The psychological impact of menarche: Integrative versus disruptive changes

Ninety-four seventh- and eighth-grade girls, 49 premenarcheal and 45 postmenarcheal, produced male and female human figure drawings. These drawings were scored for sexual differentiation, sexual identification, and anxiety related to aggression-hostility and insecurity-lability. Postmenarcheal girls were found to evidence greater sexual differentiation and clearer sexual identification than premenarcheal girls of the same age. Postmenarcheal girls did not differ from premenarcheal girls in level or class of anxiety, however. Together, these results provide evidence for viewing the impact of menarche as primarily integrative, rather than primarily disruptive. Implications of these findings for understanding menarche as a normal developmental crisis are explored.This research was supported in part by Wellesley College Faculty Development Awards to each of the two authors.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Clark University. Major interests are clinical psychology and personality development. Correspondence should be addressed to this author.Received Ph.D. in psychology from Tufts University. Major interests are psychobiology and adolescent development.     

Is approval voting an ‘unmitigated evil’?: A response to Brams,Fishburn, and Merrill

Brams, Fishburn, and Merrill (1988) contend that the indeterminacy of approval voting (AV), introduced in our paper (1988), is not a vice, but a surpassing virtue of AV. They do not compare the negative versus the positive features of AV, so their assertion remains a conjecture. Our response emphasizes the need to determine the costs of AV and to evaluate them against any merits. Moreover, by correcting and answering BFM's comments, the argument against AV becomes much stronger. This is because we show that AV's region of indeterminacy is quite large; it includes most profiles. Some of the consequences of this instability are that the AV outcome can negate the voter's true wishes, that the AV outcome can be volatile even to minor fluctuations of voter's decisions, and that AV is one of the most susceptible systems to manipulation by small groups of voters (for example, small, maverick groups could determine the AV outcome). Under specific circumstances, AV may be appropriate. To identify these situations we propose the more accurate name of the "Unsophisticated Voter System."     

Body Politics with Feeling: The Power of the Clothesline Project

The Clothesline Project uses t-shirt art to address the issue of violence against women. Others have argued that the Clothesline Project empowers women in general and female victims of violence in particular. In this article we attempt to deepen this argument, first, by tying it to the existing "faces of power" literature. Using this literature, we argue that the Clothesline Project empowers by creating a public space for political action, offering an alternative communicative medium, educating in a context of dismissal and silence, and contributing to social and cultural transformation. Second, we develop the notion of affective power and argue that it amplifies the practical power of the Clothesline Project.     

Should the housing voucher program become a state‐administered block grant?

Abstract

The Bush administration has proposed that the current national Housing Choice Voucher Program, which has an essentially uniform program design and is administered largely by local public housing authorities, become a block grant administered by the states. This article examines the potential benefits and hazards of such a change.

While this article does not support or analyze directly the administration's proposal, it concludes that state administration is fundamentally a good idea. However, the choice‐based nature of the voucher program should be preserved, and the early stages of implementation should permit changes to the program's subsidy structure and housing quality inspection only in selected states and with careful evaluation. The law enacting the new program should include clearly articulated goals and mandated reporting requirements. Also, the program should be funded and monitored to maintain the national commitment to meeting the housing needs of low‐income renters.     

Déjà vu: from Furby to Långström and the evaluation of sex offender treatment effectiveness

Abstract

The notion that sex offender treatment does not work fuels public outrage and demands for protective legislation. This paper will respond to a recent meta-analysis reporting major weaknesses in research designs that preclude drawing conclusions about the effectiveness of sex offender treatment. Methodological and ethical challenges exist in the investigation of counselling interventions in general and sex offender treatment specifically, and we argue that the medicalization of psychotherapy research may have inherent flaws. Alternatives to dichotomous recidivism outcomes are proposed, including harm reduction measures and reduction of maladaptive behaviours. Future clinical directions for sex offender treatment are explored, including application of risk-needs-responsivity models, a focus on process as well as content and incorporation of principles of trauma-informed care.     

Comment on Kirk McClure's “Are low-income housing tax credit developments locating where there is a shortage of affordable units?”

Kirk McClure's article makes important contributions to our understanding of the way in which state allocating agencies are using the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). However, one of the premises of his analysis – that allocating agencies should encourage the location housing developments in census tracts with a “surplus” of low-income renters – is mistaken. Census tracts are too small to be considered closed-system housing markets. Additionally, the LIHTC program does not exist in isolation, but instead as part of a combined national rental housing policy that includes both supply-side programs (LIHTC) and demand-side programs (housing vouchers). A final flaw in the notion that LIHTC units should be built in census tracts with a surplus of renter households in the 30% to 60% of AMI range compared with the units affordable to them is that increasing the amount of affordable housing in those tracts could have the effect of further concentrating households by income and race.