Book reviews

Qualitative Sociology -     

Self-deception and self-discovery in fieldwork

This paper shows how fieldwork experiences create a situation in which the researcher and the native reveal their characters in the course of requesting and offering information about the study. The personalities of the fieldworker and the natives help to color and may even define the nature of the interaction. It would be a mistake to ignore the effect of character on the content of studies. Researchers learn about their own strengths and weaknesses as fieldworkers by examining that effect.This paper was originally prepared for the conference on Ethical Problems of Fieldwork, held by Joan Cassell and Murray Wax at Berkeley Springs, W.V., 1979, sponsored by the program in Ethics and Values in Science and Technology, National Science Foundation. I should like to give particular thanks to Murray Wax for his helpfulness and kindness in guiding this paper toward publication.     

Gender Dysphoria: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

The long-awaited DSM-5 has finally been published, generating controversy in many areas, including the revised diagnostic category of Gender Dysphoria. This commentary contextualizes the history and reform of the pathologization of diverse gender identities and expressions, within a larger perspective of examining psychological viewpoints on sexual minority persons, and the problems with continuing to label gender identities and expressions as pathological or disordered.     

Repairing a Spoiled Identity: An Application of Attribution Theory

Abstract

This exploratory study applies attribution concepts in the investigation of self-presentational tactics. We contend that self-attributions following failure are used by an actor not only to restore self-esteem but to mitigate negative social consequences for the self. Data for this study derive from a role-playing experiment in which subjects were asked to explain a failing academic performance. Weiner's control dimension and Kelley's covariation model are used to codify subjects' explanations of their performance. As predicted, individuals overwhelmingly attributed failure to uncontrollable causes. Further, the vast majority of the information provided by subjects about their performance consisted of claims of high distinctiveness which, according to Kelley, lead to external causal attributions. Effects of sex of actor and of influence target are investigated, and some suggestive patterns emerge. Based on this study, we suggest that the conceptual framework of attribution theory can benefit research on interpersonal tactics.     

Practical modeling strategies for unbalanced longitudinal data analysis

In practice, data are often measured repeatedly on the same individual at several points in time. Main interest often relies in characterizing the way the response changes in time, and the predictors of that change. Marginal, mixed and transition are frequently considered to be the main models for continuous longitudinal data analysis. These approaches are proposed primarily for balanced longitudinal design. However, in clinic studies, data are usually not balanced and some restrictions are necessary in order to use these models. This paper was motivated by a data set related to longitudinal height measurements in children of HIV-infected mothers that was recorded at the university hospital of the Federal University in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This data set is severely unbalanced. The goal of this paper is to assess the application of continuous longitudinal models for the analysis of unbalanced data set.     

Trauma and Origins: Post-Holocaust Genealogists and the Work of Memory

In the 1970s, as children of Holocaust survivors reached adulthood, many began to excavate, piece together, and re-fashion their fractured family histories. This movement achieved momentum in the 1980s and 1990s, as the so-called “second generation” moved into middle age. Drawing from data gleaned from participant observation on a listserv for children of survivors and from interviews, I argue that those who engage in post-Holocaust genealogy are searching for coherent narratives that place their own origin in the context of the families into which they were born. By seeking, borrowing from and selectively appropriating traces of the past, they are using them as raw material in the production of new stories about the past and, by implication, the present.

“As Far as They Knew I Came from France”: Stigma,Passing, and Not Speaking about the Holocaust

Today we recognize that storytelling plays an important role in helping survivors of traumatic episodes such as sexual abuse, military combat, or genocide refashion a sense of self and “work through” their traumatic experiences. But before the Holocaust was named and widely acknowledged and the diagnosis of post‐traumatic stress had emerged, survivors of Hitler's genocidal policies struggled to tell their stories in a world that did not particularly wish to hear them. While most accounts of Holocaust survivors’ postwar experiences focus on themes of redemption, adjustment, and integration, my analysis of interviews with Holocaust survivors suggests during their first two decades living in the United States they were often silenced by individuals they encountered. I use Goffman's analysis of stigma to document how and why this silencing occurred, and with what consequences, providing an account of the interactions survivors had with family members, neighbors and acquaintances, and the strategies of identity management that survivors devised.     

Prosecution of batterers: views of African American battered women

Findings from 207 interviews of urban, African American women indicated that 65% of the women said they favored prosecution of their abusers. A logistic regression showed that the following independent variables were related to significantly decreased odds of opposing prosecution: prosecution being initiated, being separated from partner, and abuser's use of alcohol and/or drugs during violent incidents in the last 6 months. Bivariate analysis showed that a long history of severe abuse by the partner was associated with favoring prosecution. The most common reasons that women gave for favoring prosecution were that abuse is illegal and not acceptable and that abusers should not violate or touch women. The most common reasons for opposing prosecution were that women believed the incident was not serious or was the first time he was violent. The study can be used to expand discussion about prosecution of batterers.     

INTERMINABLE SEX THERAPY: A REPORT ON TEN CASES OF THERAPEUTIC GRIDLOCK

This paper reports on ten cases in which treatment began with conventional sex therapy and was later modified by incorporating techniques of psychodynamic couple therapy. While the modifications initially led to symptom reversal, the reversal of symptoms activated a recycling sequence of relapses and renewed symptom reversals, ultimately terminating in treatment failure. While the ten couples were heterogeneous in many respects, they did form a distinct clinical group. In common, they demonstrated a set of characteristics laced with hate, love and dependency, which interacted to create what the authors have called "therapeutic gridlock" and "interminable" sex therapy.