Oral Sex,Young People,and Gendered Narratives of Reciprocity

Young people in many countries report gender differences in giving and receiving oral sex, yet examination of young people’s own perspectives on gender dynamics in oral heterosex are relatively rare. We explored the constructs and discourses 16- to 18-year-old men and women in England used in their accounts of oral sex during in-depth interviews. Two contrasting constructs were in circulation in the accounts: on one hand, oral sex on men and women was narrated as equivalent, while on the other, oral sex on women was seen as “a bigger deal” than oral sex on men. Young men and women used a “give and take” discourse, which constructed the mutual exchange of oral sex as “fair.” Appeals to an ethic of reciprocity in oral sex enabled women to present themselves as demanding equality in their sexual interactions, and men as supporting mutuality. However, we show how these ostensibly positive discourses about equality also worked in narratives to obscure women’s constrained agency and work with respect to giving oral sex.     

Using the Multiple-Choice Procedure to Measure the Relative Reinforcing Efficacy of Gambling: Initial Validity Evidence Among College Students

The multiple choice procedure (MCP) is used to assess the relative reinforcing value of concurrently available stimuli. The MCP was originally developed to assess the reinforcing value of drugs; the current within-subjects study employed the MCP to assess the reinforcing value of gambling behavior. Participants (N = 323) completed six versions of the MCP that presented hypothetical choices between money to be used while gambling ($10 or $25) versus escalating amounts of guaranteed money available immediately or after delays of either 1 week or 1 month. Results suggest that choices on the MCP are correlated with other measures of gambling behavior, thus providing concurrent validity data for using the MCP to quantify the relative reinforcing value of gambling. The MCP for gambling also displayed sensitivity to reinforcer magnitude and delay effects, which provides evidence of criterion validity. The results are consistent with a behavioral economic model of addiction and suggest that the MCP could be a valid tool for future research on gambling behavior.     

Adolescence and Youth among Displaced Ethiopians: A Case Study in Kaliti Camp

The effects of trauma on adolescent mental health were studied via ethnographic fieldwork and the application of psychological testing. A random sampling of 108 war-traumatized subjects (68 male and 40 female) was given the Trauma Event subscale of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Symptom Check List 90-Revised. More than 90% of the sample lost their property, 70% suffered extreme thirst, and more than a third witnessed death. They had all been living for the past six years in an extremely poor camp for the displaced. Yet, the psychopathology of the group was considerably less than expected. The authors attributed this to the adolescents' appraisal of the particular circumstances of their lives. They compared their poverty with other Ethiopians, and they compared their relative freedom given to them by their community with the adolescence of their parents and of other Ethiopians. The openness of the community in allowing adolescents to live outside of traditional norms was particularly salient for the females. The authors concluded that situational and circumstantial factors must be considered in assessing the mental health of war-traumatized adolescents.     

Human–environment interactions in South Florida's Everglades region: Systems of ecological degradation and restoration

This chapter examines the societal drivers of environmental change in South Florida's Everglades region during the past 150 years. This historical geography is developed through the use of a conceptual framework constructed to facilitate the analysis of human–environment interactions and nature–society systems of ecological degradation and restoration at the regional scale. The framework is composed of four basic interlinked components: interaction mechanisms (e.g., land use, direct resource utilization, pollution and external inputs, resource competition), feedback mechanisms (e.g., basic needs, quality of life, environmental ethics), control systems (e.g., governmental regimes, legal institutions, resource management), and the societal context (e.g., population and demographic patterns, social structure and organization, technology, economic conditions, societal values). A primary objective of this chapter is to determine the presence and importance of each of these components during the process of environmental change over the period of study—1845 to 1995.Data for the analysis are drawn from primary and secondary sources on the environmental, social, economic, and political history of South Florida. The results indicate that although elements of each component were present throughout the entire period, different elements of each component play more significant roles at differing moments. The shifts in importance are used to define four periods of environmental change within the region. The periods are the following: (1) frontier settlement (1845–1900), focused on basic needs acquisition and direct utilization of the resource base; (2) drainage and land conversion (1900–1930), focused on population and economic growth, land use change, and increased resource management and competition; (3) flood control and consolidation (1930–1950), focused on inputs from external sources and infusion of advanced technology, the development of governance and social structures, and increased concern for quality of life; (4) postwar boom, flood control, and water supply (1950–1970), focused on accelerated land use change, increased pollution, and further heightened concern for local quality of life; and (5) period of limits (1970–1995), focused on pollution and resource competition concerns, a developing regional environmental ethic and amenity values, and environmental preservation governance strategies.Taken together, the five periods represent the differing nature–society systems through which South Florida's regional ecosystem was degraded and which is now entering a phase of restoration.     

Older People and the Health–Social Care Boundary in the UK: Half a Century of Hidden Policy Conflict

The boundary between health and social care services has been an important focus of both social research and policy reform in many western and northern European countries. In the UK there is a history of particularly sharp divisions between the centrally funded NHS and locally run social services. A consequence for older people, especially those with less acute or "intermediate" needs, is that they may be rationed out, ignored, or treated inappropriately on either side of the boundary. This paper seeks to go beyond explanations in terms of financial, administrative and professional divisions by using now-available public records to show how the boundary between health and social care was set in stone in the immediate postwar years and resulted in a constant battle between the two services over the needs they would meet. The first part of the paper examines a largely hidden history of health and social care policy. The second part examines the new NHS Plan and the extent to which it is likely to resolve the problem of the boundary.     

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING'S "FAMILY DISEASE": ANOREXIA NERVOSA

What was Elizabeth Barrett Browning's mysterious and variously diagnosed “disease”? This study reviews biographical material in the light of modern family systems theory and develops a hypothesis that Elizabeth Barrett lived with her family of origin in “anorectic transaction”, and that chronic anorexia nervosa was embedded in the Victorian poet's lifestyle. The characteristics of anorectic families: enmeshment, overprotection, rigidity, and lack of conflict resolution, are shown to have been abundantly present in Barrett family patterns. Robert Browning is compared with a family therapist whose interventions restructure a system and free the anorectic from her dysfunctional symptom.     

A unified theory for generalized cyclic designs

Properties of abelian groups are used to unify the construction of cyclic and generalized cyclic designs. Necessary and sufficient conditions are obtained for the generation of fractional sets of blocks, and also for the generation of resolvable designs. It is shown how to apply these results in conjunction with efficiency arguments to obtain useful designs.