Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Review Of Situational Prison Control: Crime Prevention In Correctional Institutions. Richard Wortley. Reviewed By Margaret Severson., Margaret Severson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Richard Wortley, Situational Prison Control: Crime Prevention in Correctional Institutions. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. $65.00 hardcover, $23.00 papercover.

Pluralism At Yale: The Culture Of Political Science In America. Richard M. Merelman.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Richard M. Merelman, Pluralism at Yale: The Culture of Political Science in America. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press, 2003. $ 26.95 papercover.

The Welfare Marketplace: Privatization And Welfare Reform. M. Byrna Sanger.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for M. Byrna Sanger, The Welfare Marketplace: Privatization and Welfare Reform. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution Press, 2003. $ 16.95 papercover.

Aging In The New Millenium: A Global View. Terry Tirrito.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Terry Tirrito, Aging in the New Millennium: A Global View. Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 2003. $ 18.95 papercover.

The Effects Of On-The-Spot Observations In A Behavioral Safety Application, Sigurdur Oli Sigurdsson

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a package intervention on critical safety behaviors and conditions in a food and drinking industry setting. The intervention involved training a sub sample of employees to conduct safety observations, providing all employees with safety information, and posting weekly graphic safety feedback on six safety-related variables based on employee observations. A multiple baseline design across departments was used to assess the effects of the interventions in two dining services kitchens on the campus of a midwestem university. Overall, the intervention implemented in this study had mixed effects on safety behavior, …

A Drug Free America? A Web Page Discourse Analysis, Darrin Kowitz

Masters Theses

Using the methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), this research will seek to identify the ways in which social power is exercised through the creation and manipulation of linguistic categories within the text of the web page for the Partnership for a Drug Free America (PDFA). A preliminary examination of the web page identified three general mechanisms of power at work for the PDFA, the use of authority, fear inducement, and identity manipulation. The use of these mechanisms will be analyzed to explain ideological hegemony as the adoption of cognitive categories by individuals from social-structural, or institutional, sources.

Athletic Amenorrhea: Prevalence And Awareness Among Female Athletes At Western Michigan University, Michele R. Chupurdia

Masters Theses

Women who participate in competitive sports are under enormous pressure to maintain an extremely low body weight through diet and exercise. While exercise is viewed as widely beneficial to women of all ages, the pressure to succeed in sports by achieving or maintaining an unrealistically low body weight through food restriction and high intensity training may lead some women to develop eating disorders, amenorrhea, and osteoporosis.

The research conducted for this thesis and presented here investigates female college athletes (18-24 years) from Western Michigan University, a Division I school, who are undergoing strenuous training. The goal of this study is …

An Evaluation Of City Hall Departmental Complaints In Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1993 And 1994, Monique R. Moore

Masters Theses

My research will evaluate the citizen complaints made to various departments in the Kalamazoo, Michigan's City Hall for the years of 1993 and 1994. The complaints were compiled on a monthly basis by the Citizen Action Center for the various departments. The number and types of complaints received and significant differences in the frequency and content of complaints or patterns of change from one year to the other were analyzed.

There was a consistent pattern in the content or types of complaints concerning the Public Works department from 1993 to 1994, but no consistent pattern for any of the other …

Nutrition Education For Persons With Disabilities, Jada A. Miller

Masters Theses

This study provides descriptive information about the dietary knowledge and intake of community-based young adults who have been diagnosed with a number of disabilities. A nutrition education curriculum was implemented for the Experimental group (N=9) and at a later date for the Delayed Intervention group (N=9). Results indicated that the three-week nutrition education curriculum produced moderate improvement in participants' nutritional knowledge and moderate improvement in nutritional value of foods chosen from a menu. However, the intervention proved to have a negligible effect on the nutritional value of foods consumed within this population of individuals.

Based on the results of this …

Eating Ethnicity: Examining 18th Century French Colonial Identity Through Selective Consumption Of Animal Resources In The North American Interior, Rory J. Becker

Masters Theses

Cultural identities can be created and maintained through daily practice and food consum.ption is one such practice. People need food in order to survive, but the types of food they eat are largely determined by the interaction of culture and their environment. By approaching the topic of subsistence practices as being culturally constituted, the study of foodways provides an avenue to examine issues of cultural identity through selective consumption. Eating certain foods to the exclusion of others is one method for establishing social distance between peoples and is simultaneously a reflection of this relationship and the types of interactions that …

Who Are "The Japanese"?: Negotiation Of Identity Among Nikkei In Brazil, Chihiro Nagasue

Masters Theses

When Japanese immigrants arrived in Brazil in the beginning of the 20th century, they recognized, for the first time, that they were "Japanese" and different from other ethnic people since it was rare for them to meet ethnically foreign people in Japan. In the ethnically and linguistically foreign country of Brazil, the Nikkei have had to constantly redefine their identity by resisting and accommodating dominant pressures and ideologies such as the Brazilian assimilation policies before and during the Second World War as well as the essentialist ideology of Nihonjinron (what it means to be Japanese). As a result of globalization, …

Review Of Refusing Care: Forced Treatment And The Rights Of The Mentally Ill. Elyn R. Saks. Reviewed By Kai J. Bentley., Kia J. Bentley

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Elyn R. Saks, Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003. $35.00 hardcover, $24.50 papercover.

“A Different Way To Portray It”: A Phenomenological Analysis Of Audiencing The [New] Newlywed Game, Christopher Reed Groscurth

Masters Theses

This study seeks to extend the body of literature which explores how culturally-situated audiences assign meaning to television texts. Specifically, this inquiry introduces and describes the audiencing behavior of several vintage television audiences. Drawing on existing cultural studies and feminist research, in-depth, semi-structured focus group interviews were used to gather viewer perceptions of the gendered discourse on two episodes of The [New] Newlywed Game (one from the '70s and one from the '90s). The focus group interviews were audio-taped then later transcribed verbatim. Six emergent themes: (1) Understanding the Discourse of Power Structures, (2) Gendered Questions: Form and Content …

Child Welfare And Devolving Federalism: An Analysis Of The Effects Of Federal Funding Schemes On Selected Child Welfare Outcomes In Michigan, Timothy J. Kangas

Dissertations

Child abuse and neglect has become a pervasive problem across the United States. Between 1985 and 1995 the foster care population in the United States grew by 79%, with costs soaring into the billions. During the mid-1990s, in an effort to address this issue, the federal government shifted from using a funding scheme identified with a traditional model of federalism to one identified with devolving federalism. In Michigan, the focus of this research, this shift in approaches occurred through the issuance of block grant funding for child welfare programming. The intent of this shift was to decentralize elements of the …

Taiwanese Female Counselors’ Experiences Of Managing Work And Family Roles And Responsibilities, Joy Yuyin Huang

Dissertations

Mental health professionals work in emotionally demanding environments when they work with clients who have emotional problems and interpersonal conflicts. Self-care and managing family and work responsibilities are concerns of great importance for mental health professionals to maintain quality in their services. This is of special concern for Asian female counselors who play important supportive roles for their families. As a result, Asian female counselorsnot only work with clients but also assume heavy family responsibilities, yet there is a dearth of literature on this specific group (Leong, 2002; Saso, 1999; Lee, 1998).

This qualitative study using grounded theory methods explored …

Deconstructing Fordism: Legacies Of The Ford Sociological Department, Georgios Paris Loizides

Dissertations

Institutional theories of organizations state that organizations reflect society's wider values and norms. Less attention has been placed on the questions of whether and how private interest organizations influence wider societal values and norms. This study examines archival material, as well as published primary and secondary sources, relating to the history of the Ford Motor Company, in particular its Sociological Department, in an effort to assess the company's progressive era project to instill in its workforce a particular set of values and attitudes, which were seen by Ford as healthy, and appropriate. Though we are used to seeing Henry Ford …

Review Of Realizing Rights: Transforming Approaches To Sexual & Reproductive Well-Being. Andrea Cornwall And Alice Welbourn (Eds.) Reviewed By Carol Tully., Carol Tully

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Andrea Cornwall and Alice Welbourn (Eds.), Realizing Rights: Transforming Approaches to Sexual & Reproductive Well-being. New York: Zed Books, 2003. $49.95 hardcover, $16.95 papercover.

Official Discourse And Public Opinion In Post-Communist Societies: The Role Of Government-Affiliated Intellectuals, Ekaterina M. Levintova

Dissertations

Post-Communist countries are unique in the sense that they are undergoing not a single, but multiple transitions. The extent of social change underway inthis region is truly monumental and researchers are faced with the daunting task of studying the extent of this transformation. Change is most evident when one studies formal institutions. But lies beneath, on the level of value orientations? The answer to this question helps us understand the real progress of post-Communist countries towards the goals of their transitions.

What were the political, ideological, economic, foreign policy, and ethnic relations attitudes of the post-Communist Russian and Polish elites …

School Counselors’ Perceptions Of Developmental Guidance: A Qualitative Study, Lori A. Pashnik

Dissertations

A developmental emphasis is the fundamental core of the school counseling profession. However, Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Programs (CG&CPs) that have been identified as developmental have been shown to have significant gaps with regard to developmental theoretical concepts. In addition, counselors who are implementing CG&CPs are unsure of how to put developmental principles into practice. This study explored how elementary and middle school counselors who currently implement CG&CPs perceive the developmental philosophical foundation of the program. A focus group methodology was used for this study to gain an in-depth understanding of elementary and middle school counselors’ perceptions of developmental guidance. …

Formal And Informal Institutions: Gender And Participation In The Panchayati Raj, Aparna Thomas

Dissertations

In April 1993, the Parliament of India passed the 73rd Constitutional Amendment, reforming the structure of local governments. The amendment mandated that the composition of local councils include at least one-third women. This study explores the effects of the 1993 Indian women's reservation bill in changing policies at the local government level in ways that address women's interests. Specifically, the research addresses the following questions: (1) Are women really participating in panchayati raj politics, or are they merely present? (2) Do quotas as institutional mechanisms make a difference in agenda setting and policy outcomes? Although it may be early to …

Monitoring The Effects Of Psychotropic Drugs In Students With Emotional Impairments: Home And School Data, Lynne E. Turner

Dissertations

Research has shown that schools do not typically participate in the systematic monitoring of psychotropic medications prescribed to school-aged children with emotional disorders. Conversely, research indicates that the information that is relayed to the prescribing physician from the schools consists, in general, of informal global reports regarding the student's overall behavior. Additionally, research evaluating systematic monitoring systems within schools has lacked input from the prescribing physician regarding relevant data to be collected. These findings provided impetus for the present project, which was an attempt to develop a practical system for schools to monitor possible desired and adverse effects of psychotropic …

Superimposition And Withdrawal Of Tangible Consequences As A Treatment For Automatically Reinforced Problem Behaviors, Tina M. Sidener

Masters Theses

Tangible superimposition and withdrawal is a reductive procedure in which a new stimulus is delivered following behavior already maintained by a different controlling stimulus. The new stimulus is then removed in an attempt to reduce behavior. The current investigation sought to extend previous research on this procedure by evaluating its efficacy and durability as a treatment for stereotypy in three children diagnosed with autism. First, automatic reinforcement functions for stereotypic behaviors were identified via functional analyses. Next, for two participants, tangible items were delivered contingent upon stereotypy and then subsequently withdrawn. When the superimposition procedure proved ineffective, environmental enrichment was …

A Comparison Of Human Femoral Neck Cortical Bone: Walkers Vs. Non-Walkers, Meghan M. Moran

Masters Theses

This empirical project examines human inferior femoral neck cortical bone and the response in this region to mechanical loading in association with bipedalism. It is suggested that habitual activity induces cortical bone hypertrophy. A radiographic analysis of femoral neck cortical bone was completed using two samples of individuals. One group following a normal developmental trajectory of walking was compared to another who has never walked as a result of cerebral palsy (CP) or spina bifida (SB). Two research questions were addressed: (1) Is the amount of femoral neck inferior cortical bone equal to or different from that seen in the …

Controversial Maternal Roles Of Intrafamilial Child Sexual Abuse Cases, Rhonda Elliott Mcgee

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine Child Sexual Abuse case files, to determine which "maternal role": (a) protector, (b) co-victim, (c) co-perpetrator/conspirator, or (d) perpetrator was the most common in court cases studied in this research. The researcher also sought to find: (1) The most dominant maternal role in reference to percentage; (2) The effect, if any, of certain "role types"; (3) And the consequences and/or effects of selected variables (e.g. age, race, and gender) had in family court decisions and adjudications.

The target population consisted of forty-one cases of Child Sexual Abuse cases, adjudicated by the Family …

Work-Based Welfare As A Ritual: Understanding Marginalization In Post-Independence Lithuania, Arunas Juska, Richard Pozzuto

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The paper analyzes the functioning of the newly created labor exchange in post-Soviet Lithuania. It is argued that the labor exchange in post-Soviet Lithuania operates under the conditions of a structural contradiction: welfare services are designed to reintegrate unemployed into the labor force under the conditions of (a) increasing competitiveness of the labor markets and (b) a rapid decline of employment within the Lithuanian economy. As a result, labor redundancy is produced which consists predominantly of low skill/education individuals. Because the economy is unable to generate employment, job searches for this segment of the population are transformed into a highly …

Legislative Casework: Where Policy And Practice Intersect, Larry Ortiz, Cindy Wirz, Kelli Semion, Ciro Rodriguez

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Legislative casework is an ongoing activity in many state and federal legislative offices. Although the activity carries the implication of being a social work activity, there is little evidence from the literature, or in the field, that social workers are more than marginally employed in these positions. Reasons for the lack of professionally educated social workers in this important area of practice and politics are not clear. This paper explores the field of practice known as legislative casework, its history and purpose, and presents generalist social work examples from a Congressional district office wherein which professional social workers are employed. …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 31, No. 2 (June 2004)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• WORK-BASED WELFARE AS RITUAL: UNDERSTANDING MARGINALIZATION IN POST-INDEPENDENCE-LITHUANIA - Arunas Juska & Richard Pozzuto
• MAKING TANF WORK: ORGANIZATIONAL RESTRUCTURING, STAFF BUY-IN, AND PERFORMANCE MONITORING IN LOCAL IMPLEMENTATION - Frank Ridzi
• LEGISLATIVE CASEWORK: WHERE POLICY AND PRACTICE MEET - Larry Ortiz, Cindy Wirz, Kelli Semion, & Ciro Rodriguez
• "WON'T BE WEIGHTED DOWN": RICHARD WRIGHT JR.'S CONTRIBUTIONS TO SOCIAL WORK AND SOCIAL WELFARE - Kevin Modesto
• DIGITAL DIVIDE IN COMPUTER ACCESS AND USE BETWEEN POOR AND NON-POOR YOUTH - Mary Keegan Eamon
• BATTERED AND ON WELFARE: THE EXPERIENCES OF WOMEN WITH THE FAMILY VIOLENCE OPTION - Judy L. Postmus …

Review Of Handbook Of Drug Abuse Prevention: Theory Science And Practice. Zili Sloboda & William J. Bukowski (Eds). Reviewed By Sean R. Hogan., Sean R. Hogan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Zili Sloboda and William J. Bukoski (Eds.), Handbook of Drug Abuse Prevention: Theory, Science, and Practice. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. $150.00 hardcover.

The Call To Social Work: Life Stories. Craig Winston Lecroy

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Craig Winston Lecroy, The Call to Social Work: Life Stories. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2003. $ 19.95 papercover.

The Difference Disability Makes. Rod Michalko.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book note for Rod Michalko, The Difference that Disability Makes. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2002, $ 19.95 paperback.