Reconstructing the “Work Ethic” through Medicalized Discourse on Workaholism

While commonly construed as an ethic and/or balanceable life quality, work rarely is looked upon as being a disease. Drawing from theories of structuration as well as work–life balance literature, this study examines how societal trends of production and efficiency impact the embodied nature of human life, particularly for self-proclaimed workaholics. Through conducting a narrative analysis of texts written by workaholics, the author investigates how individuals reconstruct meanings for their work through their use of diagnostic and therapeutic terminology. Themes for the analysis center on how workaholics define and diagnose workaholism, express their experiences of this addiction, and reconstruct their lifestyles through recovery. The findings underscore the benefits of intersecting health discourse with occupational and ethical discourses surrounding work. Meanwhile, the author cautions that framing work as a disease focuses attention on individuals' problems and thus runs the risk of overlooking potentially “ill” societal conditions that warrant further concern. Suggestions are offered for promoting discussions that raise explicit awareness of the embodied interconnections between work and health.     

An instructor self‐disclosure scale

This ‐paper introduces the Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale and reports on two initial studies that address the reliability and validity of the scale. The Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale is an 18‐item measure of the amount of instructor self‐disclosure. In Study One, instructor self‐disclosure was positively related to the student motives of relational, excuse‐making, and sycophancy. In Study Two, instructor self‐disclosure was positively related to out‐of‐class communication, the student interest dimensions of meaningfulness and impact, and cognitive learning. Additionally, the Instructor Self‐Disclosure Scale appears to be a unidimensional, internally reliable measure.     

The interest of Bavarian primary school pupils in geographical topics and methods – selected results of an empirical survey

Interest is a central learning prerequisite for teaching. The article deals with a survey among 1600 primary school pupils in forms 2, 3 and 4 (ages 7–10) in the German federal state of Bavaria who were interviewed on their interest in geographical topics and working methods. They were given a questionnaire including 40 items to indicate their individual interest on a five-point Likert scale. The results show that the subscale ‘natural disaster' generates the highest interest, followed by ‘phenomena of geoscience' and ‘people and peoples'. The interest in all three subscales decreases with increasing age. Furthermore, several gender-specific differences occur. Among the working methods, experimenting, films and computers hold the first three places whilst again showing significant differences concerning age group as well as gender.