US Pharmacy to Stop Selling Tobacco Products

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. pharmacy /ˈfɑrməsi/ (n.) – a place where medicine and health products are sold

Example: The patient bought the medicine from the nearest pharmacy.

2. project /prəˈdʒɛkt/ (v.) – to expect or estimate

Example: The government projects a lower mortality rate in the next three years.

3. parallel /ˈpærəˌlɛl, -ləl/ (adj.) – having similarities

Example: Her goal in life is parallel with the company’s vision.

4. dent /dɛnt/ (n.) – a very serious impact or effect, often negative

Example: The issue on selling expired medicine put a dent on the store’s good reputation.

5. chain /tʃeɪn/ (n.) – a business with many branches owned by the same company

Example: The supermarket chain is now composed of ten stores.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

The second largest pharmacy in the U.S. will stop selling tobacco [tuh-BAK-oh] products starting October this year. The CVS drugstore made this decision because selling tobacco products is not parallel with the company’s purpose. Larry Merlo, president of the CVS, said the company aims to promote people’s health. But because of this decision, the company projects a $2 billion annual profit loss. Some known retailers in the U.S. have already stopped selling cigarettes, but the CVS will be the first national pharmacy to do so. While the company has 7,600 branches in the country, analysts think the decision will not make a huge dent in the number of smokers in America. According to medical experts, smoking kills around 500,000 people each year, making this vice the leading cause of early death in the U.S. Because of this, the U.S. government has taken actions to discourage Americans, especially the youth, from smoking. In the 1960s, 42 percent of Americans were smokers. Now, the number of smokers has gone down to 18 percent. CVS received a lot of support from politicians because of its decision. President Barack Obama said the pharmacy’s action is a key step for the campaign against tobacco and that the company is setting a good example. President Obama expects bigger steps to further lessen the amount of smoking-related deaths. Senate Majority leader Harry Reid [reed] also said that this decision will help save lives. Likewise, former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg approves of the decision, saying that no pharmacy should sell cigarettes. The American Medical Association also hopes that other major drugstore chains will take a similar step.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Do you agree with CVS’ decision to stop selling tobacco products? Why or why not?

         How do you think this decision will affect cigarette companies? Kindly explain.

Discussion B

         Do you think it is possible to completely eliminate cigarette smoking? Why or why not?

         What other ways can the government do to lessen smoking-related deaths? Explain.

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Mouthwash Has Health Risks

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article.

1. hygiene /ˈhaɪdʒin/ (n.) – a habit or practice to maintain cleanliness and health

Example: Healthy kids follow proper hygiene.

2. gargle /ˈgɑrgəl/ (v.) – to take liquid in the mouth and spit it later

Example: The patient gargled water after the dental procedure.

3. eliminate /ɪˈlɪməˌneɪt/ (v.) – to completely remove something

Example: The daily use of mouthwash can help eliminate bad breath.

4. concentrated /ˈkɒnsənˌtreɪtɪd/ (adj.) – close to being pure, usually liquid

Example: Skin products with less concentrated alcohol are better for the skin.

5. temporary /ˈtɛmpəˌrɛri/ (adj.) – will happen for only a short time

Example: Mint candy is a temporary solution for bad breath.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

Researchers from London suggest that using a specific brand of mouthwash can lead to heart attack and stroke. Professor Amrita Ahluwalia [am-REE-ta ah-loo-WAL-ya] and her co-researchers from Queen Mary University concluded in their study that the brand Corsodyl [KOHR-so-dil] can increase one’s blood pressure. They   gathered 19 volunteers who follow a routine for good hygiene. The participants used Corsodyl twice every day. The results surprised Ahluwalia as the blood pressure of the users rose few hours after gargling. Results show that the volunteers’ blood pressure increased by 2 to 3.5 units within one day. According to a separate study, a two-point rise in blood pressure can increase the risk of heart disease by seven percent and stroke by ten percent. These illnesses are among the top causes of death in Britain. While mouthwashes are helpful for one’s oral health, a powerful antiseptic mouthwash like Corsodyl can also eliminate good bacteria that help in proper blood flow. Ahluwalia believes that antiseptic mouthwashes should only be for people with dental problems. People with healthy mouths should use brands with less concentrated ingredients. Corsodyl’s key ingredient chlorhexidine [klor-HEK-si-din] causes these harmful effects in the body. Other mouthwash brands include the same ingredient for their products. However, some brands like Listerine [listerin] do not include chlorhexidine. In response to the findings, the manufacturer of Corsodyl clarified that its product was made for temporary use and clinical treatment. The brand offers Corsodyl Daily, which has less concentration and is designed for everyday use. A dentist also said that Ahluwalia should be cautious in coming up with a conclusion from such a small study.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

          Why do you think many people use strong mouthwash even if unnecessary?

          Is there any harm in being too hygienic? Please explain.

Discussion B

         How can people avoid the harmful effects of some chemicals in the products they use?

         Would you recommend the use of all-natural products? Why or why not?

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FACTOIDS: Gay-dar revisited; Casinos Cure Obesity in Children; Plus, Preschoolers can do Algebra and more

Are you smarter than a 5-year-old? 

Preschoolers can do algebra

Millions of high school and college algebra students are united in a shared agony over solving for x and y, and for those to whom the answers don't come easily, it gets worse: Most preschoolers and kindergarteners can do some algebra before even entering a math class. A new study finds that most preschoolers and kindergarteners, or children between 4 and 6, can do basic algebra naturally.

• Naturally, they can.  Which is why we wait until they can't to teach it.

'Gaydar' revisited: 

New insight into how women perceive 

emotions, thoughts, personality, and sexual orientation

A recent study out of Northeastern University sheds new light on the phenomenon known as "gaydar," or the ability to determine another person's sexual orientation. The study found that women who identified as lesbians were better at detecting sexual orientation in other women, but that straight women were more attune to detecting emotion and personality in their peers.

While the lesbians were better at determining sexual orientation, the straight women were better at assessing thoughts and emotions. They were particularly good at this when the targets they were judging were also straight. Both groups did an equally good job of evaluating personality traits.
Interestingly, the straight targets were generally more transparent (to both straight and lesbian judges) in comparison to their lesbian counterparts. Both groups of judges had a consistently easier time detecting each criterion for the straight women.

• So to be perfectly perceptive, one must be a gay straight woman?

Opening a casino linked with

lower rate of overweight children 

The opening or expansion of a casino in a community is associated with increased family income, decreased poverty rates and a decreased risk of childhood overweight or obesity, according to a study published in one of The JAMA Network Journals. The authors speculate that the association found in this study between casinos and childhood overweight/obesity may be from both increased family-individual and community economic resources, but emphasize that further research is needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying this association.

• It's simple, really.  Get the kids hooked on gambling and they won't have time to eat.

Meat and cheese may be as 

bad for you as smoking

A high-protein diet during middle age makes you nearly

• twice as likely to die and 
• four times more likely to die of cancer, 

but moderate protein intake after age 65 is good for you.  In other words, what's good for you at one age may be damaging at another. Protein controls the growth hormone IGF-I, which helps our bodies grow but has been linked to cancer susceptibility. Levels of IGF-I drop off dramatically after age 65, leading to potential frailty and muscle loss. The study shows that while high protein intake during middle age is very harmful, it is protective for older adults: those over 65 who ate a moderate- or high-protein diet were less susceptible to disease.

Crucially, the researchers found that plant-based proteins, such as those from beans, did not seem to have the same mortality effects as animal proteins. Rates of cancer and death also did not seem to be affected by controlling for carbohydrate or fat consumption, suggesting that animal protein is the main culprit.

1. Beans, beans the musical fruit, the more you eat, the longer you live.
2. Good news for me!  I smoke, but don't eat animal protein.  

Online School Offers Specialization Courses

【Unlocking Word Meanings】

　今日の単語・フレーズ

Read the following words/expressions found in today’s article. 

1. leading /ˈlidɪŋ/ (adj.) – best known among its competitors

Example: Harvard is one of the leading research universities in the world.

2. reputable /ˈrɛpyətəbəl/ (adj.) – known and trusted by many

Example: Many students aim to study in reputable schools.

3. conclude /kənˈklud/ (v.) – to be finished

Example: The lesson concluded with an interesting quote.

4. incentive /ɪnˈsɛntɪv/ (n.) – something that can encourage or inspire

Example: The teacher gives additional grades as incentives for good performing students.

5. demand /dɪˈmænd, -ˈmɑnd/ (n.) – desire or need for something

Example: The demand for cheaper education is high.

【Article】

　ニュース記事

Read the text below.

Online educational company Coursera [kohr-se-ra] will now offer a “Specializations” certificate program in which students can take a series of courses under a specific topic. Coursera has been the leading massive open online courses (MOOC) provider since the company launched in 2012. Interested students can take various courses electronically and pay cheaper fees through the company’s website. In partnership with reputable universities, Coursera offers decent education in an innovative way. The introduction of Specializations certificate program widens the scope of learning for the students. It enables students to specialize in a particular area of study by taking a series of courses. Like previous courses, the Specializations program requires no formal enrollment process. Anyone can sign up and be certified as long as they finish the required classes from different courses. Before the program concludes, the professor will assign a final project to the students. The student can include the certificate and the project in his résumé [REZ-oo-mey]. Coursera hopes the Specializations program will serve as an incentive for students. Before, users just sign up and attend their desired classes without finishing them. The new program, on the other hand, provides a list of courses to take for each area of expertise. This setup gives students an easy time to choose courses from the thousands available. With this clear path, Coursera hopes that most students will be encouraged to complete their courses. Coursera said that the new program focuses on careers with technical skills and high demand from employers. Two of the programs include Programming Android Applications and Data Analysis. Ten more programs from different schools will be added in the next few months.

【Viewpoint Discussion】

　ディスカッションテーマ

Enjoy a discussion with your tutor.  

Discussion A

         Would you be interested to take a class in Coursera? Why or why not?

         What is the advantage of Coursera over traditional education?

Discussion B

         What are the problems of the current educational system in your country?

         What do you think the future of education in your country will be? Kindly explain.

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Can You Read the Emo­tions on Another's Face? Maybe. Maybe not.

Credit: Photo courtesy of Maria Gendron

Post-doctoral psy­chology researcher Maria Gen­dron trav­eled to Namibia to inves­ti­gate whether indi­vid­uals from non-Western cul­tures rec­og­nize the same emo­tions as West­erners do in facial expres­sions and vocal­iza­tions.

So much of human communication is physical, and most of us pride ourselves in being able to tell what a person is feeling by reading the emotion on their face.  But can we?  New research qualifies this common assumption.  We can read the emotion on another person's face - as long as they share the same cultural background.  i.e., Americans are best at reading American's faces and so on.

Your face says it all? Not so fast

Suggested Reading
Click on image

New research calls into question the very foundations of emotion science. It's a con­cept that had become uni­ver­sally under­stood: humans expe­ri­ence six basic emotions -- happiness, sad­ness, anger, fear, dis­gust, and surprise -- and use the same set of facial move­ments to express them. What's more, we can rec­og­nize emo­tions on another's face, whether that person hails from Boston or Borneo. The only problem with this con­cept, according to new research, is that it isn't true at all. Researchers have found that even basic human emotions are in fact not universally perceived.

The only problem with this con­cept, according to North­eastern Uni­ver­sity Dis­tin­guished Pro­fessor of Psy­chology Lisa Feldman Bar­rett, is that it isn't true at all.

For nearly two decades, Bar­rett has been tracking down the research that estab­lished this mis­con­cep­tion and wouldn't rest until she actu­ally per­formed the exper­i­ments to dis­prove it.

In two research papers, recently and soon to be pub­lished in the jour­nals Psy­cho­log­ical Sci­ence and Emo­tion, respectively, she's finally done exactly that. The new research calls into ques­tion the very foun­da­tions of emo­tion sci­ence. As Bar­rett found, "Emo­tions are not uni­ver­sally per­ceived. Every­thing that's pred­i­cated on that is a mistake."

Here's how the fal­sity came to be under­stood as fact. 
In the 1970s, a young psy­chol­o­gist named Paul Ekman trav­eled to Papua New Guinea to test whether emo­tions were uni­ver­sally expe­ri­enced and expressed as he sus­pected. To test his hypoth­esis, he looked at whether people rec­og­nized the same emo­tions in facial expres­sions around the world. Was a scowling face always clas­si­fied as angry regard­less of the observer's cul­tural back­ground? A pouting face as sad?

He showed Amer­i­cans, as well as people in the remote south seas island who'd had little expo­sure to Western cul­ture, a series of pho­tographs depicting car­i­ca­tured expres­sions and asked his sub­jects to match the faces to one of six emo­tion words or sto­ries depicting emo­tional sce­narios. No matter where they came from, Ekman's sub­jects saw the same emo­tions reflected in the same photographs.

But Bar­rett knew from her own research that con­text plays an enor­mous role in the way we per­ceive each other's facial expres­sions. She won­dered whether the con­straints that Ekman put on his subjects -- asking them to match images to finite cat­e­gories and rich sto­ries about emo­tional events rather than freely sort them at will -- might in fact create the result he expected to find.

Enter Maria Gen­dron, a post-​​doctoral researcher in Barrett's lab. In the fall of 2011, Gen­dron and a few other mem­bers of the team boarded a plain to Namibia, then hopped in a Toyota 4x4 for an hours long, off-​​road ride to one of the most remotely sit­u­ated tribes on the con­ti­nent. The Himba, Gen­dron said, were as little accli­mated to Western cul­ture as she could find.

Par­tic­i­pants in the Namibian Himba tribe did not rec­og­nize the same emo­tions in facial expres­sions and vocal­iza­tions as Amer­ican par­tic­i­pants. 

She spent the next 18 days -- and then another 20 during the spring of last year -- sleeping in a tent atop the car by night and searching for uni­versal emo­tions by day. She didn't find any.

Gen­dron looked at both facial expres­sions and vocal­iza­tions, hypoth­e­sizing that if emo­tion truly is uni­ver­sally rec­og­niz­able, the medium of expres­sion shouldn't matter.

First Gen­dron gave her sub­jects 36 photos of faces (six people posing each of six expres­sions) and asked them to freely sort the photos into piles based upon sim­ilar facial expression.

"A uni­versal solu­tion would be six piles labeled with emo­tion words," Bar­rett said. "This is not what we saw." Instead the par­tic­i­pants cre­ated many more than six piles and used very few emo­tion words to describe them. The same photo would end up in var­ious piles, which the sub­jects labeled as "happy," "laughing," or "kumisa," a word that roughly trans­lates to wonder.

The vocal­iza­tions fared no better. This time, Gen­dron asked people to freely label the sounds. Again, few emo­tion words were used. The same sounds seemed gleeful to some sub­jects and dev­as­tated to others.

Finally, Gen­dron and Bar­rett repeated the exper­i­ment back in Boston, so they could com­pare the results to a group living in Western cul­ture. The results were sig­nif­i­cantly dif­ferent. "The par­tic­i­pants in Boston were able to label the expres­sions with the expected terms but fared better when the words were pro­vided as part of the task," Gen­dron said. This indi­cates that what were assumed to be "psy­cho­log­ical uni­ver­sals" may in fact be "Western" -- or per­haps even "American" -- cultural cat­e­gories, she said.

*  *  *  *  *

Story Sources: 

1. Materials provided by Northeastern University. Original article written by Angela Herring.
2. M. Gendron, D. Roberson, J. M. van der Vyver, L. F. Barrett. Cultural Relativity in Perceiving Emotion From Vocalizations. Psychological Science, 2014.
3. Kristen A. Lindquist, Maria Gendron, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Bradford C. Dickerson. Emotion Perception, but not Affect Perception, Is Impaired With Semantic Memory Loss.. Emotion, 2014

Intimate Partner Violence: Synopsis of Five Research Reports

Suggested reading
Click on image

As writers we are both part of society and observers and commentators on human behavior in all forms. 

In the fiction, non-fiction, film or television we write it's our opportunity or perhaps even obligation to highlight what we see whether good, bad or funny.  

Below are synopses of five recently published studies about Intimate Partner Violence.  The reports follow: 

Violence against Women at Epidemic Proportions

Three in ten women worldwide have been punched, shoved, dragged, threatened with weapons, raped, or subjected to other violence from a current or former partner. Close to one in ten have been sexually assaulted by someone other than a partner. Of women who are murdered, more than one in three were killed by an intimate partner.

“These numbers should be a wake-up call. We want to highlight that this is a problem that occurs in all regions and it’s unacceptably high,” says Claudia García-Moreno, a physician at the World Health Organization (WHO) who coordinates research on gender violence and worked on all the publications.

According to a WHO report, 42% of women who experienced violence were physically injured by their partners. 

But violence harms women in ways beyond injury. 

• Violent partners may prevent women from visiting health clinics or from accessing medicine or contraception. 
• Women who experienced violence from a partner are more likely to be infected with HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases, to have an abortion, to give birth to underweight and premature babies, and to attempt suicide. 
• They are also more likely to use alcohol and are twice as likely to experience depression — factors which can be both cause of and be caused by a partner's violence. 
• In addition, the authors point out, raised stress levels are implicated in a range of health problems, including chronic pain, diabetes, heart disease and gastrointestinal disorders.

As recently as 15 or 20 years ago, she says, governments generally considered domestic violence as something that was private and inevitable — something that governments could do little to address, says Rachel Jewkes, head of the South African Medical Research Council in Pretoria. Having global figures puts violence on the radar of “global bodies that are looking for one number to show that violence is an issue”.

Global variation
According to these studies of over 25,000 case histories world-wide, the highest rates of partner violence, estimated between 54% and 78%, were found in central sub-Saharan Africa, but even high-income regions in Asia, North America and western Europe had rates above 15%. These jump considerably when sexual non-partner violence is factored in.

The studies did not assess emotional violence, and though estimates did not consider partners’ gender, most research studies solicited information only on male partners. In addition, many homicide reports do not include information about perpetrators’ relationships to their victims.

*  *  *  *  *

Are men always perpetrators 
and women always victims?

An analysis of data on relationship violence in the general population by psychologist John Archer of England's University of Central Lancashire finds that, excluding murder and sexual assaults, 

• women prove slightly more likely than men to commit one or more aggressive acts against a partner. Still, the data show that 
• men are more likely than women to inflict injuries that require medical help.

*  *  *  *  *

Mandatory Domestic-violence Arrest 

Causes 98% Increase in Death Rate of Victims

Researchers followed up on a landmark domestic violence arrest experiment and found that African-American victims who had partners arrested rather than warned were twice as likely to die young.  The research from a major 'randomized' arrest experiment 23 years ago finds that domestic violence victims whose partners were arrested on misdemeanor charges -- mostly without causing injury -- were 64% more likely to have died early, compared to victims whose partners were warned but not removed by police.

Arrest increases early mortality by a staggering 98%
Among African-American victims, arrest increased early mortality by a staggering 98% -- as opposed to white victims, whose mortality was increased from arrest by just 9%. The research also found that employed victims suffered the worst effects of their partners' arrests. Employed black victims with arrested partners suffered a death rate over four times higher than those whose partner received a warning at the scene. No such link was found in white victims.

The study's authors say that causes are currently unknown but such health impacts are consistent with chronic stress that could have been amplified by partner arrest. They call for a "robust review" of US and UK mandatory arrest policies in domestic violence cases.

"It remains to be seen whether democracies can accept these facts as they are, rather than as we might wish them to be," said Professor Lawrence Sherman from Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology, who authored the study with his colleague Heather M. Harris from University of Maryland.

The findings will be announced in the US on Monday 3rd March in Milwaukee and College Park, Maryland, and presented on Wednesday in London at the winter meeting of the Society of Evidence-Based Policing. Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn, who supported the follow-up study, will join in the presentation and discussion of the results. The study will be published in a forthcoming edition of the Journal of Experimental Criminology.

The vast majority of victim deaths following the Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment were not murders, accidents or suicides. The victims died from common causes of death such as heart disease, cancer and other internal illnesses.

Previous studies have shown post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) to be prevalent in victims of domestic violence, and that low but chronic PTSS has been linked to premature death from coronary heart disease and other health problems. The authors observed that the impact of seeing a partner arrested could create a traumatic event for the victim, one that raises their risk of death. An arrest may cause more trauma in concentrated black poverty areas than in white working-class neighbourhoods, for reasons not yet understood.

The exact cause of these surprising results still remains a 'medical mystery,' the study's authors say. But, whatever the explanation, the harmful effects of mandatory arrest poses a challenge to policies that have "been on the books" in most US states and across the UK for decades, they say.

"The evidence shows that black women are dying at a much higher rate than white women from a policy that was intended to protect all victims of domestic violence, regardless of race," said Sherman. "It is now clear that a pro-arrest policy has failed to protect victims, and that a robust review of these policies is urgently needed."

"Because all the victims had an equal chance of having their partners arrested by random assignment, there is no other likely explanation for this difference except that it was caused by seeing their partners arrested."

The Milwaukee Domestic Violence Experiment took place between 1987 and 1988, with support from the National Institute of Justice, the research arm of the US Department of Justice. Sherman, who led the study from the University of Maryland, described it as "arguably the most rigorous test ever conducted of the effects of arrest."

The experiment enrolled 1,125 victims of domestic violence whose average age was 30 years. Each case was the subject of an equal probability 'lottery' of random assignment. Two-thirds of the suspects were arrested with immediate jailing. One-third received a warning at the scene with no arrest. In 2012-13, Sherman and Harris searched state and national records for the names of every one of the victims.

The record search showed that a total of 91 victims had died. Of these, 70 had been in the group whose partners were arrested, compared to 21 whose partners had been warned. This translated into 93 deaths per 1,000 victims in the arrest group, versus 57 deaths per 1000 in the warning group. For the 791 black victims (who were 70% of the sample), the rates were 98 per 1,000 for arrest, versus 50 per 1,000 for the warned group.

"These differences are too large to be due to chance," Sherman said. "They are also too large to be ignored."

*  *  *  *  *

Intimate partner violence in 
men who have sex with men 

linked to adverse health effects

Intimate partner violence (IPV) among men who have sex with men (MSM) is linked to greater risk of mental and physical health symptoms, substance misuse, and sexually transmitted infections, according to a research article published in the online journal, PLOS Medicine. The study, led by Ana Maria Buller and Loraine Bacchus from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK, working with experts from King's College London, identified associations with negative health indicators for both victims and perpetrators of IPV among MSM.

The authors reviewed 19 published studies about IPV and various health conditions or sexual risk behaviors among MSM. Taken together, the studies suggest that the lifetime rate of exposure to physical, emotional, or sexual IPV among MSM was 48%. 

Exposure to IPV was associated with 

• an increased risk of alcohol or drug use, 
• self-report of depressive symptoms, 
• being HIV positive, and 
• engagement in unprotected sex. 
• Perpetration of intimate partner violence was associated with an increased risk of substance abuse.

NOTE: A number of factors limit the conclusiveness of these findings, including the small number of studies, variability among the included studies, and that the health and violence exposure measures were self-reported and relied on recall.

*  *  *  *  *

Higher status than one's partner 

makes both men, women vulnerable

 to intimate partner violence

Having a higher income or education than your partner could be risky, as a higher socio-economic status than ones partner increases the chance of psychological violence and abuse. This applies to both men and women.

New research on violence and relationships does not support the stereotypical pattern of strong men in powerful positions who abuse their weaker, female partner.

"Whenever power is unevenly allocated in a relationship the chance of physical and psychological abuse increases. And the abused partner is the one with the highest status," says sociologist Heidi Fischer Bjelland.

According to Bjelland this applies both to men and women.  Bjelland is a PhD student at The Norwegian Police University College and she has previously carried out research on intimate partner violence in Norway. 

Bjelland has examined survey replies from 1640 men and 1791 women who live with their partners. The participants have answered questions relating to whether they have experienced physical partner violence such as strangling and flat hand slapping, and psychological abuse such as threats of physical violence, jealous behavior and freedom restriction.

Women more exposed
Both men and women with a higher status than their partner have an increased risk of experiencing psychological abuse or controlling partners, but women with a higher income than their partner also have an increased risk of experiencing physical abuse:

• "Their risk of experiencing both physical and psychological violence increases with the difference in income," says Bjelland.

The figures show

• Women earning more than 67 per cent of the total household income have an almost seven times bigger risk of experiencing psychological and physical abuse -- so-called double violence -- from their partner compared to women who earn less than 33 per cent of the total household income. 
• Women with considerably higher education than their partner have an increased risk of experiencing both physical and psychological abuse.

The study challenges previous research which has concluded that a high socio-economic status decreases the risk of experiencing intimate partner violence.  "My study shows that high income or education works as protection against acts of violence only as far as the income and education does not exceed that of the partner," says Bjelland.

"There seem to be two mechanisms at play here: one relating to the individual and another to the relationship as such."

Men also affected
The study shows that men with a higher income or education than their partner have an increased risk of experiencing psychological abuse and control. However, men do not face the same risk of experiencing physical abuse.

"Previous studies have looked primarily at physical abuse. They have also included some types of psychological violence such as control and threats of physical violence, but they have not distinguished these psychological acts of violence as a category in itself. When I distinguish between psychological and physical acts of violence, the psychological factor is becoming much clearer and the results become more nuanced," says the researcher.

One of the finds particularly surprised Bjelland:

"The fact that men with a higher socio-economic status than their partner have an increased risk of experiencing abuse in their relationships was very surprising, since it conflicts with international studies within the same field."

She emphasizes the Norwegian gender equality as a possible explanation.  "Perhaps this indicates that, in today's Norway, women won't accept being without power as a result of having a lower socio-economic status than their partner."

Power and contrapower
Bjelland's study shows the abuse primarily affects the person in the relationship with the most power defining resources such as income and education. This applies to both men and women.
"This implies that intimate partner violence may be all about trying to change the power balance," claims the sociologist.

She believes that much of the intimate partner violence is a type of contrapower strategy towards a stronger partner.  "Violence or control is used as a compensation for the partner's weak position in the relationship, and may thus be regarded as an attempt to balance what is perceived as an uneven division of power."

"Perhaps the abuse in some cases has to do with an unconscious fear of losing a partner which is more attractive "on the market" due to his or her socio-economic status."

Jealousy or traditional gender roles?
The most frequent type of psychological abuse or partner violence in the survey had to do with the partner wanting to know where the other part is, who they're with and when they're due back home. The second most common type was jealous behavior and attempts to restrict the other part's social interaction with friends and family.

"It is not uncommon to want to know where one's partner is and when he or she might be home; when does this become psychological violence? There is no clear answer to that. But this does not have to do with everyday random questions about where someone has been. When the interviewees describe their partners as being inquisitive regarding these things, it is reasonable to assume that it is a type of violation and an attempt to restrict the partner's freedom," says Bjelland.

Different mechanisms generate different types of violence. Bjelland regards jealousy, the fear of losing one's partner and contrapower strategies as possible explanations to much of the psychological power abuse and control in relationships.

According to Bjelland, another explanation may be stress and frustration related to society's views on masculinity and femininity, and the feeling of not being able to live up to expectations related to traditional gender roles.

This has been described in previous research on violence, and Bjelland points to this as one possible explanation to the double violence which women are more exposed to if they have higher status than their partner.

"Men with lower status than their partner may feel that they are not living up to the traditional gender role. This may cause stress and frustration which again may lead to escalating conflicts  which end in physical violence towards their partner," says Bjelland.

Not a conscious strategy
Bjelland believes that the physical violence in many of these cases revolves around situational conflicts and outbursts caused by anger and frustration rather than conscious power strategies.

"In these situations I presume that men relate to traditional gender role norms, but I wish to emphasize that this analysis does not necessarily apply to all men on an individual basis."

"The connection between power, gender and violence is very complex, and there are several mechanisms at play. Contrapower strategies, for instance, do not apply so much to relationships practicing traditional gender roles."

One of the finds in the study is that women with the same status as their partner more often experience intimate partner violence than women with lower status. Bjelland believes this may indicate that also having the same status may be perceived by some as conflicting with traditional gender roles in relationships.

"This find should, on the other hand, be analysed with special care, since the data material is scarce," Bjelland underlines.

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Story Sources:

1. Violence against Women at Epidemic Proportions, Multicountry analyses spotlight a dark problem, by Monya Baker, Nature magazine, Jun 20, 2013.
2. Intimate violence gets female twist, by Bruce Bower, February 3, 2004; www.sciencenews.org
3. Materials provided by University of Cambridge. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence. University of Cambridge. "Mandatory arrest in domestic violence call-outs causes early death in victims." ScienceDaily
4. Materials provided by PLOS. Ana Maria Buller, Karen M. Devries, Louise M. Howard, Loraine J. Bacchus. Associations between Intimate Partner Violence and Health among Men Who Have Sex with Men: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. PLoS Medicine, 2014.
5. Materials provided by KILDEN - Information Centre for Gender Research in Norway. The original article was written by Ingrid Wreden Kåss. KILDEN - Information Centre for Gender Research in Norway. "Higher status than one's partner makes both men, women vulnerable to intimate partner violence." ScienceDaily.