Disciplinary breadth and interdisciplinary knowledge production

As the complexity of the challenges presented by our interactions with our planet continues to grow, we must develop new modes of knowledge production. In these modes, distinctions between multidisciplinary and inter-disciplinary activities and processes have renewed importance. There are at least two distinct types of interdisciplinary activities distinguished by the disciplinary breadth they attempt to bridge. In the narrow case, reductionist processes reveal a common underlying principle or process which can serve as a Rosetta stone. In the broad case, no such common arbiter exists. Investigators must develop integrating vocabulary in the context of the full breadth of their work. His primary activities are the fostering of university-wide interdisciplinary research and curriculum programs focused on global change with the goal of developing Columbia into a world leader in issues related to global stewardship.     

Preventing Substance Abuse Among American-Indian Adolescents: A Bicultural Competence Skills Approach

Tobacco, alcohol, and drug use are problems for American-Indian people. We reviewed these problems and the explanations for them and described a bicultural competence skills approach for preventing substance abuse with American-Indian adolescents. Data from a study of that approach suggest its efficacy with American-Indian youth. At posttest and a 6-month follow-up, American-Indian subjects who received preventive intervention based on bicultural competence skills concepts improved more than did American-Indian subjects in a no-intervention control condition on measures of substance-use knowledge, attitudes, and interactive skills, and on self-reported rates of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use. Our findings have implications for future substance-abuse prevention research with American-Indian people.     

A real-time approach to spoken language processing in aphasia

The study is based on an on-line investigation of spoken language comprehension processes in 25 French-speaking aphasics using a syllable-monitoring task. Nonsense syllables were presented in three different conditions: context-free (embedded in strings of nonsense syllables), lexical context (where the target nonsense syllable is the initial, medial, or final syllable of real three-syllable words), and sentence context. This study builds on an earlier one that explored the relationship between the acoustic-phonetic, lexical, and sentential levels of spoken language processing in French-speaking normals and gave evidence of top-down lexical and sentential influence on syllable recognition. In the present study, aphasic patients from various diagnostic categories were classified as high (N = 13) or low (N = 12) comprehenders. The results show that low comprehending aphasics make no use of sentence information in the syllable-recognition task. As for top-down effect at the single word level that is observed in normal listeners. However, a subgroup analysis shows that the Broca's are the only high comprehending aphasics who perform in the same way as normal listeners; this sets them apart from the anomics and conduction aphasics.     

Exemplification: The self-presentation of moral character

How do people come to terms with moral self-presentations and disconfirming behaviors? Subjects were exposed to the self-presentation of either an exemplifier (presenting himself as morally virtuous) or a pragmatist (presenting himself as morally adaptable) and then learned whether the self-presenter had or had not cheated for self-serving reasons in an earlier experiment Subjects clearly distinguished between exploitativeness and hypocrisy in their attributions, and considered a cheating exemplifier more hypocritical and self-deluding, but less exploitative and devious than a cheating pragmatist A second experiment manipulated subjects' involvement with the cheating of an exemplifier and a pragmatist by making half of the subjects its victims As in Experiment 1, uninvolved subjects considered the cheating exemplifier more hypocritical and less exploitative than a cheating pragmatist, however, involved subjects (victims) considered a cheating exemplifier more hypocritical but no less exploitative than a cheating pragmatist The results are discussed in terms of strategic self-presentation and the attribution of moral character     

Postpartum and lactational estrus: a comparative analysis in rodentia

Virgin rodents exhibiting cycling estrus have traditionally been used for comparative studies of reproductive behavior. However estrus occurs in other life-history contexts, some of which differ from cycling estrus (CE) in that (a) the female is disposed to behave both maternally and sexually and (b) they result in litter overlap (i.e., the simultaneous gestation and lactation of two litters). In this report, two of these other modes of estrus are examined, with emphasis on their evolutionary and ecological implications. By means of a literature search of the order Rodentia, postpartum estrus (PPE) and lactational estrus (LE) were documented in 15 families, 71 genera, and 141 species. Analysis of these data showed that PPE and LE were nonrandomly distributed across taxa. They were statistically overrepresented in the family Cricetidae and underrepresented in squirrels (Sciuridae) and in pocket mice and kangaroo rats (Heteromyidae). Analysis of the phenotypes by which PPE and LE are achieved suggests important differences between them and CE in several parameters of female reproductive effort and breeding strategy, including maternal and copulatory behavior, optimal timing of litters, and hormonal control of heat and lactation.     

Michel de Certeau's keys of political discernment in May 1968: The theological-spiritual assumptions that informed his tools of analysis

This article seeks to identify the theoretical tools that supported Michel de Certeau's political discernment during the crisis of May 1968 in France. De Certeau's ability to elucidate the novelty and complexity of this event is linked to the intertwining of his experiences as a historian, traveller (voyageur), and Christian (specifically a Jesuit). De Certeau's articulation of a 'theology of difference' allowed him to construct the intellectual and spiritual tools that enabled a lucid discernment of May 1968. Through this theology, derived from negative theology, de Certeau made the experience of faith operative at a moment of cultural crisis. The article also analyses possibilities involved in the ‘rupture’, that is, the fracture that is implied in modernity; in the notion of an event that highlights the deficiency of language, its incapacity to establish ‘a truthful communication’ in society; and the recognition of the poetic dimension of speech, which is capable of interweaving speech and action. The May 1968 event invites these elements mutually to redefine themselves.     

Guidance in a New Ancient Land

The Republic of China is developing its guidance programs energetically and rapidly. The Chinese Guidance Association, a young but vigorous professional association, is devoted to research and development of China's student and industrial personnel programs. This APGA sister association has taken long strides ahead in the past eight years through organization of experimental school and college guidance programs, counselor education, development of tests, and distribution of vocational information materials. It has an ambitious and promising “five-year development plan” blocked out for the period 1966–71.