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Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 8, No. 3 (September 1981)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• Abusers of Clients of Women's Shelter: Their Socialization and Resources - M. M. Brown, B. E. Aguirre, Carol Jorgensen
• An Examination of Public Housing in the United States after Forty Years - Mary Jo Huth
• Services Aren't Goods: Post-Industrial Principles for Policy Design - Howell S. Baum
• Native American Elderly Formal and Informal Support Systems - Gregory R. Versen
• Factors Affecting the Economic Status of Elderly Chicanos - Alejandro Garcia
• The Future of Welfare Programs in the United States: Four Approaches - Wim Weiwel
• The Reagan Election and Mandate: Their Fiscal Policy Implications for the Welfare State …

Social Network Analysis: A New Tool For Understanding Individual And Family Functioning, Jane H. Pfouts, Ellen J. Safier

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

During the last decade, social work, along with the other helping professions, has moved toward conceptualizing practice within a social systems framework. Intrapsychic variables are still important but, increasingly, the emphasis is on the clients' intimate social network as both cause and solution of a wide range of social problems. It is now widely believed that clients' well-being is enhanced when system functioning is enhanced (Gitterman and Germain, 1976).

Most of what social workers know about social systems theory comes from the sociological literature, particularly the social action system of Talcott Parsons. Although this orientation has great heuristic value for …

Native American Elderly Formal And Informal Support Systems, Gregory R. Versen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As a minority group, American Indians have the distinction of being the smallest and the poorest. Their cultural diversity and unique relationship with the United States government set them even further apart from other minority groups. A subgroup of Native Americans about which little is known and even less has been written is the Native American elderly. This group is the focal point of this paper.

This paper reviews selected works by anthropologists, psychologists, social workers, health care professionals, and Native Americans. The intent is to identify and assess the formal and informal support systems to which the Native American …

Factors Affecting The Economic Status Of Elderly Chicanos, Alejandro Garcia

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper identifies and discusses factors affecting the economic status of elderly chicanos. These factors include historical factors, labor force participation, familial support systems, and human services utilization. Implications for policy are addressed.

Criminal Justice Student Views Of The Criminal Justice System: The Impact Of Education And Self-Selection And Their Implications For The Human Services, Belinda Rodgers Mccarthy, Bernard Jerome Mccarthy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The present study examines criminal justice student views of the criminal justice system. The purpose of the research is to investigate issues surrounding the influence of self-selection and criminal justice education on the opinions of criminal justice students toward the criminal justice system.

The research suggests that students choose criminal justice careers in part because their personal philosophies mirror the conflicting objectives of the criminal justice system. Criminal justice education seems to influence criminal justice student views of the criminal justice system, but in a direction that may make the transition to employment in criminal justice agencies a more difficult …

An Examination Of Public Housing In The United States After Forty Years, Mary Jo Huth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article first briefly reviews the history of public housing in the United States since its inception in 1937, noting that growing obsolescence of public housing units, the deterioration of inner-city neighborhoods surrounding public housing projects, racial tensions, and inflation have aggravated public housing problems in recent years. Moreover, public housing tenants are no longer predominantly white, upwardly-mobile, two-parent, working-class families, but predominantly non-white, non-mobile, female-headed, lower-class families. The remainder of the article presents the findings of a 1978 field survey of public housing in the United States conducted by the Department of Housing and Urban Development in preparation for …

Services Aren't Goods: Post-Industrial Principles For Policy Design, Howell S. Baum

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

As the United States moves from an industrial society to a post-industrial society, fewer people are engaged in the production of goods, and a majority now produce services. The processes of designing and producing goods and services are radically different. This differences calls for innovation in both the structure of the work setting and the policies which govern work in the society as a whole. The article examines differences between goods and services and proposes a new model for designing and producing services, as well as new principles for social policy for service production. The model and principles are illustrated …

The Future Of Welfare Programs In The United States: Four Approaches, Wim Weiwel

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are many theories which attempt to explain why the United States has become a welfare state. Four main approaches can be distinguished which focus on 1) the maintenance of social order; 2) welfare as empowerment; 3) welfare as an expression of egalitarianism; and 4) welfare as contributing to economic growth.

Similarly, there are many predictions about the likely future of the welfare state. They can be related to the four approaches which analyze the welfare state's historical origins and current function. The aim of this article is to clarify the debate about the future by relating the different predictions …

The Reagan Election And Mandate: Their Fiscal Policy Implications For The Welfare State, James Fendrich, Douglas St. Angelo

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper has three main thrusts. The first searches the Reagan campaign, the 1980 Republican Platform, the election and survey results to determine whether or not Reagan can creditably lay claim to a mandate for his social policies. The second thrust investigates the 1982 Reagan spending and taxing programs. Our purpose here is to ascertain if those policies denote major new directions in U.S. social policy. Our third purpose involves an assessment of the Reagan fiscal policies upon the U.S. economy.

This study concludes: (1) Reagan can claim a mandate for much of his social policies, (2) the Reagan fiscal …

Strategies For Crime Reduction In Public Housing, Mary Jo Huth

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many recent studies have revealed that not only are residents of public housing the most vulnerable segment of the American population in terms of criminal victimization, but that even in projects where the actual incidence of crime is not high, a great fear of crime prevails, especially among the elderly tenants. There is general consensus among crime prevention experts that crime reduction programs in public housing must utilize an integrated set of measures, including: (1) physical design, security hardware, and maintenance improvements by management; (2) increased organization of tenants around crime prevention issues; (3) employment of unemployed tenants--both youths and …

Determinants Of Primary Group Assistance During Unemployment, Martin D. Hanlon

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In recent years much research attention has been given to the role of primary groups in ameliorating stressful life events. However, little is known about what factors determine the amount of assistance people receive from relatives and friends during a situation of crisis. This is the focus of the present study. The data base is a sample of public sector workers who were involuntarily laid off from their jobs.

The data revealed that respondents received considerable assistance from parents and friends--the two primary group types included in the analysis--during the period of unemployment. Objective economic deprivation, indexed by the difference …

Organizational Resistance To Serving The Disadvantaged: The Case Of A State Employment Service, Ronald Randall

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Maintaining the commitment of public agencies to serve the disadvantaged persists as one of the most vexing problems in public affairs. This study places in an historical perspective the commitment of the Wisconsin State Employment Service (WSES) to serve the disadvantaged during the late 1960s and the retreat from this emphasis in the 1970s. The WSES displays a tradition of tension between operating-level employees who aspire to serve a job-ready clientele, and top decisionmakers who, from time to time, sense a need for direct service to the disadvantaged. The study suggests that effective service to the disadvantaged depends upon continuous, …

Child-Care Usage Patterns As Estimates Of Child-Care Need, Nancy Hendrix

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Child-care utilization studies are often used to estimate the need for future child-care. The author stresses the limitations of the use of past patterns to judge future needs. Specifically the article focuses on the reliability and validity of measures of usage and satisfaction with various child-care modes, errors in study design, lack of conceptual clarity, and problems of the correlation of child-care modes and other variables.

Western News, August 13, 1981, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: September appropriation delayed, Recorded messages provide range of subjects, Lloyd reappointed a PTA project chairman, William named 'Most Valuable' on track team

Western News, August 6, 1981, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story highlights: Cross-cultural understanding is Korean-American conference objective, William scheduled to be theatre chairperson, Encyclopedia project completion announced, Graduate named vice president of Jewel Food, Schoenhal graduate assistantship offered, Personnel Department makes staff change

The Westerner Vol. 2 No. 1, Western Michigan University

The Westerner (1980-1997)

• Dorothy U. Dalton: 1890-1981: 'Her passing marks the end of a significant era.' • Homecoming to be celebrated Oct. 24 • Tate to receive AASCU award • Three to receive Distinguished Alumni Award • Ackley is named Annual Fund Chair • Helwegs receive Smithsonian grant • 1981-82 University Theatre season is announced • WESTOPS to coordinate public service • Center for Human Services establishes two new services • Blasch receives Shotwell award • Language, speech, hearing clinic provides valuable services • WMUK's 30th anniversary: Growing with the University community • Instructional Communications performs juggling act • The Challenge of …

Development And Validation Of A Model For Retaining Pregnant Adolescents And School-Age Parents In The Jamaican School System, D. Deloris Brissett

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to develop and validate a model to retain adolescent child-bearers in the Jamaican school system. More specifically, the study was concerned with retaining pregnant students and adolescent parents in Jamaican secondary schools.

The analytical bases of the model were: (1) A review of the literature in adolescent child-bearing in Jamaica and the United States. (2) A survey of programmes which currently deliver comprehensive services to pregnant students and adolescent parents in Michigan. Five programmes were surveyed. (3) Validation by a panel of Jamaican professionals.

The review of the relevant literature and the programme survey …

An Analysis Of Perceptions Of Michigan Superintendents, Principals, And Teachers In Regard To Present Versus Preferred Teacher Evaluation Systems, Joann A. Noonan

Dissertations

The objectives of this study were to examine the present process of performance appraisal used in Michigan as well as to determine if the participants in that process see any need for change. If change was desired this study sought to determine what direction that change should take. A review of the literature established a background which implied a general pervasive dissatisfaction with the present process and a need for change as well as several directions that change might take. The review of the literature also established a possible link between personnel development within the school setting and that of …

An Analysis Of Validity Constructs In The Dichotic Listening And Hemispheric Competition Procedures, Wade Addam Kapik

Masters Theses

This investigation was designed to determine the validity of two categories of neuropsychological measures of cerebral dominance. Forty right-handed subjects were administered two dichotic listening tests and two hemispheric competition tests in a random order. The principal data showed that none of the four tests had sufficient levels of criterion-related and concurrent validity to be considered clinically useful in measuring laterality. In addition, a Baysean analysis of one of the dichotic listening tests indicated that it possessed a predictive validity of .79. Finally, the assertion that the scoring methods of each test are dynamically different was disputed, and Kinsbourne's interhemispheric …

Parental Involvement In Education: Issues And Procedures, Nancy Jane Nelson

Masters Theses

The topics that will be covered in this review of the literature will include parents' reactions upon discovering their sons or daughters are handicapped, needs of parents with handicapped children, the importance of parental involvement, and parent training. The sources used in this review are from published literature and from previous research bearing on the topic. The central thesis of the paper is the importance of involving parents in the education of their handicapped children. Prior to such involvement parental reactions need to be resolved and specific parental needs met. The major conclusion drawn is that parent training is a …

The Effects Of Self-Management Training On Fluid Compliance In Hemodialysis Patients, Glen Roland Peterson

Dissertations

Seventeen adult, chronic hemodialysis out-patients were assessed on measures of: Compliance, beliefs about their health, and depression. The Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale was used to assess Internal Locus of Control (LOC), Chance LOC, or Powerful Other LOC. An assessment instrument was developed by the author using the Health Belief Model, and was administered to all subjects. This was designed to give a numerical value to patients' beliefs about the severity of their illness, beliefs about their susceptibility to the consequences of noncompliance, beliefs about the benefits of compliance, beliefs about the barriers that might stand in the way …

The Evaluation Of Beginning Therapist Effectiveness Using Karon's Thematic Apperception Test Pathogenesis Index: A Psychological Approach, Catherine Rae Miller

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the applicability of Karon's Pathogenesis Index as a selection measure for persons entering graduate programs in the mental health field. The fundamental problem generating the research was the need for such selection indicators because of the present inadequacy of personality measures which adequately discriminate between those who have the capacity to become competent therapists and those who do not.

Analysis of the literature revealed many attempts to delineate those characteristics which defined a competent therapist. However, the results were mixed. Only one study VandenBos and Karon (1971) clearly identified a personality variable …

Politics And Medicine In The Estrogen Replacement Controversy: A Comparative Analysis Of The United States And Great Britain, Frances B. Mccrea

Masters Theses

This thesis investigated social and medical aspects of the Estrogen Replacement Controversy (ERT) in the United States and Great Britain. American researchers claim that ERT, a treatment for menopausal and postmenopausal problems, substantially increases the risk of endometrial cancer; British researchers minimize the risk and instead emphasize benefits of the treatment. Whereas British medical practitioners are reluctant to prescribe ERT, their American counterparts widely prescribe the treatment. American feminists and consumer groups strongly oppose ERT; similar groups in Britain demand the treatment. Whereas the British government has not regulated the drug, in America, increasing restrictions have been placed on ERT. …

A Comparative Analysis Of The Skills And Satisfaction Of Teenagers Taught Decision-Making Models, John T. Chapman

Dissertations

This study was designed to measure the effectiveness of two generic types of decision-making models currently used to teach high school students decision-making.

Models that were used in this study were a deductive and an inductive model. Deductive decision-making is the philosophical process, that is a generalization of personal values to specific choice items. Induction is the scientific process; students consider a series of specific items and generalize a decision from the examinations.

Effectiveness in this study was defined as the process skills and student satisfaction with the methods. Individual student differences that were considered in the study were grades, …

Peer Training Of High-Risk Low-Frequency Staff Behaviors In An Institutional Setting, Richard Aart Van Den Pol

Dissertations

Four experienced and four newly employed psychiatric attendants were assessed on their performance of three high-risk low-frequency behaviors during simulated emergencies. The three skills measured were Convulsive Seizure Management, Fire Safety Procedures, and Self-Defense. Each of the behaviors directly affected the safety and well-being of staff and retarded residents of the facility. The experienced employees, labelled "Trainers", received a series of workshops on how to perform and teach the requisite skills to other staff. Following each workshop, according to a multiple baseline across skills experimental design, the Trainers each taught one new staff member, labelled "Trainee" how to perform the …

A Comparison Of Overall Verb Complexity Between Aphasic Adults And Language Disordered Children, Cheri Suzanne Carrico

Masters Theses

In this investigation, no difference in the overall complexity of verbs produced in spontaneous speech existed between adults and children with primarily expressive language disorders. Six adults, four males and two females between 37;1 and 68;7 years of age, and eight children, five males and three females between 4;3 and 8;3 years of age, comprised the subjects. Each had essentially intact receptive language skills, but was deficient in expressive language abilities. None evidenced a history of hearing, mental or emotional deficits.

Spontaneous language samples elicited from each subject were scored using the Developmental Sentence Scoring (DSS) procedure (Lee, 1974). Marginal, …

A Multiple Baseline Analysis Of The Use Of A Social Skills Training Package With Shy Children, Patricia A. Haist

Masters Theses

The effects of social skills training were examined in a multiple baseline across behaviors design. Three shy children were taught four component conversational skills: expressing feelings, expressing opinions, agreeing with another's opinion, and praising others. The training package consisted of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement. Results indicated that treatment was highly effective for each child. The subjects' improvement remained evident at two- and four-week follow-up sessions. Generalization to novel role play situations was variable within and across subjects. Extra-laboratory measures of generalization did not yield significant pre-, posttraining results.

Intimacy In Context: A Theory Of Interpersonal Relationships, Sara Mirjam Terian

Masters Theses

To define intimacy, interpersonal relationships are divided into four major categories that encompass the whole range of interpersonal behavior: strangers, acquaintances, friends, and intimates. These are seen as progressive stages, defined by the individual's subjective, affective orientation, and discernable by behavioral indicators. Strangers are divided into total, encountered, and familiar strangers, acquaintances into mere and friendly acquaintances, and friends into Just friends, casual friends, and close friends. The process culminates in intimacy which is divided into three aspects: psychological, the necessary aspect, biological, and ideological. Total intimacy is the presence of all three. This framework has explanatory and predictive value, …

Comparative Ratings Of Printed Nutrition Materials Developed By Industry And Government Producers, Cheryl L. Holmes

Dissertations

The question as to the appropriateness of using materials developed by industry in the nation's classrooms has been raised by educators for many years. Some educators have urged that the use of these sponsored materials be banned totally as teaching tools in the schools; others have indicated that these sponsored materials provide an excellent alternative to textbooks, and are often more current than textbooks when the content is controversial or the subject is one for which new information is often available.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the quality of selected supplemental, printed nutrition education materials developed by …

The Relationship Between Knowledge Of Teamwork, Satisfaction, And Perceived Performance Effectiveness Among Professional Human Service Teams, Sonya Monroe-Clay

Dissertations

This study investigated the relationship between knowledge of teamwork, performance, and satisfaction in members of human service teams. Team Knowledge was conceptualized as encompassing four critical areas: Personal-Interpersonal, Team Environment, Team Leadership, and Team Processing.

Research findings in the literature point to certain general benefits of the team model. Nevertheless, some teams are dysfunctional, which may be reflected in poor performance and low morale or satisfaction. Lack of knowledge about teamwork was identified as a possible contributor to such problems.

A major hypothesis of the present study was that there is a direct relationship between team knowledge and satisfaction, team …