Guest Editor's Introduction

Experimental study of the effect of exercise on the tactile discrimination threshold was initiated by E. Weber (1844). This study was continued by Fechner, Volkmann, Frey, Jasper, Dressier, Ukhtomskii, Anan'ev, and other psychologists.     

Alcohol and the Identity Struggle: Some Effects of Economic Change on Interpersonal Relations

This paper proposes to examine the apparent increase in interpersonal conflict that often accompanies economic change. Focusing initially on the drinking behavior of the Naskapi Indians of Schefferville, Quebec, it is held that when economic change results in the introduction of new ways of access of persons to goods or activities that serve to maintain identities, there will be an increase in frequency of identity struggles, and a corresponding increase in those ritualized or formalized social interactions which serve as identity-resolving forums.