Digital Commons Network^™

Alternative Constructions Of Science And Science Education, William W. Cobern

Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project

I want to begin today with two short personal remarks. My field of research at home is the cultural study of science education. In other words, I am interested in what is commonly called the culture of science and how that becomes interpreted in science education by teacher and curriculum. I am interested in the variation of culture among American students, cultural variations grounded in family and community and brought to the classroom. I am interested in the cultural interactions that are precipitated by the meeting of cultures in the science classroom. In my current work I use worldview concepts …

Fact Book 1994-1995, Western Michigan University

Western Michigan University Fact Books

• General Information
• Enrollment Information
• Institutional Comparison
• Student Information
• Faculty Information
• Budgets and Resources

Faculty Senate Yearbook, 1994-95, Wmu Faculty Senate

WMU Faculty Senate Yearbooks

No abstract provided.

African-American Males In Prison: Are They Doing Time Or Is The Time Doing Them?, Anthony E. O. King

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

African-American males comprise a disproportionate percentage of the individuals imprisoned in State correctional institutions across the United States. The purpose of this paper is to describe how incarceration affects African-American males. The author recommends more rigorous and systematic analysis of the prison experience, and how it affects the mental, physical, and social well-being of African-American males. Given this nation's commitment to using imprisonment as the principal means for punishing convicted felons, it is imperative that society ascertain the social, psychological, and economic effects of such confinement on millions of African-American males.

The Effect Of Computer-Assisted Instruction On The Development Of Diagnostic Reasoning Skills Among Occupational Therapy Students, Judith Lynn Freeman

Masters Theses

Diagnostic reasoning is an essential feature of the occupational therapy treatment process. Acquisition of diagnostic reasoning skills is difficult for students, however, because of paradoxical developmental limitations faced during transition from classroom to clinical learning environments. Educators in pre-professional occupational therapy curriculums are searching for educational methods to prepare students for diagnostic reasoning tasks inherent in practice.

This experimental study compared a computer-simulated diagnostic reasoning activity with a more traditional case study reviewing activity in terms of effect on accuracy of problem identification among occupational therapy students. Results found no significant difference between the effect of computer-assisted instruction and case …

Assassination In Modern America: Political Participation Through A Gun Barrel?, Richard Grossenbacher

Masters Theses

Assassination has been a constant companion of the world's societies from the beginning of recorded history. Only relatively recently have social scientists begun empirical study of these acts in an effort to reveal any commonalties and possible predictive traits. Investigation of the assassination phenomenon assumed a special urgency in America as violence seemed to escalate in the 1960s, which resulted in some notable research.

The present research collected data of presidential and non-presidential assassinations and attempts that occurred from 1969 through 1992 and compared the findings with the results of earlier studies.

The data indicate that presidential assaults increased in …

The Observer As An Instrument In Qualitative Community Studies, Pranab Chatterjee

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A qualitative study of leadership in local black communities was done by an Asian Indian scholar in Cleveland during the nineteen sixties and seventies. This paper narrates the conditions under which and the methodology with which the study was done. Using participant observation, interviews, and reviews of published and unpublished documents, the author develops ten propositions about organizational and electoral leadership in black communities. Further, three additional propositions about the adequacy of qualitative research are also developed from this research experience. A short comparative review of trends in these communities is appended.

Resources For Friendship Intervention, Rebecca G. Adams, Rosemary Blieszner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Programs affecting friendship patterns can be implemented at the individual, dyadic, network, immediate environment, community, or societal level. Literature specifically focused on friendship intervention is scarce. The relevance of other resources for the design and assessment of friendship interventions at each of these levels is described.

Practitioners who design social interaction interventions are prompted to familiarize themselves with the friendship literature and to apply the findings. Even if the goal is not to manipulate friendship patterns specifically, interventions should at least be designed not to undermine existing relationships.

A Comparative Study Of Primary Preventive Behaviors And Secondary Preventive Behaviors Among Michigan Adults, Jing Chang

Dissertations

Many researchers have documented the range and extent of the health preventive behaviors. However, previous studies have generally focused on either the contact with medical professionals (secondary preventive care) or compliance with their recommendations (primary preventive care). Some have treated the two types of behaviors as one and related them to social demographic characteristics and socio-structural conditions (e.g., access to medical service). There have been very few studies that have compared the two sets of preventive behaviors. This study takes a first step to explore the correlates of secondary preventive activities and compare them with the correlates of primary preventive …

Adolescent Substance Use Patterns: Testing A Multidimensional Sociogenic Model, Eric O. Johnson

Dissertations

This dissertation begins with the understanding that behavior is a product of a variegated and complex web of social factors. Bringing this approach to the subfield of adolescent substance use, both substance use itself (alcohol, cigarettes and a broad range of illicit drugs) and the factors that influence such use are viewed as existing within the complex of demographic/structural, social contextual, attitudinal, and behavioral layers of adolescents' social worlds.

The Patterns of Adolescent Substance Use Typology, developed by Stanley S. Robin and me (1992a), is used to categories the overall level and kind of substance use, over time, that adolescents …

The Political Activity Of Social Workers: A Post-Reagan Update, Mark Ezell

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reports the findings of a survey that examined the political activism of social workers and what changes may have occurred in their political participation during the Reagan years. Social workers are politically active largely by writing letters to public officials but also by discussing political issues with friends, by belonging to politically active organizations and by attending political meetings. In addition, a substantial proportion of social workers make campaign contributions and get involved in candidate elections. Among social workers, those with the highest educational degrees, those who are NASW members, those who are in macro type jobs, and …

A Comparative Study Of The Coping Ability Of Mobile And Nonmobile Elementary Pupils, Solomon Mokone Lebese

Dissertations

Frequent moves by parents of elementary-aged children can cause these children a considerable amount of stress, thus creating adjustment problems and straining their coping abilities to the limits. How do these children cope with such problems compared to those who do not move frequently?

The above question was the focus of investigation to determine whether or not there was a difference between the mobile (children whose parents have moved at least once in the past 3 years) and nonmobile (children whose parents have not moved from a particular school district in the past 3 years) elementary children in the way …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 20, No. 4 (December 1993)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• EDITORIAL: THE FIRST TWENTY YEARS - Robert D. Leighninger, Jr.
• AFRICAN-AMERICAN MALES IN PRISON: ARE THEY DOING TIME OR IS THE TIME DOING THEM? - Anthony E. O. King, Ph.D.
• THE OBSERVER AS AN INSTRUMENT IN QUALITATIVE COMMUNITY STUDIES: A THIRD WORLD PERSPECTIVE - Pranab Chatterjee
• THE EMPLOYED HOMELESS: A CRISIS IN PUBLIC POLICY - Frederick A. DiBlasio, Ph.D., John R. Belcher, Ph.D., Kathleen A. Connors, Ph.D.
• JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AND THE TRANSITION TO MONOPOLY CAPITALISM - Kevin I. Minor
• THE POLITICAL ACTIVITY OF SOCIAL WORKERS: A POST-REAGAN UPDATE - Mark Ezell, Ph.D.
• THE DUAL FACE OF EMPOWERMENT: …

The Employed Homeless: A Crisis In Public Policy, Frederick A. Diblasio, John R. Belcher, Kathleen A. Connors

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Departing from the conventional wisdom of who constitutes the homeless, the "employed homeless" emerge as a subgroup of the homeless population in a state-wide Maryland Study (n= 178) at 25 shelter facilities. Twenty-four percent. of the homeless were found to work fulltime and eleven percent part-time. Gender disability, health, previous mental health hospitalization, military experience and education were significantly associated with employment status in the bivariate analysis. From these exploratory findings a theory of economic dislocation is hypothesized.

The Dual Face Of Empowerment: A Model For Cooperative Resource Building, Eric C. Albers, Nancy Paolini

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Homelessness among families with children has become a nationwide problem. Although homelessness is difficult to document, it is estimated that approximately 250,000 to 3,000,000 people in the United States are homeless. Families, which comprise approximately one third of the homeless population, is its fastest growing segment (Mihaly, 1991; National Coalition for the Homeless, 1989; Van Vliet, 1989). This may be a conservative figure. Some of these families often go uncounted because they are part of the "invisible" homeless. They avoid agency contact for fear of losing their children or live in motels, cars, or campgrounds and thereby are not counted …

Access To Prenatal Care And County Size: Implications For Service Delivery, Ellen E. Whipple

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The impact of population size across twenty-three west Michigan counties was examined to determine access to prenatal care, low birth weight, and infant mortality. Surveys were completed by forty-five managers of hospitals and county health departments. Service availability, sociodemographic, system-related and lifestyle factors were examined as contributors to perinatal support utilization. Low birth weight and infant mortality were highest in the small- and large-sized counties. Positive birth outcomes in medium-sized counties may have been due to greater availability of infant and child health services through health departments, and the targeting of resources to specific problem areas, such as smoking cessation. …

Book Reviews

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

BOOK REVIEWS

• Encyclopedia of Sociology. Edgar F. Borgatta and Marie L. Borgatta (Ed). Reviewed by James Midgley, Louisiana State University
• Constructing a Social Science for a Postwar America: The Cybernetics Group, 1946-1954. Steve Jashua Heims. Reviewed by William E. Buffum,University of Houston
• Researching Social Life. Nigel Gilbert (Ed); Approaches to Social Research. Royce A. Singleton, Jr., Bruce C. Straits and Margaret Miller Straits. Reviewed by John G. Orme, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
• The Underclass Question. Bill E. Lawson. Reviewed by Paula L. Dressel, Georgia State University
• Population Estimation. Raymondo. Reviewed by Michael D. Irwin, Louisiana State University
• Nationalism: Five Roads …

Book Notes

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

BOOK NOTES

• Pure and Applied Sociological Theory: Problems and Issues. Calvin J. Larson.
• Postmodernization: Change in Advanced Society. Stephen Crook, Jan Pakulski and Malcolm Waters.
• Introduction to Macrosociology. James W. Russell
• The Renascence of Sociological Theory. Henry Etzkowitz and Ronald M. Glassman
• Erving Goffman and Modern Sociology. Philip Manning
• Pragmatism and Social Theory. Hans Joas

Neighborhood-Based Initiative To Address Poverty: Lessons From Experience, Robert Halpern

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The neighborhood has long been an important locus for efforts to address the causes and consequences of poverty in American society. Over the course of the past century neighborhood- based initiatives have been called on to reduce class conflict, counter feelings of alienation, localize control of social institutions, create jobs and reverse neighborhood economic decline, improve human services, and address a variety of specific poverty-related problems, ranging from infant mortality to juvenile delinquency. In this essay I draw on the historical experience with neighborhood initiative to illuminate its strengths and limitations as a strategy for addressing poverty and its correlates. …

Juvenile Delinquency And The Transition To Monopoly Capitalism, Kevin I. Minor

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper identifies three macrosociological forces (i.e., the social position of youth, private market relations, and poverty and inequality) that are crucial for understanding delinquency and analyzes how these forces evolved together as part of the historical transformation in the United States to monopoly capitalism. The thesis is that these forces have contributed to delinquency by acting collectively to decrease the capacity of social institutions to maintain informal social control. Implications for policy are also considered.

Karma In Theodicy, Joji Watanabe

Masters Theses

The study of religion explicates fascinating aspects of human history. From the past through the present to future times, in every area of human history a person's religious views provide his or her specific world view: How to consider the meaning of life or world. In a sense, suffering has come up as one of major problems in religion. This is because how a group of people finds release from suffering explains the specific aspect of each religious tradition.

With the above as a basis, theodicy was set not as God's justice in the Judeo-Christian tradition but as a broad …

Western News, November 18, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Haenicke issues memo outlining budget decisions and plans for 1993-94, Congress approves $6 million grant to expand, move WMU aviation school to Battle Creek, WMU one of four state schools selected for loan program, Engineering college to offer its first doctoral program starting in fall 1994, Campus United Way drivejust short of $148, 000 target

Can We Share Ethical Views With Other Religions?, Robert Hannaford

Center for the Study of Ethics in Society Papers

Presented to the WMU Center for the Study of Ethics in Society, October 7, 1993.

Western News, October 28, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Knowledge of teamwork comes in handy as Brinn helps United Way reach $6 million goal, Simulation promotes cooperation between disciplines, Author and illustrator to speak here Nov. 5 as part of Children's Book Week conference, Researchers developing device to assist blind children, Nigerinn sculptor in residence through November

Western Michigan, October 21, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Several events set in connection with opening of Carol Haenicke collection of women's poetry, Swartz chosen to fill dean of students position, '101' instructors make transition easier for freshmen, S~ial activist to present peace week keynote address, Specialists, NFL Hall of Farner to share views on diagnosis and treatment of panic disorder, Endowment fund is important source of support for WMU departments

Western News, September 23, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Plans move ahead as architect selected for science facility, Enrollment of beginning freshmen is stable despite 3 percent drop in pool, Alumni establish center for Anglo-Saxon studies in honor of prominent teacher and author, Grants for July and August total $2 million; nearly 85 percent come from federal sources, Two nationally known occupational therapists selected to receive Outstanding Alumni Award

Wmu Board Of Trustees Regular Meeting September 17, 1993, Wmu Board Of Trustees

WMU Board of Trustees Meetings

• Acceptance of the Agenda
• Approval of the Minutes
• Correspondence
• Remarks by the President
• Executive Session
• Ratification of WMU/AAUP Contract
• Conflict of Interest Policy
• Grant Report
• Personnel Report
• Gift Report
• Personnel Report
• Construction Contract - University Theatre Complex Addition
• Architect Contract - Science Facility
• Naming of Center/Medieval Institute
• Remarks by the Provost
• Public Comments
• Adjournment

Western News, September 16, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Haenicke discusses negotiations, budget in senate remarks, eDGE has clearer role in curriculum review process, New works installed as part of Sculpture Tour Program, Access to more than 30 databases offered in pilot project conducted by University libraries, Activities planned for Hispanic Heritage Month, Ziring edits book detailing current events in Europe

Western News, September 9, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Riegle backs WMU plan to expand aviation programs, Geologist part of federal project to explore oil reserves, Faculty and staff donate $244,628 to Annual Fund, WMU to compete in Hybrid Electric Vehicle Challenge, Breisach's book is first to relate complete story of Progressive history from debut to demise, Tang book emphasizes growing importance of transfer pricing in the '90s

Western News, September 2, 1993, Western Michigan University

Western News (1972-2018)

Story Highlights: Tentative agreement reached with faculty union, Query selected as dean of University libraries, Collection of books by American women poets named for Carol Haenicke, Gary Center addition opens after summer of construction, Officials report on progress of nursing program; announce that launch will not be in 1993-94, New system will help students and advisers better chart their course through college, Charity, Decker, Meyer among Hall of Fame inductees