Sociological Patterns Research Articles

The Problem of Women's Sociality in Contemporary North American Feminist Memoir

Systematic analysis of 25 contemporary North American feminist memoirs reveals the significance of this kind of cultural production in the life of the women's movement. In memoir, feminists contest dominant movement narratives, recast and reclaim conventional gender stereotypes, and use their experiences to refine movement ideas and goals. Combining sociological aggregation and pattern identification and interpretivist understandings of memoir's empirical significance, this research indicates that feminists have spent considerable energy focused on transforming not just relations between women and men but among women themselves. To this end, they assert that feminists must acknowledge two difficult “truths”—women are emotionally damaged, and women are not as socially capable as convention would suggest. By analyzing such arguments, this article indicates feminist memoir is a vehicle through which actors do not simply uphold but also contest movement narratives, refining or abandoning movement frames that wear thin as lived experience contradicts them.

An Investigation of the Sociological Patterns of Prayer Frequency and Content*

The majority of previous social scientific research on prayer has focused on the relationship between prayer and various types of health outcomes. Only limited attention has been given to prayer itself. This study examines the frequency and content of prayer using empirical data from the Baylor Religion Survey (2005), a national random sample of U.S. adults (N=1,721). Results indicate that women, African-Americans, and those with lower incomes pray more often than males, whites, and those with higher incomes. Concerning content of prayer, African-Americans and those at lower levels of income and education are more likely to pray about petitionary concerns such as asking God to influence personal health or one’s financial situation. In addition people at lower income levels are more likely to offer prayer in an effort to gain supernatural favor and good standing with the divine. Theoretically this is understood by conceptualizing prayer as a coping mechanism. It would be difficult to overstate the importance of prayer to religion, for it is “belief and ritual at the same time” (Mauss 2003:22) and “to religion what thinking is to philosophy” (the poet Novalis as quoted in Heiler 1932:viii). Although prayer represents a fundamental aspect of religious life, the influence of social factors on prayer patterns has yet to be extensively explored. This study uses the 2005 Baylor Religion Survey to provide information about sociological patterns of prayer frequency and content. Demonstrating how sociodemographic variables influence prayer provides evidence for the connection between sociological factors and even the most private of religious practices. Prayer represents an individual’s attempt to communicate with the supernatural (Stark and Finke 2000), as well as oneself and others (Ladd and Spilka 2002, 2006). It is expected that social factors will play a fundamental role in determining how communication with the supernatural manifests itself by influencing the reasons people pray and the needs prayer addresses. Sociology of Religion 2008, 69:2 169-185

Gregory Bateson in contemporary cross‐cultural systemic psychotherapy

PurposeThis paper seeks to examine the relevance of Bateson's ethnographic work to systemic psychotherapy.Design/methodology/approachThe paper addresses this by examining Bateson's work with the naven ritual practiced by the Iatmul people of New Guinea. Bateson published this work in an ethnography entitled Naven, which has largely been ignored by systemic psychotherapists.FindingsIt is argued that Bateson's early work has been neglected in the field of psychotherapy despite being highly relevant to the development of cross‐cultural approaches in this field. The paper summarises Bateson's arguments in the main body of the book and in the two epilogues which provide Bateson's own commentary on this work. Key concepts such as “context” “pattern” and “ethos” are discussed. The paper also addresses the issues of how psychotherapists and ethnographers have access to the meaning of their interlocutors and outlines some pointers given by Bateson upon which psychotherapists may build in their cross‐cultural work with clients. Bateson's thinking about emotional, sociological and behavioural patterns and the way he involved himself in interpreting these is briefly considered in relation to the work of the anthropologist/sociologist Pierre Bourdieu on the one hand, and the psychoanalyst Wilfred Bion, on the other.Practical implicationsThe theoretical discussion aims to contribute to the development of a rigorous approach to cross‐cultural psychotherapy and to the integration of social science and psychotherapy.Originality/valueThe paper will be of value to systemic psychotherapists, psychotherapists generally, anthropologists, social scientists and clinicians interested in cross‐cultural clinical work and in ethnographic enquiry.

Temperature Variability and Spatial Hotspots of Dengue Fever Occurrence in Taiwan

P-667 Abstract: Increasing global warming has resulted in elevated temperatures, rising numbers of extreme weather events, as well as predicted effects on the frequency and distribution of vector borne infectious diseases through changing ecological systems of vectors, changing transmission dynamics of vectors and pathogens, and changing the sociological patterns of human activities and adaptations. Dengue fever has been the most dominant vector borne infectious diseases in Taiwan, and a significant inter-annual variability of dengue fever incidence could be observed. Our study therefore conducted a spatial autocorrelation analysis to detect the changes in incidence across space and time and further evaluate the linkage between annual changes of temperature on the changes of spatial cluster of dengue fever. Computerized database containing daily registration of dengue fever cases in Taiwan for the period of 1998- 2004 were obtained from Taiwan CDC. Annual incidence rate of dengue fever in every township was then calculated. Geographic information system (ArcGIS 9.1) was applied to estimate and demonstrate the spatial patterns of dengue fever incidence. Spatial autocorrelation was examined by GeoDa0.9.5 and Moran's I value was used to identify spatial cluster of disease occurrence. Moran Significance Map was plotted to characterize the annual hotspot clusters of dengue fever. Significant Moran's I statistics could be observed in the year of 1998 (I= 0.1195), 2000 (I= 0.0157), 2001(I=0.0428), 2002 (I=0.4329), 2003 (I=0.1458), and 2004 (I=0.0656). Preliminary data distribution appeared to suggest that annual hotspot clusters with high incidence rate of dengue fever were all located in southern Taiwan. Those hotspots were mostly scattered along the paths of water channels and rivers. In addition, annual average temperature was also found to be associated with Moran's I value with marginal significance examined by Spearman's correlation test (r=0.679, p=0.094). Hotspot identification for dengue fever in our study is hoped to to assist in decision-making for preventive measures to prioritize areas of urgency, for vector control, environmental interventions, and personal protection promotion. Our analyses have suggested that increase of annual temperature seemed to be linked with spatial clusters of dengue fever, and areas along the rivers and water channels were often of greater urgency for taking prompt preventions. Further study should be conducted to analyze the relationship between weather variability and clusters of dengue fever distribution to evaluate the impacts of climate change on dengue fever distribution in Taiwan.

Economics of Digital Content and Online Illegal Filesharing: Legal Issues

This article analyzes relevant legal, economic and policy issues inherent in illegal online filesharing. Presently, there are no unified sets of laws, clear standards of behavior, standards of evidence or 'efficient' laws that function with respect to the sociological patterns of illegal filesharing.

La production de programmes de cours par les agents intermédiaires : transferts de savoirs et relations de pouvoir

Eric Mangez. The production of curricula by intermediaries: knowledge transfer and power relationships The paper aims at a sociological analysis of pedagogic discourses as it establishes relations between pedagogical beliefs and structural positions. At first, we show the growing legitimacy of invisible pedagogic discourses (Bernstein) within the French Community of Belgium during the 90’ s. Then through an analysis of the curriculum for a specific course (French), we bring to light differences between the two main schooling organisations: these two organisations did not lean towards invisible pedagogy with the same intensity. The Catholic schooling organisation seems to have stepped into invisible pedagogy in a more radical way than the State schooling system, although the latter also engaged in this change. These pedagogic differences are shown to reflect the differences between the two organizations in terms of their organizational structures and in terms of the sociological patterns of those in charge of writing the curricula within both organizations.

Is clinical expressiveness of Paget’s disease of bone decreasing?

Recent data have suggested secular changes implying a current trend toward decreased clinical severity of Paget’s disease of bone (PD). To test this hypothesis, we conducted a study comparing the characteristics of two groups of PD patients, as disclosed from a sample assessed systematically. The investigation was a hospital-based study of all cases followed up at our unit since 1980. Throughout the follow-up period, diagnosis was based on standard X-ray criteria and the same clinical assessment was applied. Group I (n = 124) represented patients born before 1926, whereas group II (n = 109) included those born after that year. A bone scan performed with 99mTc-EHDP was available for all patients. X-rays of the pelvis and spine, and views of any hot spot observed on the scintigraphy scans were reviewed. The skeletal extent of PD, based on bone scan uptake, was determined by using the index proposed by Coutris. Alkaline phosphatase and hydroxyproline excretion levels were determined in blood and urine, respectively. Baseline characteristics were recorded on a purpose-designed computerized database. The proportion of males (47% in group I vs. 65% in group II; p = 0.007) and the mean (±SD) age at diagnosis (69.0 ± 8.15 vs. 54.3 ± 9.14; p < 0.001) differed significantly between groups. The year of birth showed a strong negative correlation with age at diagnosis ( r = −0.83, p < 0.0001) and a weak, but significant, negative correlation with extent of bone lesion ( r = −0.20; p = 0.002). Likewise, subjects born prior to 1926 showed a greater percentage of affected skeleton cases (9.6 ± 8.01 vs. 7.06 ± 5.79; p = 0.001). Group I individuals who had pelvic and/or femoral bone lesions were more prone to suffer “pagetic coxopathy” (65% vs. 40%; p = 0.003) with “protrusio acetabuli” (32% vs. 17%; p = 0.01), and the percentage of patients showing radiographic Monckeberg-type vascular calcifications (36% vs. 14%; p = 0.0006) was higher than in those born after 1926. No other epidemiologically clinically, or biochemically relevant differences were seen in the crude analysis. Multivariate analysis identified extent of skeletal lesions (OR = 0.76; p = 0.01), age at diagnosis (OR = 0.79; p = 0.008), number of bones involved (OR = 1.53; p = 0.03), and occupation ( p < 0.0001) as the predictive variables linked to year of birth. Our data are consistent with a temporal tendency toward a smaller number of bone lesions and a decreased percentage of instances of affected skeleton. An earlier age at recent diagnosis times and absence of any relevant clinical or biochemical differences seems more likely linked to recent changes in referral and sociological patterns.

Max Gluckman and the Critique of Segregation in South African Anthropology, 1921–1940

Max Gluckman's essay, 'Analysis of a Social Situation in Modern Zululand' (the 'Bridge Paper' to his students), first published in 1940, came to be recognised in the postwar period as constituting a major methodological breakthrough for British social anthropology. His chief innovation was to describe in great detail the events of a single day ‐ a 'social situation' ‐ from which he then proceeded to abstract the sociological patterns of the wider society. In addition, the 'Bridge Paper' is also recognised as one of the most significant anthropological critiques of segregationist policy in South Africa in the first half of the twentieth century. This article will argue that the coexistence of methodological innovation and incisive critique of segregation was not coincidental. I will demonstrate that by using what became known as 'situational analysis' or the 'extended case method', Gluckman was able to provide a more effective critique of segregation than his mentors, A. R. RadcliffeBrown and Isaac Schapera, had done. Indeed, it also enabled him to answer effectively W. M. Macmillan's criticism of anthropology by demonstrating that anthropology's theory and method could defend the coherent vision of the 'common society' that Macmillan fought so hard in intellectual circles to advocate.

Towards a new line in public school health service; the medical profession in the fields of social pediatrics, occupational health and multiprofessional health promotion

The circumstances of life and the health status of children and adolescents in Germany have undergone fundamental changes. Public institutions, such as schools or kindergartens more often are not only support but a substitute for family structures. Individual medical care being guaranteed, seeking for prevention and treatment and health status differ widely according to sociological patterns. Health care and social compensation programmes on a multiprofessional basis will thus be accessible only in a very general sense to all youth at the public institution of a school. Besides all the general public health programmes in schools, medical expertise on an individual level is becoming more and more important because of the increasing number of classes integrating diseased and disabled children in regular school. The public school health services will not only act as individual medical experts themselves but more as coordinators of all medical and health promoting efforts on an administrative, school, inpatient and outpatient level. Medical professionals working in public school health services will therefore have to be trained in the following spheres: normal range of developmental milestones, knowledge of health systems and regional structures of health care, epidemiological basics, communicative and social training, clinical expertise in the fields of general paediatrics, child psychiatry and occupational health. Being fully trained in clinical paediatrics and public health will surely be an asset, but will not cover all the requirements for successfully working in school health care. For this reason the programmes of higher education in public health have to be adjusted to the recent demands in this special field of work. School health services will have to engage in occupational health and will have to be present mostly in the school buildings proper. School health services will have to report and publish epidemiological data for use by school, community and medical professionals. In case of continued compulsory medical examination of schoolbeginners wide use should be made of qualified assistant personnel, so that physicians can focus on true medical problems in school and moreover will be enabled to deliver medical expertise and treatment within the community to people and population groups in need.

Bisexual Women in Heterosexual Relationships

The purpose of this study was to examine psychological and sociological patterns and behaviors of bisexual women who are in an ongoing heterosexual relationship, and to determine if the variables of income, education, time of disclosure of bisexuality, sexual activity and communication levels had an effect on the satisfaction expressed by the couple in the relationship. Twenty-six couples (M/F) completed a questionnaire and the Klein Sexual Orientation Grid. This study discovered that bisexual females and their male partners maintained a satisfactory relationship, independent of the above variables. The majority of the females behaved bisexually, in agreement with their choices on the Grid. Half of the women were maintaining sexual relationships with other women while in primary heterosexual relationships. Their average sexual contact with another female per month was 1.5. The majority of the women were satisfied with the sexual expression with their male partner, and they were having sexual intercourse, on average, three times per week.

Politics and Sociology in Greece, 1950-98

The development of sociology in Greece cannot be understood outside the political history and the general socioeconomic development of the country. This article outlines the general political trends in postwar Greece and points to the collapse of the dictatorship of the Colonels in 1974 as a historical landmark for the development of democracy and the growth of sociology as an academic discipline in Greece. The general sociological patterns and the prevalence of Marxist sociology are briefly explored within the same framework. Finally, developments in sociology in Greece are linked to developments in international sociology and to general socioeconomic change at a national and global level.

Pedagogy and "Reflex": Frank Lloyd Wright's Hanna House Revisited

Frank Lloyd Wright9s Hanna House in Stanford, California (1936), was built for educators who taught and practiced John Dewey9s notions of activity and science. The Hannas9 belief in these educational principles, guiding family interaction and evolution, influenced Wright9s adoption and association of the hexagonal module with his notion of reflex, the influence of form on human behavior. Moreover, the sociological ramifications of the hexagonal geometry seem to have derived from discussions and debates on education with the Hannas. In any event, beginning with the Hanna House, Wright explicitly characterized his domestic architecture as reflecting sociological patterns.

Criminology of Riots

Riots have become a regular feature of our news programmes. Yet, modern riot research is faced with a host of problems. The article allows insight into the history of riot research, underlying psychological and sociological patterns, and the presentation of riots in the mass media. It also gives an overview of recent causation theories and suggests various ways of controlling riots.

Political Values and Health Care: The German Experience

These nineteen original essays explore the ways in which political and social values help to shape health care systems by analyzing what happened to the German health care system when it split after World War II into communist and noncommunist sectors. Since both systems evolved from the same foundation they form a natural experiment in history where the same phenomenon becomes divided into an experimental and control group. The book is the first to take advantage of this unique opportunity for comparative analysis; it is also the first social history of the German health care system from Bizmarck to the present.Donald Light's introduction, "State, Profession, and Political Values," is followed by eighteen essays grouped in four parts which cover the state and society, the social history of German health care, structural aspects of health care in the two Germanies, and healers and their patients.Essays in Part I compare structures and values of state and society, the medical-industrial complex, and sociological patterns in the two Germanies. Those in Part II take up the origin and development of compulsory health insurance, the consequences of the National Socialist takeover for the administration of sick funds and for panel doctors, public health policy following the war, and political values and reconstruction. Part III focuses on comparisons of social security and health care systems, political values and the regulation of hospital care, ideological influences on the organization of ambulatory and hospital medical care, state control and drug supply, and the organization of tuberculosis prevention. Essays in Part IV discuss qualification and professionalization in the health care professions, legal aspects of the physician-patient relationship, the problem of induced abortion, mother and child care, occupational health and the older worker, and ideology and psychotherapy.All but two of the contributors are West German scholars. Donald W. Light is Professor of Social Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Alexander Schuller is Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin.

Political Values and Health Care: The German Experience

These nineteen original essays explore the ways in which political and social values help to shape health care systems by analyzing what happened to the German health care system when it split after World War II into communist and noncommunist sectors. Since both systems evolved from the same foundation they form a natural experiment in history where the same phenomenon becomes divided into an experimental and control group. The book is the first to take advantage of this unique opportunity for comparative analysis; it is also the first social history of the German health care system from Bizmarck to the present.Donald Light's introduction, "State, Profession, and Political Values," is followed by eighteen essays grouped in four parts which cover the state and society, the social history of German health care, structural aspects of health care in the two Germanies, and healers and their patients.Essays in Part I compare structures and values of state and society, the medical-industrial complex, and sociological patterns in the two Germanies. Those in Part II take up the origin and development of compulsory health insurance, the consequences of the National Socialist takeover for the administration of sick funds and for panel doctors, public health policy following the war, and political values and reconstruction. Part III focuses on comparisons of social security and health care systems, political values and the regulation of hospital care, ideological influences on the organization of ambulatory and hospital medical care, state control and drug supply, and the organization of tuberculosis prevention. Essays in Part IV discuss qualification and professionalization in the health care professions, legal aspects of the physician-patient relationship, the problem of induced abortion, mother and child care, occupational health and the older worker, and ideology and psychotherapy.All but two of the contributors are West German scholars. Donald W. Light is Professor of Social Medicine and Psychiatry at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey School of Osteopathic Medicine and Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics. Alexander Schuller is Professor of Sociology at the Free University of Berlin.

Cocaine Abuse—The Evolution from COCA Leaves to Freebase

This article describes historical and sociological patterns of cocaine use. Cocaine is described as an example of drug abuse trends toward a search for new ways of using old drugs in ways that produce enhanced euphoria. The use of cocaine freebase is described, as is emergency treatment of cocaine toxicity.

Alcoholism and ethnicity: a comparative study of alcohol use patterns across ethnic groups.

Sociological and alcohol use patterns were studied in American Indian, Black, Hispano, and White Anglo groups of alcoholism patients. Sociological variables indicated all groups appeared to be experiencing significant disruption in social and vocational areas, with the American Indian group showing the greatest disruption across the four groups in the socioeconomic areas. The four groups did not differ as to use of alcohol to enhance self, manage anxiety and depression, or as to sustained or periodic use. American Indians and Hispanos have a greater tendency to drink gregariously, to drink more, and to have more disruption in social role functioning. The general trend was that the American Indian group revealed greater social and alcohol symptom disruption than the other three groups, thus supporting a more specialized treatment approach for American Indian alcoholism patients.

An Analysis of Homicide in the Afro-Arab Sudan

This paper has attempted to bring out the essentials of a larger study of Sudanese homicide. This is the first study of homicide and major crime in the Sudan which embraces the many diverse ethnic groups that constitute the Sudanese population. It is the first time that so many cases have been analysed for the purpose of disclosing sociological patterns of killing and violence in Sudanese society. Such studies are rare for African countries and practically non-existent for the Arab countries. The Sudan's unique position, straddling both the Arab and African worlds, make this study in part both a study of African homicide and of homicide in the Middle East.

Death and the Child: An Anterospective Test of the Childhood Bereavement and Later Behavior Disorder Hypothesis

Does parental loss through death in childhood have a long-term effect on a person, or is the experience generally normalized in a relatively short period of time? Our anterospective identification of a thirty-three year old cohort and the comparative analysis of behavioral and attitudinal data indicates that there are differential consequences in early middle age, but that differences are not as great nor in the direction suggested by previous studies. In particular, the interaction of childhood divorce experience and bereavement emerged as an important sociological pattern.

The role of veterinary science in the developing tropics.

The contribution of veterinary science to food production and human health in the tropics is analysed. The basic difficulties arising from the environments, animal husbandry methods and sociological patterns are emphasised. The deployment of veterinary services for disease control and animal production is outlined, particularly in the fields of extension work and research. Recommendations are made on methods of applying technical aid programmes with special reference to the role of Australia in the Indo-Pacific area.