The authors report on the results of an exploratory investigation of the occupational safety experience among day laborers at one street-corner hiring site in Chicago. The authors' goals were to pilot street-corner surveillance methods, including those that would facilitate access to the workers, and to obtain information on the day laborers' occupational safety experience, including the types of jobs and tasks performed, the hazardous conditions encountered, and the frequency of occupational injuries. The authors held interviews at one street corner in Chicago; 21 day laborers participated. All were male, and 90% were Latino. Construction jobs were common. Roofing and demolition were 2 of the most hazardous jobs. Of the respondents, 52% had been injured in the previous year. This exploratory study was a successful first step in occupational injury research among street-corner day laborers and suggests that these workers are frequently exposed to hazardous working conditions without safety training or equipment.

The goal of this study is to examine the attitude of students who were about to complete the final course of their language requirement in order to determine their perception of the total requirement experience. The investigation focused on three areas: 1) whether or not students considered the language requirement a worthwhile experience, 2) whether or not their attitude toward the language requirement had improved during the time they spent in required courses, and 3) their attitude toward foreign language study as a part of a university curriculum. The results revealed that students have a much more positive attitude toward required language study than is generally believed and that a critical factor in this determination is their perception of their own progress toward mastery of the language. The majority of students also reported that their attitude toward the language requirement had improved during the time they had spent in required courses. Finally, students expressed a surprisingly strong conviction that the study of a foreign language should be a required part of a university education.

The psychological status of fifteen morbidly obese patients was assessed prior to gastroplastic surgery for the purpose of weight reduction study. The patients, averaging 264% of their ideal weight, were predominantly in the lowest socioeconomic class. This sample may represent a subset of the morbidly obese who have a high degree of psychopathology, the most common manifestation of which is affective illness. The prevalence of lifetime depressive disorders in these patients was 53%, utilizing the diagnostic criteria of the DSM‐III. Only one patient had no diagnosable mental illness. The sex, percentage of ideal weight, and socioeconomic class of the patients may influence these findings.