The disengagement process: A neglected problem in participant observation research

Of the various phases or stages of participant observation, the disengagement process has typically been glossed over in methodological discussions of qualitative research. Drawing on the author's fieldwork experience and on the scattered references to disengagement in the ethnographic literature, this paper systematically outlines and examines the problems and issues associated with this neglected phase of the fieldwork process. Three interrelated questions or issues structure the inquiry. The first deals with the problem of informational sufficiency and its relation to closure; the second with the various precipitants of disengagement; and the third with the factors that can function as barriers or impediments to disengagement.For their critical and helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper, I wish to thank Gideon Sjoberg, Sheldon Olson, and Ben Blount.     

Personality patterns of couples practicing the temperature-rhythm method of birth control.

Psychological data was obtained from 1009 couples located in 5 countries who were practicing the temperature-rhythm method of birth control. In the U.S., survey instruments were distributed to 160 couples by mail with a 58% (92) return rate of completed questionnaires. The educational attainment of both men and women exceeded senior high school. Most wives were not gainfully employed, and 87% of the wives indicated that religious beliefs were considered important. The average couple had employed the rhythm method for 4 years and 9 months at the time of the survey. Independently, both husbands and wives completed a Byrne's Revised Repression-Sensitization scale, Rotter's I-E scale, and Attitude Toward Sex scale, a Reaction to the Temperature-Rhythm Method scale, and a sexual behavior inventory. Data indicated that the rhythm method was acceptable despite difficulties with periods of abstinence, with 84% regarding abstinence as relatively difficult or very diffiucult. Other results indicated that there was a relatively low response concordance between husbands and wives, and that couples who had pregnancies with the method or had abandoned the method had more liberal sexual attitudes than those who did not have pregnancies and continued the method.     

The nature of the work-leisure relationship

This article is concerned with the development of an analytical framework, developed from a social psychological perspective, for viewing the nature of the work ethic and its changed character in contemporary industrial life. Toward this end, an analysis of how a typical Western person's attitudes toward work and leisure are formed is presented. The interdependent influence of this attitude upon the worker's mental health is examined. The influence of social evolution in Western culture seems to be altering work-leisure attitudes and this phenomenon is studied. Finally, based on the previous analysis, social policy recommendations for increasing the self-actualizing potential of both work and leisure are offered.     

Gender and racial/ethnic differences in predicting adolescent sexual risk: athletic participation versus exercise

Though often conflated, informal physical exercise and organized athletic participation have very different implications for adolescent sexual risk outcomes. The purpose of this research is to disaggregate strenuous exercise from sports, examine how each is associated with sexual risk, and explain the observed differences using the conceptual lens of cultural resource theory. Using a nationally representative sample of over 16,000 public and private high school students, we employ logistic regression to test hypotheses about the gender-specific and race-specific effects of strenuous exercise and athletic participation on adolescent sexual risk behavior. The results show that both forms of physical activity buffer sexual risk for girls. Strenuous exercise is associated with increased odds of sexual risk for boys. Sports and race interact to influence boys' sexual risk outcomes: Athletic participation is associated with lowered odds of sexual risk for white male adolescents, but heightened odds of sexual risk for black male adolescents.     

Health lifestyles in Russia and the socialist heritage

This study examines the relationship between socialist ideology and the current negative health lifestyles of the Russian population. We explore the possibility that Soviet-style socialism with its negation of individuality and individual initiative in health matters promoted the development of a passive orientation toward healthy living. Using a national sample, we compare the health practices of those Russians who wish to return to socialism as it was before Gorbachev to those of Russians who favor staying with the present political and economic course or adopting other reforms. If a socialist ideology has indeed fostered a lack of responsibility for individual health promotion in Russia today, those persons wishing to return to socialism would be less likely to adopt a positive health lifestyle. Our data show that this is indeed the case, as pro-socialist respondents demonstrate less activity toward achieving health than antisocialists--although neither group collectively practices a healthy way of life.     

The crisis of 'identity' in high modernity

The concept of 'identity' is central to much contemporary sociology, reflecting a crisis that manifests itself in two ways. Firstly, there is a view that identity is both vital and problematic in this period of high modernity. Secondly, while this awareness is reflected in sociology, its accounts of identity are inconsistent, under-theorized and incapable of bearing the analytical load required. As a result, there is an inherent contradiction between a valuing of identity as so fundamental as to be crucial to personal well-being, and a theorization of 'identity' that sees it as something constructed, fluid, multiple, impermanent and fragmentary. The contemporary crisis of identity thus expresses itself as both a crisis of society, and a crisis of theory. This paper explores the diverse ways in which 'identity' is deployed before turning to case-studies of its use by Anthony Giddens and Manuel Castells. This strategy demonstrates the widespread and diverse concern with identity before exploring how problematic it has become, even in the work of two of the world's leading sociologists.     

Indiscriminate data aggregations in meta-analysis. A cause for concern among policy makers and social scientists

Whether you are a policy maker of social scientist, you are slowly being drowned in a sea of often inconsistent research data. Proponents of meta-analysis claim that such data can be objectively and usefully summarized for you. The author notes how the assumptions of the meta-analytic model preclude the synthesis of experimental data (which has a clear cause-and-effect logic) with quasi-experimental and/or nonexperimental data (both of which lack such clarity). Yet in the author's review of 64 recent meta-analytic articles, 11 were found to improperly make such aggregations. Why? The author shows how the guidance provided by the leading proponents of meta-analysis either blurs the distinction or is misleading.