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An Exploration Of The Feelings And Attitudes Of Women Separated From Their Children Due To Incarceration, Dorothy Lundberg, Ann Sheekley, Therese Voelker

Dissertations and Theses

Although significant research has shed light on what happens to children when they are removed from their parents, few studies have explored the effects on parents undergoing separation from their children. Discussions tend to be confined to separate dimensions exploring child's needs on one side and parental obligations on the other. Much of the planning and prolonged care provided for children in placement reflects a traditional child-centered focus. This has led to a lack of attention to parental needs, and a gross ignorance about their lives, feelings and aspirations.

When women are involuntarily separated from their children through incarceration, a …

An Analysis Of Professional Roles & Career Patterns Of Portland State University School Of Social Work Graduates, 1964-1973, B. Michael Des Camp, Howard H. Marshack

Dissertations and Theses

This was a follow-up study of graduates of Portland State University's School of Social Work from 1964 to 1973. The study gathered information in four areas: (1) graduates' career patterns, (2) tasks graduates presently perform in their jobs, (3) tasks graduates felt are necessary for students to learn in a school of Social Work, and (4) graduates' continuing education needs and experiences. It was hoped that this information would prove valuable in curriculum design, both in the School of Social Work and in the Division of Continuing Education.

A stratified random sample of sixty-one graduates, totaling 15.4% of the ten-year …

A Methodology For Evaluating The Efficacy Of The Placement Procedures Of The Dalles Community Attention Home, Marion Elliott

Dissertations and Theses

The Community Attention Home, The Dalles, Oregon, provides services to those children, who, due to dependency, delinquent behavior, or family disruption, cannot remain within their present environment. The Home provides short-term shelter care with staff emphasis on proper diagnostic assessment for subsequent placement. Placement of children in the Home provides social service agencies time to plan for further care and/or treatment.

The project presents itself in essentially four major areas. They are: a descriptive presentation of data already available at the Home; a determination of what additional data needs to be gathered for further evaluation of the Home’s effectiveness; development …

A Study Of Battered Children In Santa Barbara, California, Carol Lynne Beastrom

Dissertations and Theses

Current newspaper articles, professional journals and legislation reflect increased concern and attention in the area of child abuse. The frequency of reports of children physically and mentally abused, some fatally, makes abundantly clear the need to identify the children in jeopardy.

As an outgrowth of experience as a caseworker in Protective Services in Santa Barbara, California, the author developed a personal interest in learning more about characteristics of families with identified abused children. Associated with this personal interest is the possibility of identifying common elements of characteristics which might prove predictive and therefore potentially preventative in the area of child …

An Evaluative Study Of Yellow Brick Road, Cherry Hartman, Nan Narboe

Dissertations and Theses

This is a study of Yellow Brick Road a paraprofessional volunteer training and group counseling program. The study was designed to help determine whether or not the program was meeting its own goals which are stated as: 1) to offer clients an experience which not only helps them to effect change in their lives, but to maintain those changes through healthy time-restructuring within a supportive environment; 2) to demonstrate that volunteers who are undergoing intensive training can provide quality counseling and other services; 3) to create a community environment supportive of healthy change.

Toward evaluating these broadly stated goals, this …

Assessment Of Short Term Behavioral Changes In Emotionally Handicapped Children Enrolled In A Special Education Program, James S. Johnston, Karen Shilling

Dissertations and Theses

This study attempts to assess short term behavioral changes, as measured by the Hewett Behavioral Checklist in emotionally handicapped children enrolled in three of the special education classrooms.

The Use And Evaluation Of Gestalt Techniques In A Program For The Parents Of Handicapped Children, Richard Roy Hammond, Robert E. Phillips

Dissertations and Theses

The goal of this paper will be to further explore the use of Gestalt therapy in the Parent-Education Program and to find a way in which its effectiveness in freeing parents of emotional barriers to growth can be evaluated. Our specific objectives will, therefore be to (1) review the literature and present our own assumptions on parental responses to having a handicapped child, (2) explore the basis of Gestalt therapy and relate it to the needs of parents who have handicapped children. (3) describe the setting in which the Parent-Education Program and its Gestalt component takes place, and (4) suggest …

Criteria And Outcome Of C. S. D. Foster Home And Residential Placements Of Court-Referred Adolescents, Joan Dickey

Dissertations and Theses

This study is concerned with a set of cases referred to Children's .Services Division, Marion County, by the Marion County Juvenile Court for placement. Placements include foster homes and residential treatment facilities, including group homes.

The goal of this study is to uncover criteria to determine the appropriateness and the efficacy of foster and residential placements for adolescents in order to provide feedback necessary for the development of practice theory.

A Study Of The Career Education Program At Mountain View Intermediate School, Beaverton School District #48, Beaverton, Oregon, William Calvin Greene

Dissertations and Theses

The following report deals with the career education program at Mountain View, one of six intermediate schools in the Beaverton school District #48.

During the summer of 1974, four Mountain View faculty members developed what they titled the Mountain View Intermediate School Career Educational Resource Guide (CERG).

The faculty members developed this guide keeping in mind the requirements of the Master Plan but also adding specific references relating to what direction they felt the career education program at Mountain View should take.

The CERG was designed in such a way that career related activities for each grade level were broken …

Drop-Out Study, Chemawa Indian School, Terry Farrow, Gordon Oats

Dissertations and Theses

Repeated inquiries and statements are made about the number of American Indian students who drop out or are pushed out of school. The Waxes noted that while drop-out rates are difficult to calculate because of a shifting population and absence of centralized, accurate records, current figures indicate that about one-half of those who enter the primary grades drop out before entering high school. Furthermore, only about a third of those entering school actually graduate. A study of Pima and Papago schools revealed much the same trends. Seven percent of the children ages six to eighteen are not enrolled in any …

Maturity Of Adolescent Unwed Mothers, Sarah L. Claiborne

Dissertations and Theses

Adolescence traditionally has been recognized and accepted as a period of exploration of an occasional rebellion against the adult world. Explorations are viewed by behavioral scientists as a quest for identity expansion, and as such, a necessary phase for attaining maturity. Several tasks have been identified which each adolescent must complete if he is to reach maturity. For the present these tasks can be summarized as character formation, attainment of sexual identity, establishment of mature relationships and emancipation from parental control.

Society's attitude towards the rebellion and exploitation of youth is mixed. This confusion seems related to a general breakdown …

Toward A Radical Reassessment Of Social Work Values, Shimon S. Gottschalk

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social Work's inherited statements of core values are excessively individualistic and politically conservative, posing a false dichotomy of individual versus society. "Maximizing individual opportunities for self expression", is criticized as an outdated, if not dangerous value stance. An alternative position Is suggested which sets as the valued aim of all social work practice the enhancement within and among individuals and society of the capacity for sharing and reciprocity. The promotion of a just society and of individual well being are viewed as being inextricably intertwined.

The Social Psychology Of Small Groups: Relevancy Of Social Work Practice With Groups, Martha E. Gentry

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Inclusion from the social sciences to broaden the knowledge base of social work is an accepted fact. In the professions' experience with group practice such reliance is not new, and extends at least to the efforts of Coyle who saw the usefulness of the small group field in social psychology as early as 1930. More recently, Hartford's book provides a text which bridges small group theory and social work practice with groups. An examination of diverse conceptualizations of group practice reveals differential reliance upon small group findings.

As the small group is increasingly chosen as the context and means for …

Change And Program Evaluation In Social Organization, Alan M. Cohen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There is an assumption of an inherent rationality in linking information on program effectiveness to program change. This article briefly discusses three typical evaluation studies and demonstration projects that fail to link information generated on the effectiveness of what people do, to program changes. Perceived inaccuracy of the information and the perceived threat of the information are emphasized as two reasons for this failure of program information to affect change in social organizations. A pre-planning functional information base is proposed as an important prerequisite in the sequence of creating a more receptive environment for organizational change.

It is often assumed …

The Three Evaluations Of Social Welfare Programs, Dean Harper, Haroutun M. Babigian

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As new and innovative social welfare programs are being attempted, there has been an increased concern with evaluating the effectiveness of such programs. To what degree is a new program effective? For which kinds of clients is each type of program effective? What elements are crucial in a program which has been judged to be effective? These are just a few of the questions that evaluators would like to answer.

There is a large literature on evaluation research--some of it reporting or reviewing the results of specific evaluations (6, 8, 9, 10, 11) and some of it presenting general discussions, …

Behavioral Science Influences On Legislation: The Case Of Delinquency Prevention, Albert S. Alissi

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

This paper will discuss some of the issues and problems which arise in the field of delinquency prevention where there is over-riding public interest and concern and calls for action to prevent delinquency, but where the problem is elusive and where the variables are not easily isolated and controlled through experimental procedures. What, in fact, constitutes the body of knowledge in the field? What uses can be made of behavioral science materials where there has been little or no experimental successes, or data upon which to build action programs? What credence should be given to …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 2, No. 2 Supplemental (Winter 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

VOLUME II - NO. 2 SUPPLEMENT WINTER 1974

Issue Editor: Alan M. Cohen, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada

• Editorial - pp 208
• Change and Program Evaluation in Social Organizations - ALAN M. COHEN - pp 210
• Behavioral Science Influence on Legislation: The Case of Delinquency Prevention - ALBERT S. ALISSI - pp 227
• The Demonstration Project as a Research and Change Strategy - LEONARD RUTMAN - pp 259
• The Three Evaluations of Social Welfare Programs - DEAN HARPER, HAROUTUM M. BABIGIAN - pp 271
• Evaluation Research and Evaluation: Scientific Social Reform Movement and Ideology - …

Anti-Poverty Policies And Evaluation: A Critique Of The Pluralist Conception Of Politics And Evaluation, Robert D. Herman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Excerpt from the full-text article:

The beginnings of U.S. federal evaluation research can, in descriptive historical terms, be located in McNamara's Department of Defense and the later requirement that all federal government agencies adopt a Planning, Programming, Budgeting System. While the formal PPB system was discontinued in 1971, the analytical or policy evaluation activities it required, still live on, especially in agencies dealing with human resource development and/or social welfare programs (Schick, 1973, Wholey, et al, 1970). Given the recent advocacy of increasing and improving federal evaluation efforts, I think it important to examine some of the assumptions and consequences …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 2, No. 2 (Winter 1974)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Letter to the Editor - pp 109
• A Holistic Perspective on Child Abuse and Its Prevention - David G. Gill - pp 110
• Towards a Radical Reassessment of Social Work Values - Shimon S. Gottschalk - pp 126
• Ethics Shock: Technology, Life Styles and Future Practice - Sonia Leib Abels, Paul Abels, Samuel A. Richmond - pp 140
• The Social-Psychology of Small Groups: Relevancy of Social Work Practice with Groups - Martha E. Gentry - pp 155
• The Myth of a Population Explosion in America: Implications for the Social Welfare Profession - Lillian T. Cochran, James M. …

A Holistic Perspective On Child Abuse And Its Prevention, David G. Gil

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In recent decades, child abuse has come to be considered a social problem of significant scope and has, therefore, attracted intense public and scholarly interest. Yet, in spite of efforts by scholars, professionals, government agencies, concerned individuals and organizations, and the media of public communications, misconceptions prevail concerning the nature, sources, and dynamics of this destructive phenomenon and concerning effective approaches to its primary prevention. Such conceptual shortcomings, and a related persistent failure to design effective policies and programs for the primary prevention of child abuse, seem to be due to a number of obstacles.

Ethics Shock: Technology, Life Styles And Future Practice, Sonia Leib Abels, Paul Abels, Samuel A. Richmond

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the past ten years a new movement has developed in the United States which has taken as its major emphasis the study of the future. The futureologists led by Kahn, Weiner, and Theobald, have projected a number of alternatives for the United States. The value of this movement has been: 1) to alert the country to the fact that change is occurring at an extremely rapid pace; 2) to provide a transdisciplinary view, not only utilizing projections from various disciplines, but illustrating the multiplier effect that the combination of developments from many disciplines may have on our society; and …

The Myth Of A Population Explosion In America: Implications For The Social Welfare Profession, Lillian T. Cochran, James M. O'Kane

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the past decade, the concern over a hypothetical "population explosion" has become an increasing preoccupation in growing segments of the American public. Terms such as "standing-room-only-world," "demographic catastrophe,' "future doomsday," etc. have become common, and the work of organizations such as Planned Parenthood, Zero Population Growth, and countless other agencies has centered around this supposed threat to continued human existence. Paul and Anne Ehrlich have set forth the general position on "overpopulation" stating: "The explosive growth of the human population is the most significant event in the past million millenia. . . . Mankind itself may stand on the …

The Nonprofessional And The Professional Culture: A Dilemma For Social Work, Edward Allan Brawley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A critical shortage of trained social workers, a restructuring of the social services, and a national policy of employing the poor in human service organizations have all led to the introduction of large numbers of minority-group and low-income nonprofessionals into social service employment during the last decade. The social work profession has affirmed the necessity and desirability of this trend, not only as a means of solving the manpower problem but also because these new entrants to the field of social work are indigenous to the client groups which social work seeks to serve and they have attributes and skills …

Transforming The Orientation Of A Health Organization Through Community Involvement, Sharon Pastor Simson, Laura J. Bleiweiss

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Health organizations have been oriented to meeting needs and fulfilling demands which are perceived and defined by physician providers (Freidson, 1970 Stevens, 1971). Organizational goals, services, structures, and processes of operation were formulated in accordance with the interests, values, and concerns of provider-members. Latent to this provider orientation was the assumption that professional members were the ones most qualified to determine what was best for the organization and for its consumers (Freidson 1971). In recent times, however, numerous social changes have occurred on a societal level and within the institution of medicine (Hepner, 1972; Somers, 1971; Rosengren and Lefton, 1969). …

The Demonstration Project As A Research & Change Strategy, Leonard Rutman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The demonstration project is becoming a major instrument for social planning. In sponsoring demonstration projects the overall goal is for small scale "pilot" programs which include some form of research to contribute to program change and policy-making (14, 16, 19, 21). It is generally expected that the lessons learned from demonstrations, through the rigours of scientific research, will somehow result in large scale adoption and major shifts in aims, styles and resources, and effectiveness of social service programs. Models or prototypes for future operational programs are tested to determine their effectiveness in meeting states objectives. For this reason, they are …

Evaluation Research And Evaluation: Scientific Social Reform Movement And Ideology, Michael Baizerman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The idea that human services programs should be evaluated is accepted by most practitioners and researchers. Discussion is about the technical aspects of this research and about how practitioners can be encouraged to utilize evaluative findings in their everyday practice. Emphasis is placed also on the organizational barriers to this utilization. These ideas and issues are found in a growing literature in the social sciences and, increasingly, in the even faster growing literatures in the professions and in the human services, including the social services, medical and health services, criminal justice and the like.

Here, evaluation research is discussed from …

Conflict And Compromise In Evaluation Research: A Case Study, Joe Hudson, Peter Chommie

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As has been pointed out by a host of writers, a crucial issue in conducting evaluative or action type research is the problem of gearing an appropriate research design into the cogs of organizations, ensuring that once initiated the evaluation is in fact conducted according to the original design, and that the results of the study are utilized in policy formulations and ultimately in program development. The focus of this case study is on the major political and administrative problems and processes involved in planning, conducting, and utilizing the findings from a field experiment dealing with the relative effects of …

Siblings And Sex Roles: A Comparison Between Male And Female Graduate Students With Regard To Sibling Sex And Ordinal Position, Anita Witt

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of the present study was to find out whether there is a relationship between sex role perception, ordinal position, and sex of sibling.

Measuring sex role perception presents a complex problem by itself, since at a time when sex role expectations are changing rapidly, there is little consensus on precisely what constitutes male or female behavior. We were concerned, therefore, to avoid as far as possible subjective interpretations of behavior.

We decided to look for a sample of women who had already reached a measure of achievement in a competitive field traditionally dominated by men, and who were …

Social Welfare As Coercive Social Control, Norman N. Goroff

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The key concepts which require some basic definitions in the title are "social welfare, social control and coercion". For the purposes of this paper, social welfare is defined as those public programs designed to provide an individual who is in financial need with the resources (financial and/or in kind) to exist in our society. Social control refers to the entire range of actions and pressures which are designed to lead the individual to function within society without threatening to disrupt the social order. These actions and pressures are embodied in sanctions for enforcing group norms as well as in formal …

National Income Insurance: Some Implications For Political And Economic Inequality, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Several co-workers and I have recently completed an evaluation of sixty-three anti-poverty programs and proposals (Williamson, et. al., 1973, 1974). This paper briefly describes the study and some of our findings by way of introduction to the presentation and defense of a national income insurance proposal, This proposal is a synthesis of three highly rated anti-poverty strategies. It would within a few years have a substantial impact on the extent of the economic inequality in the United States.