ABUSE AND VIOLENCE: THE DARK SIDE OF THE FAMILY AN INTRODUCTION

This is a very upsetting topic we are taking on here. It is a dangerous topic. It is polarizing. It is very, very important.     

SECRET SANTA REVEALS THE SECRET SIDE OF GIVING

This article shows how a secret Santa gift exchange offers unique insights into the nature of generosity and charitable giving. In a dictator experiment modified with features similar to a secret Santa gift exchange, I find that individuals contribute less when their gifts are allocated such that each person gives to fewer recipients. The results are inconsistent with both altruism and warm glow, suggesting that players are motivated by something in addition to these conventional models of generosity. Several alternative models of generosity are shown to be consistent with the experimental findings, all of which imply that, in addition to any positive externalities, giving can also carry a negative externality. ( JEL H41, C92, D62)     

SCHOUTEN IN THE DARK: MISSING THE FOREST AND THE TREES

The present article is a response to a paper by Schouten in the January, 1994 issue of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy entitled, "A Scale in Search of a Construct: Comments on Gavin and Wamboldt" (Schouten, 1994) in which he comments on our 1992 paper entitled "A Reconsideration of the Family-of-Origin Scale" (Gavin & Wamboldt, 1992). We respond to Schouten's allegations of lack of methodological rigor and "unsubstantiated claims" (Schouten, 1994, p. 59). We systematically address ways in which Schouten has taken our work out of context, missed the essence of our study, and used faulty and/or vacuous logic in an attempt to discredit our findings. Despite the appearance of rigor in Schouten's work, closer scrutiny brings into question the contribution of Schouten's article to the field of family theory or measurement.     

A CLASSIC FROM THE OTHER SIDE OF THE VEIL: Du Bois's Souls of Black Folk

Why has W.E.B. Du Bois not mattered more in sociology? In addition to being on the short list of the 20th century's most influential public intellectuals, Du Bois made substantial, if under recognized, intellectual contributions as a sociologist and social theorist. Among his nearly 2000 published writings, The Philadelphia Negro and Souls of Black Folk have all the qualities of classic works. Yet, neither has been officially canonized by sociology. The exclusion of Du Bois can be explained with tolerable plausibility by reference to his two key concepts in Souls of Black Folk: the veil and the double-self. One can only wonder what might have been significantly different about sociology, especially its theories of the Self and of field studies of race, had William James's most important student been allowed to matter.     

TWO SURVIVOR CASES: THERAPEUTIC EFFECT AS SIDE PRODUCT OF THE BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVE INTERVIEW

This paper draws a parallel between the biographical narrative life‐story interview technique and psychoanalytic therapy. It points out that this type of interview may, in some cases, assist with the re‐construction of a new narrative identity of the interviewee. Where there is practically no intervention by the interviewer it can do this just by providing the interviewee with a situation where there is someone who does not want anything other than to listen to her life narrative. Through this process there can be a therapeutic effect which is more than a joyful by‐product, which the interviewees not only unconsciously experience, but for which they overtly express their gratitude.

The paper features the case of such a woman, who was sterilised in Auschwitz. It also tells the story of a man where the interviewer experienced incredibly strong resistance and projective identification throughout the interview. This resulted in almost insoluble guilt in the interviewer. The paper tries to interpret the story of the interviewee, who is also a Shoah survivor, and is unable to make some things in his life story explicit. The interpretation suggests that he might have killed some Arrow Cross officers in order to take their uniforms to help others. He has lived for the last 60 years with feelings of insoluble guilt. The question is raised whether in this case the interview had a similar therapeutic effect to the first case or not.     

THE DETERMINANTS OF CAMPAIGN SPENDING: THE ROLE OF THE GOVERNMENT JACKPOT

To raise money for their campaigns, political candidates auction a part of government wealth (the jackpot) to contributors. The larger the jackpot, the more candidates spend. Data on the gubernatorial races of 1978 and 1986 indicate that (1) for every dollar increase in the per capita jackpot, campaign spending rises by 0.0004 cents per voter, (2) balanced budget laws hinder the candidate's ability to raise money, (3) in states that give the governor more power over the budget (measured by a "Schlesinger" index) candidates raise more. The paper emphasizes that candidates willingly limit their spending to avoid indebtedness to contributors.     

THE STATE OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET AND THE STATE OF THE ECONOMY: FURTHER EVIDENCE

Simultaneous monetary and fiscal policy reaction functions are derived and estimated for the 1969:2–1984.3 period. The results suggest that the Reagan administration has abandoned fiscal policy as a stabilization tool. Furthermore, although the average money growth rate declined in the Reagan administration, variation in the rate of money growth indicates that monetary policy has been used to combat unemployment. Finally, monetary and fiscal policies were not coordinated during this period. Rather, monetary and fiscal policy appear to be set by a Nash equilibrium in a non-cooperative game. In a Nash equilibrium, the policy chosen by each authority maximizes its payoff, given the policy choice of the other authority.     

MODERNIZATION IN THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA: THE POLITICIZATION OF THE ELDERLY

The rapid modernization in the People's Republic of China (PRC) allows us to identify some of the principles that underlie the changes in State-managed economies and their affects on the elderly. Modernization theory predicts that traditionally high status of the elderly declines with industrialization. This theory's difficulties can be overcome by using the variables of the "state" and the political economy by developing a model of "bureaucratic politics" and the "state" which explains "how" the status of the elderly changes through the interplay of competing interests within the society and thus may "increase" or "decrease" as the society modernizes. This research is based on data collected in the PRC between 1981–1986. Since 1978 there have been three major reform efforts; each has consequences for the elderly: (1) economic, (2) bureaucratic, and (3) population. In order to achieve them, programming for elderly is occurring: (1) retirement pensions and medical care, (2) homes for the aged, and (3) special activities to use the "left over energy" of the elderly. The future importance of the elderly in China will depend on their consequences for (1) the developing economy, (2) the bureaucratic politics of the Party and the State, and (3) other agendas of the State the implicate the elderly.     

THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW:

This article offers a test of labeling theory by exploring whether contact with school and justice system authorities has long-term, negative, and independent effects on an individual's labor market success. We use the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY79), a large and nationally representative sample, to examine whether experiences ranging from school suspension to incarceration during ages 15–23 can predict occupational status, income, and employment during ages 29–37. Unlike previous studies, we control for an exhaustive list of variables: social background, human capital, prior deviant behavior, family status, and local context. Our findings generally support labelling theory. Severe forms of labeling like sentencing and incaraceration have the strongest negative effects, though among females suspension or expulsion from school also has consistently negative effects. We conclude with a discussion of how labeling might reduce employment chances, with a focus on gender differences.     

THE DEGRADATION OF THE SACRED: APPROACHES OF COOLEY AND GOFFMAN

Charles Horton Cooley and Erving Goffman both have provided similar, although usually overlooked, contributions to a sociology of religion and culture, namely, their analysis of the process whereby sacred representations of the self-transcending aspect of human nature frequently devolve into fragmented or distorted cultural symbols that increasingly provide legitimation for self-interest alone. Cooley's writings revolve around the dynamic whereby the cultural symbols of Christian mysticism degenerate into the liberal models of economic man. Goffman's work centers around the manner in which sacred rituals, originally emblematic of the social, are degraded and distorted by the onset of self-interested motivations.     

DECENTERED MOVEMENTS: THE CASE OF THE STRUCTURAL AND PRECEPTUAL VERSATILITY OF THE RASTAFARI

Since the modus operandi of social movements varies across different social settings, their survival mechanism is not universally the same. All social movements, among other things, do not depend on formal organization. Whether a social movement adopts formal organization also depends on the metaphysics to which it adheres. An egalitarian movement, for instance, could be opposed to formal organization, as it amounts to replicating the structure of the establishment in which flat hierarchy is absent. Such movements, which rely on informal networks and provide greater interpretative leverage to their members, fall under the category of decentered movements. The study is intended to demonstrate the need and relevance of this alternative concept. The movement selected for this purpose is the Rastafari, the language of resistance of Jamaicans of African descent. This political religious protest movement, currently with dense cultural manifestations and despite structural and preceptual versatility that characterizes it has significantly exerted its influence not only in its place of origin, Jamaica, but also in other parts of the world. On the basis of the experience of the Rastafari, this article details the advantages of decenteredness over social movement organization for movements that find less accommodation in their respective societies. Data are derived from primary and secondary sources, including the writings of the movement articulators facilitators of the Rastafari.     

THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE: A REVIEW OF THE MODELS

This paper reviews four consumer maximization models where the probability of premature death enters as a variable that is both known to the consumer and under his control. These models generate a number of interesting results with respect to a person's willingness to pay for an increased chance of living. The most useful to the cost-benefit analyst is the derived relationship between this willingness-to-pay value and a person's lifetime earnings, and thus the relationship between the theoretically correct willingness-to-pay approach to the valuation of life-saving programs and the widely-used human-capital approach. However, the conclusions of the reviewed models are in this regard conflicting. Two of the models establish a theoretical basis for investigating the correlation of these two measures; however, this basis is shown to follow from an unrealistic assumption concerning the person's lifetime utility function. The remaining two models, although based upon more realistic assumptions, do not claim to provide theoretical grounds for making such investigations. The conclusion of this review is that in the absence of available data on personal demand for increased survival probability it is impossible to determine the relationship between the willingness-to-pay and the human-capital approaches to placing a value on human life .     

THE MYTH OF THE GRINGO CHIEF: AMAZONIAN MESSIAHS AND THE POWER OF IMMEDIACY

In this article, I investigate the sociocultural grounding and sociopolitical position of Randy Borman, the “gringo chief” of the indigenous Cofán people of Amazonian Ecuador. Born to North American missionary-linguists, Borman grew up in Cofán communities, attended school in urban Ecuador and the United States, and developed into the most important Cofán activist on the global stage. I consider him alongside other ethnically ambiguous leaders of Amazonian political movements, whom anthropologists have described as “messianic” figures. The historians and ethnographers who write about Amazonian messianism debate the relationship between myth and reason in indigenous political action. Using their discussion as a starting point, I propose the concept of “mythical politics,” a type of transformative action that concentrates enabling forms of socio-temporal mediation in the shape of individual actors and instantaneous events. I develop my approach through a discussion of the work of Georges Sorel, Georg Lukács, and Antonio Gramsci, three theorists who debate the role of myth in political mobilization. By applying their insights to the case of Borman, I explore the relationship between myth, mediation, and rationality in Cofán politics and political movements more generally.     

ASKING COMPARATIVE QUESTIONS: THE IMPACT OF THE DIRECTION OF COMPARISON

Questions assessing comparative judgments are often phrasedas directed comparisons, that is, a stimulus A (subject) isto be compared to a stimulus B (referent); for example, "Istennis more exciting than soccer or less exciting?" Tversky'swork on judgment of similarity indicated that comparing A toB may result in different similarity judgments than comparingB to A. The four studies reported in this article extend thiswork from judgments of similarity to evaluative judgments ingeneral. The results demonstrate that the direction of comparisonelicited by the wording of the question can have a strong impacton the obtained results. In some instances, a reversal in thedirection of comparison (i.e., comparing A to B vs. B to A)resulted in a reversal of the ordinal ranking. Implicationsfor question wording are discussed.