Beyond the CPI: An Augmented Cost-of-Living Index

This note examines an augmented cost-of-living index (ACOLI) for the purpose of accounting for “augmented consumption” in real-income measures. Well-being includes not only conventional consumer purchases but also goods and services provided by employers, by mandated social regulations, and by tax-financed public goods. Because augmented consumption is often provided in ways that raise prices but not market incomes, deflating with conventional price indexes may understate real income growth. An exploratory application of the ACOLI approach to the United States during the 1960–1997 period suggests that the Consumer Price Index has grown about 19% faster than the ACOLI. This correction would reduce the estimated cost-of-living increase by .47% per year over the last 37 years.     

Financial Strain,Negative Interaction,Coping Styles,and Mental Health Among Low-Income Latinos

This study examines the relationship between financial strain and depressive symptoms in later life, and potential psychosocial mediators of this relationship. Drawing on a sample of 214 low-income Latino older adults, we used structural equation modeling to test the direct effect of chronic financial strain on depressive symptomatology, and the indirect effects via social support, negative interaction, and coping styles. Findings indicated that financial strain increased the level of depressive symptoms among this sample. Avoidance and approach-related coping styles emerged as independent determinants of depressive symptoms albeit in opposite directions; higher levels of avoidance coping was associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms. Contrary to previous findings on the general population, findings from the current study indicate that social support and negative interaction were not directly associated with depressive symptoms. Financial strain mediated the effect of sociocultural (nativity status, years of U.S. residence) and social status factors (age, education) on depressive symptoms. This study highlights the differential impact of financial strain and coping styles on psychological well-being, and the potential psychosocial targets of interventions for older adults with chronic health care conditions.     

One or Two Session Psychotherapy with University Students

Abstract

One or two session psychotherapy has a long history, and well-known practitioners have made use of it. Favorable results have been reasonably well documented. Often it has been done out of necessity, less frequently because all were satisfied that it sufficed. Problems that lend themselves to one or two sessions are: psychological work which has already been done but for which affirmation is sought, requests for diagnostic evaluation, and less often but more challenging, intrapsychic conflict requiring uncovering work. Patient characteristics and therapist attitudes are discussed. For one or two sessions of treatment to occur the therapist must be alert to the possibility, must assess quickly when a case is in hand, set the process in motion, and determine a satisfactory stopping point. It is suggested that the college population lends itself especially well to one or two sessions of psychotherapy, not only from the standpoint of the limited resources of many student health services but also for the ego strengthening potential it provides.     

Transforming Sex: An Interview with Joanne Meyerowitz,Ph.D. Author of How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States

Christine Jorgensen's widely publicized sex reassignment surgery in 1952 brought transsexualism to worldwide attention and fostered medical interest in transsexualism. Joanne Meyerowitz has traced the history of Jorgensen's personal odyssey, the medical history of transsexualism, and the broader impact of transsexualism on United States culture. In this interview, Meyerowitz discusses how she came to this project and some of its theoretical and methodological challenges. Finally, she sets her historical work in the context of contemporary gender and transgender politics.     

Hedging Against Heritage: Jewish Identity Reconsidered: Commentary on Bahar's “Coming Out as Queen”

In this paper, I first survey the ways in which bisexuality was understood by late 19th-century sexologists, by Freud and his followers, by Alfred Kinsey, and by contemporary social scientists and political activists. Then the three domains distinguished by Freud in which bisexuality is currently being examined are surveyed: biological bisexuality, psychological bisexuality (in terms of gender), and kinds of object choice. Particular areas of research that indicate how questions about bisexuality are currently being considered are mapped, for example, transsexualism. The final part of the paper is an inquiry into the ways in which objects are bisexual, a domain that has been neglected in the complex history of work on bisexuality.