CALGARY FAMILY INTERVENTION MODEL: ONE WAY TO THINK ABOUT CHANGE

This article defines and describes the Calgary Family Intervention Model (CFIM). CFIM is an organizing framework conceptualizing the intersect between a particular domain (i.e., cognitive, affective, or behavioral) of family functioning and a specific intervention offered by a health professional. Examples and discussion of interventions such as storying the illness experience, encouraging respite, and asking interventive questions are presented. CFIM is one way that health professionals can conceptualize about change.     

The Farm Crisis and Mental Health: A Longitudinal Study of the 1980s1

Abstract This paper examines rural/urban differences and trends in mental health during the farm crisis of the 1980s in a large panel sample from a midwestern state. A community research perspective, which attributes differences to life styles, culture, and community context, is contrasted with an economic stress perspective, which focuses on individual differences in economic circumstances as determinants of rural-urban differences in mental health. Survey samples from 1981, 1986, and 1989 are used to examine differences among seven categories of community type. Multiple regression analysis of the trend and panel data provide support for both the individual economic distress and community context models.     

EDITH WHARTON'S SICK ROLE

In this article, we conduct a textual analysis of Edith Wharton's 1911 novel, Ethan Frome . We offer three readings. The first presents Wharton's account of illness through a framework developed foru decades later by Talcott Parsons. Wharton's sick role was less medico-centric than Parsons; it emphasized the importance of class, gender and community in defining and legitimizing the sick role. Our second reading explores the socially constructed nature of roles in illness. The sick role as portrayed by Wharton is not the social fact later conceived by Parsons, but a social construct with no determinate reference beyond that which the local community is willing to grant it. Our third reading examines the social context, particularly the power relations, within which this story of illness has been constructed.     

Public Perceptions about Food Safety in the United States and Japan1

Abstract Consumer concerns over pesticide residues and food additives have been growing in industrialized societies, including the United States and Japan. However, little comparative research has been carried out to determine which household characteristics may be significantly associated with these heightened concerns, and whether or not the same factors are useful for understanding variation in these worries in more than one society. This paper examines food safety attitudes in Seattle, Washington, and Kobe, Japan, and discovers that while the absolute level of expressed concern is higher in Kobe, the predictive power of household characteristics in explaining attitudinal differences within countries is similar. Implications for rural areas and future research on family structures in capitalist societies are discussed.     

WOMEN ATHLETES AS FALSELY ACCUSED DEVIANTS: Managing the Lesbian Stigma

As the behavior of women athletes is often interpreted to violate gender norms, women athletes are frequently devalued and stigmatized. The present study examines the manner in which such devaluation and stigmatization impact on women athletes and how these athletes manage the lesbian label attached to their sport participation. In-depth telephone interviews were conducted with 24 intercollegiate athletes from three Division I universities. Processes underlying athletes' responses parallel Becker's construction of the "falsely accused deviant" and Goffman's conceptualization of "stigma management." Factors leading to false accusation of lesbianism are discussed, as well as the various mechanisms utilized by athletes to manage the lesbian label.     

MONEY DEMAND DURING HYPERINFLATION AND STABILIZATION: BOLIVIA, 1980–1988

This paper examines the demand for money in Bolivia during the 1980s, a decade of extreme instability with annual inflation rates reaching over 20,000 percent, and a subsequent stabilization, with annual rates falling to less than 25 percent and remaining so for more than five years.
Our empirical analysis makes use of error-correction approaches, time-varying-parameter estimation with Kalman filtering, and GARCH models of expected inflation and inflation variance. We find that expected inflation and inflation uncertainty both matter for money demand. Time-varying estimates show that the reaction to monetary disequilibria was significantly faster during hyperinflation.     

Will taxpayers ever like taxes?: Responses to the U.S. Tax Reform Act of 1986

Major policy changes like the 1986 Tax Reform Act (TRA) in the United States provide natural experiments to study attitudinal and behavior responses to law. Surprisingly, public evaluations of the TRA became increasingly negative after passage, while general support for the tax system became more positive in response to the changes. To explain this puzzle, we propose a dynamic model of taxpayer attitudes that is consistent with the observed loose linkage between logically-connected concepts. We briefly review the political context, objectives and impacts of the 1986 Tax Reform Act, and present several studies testing the impact of self-interest, prior beliefs, and social discussion on changes in attitudes and behavior.Results suggest that the complexity of taxes and difficulty in knowing objective impacts weakens the role of self-interest in attitudinal changes, thereby strengthening the role of prior beliefs and discussion. Evaluations of tax laws are most responsive to more politically-oriented influences.