xt7j0z71067n https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7j0z71067n/data/mets.xml University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies Kentucky University of Kentucky. Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies 1993 volumes. Call Number: LD2762.9 .K38c. Accession Number: 2018ua049 journals LD2762.9 .K38c English Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection University of Kentucky Odyssey Magazine Research -- Kentucky -- Periodicals Education -- Research -- Periodicals Research -- Kentucky Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Winter/Spring 1993 text images Odyssey: The Magazine of University of Kentucky Research, Winter/Spring 1993 1993 1993 2026 true xt7j0z71067n section xt7j0z71067n  

0 THE MAGAZINE OF UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY RESEARCH 0 WINTER/ SPRING 1993 0

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Depression: The Power
of Negative Thinking

  

 

he Universityof Kentucky, the com—

monwealth’s graduate education
and research institution, exists to pro—
vide opportunities for the education,
personal growth and development of
individuals and to contribute to the
improvement of society.

With this mission as its premise, one
goal of the university is to conduct
programs ofbasic and applied research
which support graduate and profes-
sional education, prmide for the ad-
vancement of knowledge, and seek
solutions for the acute problems of
society.

The university's research mission
also acts as a magnet for attracting top
graduate students who want to partici-
pate in nationally competitive research
projects.This research experience can
offer them a significant advantage in
their education while laying the foun-
dation for future research and devel-
opment. ODYSSEY, through articles
about various research projects and
graduate education programs, reflects
the breadth of the university‘s search
for new knowledge and the myriad of
research endeavors underway. The
progress that the university has made
toward achieving its research mission
and securing the extramural funds
required to support these types ofen—
deavors would have been impossible
without the talean and dedication of
our researchers.

The goal of 01) YSSEYis to offer the
reader the opportunity to share in
some of the excitement, curiosity arid
creativity evident in the research un—
derway at the University of Kentucky.

  

 

 

     
 
  

The Love Habits j
of Pests, p. 12 ‘

      

“Do I Like Science?

' 1 Sure, I Love it.’, ” p.21
Update: How Much
Minable Coal Is heft
in Kentucky?p. 35

 

Volume X, No.2 2 Contents 1

ODYSSEY is published by the . .
Office of the Vice President for Aglng w1[h Grace:
Research and Graduate Studies. 1 .
Each issue of ODYSSI‘IYdescribes The SChOOl 515t€rs Of NOtre Dame StUdY 2
only a few of the many L‘niversity '
{K k' x ' 2h ' ‘ - ~
3633213 5 iiiiiitfol’li’éiifs ”" DepreSSIOrlr
,chuem‘for Permissionfo re- The Power of Negative Thinking 8
print material and readers com» ‘
men ts regarding OI) YSSE Yare wel-
come and should be sent to the The Love Habits of Pes[s 12
Editor, Communications and Ad— i
vancemen t. University ofKentucky,
Lexmglon 40506-0057 (Phone Can a Tiny White Pill Beat Breast Cancer? 14
606/257-8297). .
The publication of ()DYSSEYis . . ’
not financed by the State General 3 “DO I L1k€ SC1€nC€? SUI‘E, I LOVe It!7

Fund ‘ Math and Science Focus Shifts to Active Learning 21

 

 

 

 

 

 

Editor: Susan Hodgetts Stempel

Assoc. Editor2jeffWorley l BRAVO! 26
Designer: Shear 8c Shear
Publications Asst.: Lisa D. Lizer

 

Staff Writer: Suzanne Froelich l Honorable Mention:
Contributin Wn'ter: , . .
Sharon Reygolds 1 KSU 5 Mary Smith: A Bridge over Troubled Waters 28 .

Printing: Merrick Printing, Inc.
_ . . . KIOSK: Alzheimer’s Test on Horizon,
Credits: (.over illustratlon by

TeresaShear; photo on backcover All in the Family. Recognizing Slbling Abuse and More... 50
andpp.4,10,11,12,18,19,21,22, ‘

 

23, 24, 25, 27, and 35 by Ken Goad; l U date- .
photo on p. 16 by Bill Wells; photo ‘ p ' . . ,
on p- 14 by Alix Roughen: photo How Much Minable Coal Is Left in Kentucky? 5;

on p. 28 courtesy ofKentucky State
University Photographic Services;

phoxoonpmbycmescsmrks.. —
L7 { fl .

 

 

  

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
    
   
   
    
 
    
   
   
 
    
 

ODYSSEY 2

     

  

The Schol Sisters
of Notre Dame Study

by Sharon M. Raynolds

 

Sister Gregor Burfield at her
first (ammuniorz (above, lefl),
as a randidate for the Srhool
Sisters of Notre Dame ( I 913)
(right), with her four sisters
(Sister Gregor is standing at
far left), who also berame
nuns (Circa 1962), and in
197 9, eight years before her
death.

if};

n the early part of this century, 3500 young

women left their families in towns and famis
across the United States, vowing to remain
celibate, renounce all their earthly goods and
obediently follow their order. the School Sisters
of Notre Dame. Most of these young Catholic
nuns went on to earn college degrees and teach
school; others became cooks, gardeners or
housekeepers for the order. Nearly one-third of
these women are still living today. ranging in
age from 75 to 105.

Nothing is particularly unusual about a group
of Catholic nuns living to a ripe old age. But six
years ago, David Snowdon, then an epidemi—
ologist at the University of Minnesota, began a
series of pilot studies on the sisters in the
Mankato, Minnesota province. comparing dis-
ease and death rates of the more educated to
those ofthe less educated. When he found that
a higher level of formal education appeared to
be related to longevity with good mental and
physical functioning. he
began to probe for rea—
sons to explain this
connection.

Here was a group
of women who had
led remarkably simi-
lar lives since the age
of 20: They had
eaten meals from
the same kitchens,

 

 

 

  

 

shared the same living quarters, and received
equal access to health care. There seemed to be
something more than their level of education at
work here, he reasoned. Perhaps that “some-
thing" could be found in the early lives of the
nuns.

Two years ago, Snowdon’s research attracted
the attention of the Sanders—Brown Center on
Aging at the University of Kentucky Chandler
Medical Center. Here, along with a team of
renowned scientists, he began focusing on the
brain and how the sisters' early lives might be
related to cognition and function in older
women. So the School Sisters of Notre Dame
Health and Aging Study was set into motion. “In
the short term, we want to find out what causes
Alzheimer's disease," says Snowdon, an associ-
ate professor of preventive medicine at UK. “In
the long term, we want to find out what
promotes a long, healthy, high-functioning life."

The Nun Study is particularly important
because it is one of a very small number that
looks at health and aging among women.
“Most of what we know about the cause and
prevention of disease is based on studies of
white, middle—aged men," says Snowdon. “It’s
very important that we study populations of
women because the bulk of the elderly are
women.“

A recent study published in The American
journal of Public Health reported that only 14
percent of people who died at age 65 or older
were fully functional the last year of their lives.
Of that number, a higher percentage were
women. And as more women enter the ranks
of the very old, they face the threat of Alzheimer’s
disease, a form of senile dementia that destroys
memory and reasoning. The chances of a
person having Alzheimer’s increase from an
estimated 15 percent of people 65 years old to
30 percent of those 85 or older.

Short of pinpointing a specific cause (or
causes), scientists believe defeating this disease
calls for isolating risk factors, much as smoking
and high cholesterol levels have been shown to
contribute to heart disease. The Alzheimer’s
Disease Research Center (ADRC) at the Sand—
ers—Brown Center is a leader in the search for
causes and possible cures for this devastating
disease. Over the coming years, pathologists
here will be examining the brain tissue donated
by the nuns participating in the study.

 

The Nun Study is the largest of its kind in
which brain donations from participants will be
used, Snowdon says. So far, 550 sisters (65%)
have agreed to participate in all aspects of the
study, including brain donation after death.
“The general public is reluctant to donate brain
tissue,” he says. “Usually only 20 percent of the
participants are willing to donate. The large
response rate of our study makes it more valid
scientifically.” Piero Antuono, director of
Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital’s
Dementia Research Center in

MllWflUkCC, is in charge Of ‘Myfeeling, and it is” ’t based 0n

removing the brains after the
death of participants.
A key player in facilitating

scientific facts, is that the reasons

this work is David Wekstein, why the sisters live so long is that

associate director of the Sand—

ers—Brown Center. “David has they are phySically, SOCidlly, and

organized the entire brain
donation component of the
study,” Snowden says. “With—
out his support it simply wouldn’t have been
possible.”

The research that Snowdon began six years
ago in Mankato has now been expanded to
include hundreds of sisters in the Notre Dame
provinces of Milwaukee, St. Louis, Baltimore,
Dallas, Chicago, and Wilton, Connecticut. More
than $1 million from the National Institute on
Aging is funding the study and several million
dollars more will be necessary to complete it,
Snowdon predicts.

The initial studies looked at sisters of similar
age who represented a broad range of function
and health—from confused and bedridden sis-
ters to those who were still holding full-time
jobs in the community. The more highly edu—
cated sisters lived approximately four years
longer with a good level of mental and physical
functioning than those who had less than a
bachelor’s degree. At every age, between 20
and 95, the less-educated sisters had twice the
mortality rates of the more educated.

These findings did not surprise Snowdon
since studies conducted elsewhere have made
the link between education and active life
expectancy. However, says Snowdon, in stud-
ies done on a general population, the relation-
ship between less education and health prob-
lems might be attributed to certain aspects of

continued on page 4

 

intellectually engaged in li e.”

5 ODYSSEY

 

  

 

Lydia Gremer (left),
David Snowden and
Kathleen Blomquist,
project manager for
the Srhool Sisters 9f
Notre Dame Health
and Aging Study.

ODYSSEY 4

 

adult lifestyle—poor nutrition, a greater preva—
lence of smoking and alcohol abuse and inad-
equate access to health care among the less
educated.

"With the nuns, you can‘t use that as an
explanation." he says. “With the less-educated
as well as the more highly educated nuns, they
aren‘t smoking, or drinking heavily; they‘re
eating out of the same kitchens; and they have
the same level of social support. All these
similarities in adult lifestyle are relatively con—
stant. That made us think the education findings
in our study weren‘t so much due to bad habits
or bad circumstances of their adult life, but due
instead to something that occurred in their
youth."

Education is merely a substitute for intellec—
tual capacity, says the co-investigator of the
study James Mortimer, director of geriatric re—
search at the Veterans Affairs Hospital in Minne—
apolis. “We are looking at the socioeconomic
status of the sisters‘ family of origin," Mortimer
says. “The supposition is that those with leSs
education have a major risk factor for develop-
ing Alzheimer’s disease. The hypothesis we are
putting forward is that the cause of senile
dementia maybe a developmental disability in
the brain, occurring before adulthood."

To find out how and why the brain’s devel—
opment might have been adversely affected.
researchers need to look first at the mental
capacity of participants. One problem with
Alzheimer’s studies is that the disease affects the
level of a person’s intelligence, sometimes in
subtle ways that cannot be immediately de—
tected. Therefore, scientists need to examine
intelligence before the brain begins to deterio—

 

rate. The current study makes use of archival
data to estimate the sisters’ cognitive ability in
youth.

Information on all the sisters has been scruptv
lously recorded from the time they entered the
order and is available in archives for research—
ers. Archival data also show the sisters‘ abilities
to communicate in writing and perform math—
ematical calculations. Ultimately. the autobiog—
raphies and school transcripts of all the partici—
pants will be analyzed.

“Normally,“ says Snowdon, “you ask a group
of people who are sick what their past history
is and you compare that to the past history of a
group of healthy people. You assume the
groups past histories are different. But you can't
ask Alzheimer’s patients about their past history
because the disease limits their memory. That‘s
why the archival data is so important—it gives
us insights into the factors that were present
before the disease occurred."

The archival data will be supplemented by life
history interviews of a select sample of sisters
who can demonstrate their ability to accurately
recall early life events (for example. the church
where they received their first holy commun-
ion). The life history interviews will be particu—
larly important in another promising lead of the
study: the possible influence of nutrition on
mental capacity.

In this connection. anthropologist Lydia
Greiner is helping Snowdon devise interview
techniques that provide reliable information on
the early lives of the sisters. In gaining insights
into the backgrounds of these nuns. Greiner
interviews them over a period of several hours.
“One area of the interview is nutrition, but we
don't just ask people what they ate 80 years
ago.“ she says. “We cover the family, the
household. the houses and neighborhoods they
grew up in. We ask them to tell us about food
preparation, storage and acquisition, the health
of the family. their education and religious
beliefs."

In conducting her interviews, Greiner has
found so far that the lives of the women prior to
their becoming nuns were incredibly varied.
“One 90—year-old grew up in a university town
in a family of nine children, all of whom went
to college. Another, whose mother helped
support the family by doing domestic work, was

 

  

the only child in the family to be educated
beyond eighth grade. The point is, there is no
‘typical’ sister. But all came from a family that
had at least one parent with strong religious
convictions."

Snowdon is hypothesizing that sisters with
Alzheimer’s are more likely to be from families
of lower socioeconomic status. Scientists al—
ready suspect there is a relationship between
socioeconomic status and the number of neu—
rons—brain cells used for thought process—
ing—in critical parts of the brain, says Mortimer.

However, Snowdon says, social class itself is
not the determining factor in the development
of Alzheimer‘s. “I think it’s more likely to be
early life nutrition or some early life stressor," he
says. “I would love to be able, in the next year,
to say it‘s not education; it‘s your mental ability
when you’re young because some people did
not get the opportunity for education yet they
have very good mental ability.

“When you can actually look at the sisters’
high school transcripts and autobiographies
they wrote at age 20, you'll find these more
predictive of their mental ability than their
number of years of formal education. We
suspect these measurements of early life intel~
ligence will be very powerful in predicting
Alzheimer’s."

The supposition is that because of limited
economic resources, the diet of lower socioeco—
nomic families may have been poor, that the
children's brains may not have developed to full
potential because of poor nutrition. “We know
that diet is related to the function and size of
other important organs,” says Snowdon.

As a person grows older, the brain naturally
shrinks in size. However, by counting neurons
in different parts of the brain, researchers in the
Nun Study hope to get an idea of how much
intellectual capacity the person might have had.
By the time a person is five years old, the actual
number of neurons he or she will have has been
established.

Mortimer cites studies conducted in San Di-
ego by Robert Katzman two years ago in which
large numbers of nursing—home residents were
tracked before death and their brain tissue
examined afterwards. Some of those who had
shown no symptoms (behaviors) of Alzheimer's
actually had the tell-tale signs of the disease in
their brains—neurofibrillary tangles and depos—

 

its of beta-amyloid protein known as senile
plaques.

“As it tumed out, these people had brains that
were about 20 percent larger than those who
actually developed Alzheimer’s symptoms,” says
Mortimer. The extra cells were located in the
hippocampus, the area of the brain associated
with the development of Alzheimer‘s disease.
“It’s as if those extra brain cells were acting as
back-ups for the nerve cells destroyed by
Alzheimer’s,” says Snowden.

The growth of dendrites~the branched part
of the nerve cell that transmits impulses back to
the cell body—in the hippocampal region has
been observed in adults between middle age
and old age. This growth may be an attempt by
the brain to compensate for age-related deterio—
ration. Conversely, Alzheimer’s patients do not
show evidence of
age—related den—
dritic growth.

Because the

 

“Aging is part of human development and

nuns in the UK- may be linked to childhood dwelopment.

based study are
donating their

Discovering ways to circumvent age-related

brains for further disarders Offlw brain could greatly benefit

research, scientists

can look at the the countyy’s rapidly aging population ”

tissue for a num—
ber of clues to the
pathology of Alzheimer’s disease. Since most of
the nuns will not have the disease, pathologists
will have access to healthy brain tissue, which is
in short supply at brain banks. Most donated
brains have come from people with dementia.
In a related aspect of the study, UK has
received an additional $760,000 in federal funds
to examine the brain tissue for traces of mercury,
aluminum and other compounds that have been
implicated as a possible cause of Alzheimer‘s
disease. Stanley Saxe, director of geriatric oral
health at UK. is directing this phase of the
research. Brain tissue will be removed with a
special titanium knife, composed of a metal
used only in space craft, so that the tissue doesn‘t
become contaminated with another metal. The
tissue is frozen immediately and sent to UK for
analysis. William Ehmann, UK professor of
chemistry and a 15-year veteran of analyzing
trace elements in brain samples. will determine

continued on page 6

 

5 ODYSSEY

 

  

“. . . the sisters’ high school transcripts

 

“The only time we retire, ”one sister told me, “is at night. ”

the level of mercury in different parts of the
brain tissue.

The role of mercury as a cause of Alzheimer‘s
has been particularly controversial because it is
a metal used in silver amalgams for dental
fillings. Previous research at UK has revealed
elevated levels of mercury in the brains of
Alzheimer's victims, but no firm evidence has
pointed to dental fillings as a source.

A group of people in Lexington, as well as the
nuns, are taking part in the mercury study. One
reason Saxe is looking at central Kentuckians is
that many will have been exposed to mercury
in the environment, since mercury is a byproduct
of coal burning. Other sources of mercury are
canned fish and preservatives in medicine.

The size and number of the participants
dental fillings will be carefully recorded—video
pictures of the teeth and fillings of subjects have
already been taken—and the level of mercury
coming off the surface of the fillings will be
measured “We are trying to calculate whether
the size and duration of silver fillings is related
to mercury found in the brain, then to see if that
relates to whether one is demented or not,” says
Saxe. “We won‘t show “cause and effect.’ We
will simply see if a connection exists between
the number of silver fill—
ings and the risk of

a,”

Alzheimer s. Now in its

and autobiographies they wrote at age first year, this phase of

20, these measurements of early life

intelligence, will be very powerful in
predicting Alzheimer’s. ”

ODYSSEY 6

 

the study is expected to
take up to five years.
The School Sisters of
Notre Dame Health and
Aging Study is such a
broad-based undertak—
ing that Snowdon ex-
pects it to continue for at
least another decade. During the coming years,
it may be instrumental in opening doors to new
ways of protecting the aging mind from deterio—
ration and to drawing attention to the relation of
early childhood development to the last stage of
life. “Aging is part of human development and
may be linked to childhood development,” says
Snowden. Discovering ways to circumvent age-
related disorders of the brain could greatly
benefit the country’s rapidly aging population.
“Most people think Alzheimer’s disease is

 

caused by something that happened to you in
adult life—a head injury, a stroke,” says Mortimer.
“If it turns out that what is really important is
what happened in childhood, clearly the em-
phasis in terms of aging should be placed on
interventions in early life.”

At one extreme, he says, “there will be
attempts to find a fountain of youth, " perhaps in
such experimental areas as human growth
hormones. And the ever popular use of vita—
mins will continue. Experiments in laboratory
rats have shown that antioxidants can slow
aging and some related diseases. Such findings
have increased use by some of vitamins E and
C, which are antioxidants. But Mortimer, who
has helped spearhead research in antioxidants,
says he doesn’t take megadoses of either vita—
min himself.

However, he adds, “I do wear a helmet when
I ride my bicycle.” Head trauma and stroke have
been shown to put a person at risk for the
disease, along with genetic predisposition and
age. Then there is the “use it or lose it” remedy—
bolstering brain cells by continuing to use them,
says Snowdon.

“Scientific findings show that exercise, weight
lifting and other physical activities help people
maintain the functions they need to maintain
their independence,” says Snowden. “Wouldn’t
it be nice if brain cells turned out to behave like
muscle cells—that if you keep mentally active
your brain will function optimally for a longer
time.

“My feeling, and it isn’t based on scientific
facts, is that the reasons why the sisters live so
long is that they are physically, socially, and
intellectually engaged in life. ‘The only time we
retire,’ one sister told me, ‘is at night.” They also
aren’t socially isolated. One cruel reality of
aging is that as we get older, our family moves,
we lose a partner, adding to our disengagement
from life.

“You and I are a lot different from a group of
Catholic sisters, so it’s not easy to generalize
from this population,” he says. “But quantum
leaps have been made from studies of unique
populations in the past. What we are looking for
here are clues." O

 

  

 

Saints and Sages
Behind the Statistics

avid Snowdon has a computer
D full of statistics, but it is the album

in his mind that he treasures—the
radiant faces of women nearing the end
of their lives who remain vitally involved
in life.

“My impression of the sisters whom I
first met in 1985 when I began the study
has not changed,” says Snowdon. “It
shattered all my stereotypes of how 80—
and 90-year-old people are supposed to
behave. They seem so mellow after a
lifetime of contemplation. They are living
saints and sages.” He adds that like the
gums of Eastern religions, many of these
women may be viewed as mystics of the
Christian faith.

To Snowdon, the most engaging as—
pect of the School Sisters of Notre Dame
Health and Aging Study is the elderly
sisters themselves—women like Sister
Mary, a centenarian who can still tell you
the name of her first mother superior, and
Sister Mercedes, 90 and nearly blind,
whom Snowdon describes as “a woman
who radiates beauty.”

Many of the sisters in the study are now
living in retirement homes such as the
one in Elm Grove, near Milwaukee. Their
lives are far from lonely, and many
remain active into their 90s. Among them
are Sister Columbine Kumba, 93, and
Sister Mary Godfrey Huber, 92, both
former teachers.

Like other sisters participating in the
University of Kentucky based research,
they receive on-site annual assessments
of their mental and physical health. They
are also donating their brains for research
into the causes of Alzheimer’s disease
and stroke. As part of a religious congre-
gation whose average age'is 70, they are
especially sensitive to the issues involved
in the UK study.

“I feel that taking part in this study is for
my present well—being, and it promises to
improve my life condition,” Sister Colum—
bine said in a recent telephone
interview. She speculated that the sisters’
“regular lifestyle” had contributed to their
longevity. “You certainly don’t get lonely
here,” she said.

The two women have taken part in the
life history interviews conducted by an-
thropologist Lydia Greiner, an associate
of Snowdon’s. “The interviews allowed

 

me to explore areas
in my life which,
until then, I was to—
tally unaware ex—
isted," Sister Colum-
bine said. “And the
memory tests
showed me that my
memory is still

keen."
Sister Mary
,, , Godfrey, who grew
5‘5"” Columbine up in a small town
Kumba

in upper Michigan,
believes remaining fairly independent
and healthy at her age can be attributed
in part to her early lifestyle. “We lived
very simply. We didn’t eat all this highly
seasoned food they have nowadays. We
had plenty of vegetables and meat. We
also had a beautiful home and made our
own pleasure.”

She’s recently begun to feel the pull of
aging, however. Following what she de~
scribes as “a number of bad spells,” she
has had to use a walker off and on to get
around the retirement home.

“But I still participate in all the activi—
ties; I go to meals and to mass; and I play
pinochle.” She used to play bridge but
has had to forego that pleasure since she
can’t seem to find enough partners nowa—
days, she adds.

The only survivor of seven siblings,
Sister Mary Godfrey was the only child in
her family to attend college. But she
didn‘t decide to become a nun until she
was 21.

“I had a taste of life, even had boy-
friends," she says. “But it’s strange the
way the Lord works. No one had ever
spoken to me of a vocation. I decided
that was what I wanted to do after I read
the autobiography of the Little Flower
(Teresa of Avalon)”

Sister Columbine grew up on a farm in
Wisconsin, entered the order in 1915 and
taught school for more than 60 years. Her
former students are still important to her;
she continues to write to many and they
often visit her.

Although severe arthritis has made it
necessary for her to begin using a wheel-
chair, she remains fairly independent.
She enjoys going to music therapy and
playing cards with other sisters. “Judging
from my activities, they’re predicting I’ll
live to be over 100,” she says.

When Sister Columbine and Sister Mary
Godfrey became nuns, options for women
were limited. Had they chosen the more

 

traditional path of
marriage, chances
are they might have
outlived their part-
ners, many of their
friends and relatives
and would be
spending the last
years of their lives in
virtual isolation.

“One of our great—
est strengths is that
we live and work
together in a com-
munity,” says Sister Marjorie Myers, archi—
vist for the Schools of Sisters of Notre
Dame in Mankato. “There is strength in
mutuality, and we help each other.”

Far from being cloistered behind con-
vent walls, the Notre Dames have a long
history of keeping in touch with the
world. As early as the 16th century, the
order’s ancestors were teaching young
girls in Europe; in the 19th century, the
sisters opened night schools where work—
ing girls could better themselves.

“We are learners as well as teachers,"
says Sister Marjorie. “Education is such a
vibrant, life—giving thing.”

Working among the nuns has been an
enriching experience for Lydia Greiner,
who, like Snowdon, has spent many
hours in their company. “They have a
sense of enjoyment of life and of each
other. They’re like anybody else—they
laugh, they get annoyed, have political
opinions, read novels, enjoy sewing and
going to the mall. They have been very
open and warm with us.”

While conducting her interviews,
Greiner was surprised at the extent of
sacrifice of some of the sisters. “I didn’t
realize how much these women and their
families had to give up when they en—
tered the congregation,” she says. “Visits
home were very limited and often their
mission assignments were hundreds of
miles away from their families.”

Inevitably, as Snowdon and Greiner
work with the elderly women, some of
the nuns have died. The occasion isn’t
necessarily a sad one, the researchers
say.

“I’ve attended a lot of funerals of nuns,”
says Snowdon. “And it's usually only the
lay nurses who cry. For the sisters, death
is part of life, and they’re ready to go on.
Funerals are celebrations of the sister’s
life and the people she touched. They
remain very engaged in life, yet they are
prepared for death.”

Sister Godfrey
Huber

 

7 ODYSSEY

 

 

  

 

 
 
 
 
  
  
 
 
 
    
 
   
   
     
    

own in the dumps. The
walkin~ blues. Really
bummed out. ,

We‘veallbeenthere:thedank, _, .. ~
dark alley in the back of the
mind, a relentless drizzle pud—
dling the gray world around us.

Recent statistics show that de—
pression has grown to epidemic
proportions. This year, accord—
ing to Bonnie Strickland. former
president of the American Psy—
chological Association, 10 mil—
lion Americans will be clinically
depressed and could be diag—
nosed with an affective disor-
der. The experience of depres~
sion is now the most common
complaint of people seeking
health care and the third lead—
ing reason people go to doc—
tors.

“The emotional toll of the
affective disorders in terms of
human suffering is incalculable,"
says Strickland. "In addition to
the despair and loss of pleasure
suffered by depressed individu—
als and their families, two—thirds
of the 50,000 reported suicides
in this country each year may be
linked to clinical depression."

And to follow the spiral of these numbers down even
further, there are also economic repercussions. Annual costs
for “mental illness" topped $129 billion in 1988. Depression
and the affective disorders are recurrent and, according to
Strickland, constitute a major public and mental health
problem.

In spite of these grim statistics, very little is known about
depression as it relates to self—concept, according to UK
psychologist Rick Hoyle. Hoyle, with the help of several
graduate students and undergraduates in the Department of
Psychology, is currently working on several studies of
depression, all focused on how depressed people think
about themselves. “We‘re interested in learning more about
how people particularly people who are depressedw
organize information about themselves," says Hoyle, an
assistant professor who came to UK from Duke University
in 1989, “and we can conceptualize that organization in
much the same way a book is organized by chapters,
headings and subheadings It turns out Hoyle says that
there are various advantageous organizations in terms of
how we think about our failures and successes.

Depr

 

ODYSSEY 8

The Power
NegativeThinking

10197me

 

"One aspect of this organi’
zation that has received at—
tention lately." says Hoyle. “is
called ct)mpartmentalization.
Given that all of us have in
our memories some positive
and some negative informa—
tion about ourselves, we can
ask how these two classes of
information are related. Are
they integrated so that they
are in csscnse one chap-
; 49 ter with both positive
and negative informa—
§'tionll al lmingled together
, or are they compartmen»
talized so that they form two
distinct chapters?"

Hoyle believes the type of
organization that underlies
selllconcept may make a sig—
nificant difference in whether
someone becomes depressed
or not when faced with nega-
tive information about him}
self. He explains that for a
person who generally char—
acterizes himself in a positive
way, compartmentalization is
better because negative