Feminism and Women's Autonomy: the Challenge of Female Genital Cutting

Feminist studies of female genital cutting (FGC) provide ample evidence that many women exercise effective agency with respect to this practice, both as accommodators and as resisters. The influence of culture on autonomy is ambiguous: women who resist cultural mandates for FGC do not necessarily enjoy greater autonomy than do those women who accommodate the practice, yet it is clear that some social contexts are more conducive to autonomy than others. In this paper, I explore the implications for autonomy theory of these understandings of the relation between culture, FGC, and women's agency. I review the range of worldwide FGC practices – including "corrective" surgery for "ambiguous genitalia" in Western cultures as well as the various initiation rites observed in some African and Asian cultures – and the diverse cultural rationales for different forms of FGC. I argue that neither latitudinarian, value-neutral accounts of autonomy nor restrictive, value-saturated accounts adequately explain women's agentic position with respect to FGC. I then analyze a number of educational programs that have enhanced women's autonomy, especially by strengthening their introspection, empathy, and imagination. Such programs, which engage women's autonomy skills without exposing them to autonomy-disabling cultural alienation, promote autonomy-within-culture. This understanding of autonomy as socially situated, however, entails neither endorsement of FGC nor resignation to its persistence.     

Language,cognition, and second language grammaticality judgments

In first language research, there appear to be two predominant positions relating metalinguistic awareness to language development. One suggests that since metalinguistic awareness is related to primary language acquisition (comprehension and production), general cognitive processes perform a limited role in metalinguistic awareness. The other suggests that since metalinguistic awareness is more closely related to secondary language acquisition (reading and writing), a greater role is assumed by general cognitive processes. There have been some indirect attempts to study the role of language and cognition with respect to second language grammaticality judgments. There is growing evidence that metalinguistic awareness is a reliable indicator of developing second language competence. Furthermore, it has been shown that language aptitude is significantly related to metalinguistic awareness. The present study was designed to investigate the statistical relationship between second language grammaticality judgments and selected cognitive and linguistic variables. The variables studied were second language proficiency, second language classroom achievement, first language reading competence, language aptitude, nonverbal intelligence, field dependence-independence, and a written grammaticality judgment test tapping the ability to recognize, and correct, deviance. Subjects were college students in advanced English-as-a-second-language classes. Multivariate statistical techniques were used to determine the relative contribution of linguistic and cognitive variables to the individual variation demonstrated by the learners in their ability to detect deviance in English. The results showed that second language proficiency, second language achievement in the classroom, and language aptitude were significant predictors of the subjects' ability to make grammaticality judgments. First language reading competence was significantly related to subjects' ability to correct deviance. These observations are discussed in the light of: (1) the relationship among cognition, language, and metalinguistic awareness, and (2) the role of metalinguistic awareness in second language acquisition and second language learning.     

Intention to Migrate: A Psychological Analysis1

A sample of 102 male East Indians intending to immigrate to Canada was compared on several personality and nonpersonality variables with a matched sample of 114 Indians who planned to remain in India. A mail questionnaire procedure was used. Discriminant analyses indicated that personality factors alone accounted for 27% of the variance and that inclusion of nonpersonality factors raised this to 38%. The most important variables separating the groups are occupational satisfaction, sensation seeking, interest in world news, and a locus-of-control component. The findings indicate the sizeable role of personality factors in the decision to migrate and illustrate the utility of a multifaceted approach in understanding complex phenomena such as migration.     

Using Qualitative Methods to Develop Contextually Relevant Measures and Preventive Interventions: An Illustration

Qualitative methods were used to develop a contextually relevant quantitative measure of parenting stress and inform the design of family-focused interventions aimed at preventing adolescent mental and behavioral health problems. The study focused on the experiences of low-income one- and two-parent families representing three ethnic groups (Mexican, African, and European Americans) living in low-income neighborhoods in a large Southwestern city. This report describes the place of this study in a broader program of prevention research, the qualitative methods and data analysis procedures employed, and how the results were used to develop a new measure of parenting stress and inform future program design. The report also includes reflective comments on the methods used and lessons gained.     

Comparison of the Effects of Formal and Informal Accountability on the Correct Performance of a Lifeguard Rescue

We compared instructional strategies used to train lifeguards. Fifteen undergraduates participated in the study during their twice weekly 90 minute lifeguard classes. A checklist of 15 steps was used to define correct performance of a lifeguard (water) rescue. The dependent variable was the percentage of steps completed correctly. Data were collected from videotapes of 32 sessions. A multi-treatment reversal design was used to assess the efficacy of typical peer instruction, a triad where students verbally supported one another, a triad where members used a checklist to prompt correct performance, and a instructor-mediated condition where for each 90% or better correct performance the participant received a bonus grade point. The significance of the rescue was not enough to produce competent performance, neither was peer support, nor peer-mediated instruction using a checklist, but all participants achieved 90% correct performance or better during the instructor-mediated condition. Our results suggest that the instructor-mediated condition is considerably more effective than informal accountability.     

Rounding Out the Cube: Evolution to a Global Model for Counseling Centers

This article discusses the present realities of college and university counseling centers as the bases for proposing a more adaptive and interactive model of the original Cube developed by W. H. Morrill, E, R. Oetting, and J. C. Hurst (1974). The article conceptualizes an evolved model of the Cube, here termed the global model, which allows counseling centers to function, in light of current and future demands, with greater flexibility, interdependency, and collaboration vis-á-vis the campus community.     

Disinhibition in pitch memory

Recognition of the pitch of a tone is disrupted by the interpolation of other tones during the retention interval. The disruptive effect of an interpolated tone varies systematically as a function of its pitch relationship to the tone to be remembered, and is maximal at a 2/3-tone separation. When such a tone is interpolated, the interpolation in addition of a further tone that is 2/3 tone removed from this disruptive tone (and 4/3 tone removed from the tone to be remembered) causes recognition of the first tone substantially to return. When recognition performance is plotted as a function of the pitch relationship between these two interpolated tones, the results accord well with a model assuming mutual inhibitory interactions between pitch memory elements.