Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Influence Of Bureaucratic Factors On Welfare Policy Implementation, Gerard S. Gryski, Charles L. Usher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The authors argue that previous welfare policy research has suffered from its neglect of bureaucratic factors, as well as a tendency to exclude policy-making arenas above and below the state level. Using several measures of organizational structure, administrative professionalism, and within-state need, they attempt to relate these variables to within-state variations in welfare policy implementation. While certain socio-economic conditions were found to be significant determinants of this variation, of greater importance are characteristics of state welfare bureaucracies such as the degree of administrative centralization and the level of professionalism of administrative staff. Their research suggests the need for further refinement …

The Political Economy Of Unemployment, Howard J. Stanback

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Unemployment, as defined by the U.S. Government. is the number of people seeking work who cannot find it during the period of study, usually a month. This definition reflects a neoclassical economic theory which links total employment with aggregate demand. In other words the higher the Gross National Product (ONP) the higher the employment. According to the theory the actual number of people working is the result interaction of this aggregate demand and the number of people willing to work at the going wage rates, i.e., the supply of labor. "Willing to work" is translated in the government definition as …

Multiple Constituencies, Differential Power, And The Question Of Effectiveness In Human Service Organizations, Patricia Yancey Martin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A multiple constituencies model of human service organizations identifies twelve interest groups which must be considered when effectiveness questions are raised. The differential power of the interest groups suggests that some groups' preferences are likely to be emphasized over others. The relationship between power inside the organization and that on the outside is analyzed. Recent trends in the growth andmiiitancy of professional associations and employee groups suggest that internal control by senior administrators is increasingly challenged and variable. Future studies of effectiveness in the human services are encouraged to remain sensitive to the effects of constituency interests and power on …

Factors Influencing Senate Voting Patterns On Social Work Related Legislation, Joyce Littell Smith, Gail Marie Sullivan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study analyzes several influences on Senate voting patterns on key legislation selected by NASW. Party affiliation, region, ratio of NASW registered social workers to state population, liberal and conservative ideology, and judgment of social work were found to be significantly associated with voting patterns. Results of a questionnaire distributed to each Senator indicate a favorable perception of the field of social work.

Toward A Meaning Of Work, Michael I. Borrero, Hector A. Rivera

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Contemporary observers of the occupation and social fabric contend that individuals as members of families need to assert their rights over their lives and their destinies. That the family and the workplace can be analyzed independently of each other's existence or the dichotomy between the intrinsic value of work and the importance of non-work time for individuals and firms are both notions that are being considered contemporarily and complementary. This paper reviews the history and societal factors that affect the notion of-work and its utility as a focus for social policy students.

Helping The Unemployment Client, Katherine Hooper Briar

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper analyzes ways in which the social work profession can reaffirm its professional service responsibilities to unemployed clients. It is suggested that social work practice should address not just the effects of unemployment but also the jobless condition itself. The human costs of unemployment and their implications for changes in social work assessment and intervention are cited.

Values Classification Through Science Fiction, Phyllis J. Day

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The paper discusses the use of science fiction in social work education as a mechanism for values clarification for the student social worker. Both personal opinions and values, and those stereotypes to which we have all been socialized, can be brought to awareness as reality separate from fact or knowledge by discussion of the alternate futures and societies oriented in the analogical reality of science fiction. A partial bibliography along with suggestions for use are given, and an informal study of student levels of values, clarified by LeGuin's story "Those Who Walk Away from Omelas," is reported.

A Comparison Of Social Psychological Views Among Youthful And Aged Persons: An Empirical Assessment Or Marginally Differentiated Attitude Measures, Dennis L. Peck, David L. Klemmack

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Four related but marginally differentiated sociological and psychological attitude measures are evaluated through analysis of survey data. Generated from a statewide random sample (N=322), four measures of maladjustment/well-being -- the anomie, alienation, fatalism, and powerlessness scales -- are evaluated as being similar in nature. The moderately high correlations between the scale items comprising the four distinctive conceptual world-views suggest that the scales overlap considerably. The results of an oblique solution factor analysis, however, suggest that the scales being considered may be at least marginally differentiated. Comparisons between distinctive age groups of the sample of adults age 18 to 84 using …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 7, No. 6 (November 1980)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• Values Classification through Science Fiction - Phyllis J. Day
• Multiple Constituencies, Differential Power, and the Question of Effectiveness in Human Service Organizations - Patricia Yancey Martin
• The Influence of Bureaucratic Factors on Welfare Policy Implementation - Gerard S. Gryski, Charles L. Usher
• Human Service Needs in Rapidly Growing Western Communities: The Wyoming House Services Project - One Response - Julie M. Uhlmann, John W. Hanks,
• A Comparison of Social Psychological Views among Youthful and Aged Persons: An Empirical Assessment or Marginally Differentiated Attitude Measures - Dennis L. Peck, David L. Klemmack
• Factors Influencing Senate Voting Patterns on …

Human Service Needs In Rapidly Growing Western Communities: The Wyoming House Services Project-One Response, Julie M. Uhlmann, John W. Hanks

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Human service needs in rural, western communities currently experiencing energy related growth are abundant. This paper describes and critiques a service delivery project designed to address these needs.

The Impact Of Unemployment On Young, Middle-Aged And Aged Workers, Katharine Hooper Briar, Decky Fiedler, Carol Sheean, Patricia Kamps

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper presents findings from research on the effects of unemployment on young, middle-aged and aged workers. The therapeutic benefits of work indicated by the elimination and reduction of problems attributed to joblessness by young and aged workers is examined as well. The implications of such findings for human service professions are explored.

Psychological And Emotional Impact Of Unemployment, Michael Borrero

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Having seen the discussion of the meaning of work and the important role it plays in our lives, as developed by Borrero and Rivera, we now need to address what happens to people when they want to work but are unable to because of economic recessions, depressions and economic policies. The focus of the following paper is to review the literature concerning the psychological and emotional stresses that are brought about as a result of unemployment.

Sowing The Seeds Of Trouble: An Historical Analysis Of Compliance Structures In Child Welfare, Terry Gibson, Mary R. Lewis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Anitai Etzioni's concept of compliance structures is used as a focus for historical analysis of the organizational structures through which chld welfare services have been offered in the U. S. This article shows how a dual compliance structure arose, both normative and coercive, but with more emphasis on the coercive. The expansion of public child welfare services since 1935, especially foster care and placement services rather than in-home services, has drawn public attention to widespread ineffectiveness. Stress and strain are particularly intense at the service delivery level. Yet the problems and social polices have not been analyzed in terms of …

Social Work And Social Welfare: A Conceptual Matrix, Louis Levitt

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Through a structural-functional analysis, the relationship between the profession of social work and the institution of social welfare is examined. Social welfare Is defined as an institution concerned with those legitimated needs of people which relate to the quality of life which cannot be met in the marketplace. The central mission of the institution of social welfare is seen in three dimensions: social control, humanitarianism and feedback to society of patterns of social hurt which prevent the achievement of humanitarian aspirations and threaten the stability of the social order.

Institution provides one set of coordinates to the grid of social …

Sociological Precedents And Contributions To The Understanding And Facilitation Of Individual Behavioral Change: The Case For Counseling Sociology, Clifford M. Black, Richard Enos

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article clarifies the distinction between clinical and counseling sociology and provides some direction for the practice of counseling sociology. This is accomplished by a consideration first, of sociological contributions to the understanding and facilitation of individual behavior and its change, and second, of historical precedents in the field.

Factors Influencing The Decision Of Minority Students To Attend Graduate Schools Of Social Work, Jeannine Henry Sanchez, Charles H. Mindel, Dennis Saleebey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study of 255 minority students enrolled in Graduate Schools of Social Work examined factors which influenced them to decide to attend these schools. The most frequently mentioned reasons were the curriculum and location of the school followed by prestige, financial incentives, emphasis on minority concerns and influence of significant others. Those schools which attracted greater numbers of minorities tended to attract them on the basis of curriculum, emphasis on minority concerns and not requiring entrance examinations. Formal recruitment activities were not seen as particularly effective.

Careers Of Women Civil Rights Activists, Rhoda Lois Blumberg

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Stages in the civil rights careers of a sample of women active in northern communities were studied. Committed to racial justice, most intensified their participation in the early 1960's. In the second half of the decade, the "Black Power" phase, roles for whites became fewer. Organizations experienced changes in membership and direction; factionalism ensued. Many, women welcomed black leadership and played roles in new black-lead community agencies. Arrests of blacks allegedly involved in riots elicited support in the formation of defense committees and prison reform organizations. Later, many women entered human service professions; they chose jobs with poor, minority or …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 7, No. 5 (September 1980)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• The Self Disclosure Of Clinical Social Workers Social Work and Social Welfare: A Conceptual Matrix - LOUIS LEVITT - 636
• Sociological Precedents and Contributions To The Understanding and Facilitation of Individual Behavioral Change: The Case for Counseling Sociology - CLIFFORD M. BLACK & RICHARD ENOS - 648
• Factors Influencing The Decision of Minority Students To Attend Graduate Schools of Social Work - JEANNINE HENRY SANCHEZ, CHARLES H. MINDEL & DENNIS SALEEBEY - 665
• Sowing The Seeds of Trouble: An Historical _Analysis of Compliance Structures In Child Welfare - TERRY GIBSON & MARY R. LEWIS - 679
• Careers …

Loss Not Need: The Ethics Of Relief Giving In Natural Disasters, Thomas A. Leitko, David R. Rudy, Steven A. Peterson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The social ethics of relief giving (the bases on which relief ought to be given) in natural disaster situations are explored through a case study of public reactions to Red Cross activities. Red Cross policies and public reactions to them are reviewed, and survey data pertaining to attitudes toward the Red Cross and toward relief giving in natural disasters of residents of a western New York county are presented. Specifically, public satisfaction with present Red Cross dis:ribution policies is explored, and public perceptions of "loss vs need" as bases for relief giving are examined. Although there are some qualifications, findings …

Purposive Social Change And Interorganizational Networks: The Case Of Three Prepaid Health Programs, Gale Miller, Charles K. Warriner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An important perspective emerging in the areas of community and organizational analysis is the political economy approach to interorganizational relations. This approach treats organizations as seekers of basic political and economic resources which are found in their environments. This approach has special implications for persons interested in the study and/or .implementation of programs of change, because it sensitizes the observer to the problems of political and economic conflict in interorganizational relations. The perspective also offers useful insights into the development of. intervention strategies that minimize the conflicts often associated with social change. In order to demonstrate the usefulness of this …

Social Work's Diminished Commitment To The Paraprofessional, Edward A. Brawley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper reviews the rise during the 1960's and the apparent decline during the 1970's of social work's support of the paraprofessional and concludes that failure to follow through unequivocally on its early commitment to the paraprofessional is likely to create future difficulties for the profession.

The Denying Of Death: A Social Psychological Study, Henry H. B. Chang, Carla Kaye Chang

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Cultural studies indicate the existence of a ubiquitous death fear This fear is usually manifest through the defense mechanism of denial. In American society, the contradiction between life-oriented cultural themes and the death theme intensifies the denial of death.

Past studies indicate that a host of social and psychological variables are associated with death denial. The present study consisted of a survey of death attitudes. The results showed that death denial is associated with age, marital status, death of a parent, feeling of nervousness, and participation in dangerous activities. On the other hand. sex, health, and religious activity were not …

Below The Belt: Situational Ethics For Uniethical Situations, Gale Goldberg, Joy Elliott

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The word "politics" generally conjures up images of smokefilled, back rooms where unscrupulous men in shirt sleeves chew their cigars and make shady deals that serve partisan interests. But politics is neither inherently shady nor specific to back rooms. In fact, as long as society is differentiated along ethnic, sex and social class lines, politics pervades all of social life. You are involved in politics and so is your mother.

Demographic And Attitudinal Factors Associated With Perceptions Of Social Work, Pat M. Keith

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Demographic and attitudinal correlates of perceptions of social work practice were examined among rural and urban residents. Data obtained from 301 persons indicated that attitudes toward public assistance and knowledge about social work had independent effects on perceptions of social work practice. Sex and education also explained a significant amount of the variance in attitudes toward social work with women and persons with more education having more positive attitudes. One-third of the respondents had personal experience with social work however, when other variables were considered, previous association a social worker had no impact on attitudes. Dimensions of religiosity previously found …

The Perceived Effectiveness Of Medical Social Work Faculty, Richard M. Grinnell Jr., Nancy S. Kyte, Richard L. Gorsuch

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Within the health care field, medical social work has expanded rapidly over the past few years (Bracht, 1974). Medical social workers comprise approximately 1.5 percent of the total medical schools' faculty in the United States (Grinnell, Kyte & Hunter, 1976). There is additional evidence that medical social work faculty will increase over the years to come (Grinnell, Kyte, Hunter & Larson, 1976; Crinnell, Kyte & Hunter, 1976; Grinnell & Kyte, 1978b; & Grinnell & Kyte, 1979). Additionally, empirical studies have been conducted that analyzed the functions of social work faculty in medical schools (Grinnell & Kyte, 1978c; Grinnell & Kyte, …

Jungian Theory And Social Work Practice, Herman Borenzweig

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Carl Jung's contributions to psychology, psychotherapy, and social science have had little impact upon social wonk practice. Social Work Abstracts to lists only one article where Jungian theory is utilized by social workers. McBroom has recently written an article "The Collective Unconscious as a Unifying Concept in Teaching Human Behavior Cross Culturally:" If only two articles about Jungian psychology have appeared in the social work literature in the last twelve years it seems safe to assume either that the ,Jungian oriented social workers practice their Jung underground and fail to publish on that Jung remains anathema to the profession.

In …

Non-Governmental Emergency Food Services: A Descriptive Study Of The Tertiary Welfare Sector, Stanley Wenocur

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper presents the findings of an exploratory study of voluntarily organized emergency food centers in Baltimore. These agencies comprise the heart of a tertiary welfare system that provides basic survival supplies without a means test to the needy who cannot obtain relief from traditional public or private sources. Forty-one emergency food services were identified in Baltimore and the heads of 37 of these agencies were interviewed in depth. The findings indicated that a large and heterogeneous population bad utilized emergency food agencies and that the agencies generally met the requisites for a true safety-net function - i.e., accessibility, non-bureaucratic …

Family Health Policy Formulation: A Problematic Definitional Process, H. Hugh Floyd Jr.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The family has become a focus of much concern over the past two decades as a variety of family related problems have become major social issues. These social-psychological problems are considered to have negative consequences at three analytical levels: individual, family and society. Therefore, considerable discussion has been raised about the establishment of family policy. Family policy is discussed in this paper as a definitional problematic process. Several problems of a conceptual and logistical nature are cited and some guidelines for family policy construction are made.

Ecological Systems Theory In Social Work, Max Siporin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Ecological systems theory is explicated as a current form of successive systems models used in social work. Behavior principles assumptive in this model are identified: of exchange balance, inner consistency, and dialectial change. Several misconceptions of ecological systems theory and a cultist aspect of its current popularity are addressed. Advantages, including the emergence of practice principles derived from this model, as well as its limitations are then discussed. The charge that systems theory helps maintain the status quo and the use of systems theory by radical proponents of system change are considered in terms of the dual function of social …

Rural Sociology And Rural Social Work: An Historical Essay, Emilia E. Martinez-Brawley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The relationship between rural sociology and rural social work can be traced back to the days of the Country Life Commission (1908), and has experienced many fluctuations throughout the years. This paper examines the interconnections between the developments in the two fields, drawing from historical data which lead to che hypothesis that those fluctuations were caused by forces within each discipline as well as by developments affecting the interactions of each field with the other. It appears that academic and theoretical issues were not alone in causing contention in the relationship between rural sociology and the practice of rural social …