Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Perceptions Of Patients Meeting The Criteria For A Diagnosis Of "Multiple Chemical Sensitivities": Exploration Of Social Situation And Need, Beth Miriam Lewis

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

While no one explanation as to the possible nature of "multiple chemical sensitivities" has gained unanimous acceptance within the medical/science community, similar controversy does not exist with regard to the recognition of social problems generated for people suffering from this condition. In an effort to identify areas of psychosocial need requiring social work intervention, a descriptive study was carried out with a group of patients seen in an outpatient occupational health clinic. Medical charts of a deliberate sample of 423 clinic patients, seen during the period 1980-1990, were reviewed, yielding a total of 83 patients meeting criteria specific to MCS. …

Saving The Environment: Science And Social Action, Patricia D'Andrade

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation analyzes environmental arguments for their stance toward science. It is a sociology of knowledge investigation of arguments made primarily by environmental scientists in the United States in the 1960s and 70s.

The environmental crisis puts science in question but at the same time looks to science for information and solutions. Thus, science is a center of contention around which arguments develop and oppositions are established. Science is beginning to take the place of political thought in providing legitimating concepts for arguments intended to effect social change. Major environmental books and articles by American authors of the 1960s and …

Psychoanalysis And Constructionalism: Clinical And Metapsychological Implications, Richard H. Loewus

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Attempts to reconceptualize the epistemological basis of psychoanalytic metapsychology and clinical praxis from constructionalist perspectives are reviewed and critiqued. The constructionalist epistemology of the American philosopher, Nelson Goodman, is absent in these discussions. Goodman offers a relativism with restraints, a constructionalist epistemology that asserts no one given reality to which our constructions must answer, but does not accept that therefore all constructions are equally valid. Instead, constructions, or what Goodman calls world versions must answer to standards of "Rightness". Goodman's reconception of philosophy subsumes the concept of truth as a special class of rightness, and replaces the concept of knowledge …

Social Order And Contest In Meanings And Power: Black Boycotts Against Korean Shopkeepers In Poor New York City Neighborhoods, Jeongduk Yi

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation aims to provide an analysis of the process of social reproduction revealed through the conflict between Korean shopkeepers and poor Black inner city residents in New York City. The major concepts, discussed in the introduction, include culture, power, domination, resistance, and conceptual orders.

The pervasive racism and capitalism in America provides the context where the two minority groups have been constituted and where opposing meanings are contested as the conflict between Korean shopkeepers and poor Blacks develops. State agents, Whites, and news media also join in the process of the conflict. They contest with various combinations of coercion, …