Involuntary autobiographical memories are typically discussed in the context of negative memories such as trauma ‘flashbacks’. However, IAMs occur frequently in everyday life and are predominantly positive. In spite of this, surprisingly little is known about how such positive IAMs arise. The trauma film paradigm is often used to generate negative IAMs. Recently an equivalent positive film was developed inducing positive IAMs . The current study is the first to investigate which variables would best predict the frequency of positive IAMs. (...) Higher levels of positive mood change to the film were significantly associated with the number of positive IAMs recorded in the subsequent week. Results demonstrate the importance of positive emotional reaction at the time of an event for subsequent positive IAMs. (shrink)

Alternative food networks (AFNs) have become increasingly important in response to growing concerns about industrial animal agriculture’s harmful impacts on animals. Alternative animal agriculture seeks to address problems with industrial animal agriculture given its purported emphases on animal welfare and, more controversially, “happy” meat. Debates in critical food studies and animal studies literature, however, caution against the glorification of “alterity” and how welfare claims provide an ethical façade for violence towards farm animals. These debates, while critically important, leave little room (...) for exploring the complexities of alternative animal agriculture, human-farm animal relations, and care. In this article, I build upon the insights of critical food studies scholarship that takes a reflexive and hybrid approach to studying AFNs and literature that explores the complex dynamics of human-farm animal relations. Drawing on qualitative interviews with grass-fed beef farmers in Ontario, Canada, I present an analysis aimed at unsettling divisive thinking about food practices and relations. First, I reflect on how farmers understand their work as an ethical alternative to industrial beef production, benefiting animals, people, and the environment. I then detail the emotional dynamics that shape cows’ commodification and relations with farmers, adding to scholarship that demands more attention to affective dimensions of care for animals in AFNs. Lastly, I discuss grass-fed beef farming challenges and contradictions, empirically exploring, for example, how grass-fed beef farming operates as a niche market whose accessibility is shaped by socio-economic privilege. Collectively, these insights contribute to discussions about the complexities of grass-fed beef farming as an alternative food network with benefits and problems, impacting the wellbeing of animals, people, and the environment. (shrink)

The methodological device of or, as sometimes euphemistically labeled, does not enjoy much support among institutional review boards (IRBs) and a large portion of scholars in bioethics. The reasons for this have been documented sufficiently, beginning with the now-paradigmatic attack on the well-known study by Milgram and the unsavory study of Laud Humphries on male homosexual activities in public restrooms. But are the current attitudes interfering with some worthwhile approaches to data gathering that seem to have no other methodology of (...) equal effectiveness? (shrink)

This case is another in a series intended to highlight the new questions emerging from advances in mapping the human genome and the application of genetic findings to clinical practice. The National Human Genome Research Institute, a component of the National Institutes of Health, by law is directed to designate a portion of its annual budget to furthering understanding of the ethical, legal, and social questions emerging from research on the human genome. As part of the effort, the Institute supports (...) research by scientists and scholars around the nation with the aim of clarifying and resolving the tough ethical and research choices facing this endeavor. But recently it has launched an intramural program, which is expected to take a catalytic role in grappling with the array of issues the researchers face in carrying out investigations in human genetics. (shrink)