Americans are a lot stingier with their time than their money, according to a study of volunteerism by Independent Sector, a coalition of non-profit groups. In 1985, the survey found, 90 percent of Americans gave money to charity, but fewer than half donated time.
Furthermore, while cash donations jumped 45 percent between 1981 and 1985, volunteerism increased by only 6 percent.
Women continue to provide more time to volunteer causes than men, despite the fact that during the past few years their available hours shrank as they entered the work force in greater numbers.
A poll by the Louis Harris Organization reported that women have only 16 hours per week of leisure time, while men have more than 20. And yet, according to American Demographics magazine, 51 percent of American women served as volunteers in 1985, compared with only 45 percent of men.
Even with the generally lethargic trend in volunteerism, 89 million Americans worked without pay at some point in 1985 and provided services worth $110 billion.
MEDS OVER MINDS
In treating children for hyperactivity, the cure may reinforce a pattern of ”learned helplessness,” a child psychologist says. Ron Brown of Emory University explains that the stimulants used to treat attention deficit disorder may make a child feel worse about himself, even as they increase his ability to concentrate.
Brown, an associate professor of clinical psychiatry, asked three groups of hyperactive children to unscramble a series of words. One group received stimulants; members of the second group thought they were getting medication, but really got placebos. The third group got nothing.
The children who actually received medicine or thought they did attributed their problem-solving skill to the drugs, Brown says. Those who had taken no drugs were more willing to take credit for their success. The upshot, says the professor, is that hyperactive kids who took fake medicine believed the non-existent drugs were responsible for their ability.
”Even if medicine works well,” Brown says, ”the child tends to credit his success to the medicine instead of his internal control. They attribute anything that goes wrong to themselves and anything that goes right to chance. Medication, no matter how successful, is often unable to break that cycle.”
FREEZING WARMTH
National Geographic reports that when freezing temperatures are forecast, strawberry farmers in Florida spray their plants with water to encase them in ice. The formation of ice causes the plants to release heat and helps them survive.
