John: Some thoughts on mourning

The perennial question, “Do children mourn?”, forms the backdrop to this discussion of a treatment which spans a 10-year period. Both clinical as well as cultural factors are examined and an effort is made to assess the effect of the loss on the patient's character.     

The Various Roles of Animal Models in Understanding Human Development

In this article, the authors take a very conservative view of the contribution of animal models to an understanding of human development. We do not think that homologies can be readily documented with even our most closely related relatives’ behavior and psychological functioning. The major contribution of animal models is their provision of food for thought (hypotheses, not facts) about human development and general principles of development, and we describe some of the more significant and interesting of these at length. We also briefly discuss the other applications of animal research toward understanding the development and evolution of behavior, more generally speaking.     

To Die For: The Semiotic Seductive Power of the Tanned Body

Human skin burns with prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light. This simple physiological process acquires meaning through social interaction—whereby tanned skin assumes symbolic and semiotic properties. In this article we examine the meanings of tanned skin by focusing on the semiotic seductive power of the tanned body. Drawing from forty qualititative interviews, we examine the motives, beliefs, and experiences of people who tan their skin artificially, that is, through exposure to tanning lamps, in order to understand how tanned skin assumes meaning for them. We analyze the practice of artificial tanning and the interplay among processes of seduction, impression management, self‐expression, and the construction, exchange, and interpretation of embodied sign‐values.     

Smoking among New England College Men and Women

Abstract

Smoking behavior was examined among college students at 34 New England colleges. Women were more often smokers (44%) than men (32%) and were also more likely to smoke daily than men (23 vs. 16%). Men in private colleges were significantly less likely to smoke (22%) than those in public colleges (26%). At both public and private colleges, women were more likely to smoke than men. Smoking was inversely related to health habits for both men and women.

The percentage of college women who smoked is similar to that reported for the general population, while that for men is less. Prevention programs should be targeted to girls in the primary and secondary grades, as well as to college women, and support for smoking cessation should be made available on college campuses.     

Who shall speak of the pain? frame violations and the making of public controversy 1

This paper focuses on the frame violations that were created as sense-makers viewed a Canadian war documentary, The Valour and the Horror. The film series aggressively challenged conventional wisdom, and resulted in a fierce battle played out publicly in a Senate Subcommittee investigation as parliamentarians, veterans, historians, journalists and film-makers clashed over whose version of the truth would prevail. We argue that controversy erupts due to frame violations, and that it unfolds in a predictable manner. The article analyses both the content of the documentary, and describes the unfolding controversy. We found that different types of frame violations resulted in different consequences, but that generally, broad revisions of conventional and deeply held frames resulted in attacks on the person who created the violations, while lesser violations elicited an attempt to tamper with the product.     

A “Mulatto Escape Hatch” in the United States? Examining Evidence of Racial and Social Mobility During the Jim Crow Era

Racial distinctions in the United States have long been characterized as uniquely rigid and governed by strict rules of descent, particularly along the black-white boundary. This is often contrasted with countries, such as Brazil, that recognize “mixed” or intermediate racial categories and allow for more fluidity or ambiguity in racial classification. Recently released longitudinal data from the IPUMS Linked Representative Samples, and the brief inclusion of a “mulatto” category in the U.S. Census, allow us to subject this generally accepted wisdom to empirical test for the 1870–1920 period. We find substantial fluidity in black-mulatto classification between censuses—including notable “downward” racial mobility. Using person fixed-effects models, we also find evidence that among Southern men, the likelihood of being classified as mulatto was related to intercensal changes in occupational status. These findings have implications for studies of race and inequality in the United States, cross-national research on racial classification schemes in the Americas, and for how demographers collect and interpret racial data.     

Community well-being as a critical component of urban lake ecosystem health

Urban lakes are often monitored and managed with limited consideration of adjacent communities. Generally, when communities are considered in relation to urban lakes, they are viewed simply as sources of pollutants. Given the inevitable interactions between an urban lake and the surrounding inhabitants, the community must be considered explicitly when assessing the ecosystem health of urban lakes, as the two entities intrinsically comprise interrelated parts of a single ecosystem. In this study, the reciprocal links between a residential community and a series of urban lakes in South East Queensland have been examined to facilitate a dynamically linked, fully integrated ecosystem health assessment of constructed urban lakes. Residents’ attitudes towards, and values derived from, a series of urban lakes were surveyed, as well as residents’ behaviours which may impact upon urban lake health. The results indicate that residents derive both tangible and intangible benefits from the urban lakes, but feel little responsibility for lake health or custodianship over the lakes. Greater recognition within urban lake management frameworks of the links between urban lake systems and their surrounding communities may help to foster and enhance both community well-being, a greater sense of custodianship for such systems and improved management.     

The Effect of Health Beliefs on the Smoking Behavior of College Women

Abstract

Of the 953 women from four New England colleges who responded to a random-sample survey of smoking behavior, 30.5% were current smokers; 20.3%, former smokers; and 49.2%, non-smokers. Most had begun smoking in high school. They were concerned about their smoking and over three-fourths of them had made a serious effort to stop. Their motivations for smoking and for stopping were studied. Coping with stress was an important motivation for continuation; health effects, loss of control over their lives, and social effects were important for cessation. Discriminant analysis was used to determine the relative contribution of health beliefs to changes in smoking status.