Sense Of Privacy Research Articles

Love-Letters and Privacy in Modern China: The Intimate Lives of Lu Xun and Xu Guangping. By Bonnie S. McDougall. [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. 305 pp. $125.00. ISBN 0-19-925679-9.

This is an important work from a scholar who has already made wide-ranging contributions to our understanding of modern Chinese literature. With Love-Letters and Privacy in Modern China, Bonnie S. McDougall now adds a valuable study of its most prominent figure, Lu Xun (1881–1936), contributing in particular to the fast-growing scholarship on the private life of this modern icon. Her study focuses on his relationship with Xu Guangping (1898–1968), the student who became his partner, mother of his son, and for three decades after his death, editor and memoirist.Two wider aims, named in the title, are to examine love letters as a literary genre and privacy as a social variable. Such research performs the task of bringing Chinese data to issues of general concern. The matter is not just a territorial one. As the author says of investigating privacy in modern China, “privacy is a human rights issue: deny a sense of privacy . . . , or claim that it is substantially different, and we deny the people of that culture basic rights of association and communication” (p. 209).

Survey data collection using Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interview.

The Audio Computer Assisted Self-Interview (ACASI) is a computer application that allows a research participant to hear survey interview items over a computer headset and read the corresponding items on a computer monitor. The ACASI automates progression from one item to the next, skipping irrelevant items. The research participant responds by pressing a number keypad, sending the data directly into a database. The ACASI was used to enhance participants' sense of privacy. A convenience sample of 257 young urban women, ages 18 to 29 years, were interviewed in neighborhood settings concerning human immune deficiency virus (HIV) sexual risk behaviors. Notebook computers were used to facilitate mobility. The overwhelming majority rated their experience with ACASI as easy to use. This article will focus on the use of ACASI in HIV behavioral research, its benefits, and approaches to resolve some identified problems with this method of data collection.

Increased reporting of male-to-male sexual activity in a national survey.

Prevention program designers need information on sexual behaviors to plan and evaluate their activities. Questions on sexual behavior have been added to a number of nationally representative interview surveys. The goal was to measure the percentage of adult men who have engaged in male-to-male sex in the past year and since age 18 years and to observe and interpret changes over time in these measurements. Data are from the General Social Survey, a nationally representative, household-based survey of adults conducted in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, and 2000. Questions on sexual behavior were part of a self-administered questionnaire completed by respondents. Estimates of male-to-male sex in the past year and since age 18 years were computed. Estimates of male-to-male sex in the past year were higher for surveys conducted beginning in 1996 (3.1%-3.7% compared with 1.7%-2.0% for earlier surveys), a difference that remains statistically significant when controlling for background factors associated with nonresponse. These estimates are also higher than observed from other similar surveys. The estimates are affected by high level of missing data and an unknown level of underreporting. Previous estimates of the size of this population subgroup based on survey research may be too low. Methods that increase survey respondents' sense of privacy and improve completeness of data collection are needed to improve quality of measurement of sensitive sexual behaviors.

NURSES' VIEWS ON SITUATIONS RELATED TO PRIVACY IN PROVIDING HOME CARE FOR PERSONS WITH LONG-TERM MENTAL ILLNESS: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

The main aim of this exploratory study was to explore the views of nurses and mental health care workers on situations related to patient privacy in the home care of persons with long-term mental illness in Sweden. A specifically designed questionnaire was developed from theoretical constructs obtained in a qualitative study and distributed to 1,139 respondents. Data from 660 district nurses, psychiatric nurses, and mental health care workers revealed significant differences in perceptions by age, gender, and professional groups. For example, psychiatric nurses and mental health care workers indicated to a greater extent than district nurses feelings that relate to intrusion on patient privacy. Respondents who were 41 years or younger also indicated to a greater extent than those who were older that they felt home care was an intrusion on patient privacy. Moreover, men indicated to a greater extent than women feelings of insecurity in their professional role. Further investigation is needed, especially into how nurses deal with situations that intrude on patient privacy and how nursing intervention impacts on the patients' own sense of privacy.

'Tendency to Precocity' and 'Childish Uncertainties' of a 'Virago at Fourteen': Djuna Barnes's 'The Diary of a Dangerous Child'

Philip Herring's introduction to his edition of Djuna Barnes's Collected Stories (1) claims that `there is a quality of strangeness in a typical Barnesean story' (p. 7), adding that the characters of these short stories `are largely opaque to our scrutiny' (p. 8), and that Barnes is often `indelicate' and `insensitive' (p. 10), occasionally even `comically inept' (p. 12). Just when all this begins to sound slightly off putting for an introduction to a volume that presents itself as having collected these stories `for the first time', the Barnes persona is evoked. The negative critical judgements are tempered by reassuring comments on the author's ignorance and revitalized by hinting at her angst. `Despite Djuna Barnes's skill at portraying the agony which she herself felt, few American writers of the century could be described as less politically correct or more insensitive to the nuances of racial stereotyping than Djuna Barnes, but this was a function more of ignorance than mean-spiritedness' (p. 8; my italics). From his higher moral ground, the omniscient narrator suggests a link between the `odd mental states, sexual repression, and inexplicable behaviour of Barnes's walking wounded' and `Djuna Barnes's own sense of privacy [which] seemed paradoxically to affect her ability or willingness to reveal the psychological motivation of her characters' (p. 8). The textual strangeness is coloured by dark biographical shades. `Murkiness' pervades Herring's account of these texts; even the stories defined as `most successful', such as `Spillway' (1919), `evoke a metaphysical complexity that remains murky at the end' (p. 15). `Mother', however, is `superior to many' not only because it is `basically a slice of life', but also because `no murky metaphysical question rises to the surface to smile like a Cheshire cat' (p. 16). At the opposite end of the spectrum, `Cassation' (1925), published originally as `A Little Girl Tells a Story to a Lady', is `one of the stranger, murkier stories' (p. 19). The reference to the Cheshire cat ascribes a childish, teasing, and whimsical quality to the insubstantial and unnecessary obscurity of most Barnes's stories, while a biographical root hinting at Barnes's lesbianism is grafted onto the story of seduction told by the `little girl' in `Cassation'. (2) In this article, I would like to investigate how the notion of child works on the one hand in Barnes criticism and, on the other, in the short story `The Diary of a Dangerous Child'. (3) The quoted passages from Herring can work as an example of how the child pervades Barnes criticism in unexplored ways. The latent `murkiness' of some stories is associated with a disturbing whimsicality, unnecessary and yet disquieting, while the most overt `murkiness' is declared as belonging to the little girl's narrative of seduction. Seduction pervades Barnes criticism. Barnes is not simply the `most famous unknown of the century', (4) she also is the seductress of the avant garde: `With her aloof good looks, her superb confidence and wit she captured the avant garde'. (5) I have analysed elsewhere how the Barnes persona has been canonized as `the Garbo of letters' (6) and how the constantly evoked textual murkiness, opacity, and seductive elusiveness are reproduced in biographical narratives. (7) Once located in the realm of `the real', these shadowy traits not only become a source of unending speculation, but are also transformed into a resource for explaining the previously lamented textual opacity. Murky texts are those in which a muddy bottom has surfaced, clouding the clear waters of the rational exercise of critical reading. When murkiness is instead located in allegedly non-textual biographical `reality', then the muddy waters become either the turbulent and fascinating source of subversive anti-patriarchal activities or the destructive force at the bottom of an art of despair. …

Comparison of the auditory and visual privacy of emergency department treatment areas with curtains versus those with solid walls

Study Objective: The design and function of emergency departments may allow breaches of privacy that could adversely affect patient satisfaction and medical care. We sought to determine whether patients perceive less privacy in ED treatment areas with curtains than in rooms with solid walls. Methods: Patients 18 years and older at a university hospital ED who received care in a room with solid walls and a door, a curtained area next to the nurses’ station, or a curtained area away from the nurses’ station were surveyed. Patients responded on a 5-point Likert scale to 11 questions regarding privacy. Differences between areas were determined by using the Kruskal-Wallis and Mann-Whitney tests and were considered significant at P values of less than.05. Results: Structured interviews were conducted with 108 ED patients. Responses from those in the curtained areas were similar. Compared with those in the rooms with walls, these patients more often believed that they could overhear others and that others could hear them, view them, hear personal information, and view personal parts of their bodies (P ≤.04 for all). They also perceived a lower overall sense of privacy (P <.01). Of all those surveyed, 85.2% reported “a lot of” or “complete” respect for privacy by the staff, and 92.6% experienced at least as much privacy as they expected, with no difference between areas. Conclusion: Patients perceive significantly less auditory and visual privacy in ED treatment areas with curtains compared with a room with solid walls. Consideration of these findings in current practice and in future ED design and construction is suggested. [Barlas D, Sama AE, Ward MF, Lesser ML. Comparison of the auditory and visual privacy of emergency department treatment areas with curtains versus those with solid walls. Ann Emerg Med. August 2001;38:135-139.]

Public and Private in Light of Lingerie

Let me start with a bra strap. This curious little stay that some of us have gone to great lengths to hide, disguise or eliminate altogether has in recent years surfaced in a big way, as a headband or in a very deliberate counterpoint with skimpiest of tank tops. In fact, last year valedictorian of my daughter's graduating New York State high school class spoke about big battle: right to bear arms--that is to wear tank tops to school. If one has full look down, bra straps--preferably some eye-catching color-are prominently displayed. How might one explain this curious shift of previously hidden, and at pains hidden underwear, to domain of outerwear? How might one make meaningful the references in fashion submerged in ordinary, as art historian Anne Hollander has phrased it? [1] As a fashion statement, underwear as outerwear is hardly breaking news; it possesses, as Valerie Steele and Hollander have observed, a long history. In fact, there was a fashion flurry In this direction almost a decade ago. In 1992 Essence Magazine ran an article on lingerie titled Secret is Out. Deborah Gregory and Meyer Kip wrote copy which Included phrases, inside story is bursting out.... Hook up innerwear with your favorite jeans and jacket. [2] In a May 1995 issue of People, a little piece titled Slip Shtick tells us slips are only latest undergarment to go public, after bras, corsets, and boxer shorts made jump from inner to outerwear. [3] The curious flip-flop of underwear to outerwear has at least a provocative paratactic relationship to shifts that have occurred in our understanding of and private domains. At its most grand, underwear as outerwear bears meaning in relation to global shift in versus private that is defined by communication revolution, a revolution Inextricable from consumer culture or what I call consumer vortex. In order to describe consumer vortex, we move from microcosm to macrocosm. The last few decades mark a critical phase in our understanding of public and A credit card economy, Internet and omni-present surveillance cameras are redefining--and In some cases erasing--earlier existing notions of versus private. A few years ago, if one made a purchase, one could do it more or less anonymously, but today consumers are asked for zip codes, addresses and telephone numbers. And just try saying no. Because database creation is now part of purchasing transaction, refusal to give a zip code is a deliberate act of resistance. What other areas, linked to supposedly discreet identity, have shifted? For a small fee, one can do a credit search on anyone. Then there is Internet. As we all know, it is hardly secure. When I received my college Internet account I was informed that administration could read my mail- assuming of course that they would not. This was legal considering that all information on school owned machines is available to the institution. Of course one can resort to snail mall--It is still illegal to open and read snail mail but fewer and fewer people are using it for regular communication. Today, we Increasingly live under heightened surveillance, presumably created for our protection or convenience but in process that same surveillance undermines our former sense of privacy. From thruway easy pass to swipe card for entering office or hotel room, someone else can detect and effect our next step. In stores, at traffic lights and in dark of night while checking a random Web site, our every move is potentially monitored. I need not mention abuse of social security number which is regularly used as an identification number by banks and schools. Who is really concerned about this new exposed state of affairs? An admittedly random sample, college students with whom I have discussed this take monitoring and surveillance for granted. …

Obsessive relational intrusion, coping, and sexual coercion victimization

Both obsessive relational intrusion (ORI) and sexual coercion can be viewed as unwanted forms of excessive relational intrusion. ORI is a pattern of persistent invasion of another's sense of privacy for the purpose of advancing a relationship that the target of pursuit does not desire. This study examined first if ORI and sexual coercion victimization tend to correspond, and second, if coping responses tended to correspond with both forms of victimization. Both expectations were strongly supported. Implications for formulating better models of victimization are discussed.

Sense of Privacy and Territoriality as a Function of Spatial Layout in University Public Spaces

The present study was conducted to investigate the effect of spatial layout in a university public space on two socio-spatial phenomena: territoriality and privacy. The study is based on the assumption that different spatial layouts promote different levels of both territoriality and privacy, which are presumed to be interconnected with social interaction within these layouts. The study tested the effect of five types of outdoor spatial layouts which varied in their architectural and landscape elements. The subjects of the study were all university students who used to hang around the outdoor space of the study. The results indicated the following: First, spatial layout influences our sense of territoriality and sense of privacy, and that vertical spatial elements have greater impact than horizontal ones. Second, both territoriality and privacy are influenced by our ability to control interaction with others. Finally, there was a significant positive correlation between territoriality and privacy.

Environmental Messages in Multiple-family Housing: Territory and personalization

The home and its private outdoor space may be characterized as primary territory. As such, it allows the occupants the opportunity to exert control over the activities and behaviours taking place. This paper examines how certain mechanisms are used to enhance or reflect residential territory and, thereby, promote one's sense of privacy, in the design of the adjoining outdoor spaces of homes in multiple-family housing in Abu-Nuseir, Jordan. Two surveys were conducted in Abu-Nuseir, comprising (1) a questionnaire and (2) a field inspection of the territorial marking and personalization of the immediate outdoor environment adjoining residential buildings. Occupants' use of actual and symbolic barriers as a means of manipulation and personalization is reviewed. Results suggest that the presence of actual and symbolic barriers is interpreted as a deterrent to intrusion and an indication of stronger occupant territorial attitudes. Territorial personalization in the environmental setting of multiple-family housing provides an ecological mechanism indicative of one's membership in a group and domain. Territorial features depend upon their inherent physical qualities, general symbolic meanings and the cultural milieu in which they exist.

Disrupting the "Quotidian": Reconceptualizing the Relationship Between Breakdown and the Emergence of Collective Action

This article provides theoretical refinement and empirical specification for the breakdown variant of strain theory. It reconceptualizes the relationship between social breakdown and movement emergence in a fashion that is consistent with strands of cultural theory, phenomenology, and symbolic interactionism, and that resonates with prospect theory and research on collective action in a diversity of settings. It argues that the key to the breakdown-movement relationship resides in the actual or threatened disruption of the "quotidian"—that is, the taken-for-granted routines and attitudes of everyday life. Four conditions are especially likely to disrupt the quotidian and heighten prospects of collective action: accidents that throw a community's routines into doubt and/or threaten its existence; actual or threatened intrusion into and/or violation of citizens' sense of privacy, safety, and control; alteration in subsistence routines because unfavorable ratios of resources to claimants or demand; and dramatic changes in structures of social control. The relationship between these conditions and movement emergence is elaborated by drawing on literature on the emergence of collective action in various contexts and on our field work on homeless mobilization in eight cities. We close by exploring the implications of our analysis for understanding more fully the generality of various conditions and processes commonly thought to apply to social movement emergence.

The &B guest: A comprehensive view

A nationwide survey of almost 1,400 B&B guests provided an overview of those travelers' characteristics. Among guests' top-ten desirable B&B features are (1) a private bath, (2) a sense of privacy, (3) a quiet atmosphere, and (4) an innkeeper who tells of local sights and restaurants. The majority of B&B and country-inn guests are baby boomers, with a median annual household income of $73,000. Almost all were college educated, and 36.4 percent of respondents listed their occupations as professional. Inn guests spend 2.35 nights on a B&B getaway, and respondents projected that they would take 2.62 trips involving a bed-and-breakfast stay in the coming year. A couple typically spends $225.72 per day during a B&B visit for food, lodging, and other purchases.

The B&amp;B Guest

A nationwide survey of almost 1,400 B&amp;B guests provided an overview of those travelers' characteristics. Among guests' top-ten desirable B&amp;B features are (1) a private bath, (2) a sense of privacy, (3) a quiet atmosphere, and (4) an innkeeper who tells of local sights and restaurants. The majority of B&amp;B and country-inn guests are baby boomers, with a median annual household income of $73,000. Almost all were college educated, and 36.4 percent of respondents listed their occupations as professional. Inn guests spend 2.35 nights on a B&amp;B getaway, and respondents projected that they would take 2.62 trips involving a bed-and-breakfast stay in the coming year. A couple typically spends $225.72 per day during a B&amp;B visit for food, lodging, and other purchases.

Notification of a family history of breast cancer: Issues of privacy and confidentiality

Little information is available about notifying individuals with a family history of cancer about their risk of cancer. With the recent identification of BRCA1, an important predisposition gene for breast and ovarian cancer, genetic testing is becoming available to high-risk women and their families. Some of these individuals may not be aware of their family history and may be notified of their family history by medical personnel or biomedical investigators. This disclosure could be detrimental to the individual by changing their perception of risk, sense of privacy, or psychosocial well-being. Members of 544 breast cancer families are currently being contacted as part of an epidemiologic follow-up study at the University of Minnesota. Some family members were unaware of their relative's diagnosis and therefore, notification occurred when they were contacted by study personnel. To determine the impact of risk notification in this context, 376 male and female relatives of 160 breast cancer probands were surveyed to assess their prior knowledge of their family history of cancer, issues relating to study participation, and their concerns regarding the possibility of developing cancer. Following a telephone interview about family history, family members were administered a short, open-ended questionnaire. The majority of individuals (82%) were blood relatives of the proband and 71% were either first- or second-degree relatives. A proportion of blood relatives (24%) were not aware of their family history of breast cancer. More blood relatives (76%) than non-blood relatives (62%, P < 0.01) were aware of their family history. 43 respondents (12%) expressed specific concerns about participating in the large genetic follow-up study and 16 comments concerned privacy issues. Neither the reasons for participation nor an individual's concern about developing cancer was associated with gender of the respondent, relationship to the proband, or awareness of breast cancer in the family. Interestingly, individuals who were notified about their family history through the large follow-up study were no more likely than other family members to be more concerned about developing cancer. Understanding the privacy and psychosocial issues of family members who are informed about a family history of breast cancer may aid in developing appropriate guidelines for notification. Risk notification in this setting does not appear to have a significant impact on these family members. © 1996 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Notification of a family history of breast cancer: issues of privacy and confidentiality.

Little information is available about notifying individuals with a family history of cancer about their risk of cancer. With the recent identification of BRCA1, an important predisposition gene for breast and ovarian cancer, genetic testing is becoming available to high-risk women and their families. Some of these individuals, may not be aware of their family history and may be notified of their family history by medical personnel or biomedical investigators. This disclosure could be detrimental to the individual by changing their perception of risk, sense of privacy, or psychosocial well-being. Members of 544 breast cancer families are currently being contacted as part of an epidemiologic follow-up study at the University of Minnesota. Some family members were unaware of their relative's diagnosis and therefore, notification occurred when they were contacted by study personnel. To determine the impact of risk notification in this context, 376 male and female relatives of 160 breast cancer probands were surveyed to assess their prior knowledge of their family history of cancer, issues relating to study participation, and their concerns regarding the possibility of developing cancer. Following a telephone interview about family history, family members were administered a short, open-ended questionnaire. The majority of individuals (82%) were blood relatives of the proband and 71% were either first- or second-degree relatives. A proportion of blood relatives (24%) were not aware of their family history of breast cancer. More blood relatives (76%) than nonblood relatives (62%, P < 0.01) were aware of their family history. 43 respondents (12%) expressed specific concerns about participating in the large genetic follow-up study and 16 comments concerned privacy issues. Neither the reasons for participation nor an individual's concern about developing cancer was associated with gender of the respondent, relationship to the proband, or awareness of breast cancer in the family. Interestingly, individuals who were notified about their family history through the large follow-up study were no more likely than other family members to be more concerned about developing cancer. Understanding the privacy and psychosocial issues of family members who are informed about a family history of breast cancer may aid in developing appropriate guidelines for notification. Risk notification in this setting does not appear to have a significant impact on these family members.

Privacy's Background

The article examines the setting, in the broadest terms historically, for our contemporary sense of privacy. Given our obvious preoccupation with privacy, there is no need to recite why such an examination might pay dividends. The article has three parts, a consideration of the ancient perspective on privacy by way mostly of Plato and Aristotle, a shorter consideration of the Old Testament perspective, and a consideration of the New Testament and Christian perspective, which is taken to be the primary impulse to our present viewpoint. I conclude with a brief suggestion about a contemporary political problem inherent in this viewpoint.

Children's Literature and the Politics of the Nation-State

Children's Literature and the Politics of the Nation-State J. D. Stahl (bio) Zur Lage der Jugendbuchautoren. Eine Untersuchung über die soziale Situation der Kinder und Jugendschriftsteller in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, by Helmut Müller. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz, 1980. Der Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis. Eine Wirkungsanalyse, by Klaus Doderer and Cornelia Riedel. Weinheim and Munich: Juventa Verlag, 1988. Die Welt gehört den Kindern. Das moderne China und seine Kinderbücher, by Jean-Pierre Diény. Trans. Helmut Müller. Weinheim and Basel: Beltz, 1973. These three works, with their very different foci, are all concerned with the problematic relationship between children's literature and the state, or, more specifically, with the position of the author of children's literature in society. They examine the political and economic positions that children's book authors occupy in nations as diverse as the Federal Republic of Germany and the People's Republic of China. Müller, Doderer, and Riedel probe these and related issues through the techniques of sociological investigationquestionnaires that quantify and categorize the social position of a more or less representative group of West German children's authors (Müller) or that examine the influence and social context of the Deutsche Jugendliteraturpreis, the only state-granted literary prize in West Germany (Doderer and Riedel). These two works appeared before German Unification, and reflect only the West German situation; Unification will naturally require new studies to meet the dynamics of the new situation. Diény's study examines a group of children's books purchased in China on the eve of the Cultural Revolution and uses this group of works as the basis for his analysis of the relationship between propaganda and art in Chinese society. [End Page 193] As varied as their approaches and materials are, these three books each raise the difficult question of what the role of government should be in the support, development, and control of children's literature. Müller criticizes West German cultural policy for surrendering children's book publishing to market forces that reduce literature to the status of commodity. Doderer and Riedel provide a sophisticated critique of the influence of the national children's literature prize in the context of its historical goal of reaching a broad audience, its actual effects, which tend to be confined to the educated and relatively privileged, and the inescapable pressures of the popular media that are altering if not threatening the whole culture of literacy. Finally, Diény brings into focus the conflict between art and propaganda in a nation-state in which all forms of art have become politicized, but he wavers between endorsements of the goals of the Chinese revolution and critiques of revolutionary art from an aesthetic perspective. These books raise the question of whether children's literature is ultimately a means of social control (even when its goal is liberation) or of subversion. If the state has a responsibility for promoting children's literature, does it have any right to influence the forms that literature takes and the ideas it expresses? The paradoxical nature of art as a social function is brought to light by these very different discussions. Ironically, even the idea of a scholarly (and thus presumably state-funded) investigation into the conditions of life for children's book authors elicited resentment among those approached in the study conducted by Helmut Müller and a team from the Institut für Jugendbuchforschung at the University of Frankfurt. The appearance of a long, detailed, complex questionnaire in the mail of children's writers evoked some cries of protest, some (pointed?) silence, and even a sarcastic commentary on Bavarian radio. In an era of sensitivity to state control through data collection and supervision, such questions seemed to some an invasion of privacy. Yet the study itself suggested that West German children's book authors belong to a group that is not only intent on preserving its sense of privacy and individuality, but also lacking in any collective sense of itself as a group with common problems and interests. This is reflected in the tendency of publishers to shortchange if not exploit writers in their financial arrangements. Though Müller's approach is partly...

Talking Family Planning: A Fieldwork Handbook.

This practical indexed and illustrated handbook grew out of 2 workshops held by the Family Planning Association of Kenya and the Family Planning Council of Nigeria. It covers the fieldworkers job knowing the audience and talking with clients. Examples are given of ways to open conversations and to give family planning information without offending a sense of privacy. Chapters also cover dealing with other social service agencies (including the family planning fieldworker as counsellor) working within the total family planning framework and evaluation. 1 chapter covers choosing and making audio-visual aids. Recruitment of fieldworkers training of fieldworkers and managing the program are covered. It is suggested that fieldworkers come from audiences they are expected to reach. This way the nuances of the culture will be second nature. Training should be practical with opportunities for role-playing and actual practice. Incentives should include follow-up of former acceptors as well as getting new ones.