Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Assessment Of The Impact Of Public Housing On The Low Income Elderly Residents Of The Burnside Community, Timothy C. Jacobs

Dissertations and Theses

This study will be a look at housing for Portland's Burnside population with special emphasis on the Foster hotel public housing project. Before housing or any other aspect of Burnside can be intelligently discussed, it is important to have a realistic historical and contemporary understanding of the Burnside community. The second chapter of this study is designed to provide that understanding. The third chapter surveys the ways that other American cities have dealt with their skid row communities. Cities roughly the same size as Portland were chosen. Their efforts will be compared to Portland's plans for and actions toward its …

A Descriptive Study Of Some Problems Of Widows In Portland, Oregon, Kathleen Marsha Davis, Gail Petchesky

Dissertations and Theses

Widowhood is an inevitable phase of the life cycle for three out of every four married women. It is apparent by the lack of research about widowhood that it has been neglected as a developmental phase in the life cycle. Presently there are ten million widows in this country and their numbers are increasing each year. It is appalling that with a population this large, little attention has been directed towards research about widowhood. Other than recognizing that the widow may have financial problems for which Social Security provides assistance, few people realize what it means to be widowed. For …

Grassroot Organizations In The Black Community In Portland, Danny B. Copeland

Dissertations and Theses

This is a descriptive study of grassroot organizations in the Black community of Portland, Oregon. The primary objective of this study is to determine whether the Black community of Portland is actively working to improve the socio-economic and political position of the Black residents of Portland, or whether it is disorganized, apathetic, and removed from the main stream of society.

To achieve the goals of this study, answers will be sought for the following questions: Are there grassroot organizations in the Black community of Portland, Oregon? If yes, how many are there? Who are the members? What is the nature, …

A Demographic Study Of Two Alcoholic Populations In A State Hospital, James John Schelot

Dissertations and Theses

Twenty-five alcoholic patients in the Alcohol Treatment Program at Dammasch State Hospital near Wilsonville, Oregon, and twenty-five alcoholic patients in the same hospital who were not participating in the program were given a questionnaire designed to collect demographic data on both groups. The demographic characteristics were to be gathered in order to assess the possible need of diversified treatment programs for alcoholic patients at Dammasch State Hospital and in the Portland community.

Demographic data involved the social background, the alcohol background, and the medical/psychological history of the patients.

The results seemed to suggest that the two groups of patients were …

A Follow-Up Study Of The Graduates In The Academic Track At Wssb, Linda Heider, Renee Klisch

Dissertations and Theses

This study was conducted to discover the most significant factors associated with the present functioning and attitudes and the success of the adult outcomes of graduates of the Washington State School for the Blind in Vancouver, Washington.

The researchers assumed that WSSB had done everything feasible to prepare each student for a successful life, both in respect to the ability to lead an adequate socially active life and to develop as much independence as possible for a later profession or vocation.

The researchers hypothesized that type of education, sex, onset of blindness, degree of blindness and age would affect the …

Ex Post Facto Evaluation Of Neighborhood Organization Programs, Shimon E. Spiro

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Quasi-experimental designs, which are currently dominant in the methodological literature on Evaluative Research, are mostly not appropriate for the evaluation of Planned Change in the social organization of urban neighborhoods. In this paper we propose an alternative approach, based on ex-post-facto case studies. Criteria for evaluation, as well as study design and instruments, are discussed in some detail. A concise summary of one local evaluative study is presented as an illustration.

The New Left And The Human Service Professions, Robert J. S. Ross

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

There are three characteristics of the New Left which had impact on social and human service professionals. Egalitarianism produced distrustof orthodox professional detachment from and power over poor and minority persons. The movement also gave expression to guilt, for some, over their "privileged" backgrounds. The New Left's decentralist views about power produced an orientation to local insurgency: the organization of neighborhood and community activist organizations. In combination, for those influenced by the movement and entering the professions, a characteristic type of new professionalism arose: advocacy for the interests and organizations of the oppressed. Illustrations of this process are found in …

Journal Of Sociology And Social Welfare Vol. 4, No. 5

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

• The New Left and the Human Service Professions - Robert J. S. Ross
• Ryan Revisited: Updating the Prevalence of Bastards – Hudson R. A. Rosen, Lois J. Martindale
• The Non-Verbal Communication of the Physical Handicapped - Mary Jo Deegan
• Social Welfare and Danish Communes: An International Case Study - Thomas H. Shey
• Russia and America Compared: How Heavy is Our Welfare Burden – David Makofsky
• Ex Post Facto Evaluation of Neighborhood Organization Programs - Shimon E. Spiro
• The Prestige and Effectiveness of the Public Welfare Worker - Richard M. Grinnell, Nancy S. Kyte
• Three Strategies for Reducing Involuntary Segregation – …

Social Welfare And Danish Communes: An International Case Study, Thomas H. Shey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The implementation of public assistance and related forms of social insurance, based on existing social welfare legislation, often discriminates against new and emerging social institutions such as collective families residing in a communal situation. A recent case study of the Danish experience has shown that, while members of such communes are in fact discriminated against by the authorities (as a communal entity), the system has simultaneously proven flexible enough to accomodate the majority of "problem cases" on an individual basis and in the process served to minimize potential social unrest and dislocation. Unlike their American counterpart, research has verified that …

Russia And America Compared: How Heavy Is Our Welfare Burden, David Makofsky

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A non-Western comparative model, totalitarianism, has conventionally been employed to describe qualitative differences between the United States on one hand, and the nations of the Communist world on the other. This paper explores welfare-related aspects of Communist (USSR) - Western (US) differences: First, the quantity of welfare and second, the mode of welfare distribution. In measuring the volume of welfare as the proportion of the state welfare expenses to the GNP or NMP respectively, the Russian proportion from 1958 (USSR l8.S8,, U.S. 10.6%) until the latest available comparative figures (USSR 23- 24%, US 15.2%) remains substantially greater. In terms of …

The Prestige And Effectiveness Of The Public Welfare Worker, Richard M. Grinnell Jr., Nancy S. Kyte

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An empirically-based study was conducted to determine how BSW and MSW social work students differentially assess the relative prestige and effectiveness of public welfare work in relation to the fifteen other social work methods and to ascertain what methods they would ideally like to enter upon graduation from their programs. The study findings point dramatically to a wide discrepancy between the BSW and MSW student's view of the public welfare worker. Not only was the average prestige and effectiveness of welfare work rated significantly higher by the BSW students, but more than five times as many BSW as MSW students …

An Exploratory Study Of Adolescent Perceptions Of Communication Behavior, Pat Adams, Marion Summers

Dissertations and Theses

The interaction between troubled adolescents and the adult world is generally characterized as laden with ambiguity and conflict, and is rarely seem as productive or mutually satisfying. This research project is an attempt to study the way in which this interaction is perceived by a group of female adolescents involved in the Bridge, a short-term residential program for girls in a state of early crisis as demonstrated by runaway behavior. This study specifically focuses on communication behaviors of parents and of adults other than parents as perceived by the adolescent upon her entry into The Bridge and at her release …

Attitudes And Perceptions Of Medical Social Workers Held By Primary Care Physicians In Private Practice, Defined As Family Practitioners, Internists, And Pediatricians, Rosemarie Rosenfeld

Dissertations and Theses

This is an exploratory study intended to determine whether certain physicians in primary practice utilize the services of social workers and social agencies. An attempt is made to find out how much primary care physicians know about the role and functions of medical social workers, and whether and for what services they refer patients to medical social workers. The information obtained may be useful in promoting better working relationships between the two professions.

Ryan Revisited: Updating The Prevalence Of Bastards, Hudson R. A. Rosen, Lois J. Martindale

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Ryan, in Blaming the Victim, discusses welfare mothers in terms of an ideology of illegitimacy, and its impact on welfare policies. He then refuted the ideology. Since then several conditions have changed. This paper assesses how those changes may have affected Ryan's conclusions, and whether AFDC recipients most likely to fit the ideology differ from other unmarried, pregnant women. Hypotheses: AFDC and non-AFDC recipients will not differ significantly in (1) "promiscuity;" (2) contraceptive usage; (3) number of children being raised; and (4) solution to their problem pregnancy. The sample was 424 AFDC and 741 non-AFDC pregnant, unmarried women. While some …

The Non-Verbal Communication Of The Physical Handicapped, Mary Jo Deegan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores the types of problems which may arise as a function of a physical disability and its effects on non-verbal communication. Examples of social interaction problems were obtained through participant observation at a physical rehabilitation hospital. The author assumes that social skills based on communication through and by the body need to be conceptualized and have implications for their use in therapeutic settings.

Three Strategies For Reducing Involuntary Segregation, Juliet Saltman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The involuntary aspects of residential segregation in this country are examined, a conceptual model of involuntary segregation is presented, and four causative factors of involuntary segregation are noted. These four factors are the targets of three recent corrective strategies which have been used in an attempt to reduce involuntary segregation. The three strategies -- fair-share plans, exclusionary zoning lawsuits, and community housing audits -- are reviewed and analyzed in terms of their potential success in reducing involuntary segregation. Though no single strategy would be sufficient, all three strategies in combination may ultimately achieve a reduction of involuntary segregation in our …

Observations On An Emerging Profession, Lincoln J. Fry, Jon Miller

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examines the ranking that rehabilitation counselors received from their colleagues and clients in an alcoholism rehabilitation organization. The findings suggest that organizational power was the major determinant of the favorable ranking rehabilitation counseling received from colleaguest legitimacy appeared to accrue from power, not the reverse. Occupational visibility appeared to account for client ranking while knowledge that a powerless client group was controlled by others was found to be an important dimension of rehabilitation counselor standing with clients. One implication of the study is that the immediate social environments of occupations provide a meaningful place to begin to document …

Public Affairs, Community Service And Personal Care: The Three Faces Of Social Work, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

This paper was written for a faculty seminar at the School of Social Work, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, where at the time the author was an Assistant Professor. It makes the case that contemporary social work at the time was an uneasy mix of three very different approaches: A public affairs perspective addressing broad social policy issues; a community services perspective extending to agency management, planning and financing; and a personal care perspective built on psychotherapy, social casework and group work. At the time, many schools of social work were struggling with a legacy of strong support for the personal …

Follow-Up Study Of The Child Diagnostic Center, Nancy Ann Peck, Krystal Angevine

Dissertations and Theses

In order to document the need for additional treatment centers for severely disturbed children, the Oregon Mental Health Division decided to submit a grant to the National Institute of Mental Health to request an extensive, retrospective follow-up study of an innovative diagnostic approach, the Child Diagnostic Center. When the grant was not funded, the State Office for Child Study and Treatment Centers recruited graduate students to conduct portions of the proposed follow-up study.

Cpacs Happenings (April 1977 Newsletter), College Of Public Affairs And Community Service, University Of Nebraska At Omaha

CPACS Newsletters

The College of Public Affairs and Community Service (CPACS) newsletter that reported on the news, collaborations, events, and general happenings of the UNO College of Public Affairs and Community Service. This newsletter has had many names and variations over the years including SPACS Newsletter (1973); Newsletter of the College of Public Affairs and Community Service (1973-1974): Happenings (1974-1980s); and the current e-newsletter titled the CPACS Collective (2021-)

Attitudes Of Graduate Social Work Students Toward The Disabled: Use Of Yuker's Disabled Persons Scale, Donna Meyer Weggenman

Dissertations and Theses

According to a front page editorial in the Wall Street Journal of January 27, 1976, the major barriers to employment of eight million disabled people are attitudinal. Understanding of attitudes - their sources, and their dynamics - must be achieved in order to progress toward a goal of acceptance of handicapped persons as full and equal partners in our society.

A Disarmed World: Problems In Imaging The Future, Elise Boulding

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One of the major handicaps to scholars, activists and would-be policy makers associated with the post-World War II peace research and peace action movements has been the inability to construct coherent and believable images of a post military industrial United States society. Even at the height of the economics of disarmament studies in the 1960s the most that economists could demonstrate was that disarmament could take place without severe economic dislocations, and that resources released from arms could be used for improving the global standard of living. The new peace research movement was also producing books in the sixties showing …

Government Spending And Welfare Employment, Martin D. Lowenthal

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

One of the persistent issues which welfare policy makers and analysts confront in western industrial nations, particularly in the United States, is the appropriate relationship between public assistance payments and employment. There is a great deal of debate over whether welfare recipients should work or be required to take jobs and whether the government should emphasize training or placement services or create jobs directly. Relatively little concern and attention have been given to the 'roblem of the number of jobs that are actually available in the private sector for recipients who want to work. Although the federal government will plan …

Is Criminology A Policy Science, Robert F. Meier, Gilbert Geis

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The question posed in the title is discussed in view of selected evidence from the criminological literature. Criminology's status as a policy science, based largely on the ability of the discipline to present coherent, empirically-based recommendations for the reduction of crime, is evaluated. The review leads to disappointing conclusions with respect to the usefulness to policymakers of the present knowledge base in criminology.

A Moment Of Truth In The Warfare-Welfare Debate: The Transfer Amendment, Elizabeth Holtzman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The controversy over the budget is much more than a debate about how much should be spent in 1977 on the military, or social programs. It is more than a struggle between two branches of the federal government--the legislative and the executive-- over which body should determine the national priorities. Ultimately questions are raised about the viability of the democratic planning process in the warfare/welfare state, and how the people--the governed--can be adequately represented in the process. All of these issues are touched on explicitly or implicitly by Congresswoman Holtzman in the debate (although, to be sure, she was most …

Forward To Our Origins: Social Work Skills And Political Action In The Current Crisis, Bertram A. Weinert

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The last decade of the 19th century and the years prior to World War I was an exciting and fruitful period in United States history. It was a time of unrest, but characterized by vigorous discontent, not cynicism or despair. There was an aggressive optimism that fostered confidence in social action, even to the belief that poverty could be abolished. The failure to achieve that goal remains our burden today, but to have begun the struggle then was a significant step. It was the developing profession of social work that initiated that battle against poverty.

Influencing Welfare/Warfare Priorities Through The New Budgetary Process, Ann Blalock

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In the previous article, Weinert challenged social workers, and other professionals in the area of social welfare, to commit themselves to greater collective political action in the interest of substantial social change. He suggested that there are many options for movement in that direction. This article briefly discusses one incremental option within the established political system, intervention within the new Congressional budgetary process. This is not an insignificant strategy. Its purpose is to influence the way the national budget is constructed. The budget incorporates to an important degree the society's prevailing definition of its priorities. Furthermore, future policy alternatives are …

Third World Women, World Population Growth: A Case Of Blaming The Victim, Elizabeth W. Moen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper examines the provisions of the 1974 United Nations World Population Conference pertaining to the status of women, wherein it is assumed that if the status of women is improved and they are educated and employed, fertility will decline. It is concluded that these assumptions do not have very sound theoretical or empirical bases, and that the possibility and probability of implementation in the near future is slim. It is hypothesized that the Conference World Plan of Action will do little to raise the status of women or reduce population growth because it is a product of sexual politics.

The Interests Of Children And The Interests Of The State: Rethinking The Conflict Between Child Welfare Policy And Foster Care Practice , A. Pare, J. Torczyner

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The social welfare literature -- whether embodied in the ideology of the profession, claimed in its social policy, substantiated through empirical research, or espoused in practice -- suggests that children should not be removed from their natural hones as a solution to economic woes or to the unavailability of social support services. This apparent convergence of ideology, policy and practice -- buttressed by social values which recognize the importance of family life -- would suggest that few children, if any, would enter foster care because of inadequate income or the absence of social services. Yet, in 1977, between one quarter …

A Classification Scheme For Medical Expenditures, James Veney, Arnold Kaluzny

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Medical care represents a significant portion of society's response to problems affecting social welfare. While the problems surrounding medical care are complex, a major part of these problems can be attributed to the fact that medical care expenditures are viewed indiscriminately without regard for the nature of the expenditures themselves. This paper presents a framework to differentiate various types of medical care expenditures. The paper argues that medical care expenditures can be classified as either instrumental-consummatory or as external-internal relative to the medical care system. The consequences of this classification and some conclusions which may be drawn from it are …