Values of Postpartum Women from the Inner City: An Exploratory Study

An exploratory study of the values of inner-city postpartum women was conducted. Subjects were largely single, with many on/or going on public assistance. Each subject was given the Rokeach Value Scale and asked to prioritize the terminal values (goals) in terms of herself and the instrumental values (means) in terms of what she would like to teach her child. Rankings were compared to corresponding rankings compiled by a national sample, considered a more traditional era, and by marital status within the postpartum mother sample itself. Economic values were ranked higher by inner-city mothers than by the national sample. The top terminal value was family security and the top instrumental value was responsible. When compared by marital status, the only significant difference was the higher ranking of mature love given by married women. Results suggests that the values of the inner-city single postpartum mother can be conceptualized as a mosaic incorporating values shared with the mainstream and values adapted to the conditions of poverty.     

The Humdrum of Rhetorics: A Reply to Durrheim's "Theoretical Conundrum"

Durrheim's core argument appears upon close inspection not to be very convincing, nor his use of rhetoric. His argument is now shown from the—presumably exemplary—four theories, he cites. He unwarrantly strengthens his argument by preselection, overgeneralization, oversimplification, and by confusing and misconceiving key concepts, and using an arbitrary selection of theories. His suggestion that he knows the vast literature of authoritarianism is not substantiated, considering the unbalanced use of citations, some along the line of Jaensch, Ray and Eysenck. Rhetoric is portrayed as an alternative scientific method, but seems in this way rather to regress into a neodogmatic approach devoid of empirical testing and emancipatory content.