foundation (DUE-9752619), I have been developing a comp... more Through support from the National Science Foundation (DUE-9752619), I have been developing a computer-based, interactive tutor teaching the fundamentals of sampling. Several principles of cognitive learning and instructional design are implemented in the design: contextualized (social science) learning, cognitive mapping for relational learning, building of formal-operational understanding from concrete imagery, self-directed learning, and corrective, directive, and evaluative feedback. The tutor runs on PC platform and was developed using Macromedia Authorware/Director software, along with several auxiliary programs, such as MathCad. The effectiveness of the first fully operational version of the program was evaluated by using an experimental design involving two sections (approximately 65 students) and two faculty. Within each section, half the students were assigned to study sampling concepts and procedures using the Sampling Tutor without attending lectures. Two different lectur...

ABSTRACT The authors, critical of psychoanalytic paradigms used in the analysis of the perpetrato... more ABSTRACT The authors, critical of psychoanalytic paradigms used in the analysis of the perpetrators of child abuse, formulate an alternative model based on theoretical and empirical insights from social learning theory. The discussion focuses on the environmental contingencies of the sociopsychological states of families. To test several hypotheses based on the model, which suggests that sources of stress and relatively few response alternatives are associated with increased danger, the authors surveyed a 20% sample (N=78) of active cases under supervision of Protective Service workers during 1973-1974 at the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in Chicago. The empirical findings indicate that, even within the subpopulation of families under DCFS supervision, the model is able to discriminate among families with greater degrees of perceived danger for the children. Besides the major factor of the child's age, factors which center on the female caretaker in the family contribute most to the discrimination. Specifically, measures which indicate the degree of stress the female caretaker may be experiencing with regard to her personal expectations of income and educational attainment as well as the potentially stressful situations in which the caretaker must perform her child-rearing tasks are revealed to be important. (Author)

Among a sample of 545 Chicago Collar County residents surveyed in the spring of 2000, average lev... more Among a sample of 545 Chicago Collar County residents surveyed in the spring of 2000, average levels of physiological stress symptoms are substantially high levels. Women report significantly greater levels of symptoms regardless of work status, domestic labor hours, child rearing hours, and marital status. The family oriented, suburban life-style provides little insulation from the gross stress induced by modern life, nor does variation in income provide much of a mediator to the major structural stressors of modern life.

A display system for performing a multi-media work that includes image data and sound data associ... more A display system for performing a multi-media work that includes image data and sound data associated with the image data. The system includes a display for displaying an image derived from said image data, an audio playback system for combining and playing first and second audio tracks, and a pointing system for selecting a region of the image on the display in response to commands from a user of the display system. The system also includes a playback processor for altering the combination of the first and second audio tracks played by the audio playback system in response to the pointing system selecting a new region. The playback processor also alters the display such that the portion of the image selected by the pointing system is centered in the display.

This paper examines the correlation between measures of cognitive saliency of villagers held in m... more This paper examines the correlation between measures of cognitive saliency of villagers held in memory with measures of centrality of network positions. Using data collected during extensive field work in Tonga, we show that the cognitive saliency of any villager for other villagers is correlated with centrality aspects derived from four villager networks: social support, political influence, dispute resolution influence, and daily activity patterns. Cognitive saliency measures were obtained by asking villagers to perceive associations of other villagers, to recall all villagers from memory, and to construct narratives about village life. Indegree measures across all three activities give indicators of each villager’s cognitive saliency in the mental representations of other villagers. A regression analysis shows that the varying level of cognitive saliency is associated more strongly with a villager’s centrality in influence and dispute resolution networks than in support networks,...

This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to decompose the racial gap in reading test sc... more This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to decompose the racial gap in reading test scores at the individual and school level using the NELS 1988 baseline survey of eighth graders. The analysis proceeded stepwise, first estimating individual level explanations then adding school level social characteristics to predict variation in individual level racial gap coefficients. Analysis was performed on the black/white 8 th grade reading score gap as well as the more aggregated non-white/white gap. The final set of results using several student and parent characteristics as well as four school level variables to decompose the black/white gap reduced the initial gap by 18%, from-5.76 to-4.74. The parallel analysis on the non-white/white gap reduced the initial gap by 31%, from-4.29 to-2.98. The results for the black/white gap do not support the notion that increased black percentages in a school, after one controls for individual effects, decreases the performance of black students. None of the school level effects explained a significant amount of variation in the black/white gap across schools. However, all of the school variables had significant effects on the adjusted expectation of white students' average performance. In the decomposition of the non-white/white gap, the racial composition of the school had a negative effect on gap, widening it. None of the other school level variables had significant effects on the gap. However, their coefficients indicate that slight reductions in the non-white/white performance gap can be achieved by improving the percentage of students proficient in English and increasing the number of teachers with graduate degrees.

Introduction This methodological paper describes the categorical latent class modeling techniques... more Introduction This methodological paper describes the categorical latent class modeling techniques used to classify families with respect to different patterns of violence among members thereby enhancing our understanding of the relational aspects of family violence. Cappell (2002) gives an overview of the network/relational approach to family violence that can be operationalized using latent class techniques. There has been a long interest in the "web of violence" or "cycle of violence" that these techniques can address directly (e.g. Renvoize, 1978; Pagelow, 1981). More recently, researchers have sought to integrate theory linking the comorbidity of partner and child violence, two dyadic relations (Slep and O'Learry, 2001).

The authors, critical of psychoanalytic paradigms used in the analysis of the perpetrators of chi... more The authors, critical of psychoanalytic paradigms used in the analysis of the perpetrators of child abuse, formulate an alternative model based on theoretical and empirical insights from social learning theory. The discussion focuses on the environmental contingencies of the sociopsychological states of families. To test several hypotheses based on the model, which suggests that sources of stress and relatively few response alternatives are associated with increased danger, the authors surveyed a 20% sample (N=78) of active cases under supervision of Protective Service workers during 1973-1974 at the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) in Chicago. The empirical findings indicate that, even within the subpopulation of families under DCFS supervision, the model is able to discriminate among families with greater degrees of perceived danger for the children. Besides the major factor of the child's age, factors which center on the female caretaker in the family contrib...

Through support from the National Science Foundation (DUE-9752619), an interactive tutor teaching... more Through support from the National Science Foundation (DUE-9752619), an interactive tutor teaching fundamental sampling concepts and designs was developed. The tutor's architecture was based on cognitive learning principles: contextualized learning, conceptual mapping, grounding formal understanding in concrete imagery, self-directed learning, and evaluative feedback. The authoring software used to deliver the tutor, Macromedia Authorware/Director, also tracked several user behaviors: time on task, navigation behavior, use of multimedia features, and review question performance. This paper reports results from a naturalistic statistical analysis of the knowledge gained about sampling measured by a pre-post test comparison and a linear growth model over three assessments among 129 students from two social science quantitative research courses. Hypotheses are examined regarding the effectiveness of time on task, number of learning sessions activated, time spent on a recitation sect...

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Work and Occupations, 1990

ABSTRACT Two decades have passed since the Great Society programs ostensibly widened the doors of... more ABSTRACT Two decades have passed since the Great Society programs ostensibly widened the doors of opportunity in the United States, including the opportunity to practice law. This article examines the current status of the black bar and evaluates several contemporary theories of professional labor market segmentation. Findings show that the absolute number of black attorneys has increased over the past 15 years, the rate of growth is slowing, the proportion of blacks enrolled in law school has been relatively stable over this period, and that other minorities and women have increased their presence within the bar more than blacks. The evidence establishes the importance of the public sector as a source of employment for black and other minority lawyers. A comparison of the proportions of black lawyers and judges found within several large cities reveals the influence of the black electorate on the racial composition of the bar. The practice of law has generally been opened to blacks, but their distribution across specialties and settings suggests that they may be particularly vulnerable to policies that reduce the size and scope of the public sector.

socqrl.niu.edu

This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to decompose the racial gap in reading test sc... more This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to decompose the racial gap in reading test scores at the individual and school level using the NELS 1988 baseline survey of eighth graders. The analysis proceeded stepwise, first estimating individual level explanations then adding school level social characteristics to predict variation in individual level racial gap coefficients. Analysis was performed on the black/white 8 th grade reading score gap as well as the more aggregated non-white/white gap. The final set of results using several student and parent characteristics as well as four school level variables to decompose the black/white gap reduced the initial gap by 18%, from -5.76 to -4.74. The parallel analysis on the non-white/white gap reduced the initial gap by 31%, from -4.29 to -2.98. The results for the black/white gap do not support the notion that increased black percentages in a school, after one controls for individual effects, decreases the performance of black students. None of the school level effects explained a significant amount of variation in the black/white gap across schools. However, all of the school variables had significant effects on the adjusted expectation of white students' average performance. In the decomposition of the non-white/white gap, the racial composition of the school had a negative effect on gap, widening it. None of the other school level variables had significant effects on the gap. However, their coefficients indicate that slight reductions in the non-white/white performance gap can be achieved by improving the percentage of students proficient in English and increasing the number of teachers with graduate degrees. This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to statistically decompose the racial gap in reading test scores at the individual and school level. Our effort uses the NELS 1988 baseline survey of eighth graders; 20,163 students were initially included in the analysis from 948 schools. The most robust multi-level models we estimated used 772 schools for which there was sufficient data, the least robust only 30.

Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 1986

... By 1983 Mullins observed that only four distinctive theory groups had passed successfully thr... more ... By 1983 Mullins observed that only four distinctive theory groups had passed successfully through the complete four stage process of institutionalizing knowledge: these were the structuralists, Critical Theorists, Ethnomethodologists, and Causal Theorists (Mullins, 1983) . ...

Structure and Dynamics, 2008

Tatau, tatau pé, katoa tatau 'the same, just the same, all the same,' this is what most Tongan vi... more Tatau, tatau pé, katoa tatau 'the same, just the same, all the same,' this is what most Tongan villagers rushed to say when asked if any person within the village groups they had just mentioned was mahu'inga taha 'most important.' These statements might not have come as a surprise had the small village-172 residents-not been in the Kingdom of Tonga, the only surviving Polynesian monarchy. At the head of this highly stratified society is King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, heir of a dynasty that goes back at least a millennium. Could it be then that within the Tongan monarchic socio-cultural environment people feel and think about other co-villagers as being of the same status? Could it be that at the level of such a small village, stratification so strongly implemented in the social fabric of the overall Tongan milieu is not cognitively present? How can we reconcile the stated lack of local stratification with the overt positive feelings toward a monarchy and its aristocracy? This article is about the social network analysis we conducted to answer these questions. First, we introduce and discuss the social structure of a Tongan village and formulate working hypotheses about forms and types of social networks we expected to find. Second, we describe the methodology employed including the questionnaires used, the overall organization of the data collection, and the types of analysis employed. Third, we present the results of the analyses. The results reveal a local stratification that while differing from the national one, it shares with the latter salient characteristics. In closing, we indicate how the nature of the stratification detected in the village correlates well with other findings about the structure of Tongan mental representations in other domains of knowledge.

American Bar Foundation Research Journal, 1983

SSRN Electronic Journal, 2000

Work and Occupations, 1990

socqrl.niu.edu

This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to decompose the racial gap in reading test sc... more This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to decompose the racial gap in reading test scores at the individual and school level using the NELS 1988 baseline survey of eighth graders. The analysis proceeded stepwise, first estimating individual level explanations then adding school level social characteristics to predict variation in individual level racial gap coefficients. Analysis was performed on the black/white 8 th grade reading score gap as well as the more aggregated non-white/white gap. The final set of results using several student and parent characteristics as well as four school level variables to decompose the black/white gap reduced the initial gap by 18%, from -5.76 to -4.74. The parallel analysis on the non-white/white gap reduced the initial gap by 31%, from -4.29 to -2.98. The results for the black/white gap do not support the notion that increased black percentages in a school, after one controls for individual effects, decreases the performance of black students. None of the school level effects explained a significant amount of variation in the black/white gap across schools. However, all of the school variables had significant effects on the adjusted expectation of white students' average performance. In the decomposition of the non-white/white gap, the racial composition of the school had a negative effect on gap, widening it. None of the other school level variables had significant effects on the gap. However, their coefficients indicate that slight reductions in the non-white/white performance gap can be achieved by improving the percentage of students proficient in English and increasing the number of teachers with graduate degrees. This paper applies multi-level modeling techniques to statistically decompose the racial gap in reading test scores at the individual and school level. Our effort uses the NELS 1988 baseline survey of eighth graders; 20,163 students were initially included in the analysis from 948 schools. The most robust multi-level models we estimated used 772 schools for which there was sufficient data, the least robust only 30.

Bulletin de Méthodologie Sociologique, 1986

Structure and Dynamics, 2008

American Bar Foundation Research Journal, 1983