Member Perspectives on the Role of BDSM Communities

Bondage-discipline/Dominance-submission/sadomasochism (BDSM) is an often misunderstood and misrepresented social phenomenon warranting further discourse and study. Community-based research that engages member perspective can assist in understanding socially marginalized experiences. The current study examined the role, meaning, and function of BDSM communities from the perspective of self-identified members. Seven nominal group technique workshops were conducted representing a variety of practitioner experiences and identities. Workshops involved 48 participants and resulted in the generation of 133 unique terms describing the role of BDSM communities in their lives. Terms were coded using a five-step procedure involving both academic and community members. A total of 15 categories were identified and included domains such as acceptance, sexual expression, friendship, safety, and sharing of educational knowledge. Results underscore the multifaceted nature of the role of such communities. While results consisted of mostly positive features, participants also identified certain negative aspects, such as conflict among members. Results from the study provide a succinct, member-derived, structured inventory of the role of BDSM communities that can serve to validate and synthesize existing research, improve dissemination of community voice around BDSM, and inform future research. We conclude with a discussion of the study’s implications for sex education, clinical practice, and community dissemination.     

Is there a physician union in your future?

Physician unions are in the news. Patient management and patient care decisions are increasingly being taken out of the hands of physicians and put into the hands of "The Suits." To take their case for a return to physician-driven patient care to the people, some physicians are joining unions. Some are even collectively bargaining for salary and other issues that are historically more closely associated with unions. The simple fact is that physician unions exist and the number of physicians joining them is expected to increase. What are the pros and cons of unionization? What motivates physicians to join unions, and what potential negative and positive factors are associated with physician unionization? This article reviews the pros and cons and the issues related to physician unions, for physicians attempting to answer the question, "Is there a union in my future?"     

The effects of income and inflation on personal satisfaction: Functional measurement in economic psychology

Controlled experimental designs and functional measurement procedures were used to study how people perceive the effects of changes in major economic variables. In experiment I one group of subjects rated economic well-being and another group of subjects rated personal satisfaction for a variety of economic scenarios described by variations in salary, rate of increase in salary (annual raise), and annual rate of inflation. Stimulus interaction effects were found for each response scale showing that there is not a simple subtractive relationship between wage gains and inflation in determining perceived economic impact. Experiment 2 further investigated the interactive effects of raise and inflation on personal satisfaction. Results were discussed in terms of two complementary psychological processes: a “negativity effect” whereby unfavorable levels of raise and inflation have disproportionate weight, and a comparison of raise and inflation rate whereby personal satisfaction is incremented disproportionately when raise changes from below the inflation rate to above the inflation rate. Psychological concepts revealed in this study were related to economic concepts of “elasticity of demand” and “money illusion”.     

Spectacles of Freedom: Public Manumissions,Political Rhetoric,and Citizen Mobilisation in Mid-Nineteenth-Century Colombia

This article rethinks the role of public manumission ceremonies and emancipation itself in mid-nineteenth-century Colombia as symbolic gestures designed to attract and be meaningful for audiences composed of citizens. Whereas scholars have focused on the presumed failures of the manumission juntas, the present study argues that their primary goal was not to free slaves but to create rituals of civic participation, embodiments of egalitarian citizenship, rhetoric of republican virtue, and propaganda for Liberal Party rule. By rendering slaves into symbols of citizens' interests and preoccupations, these spectacles obscured the role of slaves themselves in destroying slavery.     

Assessing symptoms of hypogonadism by self-administered questionnaire: qualitative findings in patients and controls

Background. Current screening instruments for hypogonadism lack adequate specificity and diagnostic accuracy. A new self-administered questionnaire of hypogonadism symptoms is being developed to address this need. The process for questionnaire development and results from the first (qualitative) phase are presented.

Methods. Qualitative interviews were conducted based on a new conceptual model of hypogonadism and according to standards for questionnaire development. An item pool was generated from focus groups and in-depth interviews with two groups of hypogonadal patients, treated (N = 26) and untreated (N = 26), and age-equivalent controls (N = 28). Standardized scoring of the qualitative interviews was used to confirm conceptual domains in the model and to generate questionnaire items for further validation.

Results. Key domains identified in both patients and controls included: (a) physical function; (b) bodily signs and symptoms; (c) sexual function and libido; (d) sleep function; (e) mood and affective function; (f) memory and cognitive function. The final domain is distress or bother associated with hypogonadism symptoms. This domain was only relevant to the patient groups.

Conclusions. The first stage in the design of a new hypogonadism screener has been completed. Seven domains were identified and draft items were developed in each domain according to current standards of patient-reported outcomes.