Self-Control and Weight-Loss Practices: An Exploration of Repertory Grid Constructs

Attempting weight loss is an increasingly common behavior for many people and a variety of practices are used. However, lapses in self-control may hinder progress. This study explores how women construe their weight-loss practices. In 10 semistructured interviews, the repertory grid technique (RGT) was used to explore elicited bipolar constructs using weight-loss practices as elements. Qualitative interpretation of the grids highlighted the fundamentally different ways self-control was seen as being enhanced. The amount of weight to be lost and self-esteem issues were interpreted as impacting expectations of increased self-control from practices. Suggestions for future research into these relationships are outlined.     

WONDER BETWEEN TWO: AN IRIGARAYAN READING OF GENESIS 2:231

Luce Irigaray, in the course of engagement with René Descartes, argues that we must return wonder to its first locus—that of sexual difference. I suggest that Irigaray's notion of wonder finds resonance in the poetic declaration of the first man in Genesis 2:23. While the creation narratives affirm the equality of woman and man, they also affirm the irreducibility of woman and man to each other. This insistence on wonder has implication for communicative exchange between woman and man. I also argue, however, against Irigaray, that wonder is as appropriate between humans and God as between the sexes.