Safer sex: Lessons from the male sex industry

Discerning the complex factors influencing male sex work is an important element of understanding HIV transmission. The present study examines a sample of London-based masseurs and street workers' ideas concerning their sexual encounters, their partners and their role in society. Unsafe sex is associated with (1) a lack of perception of control in the sexual encounter, (2) attractive clients, and (3) loving relationships with non-clients. The ways in which personal needs and stigma influence sexual practices and the men's sense of identity are considered. For some of the men, unsafe sex demarcates a sphere containing a type of intimacy that is absent from their working life. Since working life is associated with negative social judgements, the importance of this separate sphere is heightened. The findings call into question models of health behaviour that are built on individualist, reason-based tenets and highlight the importance of social and emotional factors in safer sexual behaviour. The implications of the findings for prevention programmes and future research are discussed.     

L’intention de se maintenir dans une carrière atypique : quels déterminants individuels et contextuels ?

This study seeks to identify the determinants of turnover intention at women in male- dominated occupations, and namely, attitude-based (job satisfaction and organisational commitment), identity-based (self-efficacy and perceived gender-identity conflict), and context-based factors (perceived social support, induction practices and job design). The survey (N=131) reveals that affective commitment predicts two types of turnover intention: job retention and occupation retention. As regards job retention, affective commitment is related to job satisfaction and job-context structure ; as to occupation retention, affective commitment is linked to self-efficacy and perceived social support material from colleagues and superiors.     

Male on-campus resident students’ social normative behaviour: Influences on lived social climate by same gender beginning-year university students

This article reports on research on antecedents of first-year male students’ experiences of senior male students’ aggression in residences at a university in South Africa. Fourteen purposefully selected first-year male student residents (black = 14%; coloured = 7%; white = 79%) voluntarily participated. Their ages ranged between 18 and 21 years. Data were on their perceived precursors to aggression and violence that were collected using photo-narratives (written) and photo-narrative-elicitation-interviews. The data were analysed by means of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Three themes emerged which indicate that precursors to aggression and violence included physical and verbal aggression in the form of hitting, shoving around, pushing and shouting, swearing, taunting others, and nasty comments. Social aggression involves acts of bullying, exertion of power, modelling dominant behaviour in which perpetrators defend their status, or signal exclusion of others. The survivors experienced pressure to conform to fellow residents’ practices, norms and behaviour in the hope that they would gain acceptance into the in-group.     

A developmental-genetic analysis of aggressive behavior in mice: IV. Genotype-environment interaction

To assess the extent of plasticity in behavioral development after directional selection for aggressive behavior, male mice were reared and tested in selected social rearing and testing conditions. After four generations of selective breeding, the lines differed in all attack measures when tested in a dyadic assessment following isolation rearing. Line-specific effects of isolation vs. group rearing were demonstrated, and longitudinal studies showed the ontogenetic pattern of difference between lines to be substantially changed by conditions of rearing and testing. The social-interactional processes that might produce the developmental genotype-environment interaction were investigated. Line-specific interaction patterns within long-established sibling groups predicted aggressive behavior in cross-situational dyadic assessments. Group rearing attenuated most line differences in aggressive measures, but the high-aggressive line was more likely than the low-aggressive line to persist in attacking over consecutive days of observation. Cross-fostering in early development did not significantly change adult aggressive behavior. Some implications of a developmental-genetic approach to the study of social interactions are discussed.     

Effects of acute administration of nicotine and lobeline on agonistic encounters in male mice

The effects of acute administration of two nicotinic ligands, (‐)‐nicotine and (‐)‐lobeline were examined on isolation‐induced aggression in mice. Individually housed male mice confronted anosmic “standard opponents” in a neutral arena 10 min after drug administration. Encounters were videotaped and evaluated using an ethologically based analysis facilitating estimation of time allocated to 11 broad behavioral categories. Nicotine did not have significant effects on threat or attack but significantly diminished time allocated to digging. The lowest dose of lobeline significantly diminished attack and induced a slight increase of immobility without significantly diminishing other behaviors with motor components. The intermediate and highest dose of lobeline reduced time allocated to all behaviors with motor components. It is concluded that these two nicotinic agonists produce different behavioral profiles during agonistic encounters in mice but that this test may not facilitate assessing the impact of such drugs on irritability. Aggr. Behav. 26:376–385, 2000. © 2000 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Ethopharmacological studies of the effects of β-carbolines and benzodiazepines on murine aggression

The behavioral profiles generated by a benzodiazepine (BDZ) agonist (diazepam), an “inverse” agonist (β-carboline-3-carboxylate ethyl ester, βC-3-CEE), and dihydro-(DHβCs) and tetrahydro-β-carbolines (THβCs) were investigated on aggressive isolated mice using a computerized ethopharmacological technique. Augmentation of intraspecific sociability with a concurrent reduction of aggression are characteristic features of diazepam's effects, whereas βC-3-CEE exerts the opposite effects. βC-3-CEE countered the prosocial activity of diazepam and had intrinsic activities on intraspecific behaviour. Some DHβCs (harmalol and 6-methoxy-harmalan) and THβCs (1-methyl-6-hydroxy-THβC and tetrahydronorharmane) may exacerbate aggression at low (BDZ-negative) doses (1 mg/kg), and inhibit such behavior at higher (serotonin-positive) doses (10-15 mg/kg). The ethological profiles of DHβCs were different from the profiles of THβCs. Differences in ethological profiles of βC-3-CEE, DHβCs, and THβCs seem to reflect the neurochemical (mainly BDZ-and serotonergic) properties of these substances.     

Effects of neonatal treatment with cyproterone acetate on aggressive behavior induced by footshock in adult male rats

High levels of androgens are required to organize aggressive behavior in adult male rats. Footshock-induced aggression was tested in Wistar rats allocated to one of three experimental groups: control (oil-injected) males (M), males neonatally injected with the antiandrogen cyproterone acetate (CA), and males treated as in the CA group but gonadectomized just before puberty (CAG). An antiaggressive effect of CA in those adult male rats neonatally treated with this compound was found. Neonatal exposure to cyproterone acetate exerts an antiandrogenic effect over the expression of shock-induced aggressive behavior. The behavioral effects of CA were not countered by adult treatment with testosterone propionate.     

Partial purification of male mus musculus urinary aggression-promoting chemosignal

An attempt was made to purify an aggression-promoting chemosignal of male SJL/J mice. It was shown in Experiment 1 that the chemosignal is present in intact-male urine (IU) but not in urine (CU) from castrated males. In Experiments 3 and 4, a head-space distillation technique was used to isolate the volatile components of IU. It was shown that aggression-promoting cues were present in the volatile portion of IU and not in the nonvolatile portion. Also CU was tested for behavioral activity under the procedures of Experiments 3 and 4 and was found not to contain the chemosensory cue.     

Role of female aggression in prevention of infanticidal behavior in male common voles,Microtus arvalis (Pallas, 1779)

Infanticidal behavior of male common voles (Microtus arvalis) was investigated in relation to the age of unfamiliar pups. Sires from 18 pairs were removed after parturition of their offspring and replaced by unfamiliar males at different ages of the neonates. In group 1, containing six females with their offspring, the new male was introduced into the females' cages on day 1 after the parturition. In group 2 the new male was introduced on day 5 after parturition and in group 3 on day 9 after parturition. The male was removed after 3 days and the neonates recounted. Male common voles killed up to 100% of the neonates in litters containing neonates younger than 9 days by rapid bites to the head of the neonates (groups 1 and 2, mortality rates of 0.86 and 0.38). However, with older pups, a mortality rate of 0.06 was observed while 33% of the intruder males showed signs of injuries (group 3). These findings show that infanticidal behavior of male common voles represents one factor of pup mortality. The results are discussed in relation to changes in the degree of maternal aggression and in the context of the social system of the common vole for solving the conflict between postpartum estrous mating and infanticidal behavior of male common voles. Aggr. Behav. 23:293–298, 1997. © 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.