Converging glances: A response to Cathy Caruth's ‘parting words’

Abstract

This essay empasizes the dimensions of opticality in Freud's Beyond the Pleasure Principle and in Caruth's Parting Words. Thinking how to move from the ‘o‐o‐o‐o’ to the ‘a‐a‐a‐a’ central to the Fort/Da game, suggest that ‘u’ must be drawn into the creative act that inspires testimony, critical theory, psychoanalysis and love.     

Changes in body weight and fat mass of men and women in the first year of college: A study of the "freshman 15"

Students entering their first year of college are faced with many stresses and changes, including changes in eating and exercise behavior. A common but often undocumented myth among college students is that there is a high risk of gaining 15 pounds of weight during freshman year. The objective of this study was to measure changes in body weight and percentage of body fat among first-year college students. Using a digital scale with bio-electrical impedance, the authors measured height, weight, and percentage of body fat for a sample of students who volunteered to be weighed during a health assessment in the university dining halls. The authors sent e-mails inviting those same students to complete a second measurement in February of the academic year. Sixty-seven of the 217 students who volunteered for the health assessment agreed to undergo a second set of measurements in the spring. The mean change in body weight was 2.86 pounds (1.3 kg, SD = 4.0 kg), and the mean change in percentage of body fat was 0.7% (SD = 4.0%). For those students who gained weight only, the mean increase in body weight (as measured by body mass index, weight divided by height in kg/m2) was 6.82 pounds (3.1 +/- 2.4 kg) and percentage of body fat was 0.9 +/- 3.8%. The authors found that the first year of college is a period in which weight and fat gain may occur. The exact causes behind these changes are unclear and warrant further research to plan or improve intervention and prevention.     

The New Landform's Here! The New Landform's Here! We're Somebody Now!! The Role of Discursive Practices on Place Identity*

Abstract On the border of western Iowa, a new landform—the “Loess Hills,” is being created. While scientific discourse surrounding the landform has been on going for a century, “discovery” of the landform by local residents is a recent occurrence, stimulated by socioeconomic changes resulting from the “farm crisis.” As this case study shows, the initial scientific discourse and claims, as presented in a series of publications, established the uniqueness and rarity of the hills in scientific terms. Through a complexity of discursive practices, this internalized scientific community discussion was brought into broader public conversations. Aspects of the discursive practices have been taken on by residents at the local level and appropriation of the “Loess Hills” name and facts attributed to the landform has resulted in reshaping place identity among rural residents and altering the traditional power position within the region, with “hill people” now becoming “Loess Hills People.”     

Fund-raising by hospital foundations

1986–87 data for eighty hospitals in Ontario and their foundations are used to assess the influence of various socioeconomic characteristics of the constituent populations and selected characteristics of the beneficiary hospitals on foundation revenue. Six factors appear to increase hospital foundation revenue: a higher percentage of the population that is elderly, a lower percentage of the population born outside Canada, a higher percentage of the population that has not moved within the past year, a larger hospital market share, teaching-status for the beneficiary hospital, and a higher level of foundation expenses.     

Intimate partner violence among married male U.S. Army soldiers: ethnicity as a factor in self-reported perpetration and victimization

Correlates of self-reported intimate partner violence (IPV) were examined among 488 married male U.S. Army soldiers. Study results were examined within the framework of Johnson's (1995) typology, which proposes that there are two main types of IPV, common couple violence and intimate terrorism. We predicted that poor marital adjustment would be associated with minor violence, hypothesized to be indicative of common couple violence. We also predicted that psychological and behavioral characteristics associated with perpetrators of IPV would be more strongly correlated with severe inflicted aggression--a pattern hypothesized to be indicative of intimate terrorism. The results, based on a multivariate analysis of covariance, generally supported our hypotheses. Furthermore, the higher levels of IPV reported by Black respondents in this study were associated with the pattern hypothesized to be characteristic of common couple violence.     

Histories of poverty and self-rated health trajectories

This paper investigates the dynamic relationship between poverty histories and self-rated health trajectories. We are interested in patterns of change in individuals' health over time and the ways in which such patterns are structured by continuity and change in poverty experiences. Data, collected for adults aged 25 and older in 1984 (N = 7,258), are from the 1968-1996 annual waves of Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). Individual growth curves allow us to investigate health trajectories as continuous processes, as well as individual and group heterogeneity in these trajectories. We find that, on average, health deteriorates slowly over time, but there is significant variation in health in 1984 and the rate at which health declines. Histories of poverty partly accounted for the sources of individual differences in self-rated health in 1984, but they were not related to health change over time. Although increasing incomes were better for self-rated health than falling incomes, current economic circumstances did not erase the health effects of earlier poverty experiences.     

A Comparative Analysis of Male and Female Delinquency*

The historically dominant and generally accepted view is that males are much more likely than females to commit delinquent acts, and that when females deviate their misconduct is significantly less serious than that of males. This paper examines the recent contention that the delinquent behavior of males and females is more similar than assumed. Self-report questionnaires were administered in 1977 to a sample of 822 male and female adolescents selected from two urban high schools in a large midwestern state. Following Hindelang (1971), we concentrate on the types of delinquent acts most frequently reported, as well as the extent of involvement in these acts. While males tend to commit most offenses more frequently than females, the pattern of delinquency is virtually identical for the two groups. This uniformity holds for race-sex subgroups, although there are more similarities in delinquency within racial groups than within sex groups.     

Human facial expression judgment in a conversational context

Two hundred eighty male and female college students scaled thirty-five human face photographs for the degree of annoyance, interest, understanding, and spontaneity expressed. An individual differences analysis of the scaling data indicated independence of these expression dimensions and resulted in 11 like-perceiving subgroups of subjects. These homogeneous subgroups were characterized on the basis of their differential use of facial features within as well as between expression dimensions and on their differences in a test of figural creativity.The authors are grateful to Dr. Dina Anselmi and Dr. Michael Tirrell for their contributions to the Phase II data collection.