Experiences of Moral Commitment: A Phenomenological Study

This study\u27s purpose was to increase understanding and meaning of the lived experience of moral commitment as practiced by participants at the time of the study, not in retrospective. Phenomenology was the research methodology selected to elicit participants\u27 understanding of moral commitment through in-depth interviews. Study participants were referred using selection criteria which included: demonstration of sustained selfless service to others outside of one\u27s work life and a demonstrated tendency to inspire others to engage in similar service. The four women and six men in the study, ranging from 33 to 78 years of age, represented blue-collar and professional occupations. Open-ended interviews elicited rich descriptions and stories about participants\u27 service to individuals and communities. Through data analysis and identification of common themes, a phenomenological description of the experience of moral commitment emerged. Findings show that the lived experience of moral commitment is a way of life, or process, which typically includes: (1) becoming aware of the needs of others and (2) either feeling compelled or choosing to serve others as an extension of earlier life experiences, compassion for others and beliefs in God and justice. This process can reflect an autobiographical motif, or pattern of themes, in the life of the morally committed person. Moral commitment is accompanied by passionate feelings and inner conflicts, yet its exercise provides personal growth and psychic rewards which can act as motivation for continued commitment and service to others. For many, the desire to make a difference in the lives of others or in society reflects a partnership relationship with God, enacted through service to those in need, suffering or unjustly oppressed. Intention to make a difference was paramount, and participants continued to serve regardless of the outcome of their service. Findings reflect that the morally committed of both genders act from an ethic combining compassion, care and responsibility for others, and concerns for justice, individual rights and community welfare. Participants\u27 lives reveal that neither traumatic life experiences nor abusive family backgrounds preclude the development and enactment of moral commitment, and, in fact, may compel persons to serve others in a selfless manner

Time Traces: Cultural Memory and World War II in Pohnpei

While conducting fieldwork in Pohnpei, Micronesia, in the 1980s and 1990s, Suzanne Falgout heard poignant accounts of the Islanders’ experiences during World War II. The stories and songs that she recorded reveal that for Pohnpeians the effects of the war were local and personal—a catastrophe visited on a landscape that they know in intimate terms. In this paper we discuss not only the content of these memories but also the broader role of memory in human culture. First, we critique common understandings of memory. We highlight the ability of memory to transcend time, the diversity of forms that memory can take, and the active role of humans as agents in the process of remembering. Next, we examine the similarities and diff e rences between personal and cultural memory and the p rocesses of transformation from individual experience to collective identity. F i n a l l y, we discuss the nature of Pohnpeian experiences in World War II and what has made them such enduring and compelling cultural memories sixty years after the war. We relate these wartime memories to traditional Pohnpeian understandings of historical knowledge and to the genres, tropes, characters, concerns, and contexts used by Pohnpeians to remember and to articulate the past. We also examine the changing nature and use of war memories as a strategic resource in the context of contemporary Micronesia

The \chi Factor: Determining the Strength of Activity in Low Mass Dwarfs

We describe a new, distance-independent method for calculating the magnetic activity strength in low mass dwarfs, L_{H\alpha}/L_{bol}. Using a well-observed sample of nearby stars and cool standards spanning spectral type M0.5 to L0, we compute ``\chi'', the ratio between the continuum flux near H-alpha and the bolometric flux, f_{\lambda6560}/f_{bol}. This ratio may be multiplied by the measured equivalent width of the H-alpha emission line to yield L_{H\alpha}/L_{bol}. We provide \chi values for all objects in our sample, as well as fits to \chi as a function of color and average values by spectral type. This method was used by West et al.(2004) to examine trends in magnetic activity strength in low mass stars.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in PAS

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 Spectroscopic M Dwarf Catalog. II. Statistical Parallax Analysis

We present a statistical parallax analysis of low-mass dwarfs from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. We calculate absolute r-band magnitudes (Mr ) as a function of color and spectral type and investigate changes in Mr with location in the Milky Way. We find that magnetically active M dwarfs are intrinsically brighter in Mr than their inactive counterparts at the same color or spectral type. Metallicity, as traced by the proxy ζ, also affects Mr , with metal-poor stars having fainter absolute magnitudes than higher metallicity M dwarfs at the same color or spectral type. Additionally, we measure the velocity ellipsoid and solar reflex motion for each subsample of M dwarfs. We find good agreement between our measured solar peculiar motion and previous results for similar populations, as well as some evidence for differing motions of early and late M-type populations in U and W velocities that cannot be attributed to asymmetric drift. The reflex solar motion and the velocity dispersions both show that younger populations, as traced by magnetic activity and location near the Galactic plane, have experienced less dynamical heating. We introduce a new parameter, the independent position altitude (IPA), to investigate populations as a function of vertical height from the Galactic plane. M dwarfs at all types exhibit an increase in velocity dispersion when analyzed in comparable IPA subgroups