Helping Women and Protecting the Self: The Challenge of Emotional Labor in an Abortion Clinic

One of the central problems in the performance of emotional labor at work revolves around how workers balance the needs of the job with those of the self. Drawing on data collected through participant observation and from in-depth, loosely structured interviews with nine clinic employees, this study analyzes how one group of abortion clinic workers negotiated the difficulties associated with emotional labor in ways that allowed them to achieve this balance. More specifically, we examine the interactive processes by which workers categorized patients into distinct types and developed specific strategies, along a continuum from investment to detachment, that enabled them to cope effectively with each type of patient. The implications of these strategies for understanding the connections between self, emotion, and authenticity are also discussed.     

As Good as it Gets? A Life Course Perspective on Marital Quality

Marital relationships, like individuals, follow a developmental trajectory over time with ups and downs and gains and losses. We work from a life course perspective and use growth curve analysis to look at trajectories of change in marital quality over time. Although the tendency is for marital quality to decline over time, some groups begin with much higher levels of marital quality than others. Moreover, a number of life course and contextual factors can accelerate or slow this path of change. Our findings point to the importance of considering the multi-dimensionality of time (e.g., age, marital duration, the passage of years) as well as family transitions (e.g., having children, emptying or refilling the nest) in creating the meanings and experiences of marriage over time.     

Encountering the postmodern: new directions in cultural anthropology

Faisant appel à la littérature d'études culturelles, cet article suggère que la condition de post-modernité crée de nouveaux challenges pour le domaine d'anthropologie culturelle qui vont au delà du problème pourtant significatif de la représentation ethnographique. Explorant le projet post-moderniste comme l'un de ceux qui impliquent une approche particuliere des phénomènes culturels dans une économie globale, l'article pousse les anthropologues à reconcevoir le concept de culture et à explorer les politiques culturelles de la vie quotidienne dans le contexte d'une representation globale du capitalisme.
Drawing upon cultural studies literature, this article suggests that the condition of postmodernity poses new challenges to the field of cultural anthropology that go beyond the (still significant) problem of ethnographic representation. Exploring the postmodernist project as one that involves a particular approach to cultural phenomena in a multinational global economy, the article urges anthropologists to reconceive the concept of culture and explore the cultural politics of everyday life in the context of the global restructuring of capitalism.     

An alternative model for curriculum building in clinical social work education: The California Institute for Clinical Social Work

Summary The growth and development of the California Institute for Clinical Social Work has been parallelled by the enhanced professional contributions of its alumni. Of the 59 graduates of the Institute, ten hold academic positions in top-ranking institutions of higher learning while three more are the chief administrators of social agencies. The remainder devote their time to direct clinical practice.In a recent survey of alumni, all graduates commented in one form or another upon the fact that because of the program, their work was more rewarding personally and was more responsive to clients' needs because of the knowledge and skill that they had gained. The evolution begun in 1974 still continues. This novel program has been elaborated to meet changing needs. Study of its efficacy and flexibility will be pursued as its development proceeds.     

Older men in employed and retired families

Although much research on household work has focused on young dual-career couples, there has been speculation that retirement may have a significant effect on the arrangement of household activities in later life. Furthermore, involvement in the household is believed to influence psychological well-being. Available literature, however, provides contradictory evidence regarding the extent to which integration into household activities may either reduce or contribute to stress. The degree to which male involvement in the household in later life was stressful was examined in this research. Data were analyzed from structured interviews with 1165 older, married men who were employed full-time, part-time, or retired. Employed men were significantly less involved in the household than were the retired; however, men participated more in both masculine and feminine tasks if their wives were employed. Involvement in the household was not stressful although the benefits derived from participation varied somewhat by type of task.