Gendered by Design: Qipao and Society, 1911–1949

Abstract

This article explores women’s social status in modern China during the turbulent history of the early twentieth century through an examination of examples of qipao and related images that date approximately from the 1920s to the 1940s. The discussion aims to demonstrate the evolving styles that reveal women’s growing emancipation, and which foreground their bodies as the point of social contention. Qipao is often presented as a national costume in the Chinese culture, but its identity is fraught with gender related issues as well as its role as a tool of social redefinition.     

An intervention to reduce kerosene-related burns and poisonings in low-income South African communities.

Objective: Unintentional injury rates in low- and middle-income countries are up to 50 times higher than high-income nations. In South Africa, kerosene (paraffin) is a leading cause of poisoning and burns, particularly in low-income communities where it serves as a primary fuel for light, cooking, and heating. This study tested a community-based intervention to reduce kerosene-related injury risk. The intervention used a train-the-trainers model, whereby expert trainers train local paraprofessionals, who in turn deliver educational materials to community residents. The intervention was theory-driven, pragmatically motivated, and culturally sensitive. Design: Prospective quasi-experimental intervention design with nonequivalent case versus control groups. Main Outcome Measures: Three primary outcome measures were considered: self-reported knowledge of kerosene safety, observed practice of safe kerosene use, and self-reported recognition of risk for kerosene-related injury. Results: ANOVA models suggest a large and significant increase in self-reported kerosene-related knowledge in the intervention community compared to the control community. There were smaller, but statistically significant changes, in kerosene-related safety practices and recognition of kerosene injury risk in the intervention community compared to the control community. Conclusion: The intervention was successful. A train-the-trainers model might be an effective educational tool to reduce kerosene-related injury risk in low-income communities within low- and middle-income countries. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Low-income Tenants in the Private Rental Housing Market

The private rented sector (PRS) in England has often been described as having a ‘residual’ role in accommodating low-income households who are unable to gain access to social housing. This paper examines the accuracy of this residual role thesis. It does so using secondary analysis of the 2007 English House Condition Survey. The paper shows that the PRS plays a disproportionately important role in accommodating households living in poverty. It also shows that the odds of being income poor are the same for private tenants as for social housing tenants and three times higher than for owner-occupiers. It is concluded that, as a source of accommodation for low-income households, the role of the private rented sector is not residual at all. In addition, the paper assesses how well accommodated low-income households are in the PRS compared with non-poor private tenants and with low-income households in social housing and owner-occupation.     

Study on the separation and characterization of cadmium incorporated into Zea Mays L.

Methods of separation and characterization of Cd in Zea Mays L. were studied by means of a radioisotopic technique based on injecting ¹⁰⁹Cd into the plant. Two classic methods for fractionating plant material were compared. Cd was found to occur in all different cell components and a significant activity of Cd in the intracellular liquid is bound to proteins as indicated by chromatography on a molecular sieve. Cd fixed to cell walls exchanges entirely after selective solvent extraction with H₂O, KNO₃, HAc, HCl. Our results indicate Cd‐binding sites in stems.     

Stereotype distinctiveness: How counterstereotypic behavior shapes the self-concept.

Three experiments examined the relationship between distinctiveness and self-schematicity. Experiment 1 revealed that people were more likely to be self-schematic in domains of strong performance when they felt distinct from family and peers in those domains. Experiments 2 and 3 extended this finding into the arena of stereotypes by demonstrating that people were more likely to be self-schematic in domains of strong performance when their performance was counterstereotypic rather than stereotypic. In particular, African Americans and women were more likely to be schematic for intelligence than Caucasians and men if they performed well academically, whereas Caucasians—especially men—were more likely than African Americans to be schematic for athletics if they performed well athletically. These results suggest that counterstereotypic behavior plays a uniquely powerful role in the development of the self-concept. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the Path to Homeownership: Money,Family Composition and Low-income Households

In Norway, as in many other countries, homeownership is encouraged politically, and a majority of the households become homeowners at some stage in their life cycle. Many households move house when circumstances change, and it is often at this point that they also make their tenure choice. This paper employs a bivariate probit framework to model the transition rate from renting into homeownership. Using a sample of initial renters, subsequent tenure choice is analysed jointly with the stay-move decision. A particularly important question in this context is whether low-income households face differential constraints on entering owner occupation that could be addressed by policy change. The empirical model includes financial characteristics, household characteristics and changes in household characteristics as explanatory variables. Changes in household composition are particularly important in explaining variations in both tenure choice and mobility. Hence, the common practice of estimating housing market behaviour using a panel of intact households potentially obfuscates important determinants of that behaviour. The paper proceeds by using the equivalent of a Chow test to show that a hypothesis of equal coefficients in samples of low- and high-income households is firmly rejected. Thus low-income households do behave differently. Short-term variations in income appear to have little effect on people's capacity to enter owner occupation. However, low-income households are more dependent on past savings for successful entry. This suggests a rather different policy approach if owner occupation is to be expanded.     

Learning sobriety together: A randomized clinical trial examining behavioral couples therapy with alcoholic female patients.

Married or cohabiting female alcoholic patients (n = 138) and their non-substance-abusing male partners were randomly assigned to 1 of 3 equally intensive interventions: (a) behavioral couples therapy plus individual-based treatment (BCT; n = 46), (b) individual-based treatment only (IBT; n = 46), or (c) psychoeducational attention control treatment (PACT; n = 46). During treatment, participants in BCT showed significantly greater improvement in dyadic adjustment than those in IBT or PACT; drinking frequency was not significantly different among participants in the different conditions. During the 1-year posttreatment follow-up, compared with participants who received IBT or PACT, participants who received BCT reported (a) fewer days of drinking, (b) fewer drinking-related negative consequences, (c) higher dyadic adjustment, and (d) reduced partner violence. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Women and the chip: Case studies of the effect of informatics on employment in Canada.

Reviews the book, Women and The Chip: Case Studies of the Effect of Informatics on Employment in Canada by Heather Menzies (1981). Women and the Chip looks at the effects that the new technology of informatics (the marriage of computers and telecommunications) is having and will continue to have on the structure of the labour force-particularly women. The changing employment patterns and practices related to this new technology will change many jobs and eliminate many others as office work becomes as automated as car assembly was in years past. To help the reader develop an appreciation of the scope of this change four major case studies are presented: a large corporate head office, a major insurance company, chartered banks, and supermarkets (all industries with a heavy concentration of women employees). The book is well written, well organized, thorough and informative "Blueprint for the future". The book should be read by everyone out of general interest, but especially for psychologists involved with vocational planning and decision making. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Objectification theory and deaf cultural identity attitudes: Roles in deaf women's eating disorder symptomatology.

This study examined the generalizability of direct and mediated links posited in objectification theory among internalization of sociocultural standards of beauty, body surveillance, body shame, and eating disorder symptoms with a sample of Deaf women. The study also examined the role of marginal Deaf cultural identity attitudes within this framework. Data from 177 Deaf women indicated positive relations among internalization, body surveillance, body shame, and eating disorder symptomatology. Consistent with tenets of objectification theory, body shame mediated the links of internalization and body surveillance with eating disorder symptoms. In addition, marginal Deaf identity attitudes (but not hearing, immersion, or bicultural attitudes) were linked uniquely with eating disorder constructs and had significant indirect relations through internalization with body surveillance, body shame, and eating disorder symptoms. Implications for practice and future research are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

托妮·莫里森笔下的黑人女性形象

托妮·莫里森是第一个荣获诺贝尔文学奖的美国黑人女作家,她在小说中塑造了一系列黑人妇女形象.论文分析了莫里森笔下的黑人女性形象并展示她们各自不同的特点和遭遇,忠实地表达了黑人女性的生活经历,给身处种族主义和性别主义双重压迫下的黑人女性指出了正确的争取自我解放的道路.