INSTINCTSScary Studies
What's most frightening, a dinosaur, a mummy or your own shadow?
For kids, at least, that depends on where you're from.
As a professor of psychology with a special Interest in child
development, I have spent my summers traveling to Burma, Outer Mongolia,
rural Mexico, Indonesia (Bali), Laos, Cambodia and urban U.S. areas to
survey and compare kids' fears. Using a standardized 55-item fear
inventory, I have asked kids about their terrors, ranging from bears to
lions, ghosts to witches, bad grades to war.
As I expected, I did find some universals: Children from these
diverse cultures all placed fear of war, nuclear weapons and kidnappers
on the top of their lists. But differences abounded, revealing the
profound influence of cultural experience.
Whereas American Inner city kids reserve their greatest fear for
gangs, guns, drugs and drive-by shootings, Mongolian children cower when
asked about dinosaurs--since the Gobi desert where they grew up is ridden
with skeletons of these ancient beasts. Balinese children--who are taught
heavy moral lessons with eerie shadow puppets--listed shadows as their
No. I fright. Laotian children fear ghosts, but, growing up among
'Buddhist principles and culture, don't even flinch at the sight of a
mummy.
--Patricia Owen, Ph.D.
ELECTION 2000
Voting for Mental Health
For the first time in history, presidential candidates may start
listening to one of the largest demographics in the country: the mentally
ill. There are an estimated 44 million Americans who meet the criteria
for mental illness, and Ken Steele, director of the Mental Health Voter
Empowerment Project, wants to see them at the polls. "Less than 1% of the
mentally ill are incompetent," said Steele, who is himself a diagnosed
schizophrenic." Since 1994, Steele has registered to vote over 30,000
mentally ill in New York City. His campaign, now linked with the National
Mental Health Association and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill,
is being carried out on the state and national levels. A nonpartisan
program financed both federally and privately, the Voter Empowerment
Project helps the mentally ill by registering them to vote and
distributing literature on the candidates to their homes and hospitals.
"We, the mentally ill," said Steele, "know better what we need in terms
of housing, jobs and access to treatment, and need to become a
constituency of consequence so that legislators will look at us for who
we are."
--Peter Carter
GRADING THE CANDIDATES
On report card day at the National Mental Health Association, a
mental health advocacy organization, leaders announced the presidential
candidates scores on mental health policy, with Al Gore earning an A-and
George Bush falling flat with an F+.
VICE PRESIDENT AL GORE
The NMHA points out that Al Gore has been a leader in improving
managed care to meet consumer needs, expanding Medicaid to cover mental
health and creating return-to-work programs for the mentally ill. Gore
helped pass the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996, and as a congressman
cosponsored the Children's and Communities' Mental Health Systems
Improvement Act of 1991 and the Equitable Health Care for Severe Mental
Illnesses Act of 1992.
TEXAS GOVERNOR GEORGE BUSH
The Republican candidate has advocated some mental health
improvements during his political career but has no apparent plans for
future programs, says the NMHA. His record includes supporting a 1997
bill to subsidize medication for people with second generation
schizophrenia and bipolar diseases, and authorizing a program that would
provide supportive housing, job training, and other health services to
the mentally ill in the Dallas area.
STATISTICS
Not-So-Lazy Summer Days
Number of hours in the newly shortened French workweek: 35
Number of hours in the average American workweek: 44
Number of hours in the 1700s: 72
Length of the average American vacation in 1988: 4.6 days
Length in 1999: 3.8 days
Average number of vacation days and sick days that government
workers get, respectively: 15.3, 13.8
Average number that private sector employees get: 13.8, 15.2
Number of Americans flying to Europe in 1968: 2.3 million
Number in 1999: 11.6 million
Average number of vacation days taken yearly in Italy: 42
Average number taken in the United States: 13
SOURCES: National Transportation Safety Board; the Orlando
Sentinel; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics; World Tourism
Organization
ACTION
Shrinking Disaster
Newspapers and magazines often cover natural disasters and war, but
little attention is paid to the poverty-stricken and emotionally
devastated survivors. Finally, victims of such trauma have begun to
receive treatment from Global Community Psychologists, a group of
Americans who have come together to address international mental health
crises.
Last year, dozens of the group's psychologists crossed borders and
risked dangerous conditions for little or no compensation to help repair
villagers' lives. And what's almost more noteworthy than their effort is
their innovative approach.
Tags:
ancient beasts,
bad grades,
balinese,
buddhist principles,
drive by shootings,
eerie shadow,
fear of war,
gobi desert,
indonesia bali,
inner city kids,
ken steele,
moral lessons,
nuclear weapons,
outer mongolia,
patricia owen,
profound influence,
shadow puppets,
time in history,
universals,
voter empowerment
