Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Identifying Bias: A Cognitive Model, Jane M. Burnett

Theses and Graduate Projects

Social work students must develop a sophisticated ability to recognize bias in themselves and others to engage in culturally sensitive practice. Research was modeled on Latting's (1990) teaching model. MSW students participated in a quasi-experimental, non-equivalent control groups design. Participants also evaluated the training.

Students' ability to identify bias was expected to increase following a training that explains the universality and functions of bias and provides a safe yet challenging context in which to critically examine bias. A large majority of respondents in the experimental group stated that their awareness of bias increased due to the training. However, quantitative results …

What Factors Influence The Racial Identity Development Of Young Biracial Adults, Jerry S. Dieffenbach

Theses and Graduate Projects

This study explored biracial identity development and the key factors that influence the racial identity development of biracial young adults. In this study biracial is defined as having parents who are African-American and Euro-American. The study participants were fourteen biracial college students between the age of 18 and 26. Data for the study was collected using indepth individual interviews. Participants' perceptions of when their racial identity emerged and their current attitudes about being biracial in todays society was also examined. The majority of participants reported that the right and opportunity of racial choice was a predominate issue that contributed to …

Focal Point, Volume 12 Number 01, Portland State University. Regional Research Institute

Research and Training Center - Focal Point

Much of the family member involvement that is happening at the state and local level is due, at least in part, to the efforts by the federal government to institutionalize family involvement in policymaking. In 1985 Child and Adolescent Service System (CASSP) staff added a family goal to the program. This goal translated into a requirement that state applications for CASSP funds describe how families would participate in service planning efforts at the child and family, program, and system levels. In 1986 Congress passed the State Mental Health Services Comprehensive Plan (Public Law 99-660), which mandated family member participation in …

The Minnesota Vulnerable Adult Act Policy Analysis Of 1995 Reforms, Therese L. Buckley

Theses and Graduate Projects

Maltreatment of vulnerable adults is increasing at an alarming rate in the decade since the Minnesota Vulnerable Adult Act was passed in 1980. National estimates of elder maltreatment have risen by 50% in the last decade. Educated estimates of maltreatment are as high as 1.5 million incidents in the United States per year. The Minnesota legislature mandated in 1994 that the Minnesota Departments of Health and Human Services convene an advisory committee to make recommendations to the legislature on the means of preventing maltreatment of vulnerable adults. This thesis looks at the policy implications of the 1995 Minnesota Vulnerable Adult …

The Rush To Measure Performance, Lawrence L. Martin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article examines the concept of performance measurement and identifies several major performance measurement initiatives that have implications for the human services. Each of these initiatives is briefly discussed and their similarities and differences noted. The article points out that little coordination appears to be taking place between these initiatives which raises the specter of human service agencies having to contend with multiple potentially incompatible performance measurement systems. The implications of performance measurement for human services agencies is then discussed. The article closes by suggesting that agency administrators, advocacy groups, clients and others concerned about the human services need to …

Understanding The Debate Over The Privatization Of Social Security, Eric R. Kingson, John B. Williamson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Serious consideration is being given to the merits of privatizing Social Security. Debate over privatization and the future of Social Security gives expression to two differing value systems: the community-enhancing values of the program's defenders versus libertarian values of its critics. This article examines the implications of the debate. Areas of agreement among advocates and opponents of privatization are discussed. Special attention is paid to conflicting views about privatization and to the distributive implications of proposals to address the program's projected financing problem. In shifting much risk from government onto individuals, privatization would undermine basic Social Security protections. And it …

Postmodern Welfare: Reconstructing An Emancipatory Project. Peter Leonard.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Peter Leonard, Postmodern Welfare: Reconstructing an Emancipatory Project. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1997. $23-95 papercover.

Communities In Conflict: Resolving Differences Through Collaborative Efforts In Environmental Planning And Human Service Delivery, Thom Reilly

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Increasingly, public administrators and managers in the fields of human service and environmental planning have been exploring new avenues to resolve complex and seemingly intractable public problems. Confronting such controversial issues as land management plans, common-pool resources, endangered species, welfare reform, health care and immigration are requiring new and more innovative ways of doing business-ways in which problem-solving and leadership is a shared pursuit of governmental agencies and concerned citizens.

Since collaborative efforts in these arenas have recently reemerged as one avenue to resolve complex policy disputes, it is premature to give an accurate assessment of their long term viability. …

Review Of Antisemitism And Xonophobia In Germany After Unification. Herman Kurthen, Werner Bergmann And Rainer Erb (Eds.). Reviewed By Frank Hirtz, University Of California, Davis., Frank Hirtz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Herman Kurthen, Werner Bergmann and Rainer Erb (Eds.), Antisemitism and Xonophobia in Germany after Unification. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. $ 65 hardcover, $ 29.95 papercover.

The Impact Of Peer Mediation On Student Mediators, Lisa Laehn

Theses and Graduate Projects

This qualitative study sought to expand the current knowledge of how student mediators view themselves and how their involvement in a peer mediation program impacted them. Twenty-three students, from three different elementary schools in the Elk River School System, were individually interviewed. All subjects were between the ages of 10-13, were currently involved in a peer mediation program, and had been involved for at least six months The semi-structured interviews focused on subjects' views of the impact involvement in a peer mediation program had on their self-esteem, leadership skills, relationship skills, and school attitudes. Common themes addressed in the data …

Review Of Immigrants Out: The New Nativism And The Anti-Immigrant Impulse In The United States. Juan E Perea. Reviewed By Robert L. Boyd, Mississippi State University., Robert L. Boyd

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Juan E Perea, Immigrants Out: The New Nativism and the Anti-Immigrant Impulse in the United States. New York: New York University Press, 1997. $ 19.95 papercover.

Discourse Analysis And Activist Social Work: Investigating Practice Processes, Karen Healy, Joan Mulholland

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although discourse analysis methods have been used for the critical analysis of activist practice theories, the application of these methods to practice processes has remained a largely unchartered territory. A chief aim of this paper is to demonstrate the possibilities discourse analysis offers for the investigation of activist practice processes. The paper introduces a discourse model which combines poststructural discourse principles and conversation analysis methods. The model is then applied to the study of the effects of activist perspectives for service users and workers within a context of activist practice in which one of the authors has been involved as …

Proactive Rhetoric, David Stoesz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American welfare state is coming apart. In The Rhetoric of Reaction, Albert 0. Hirschman explained how conservatives had used three themes to counter liberal expansion of social and economic rights: perversity, futility, and jeopardy. This essay expands Hirschman's formulation retrospectively by identifying the liberal antecedents---adequacy, equality, and regulation-that prompted the recent conservative assault on the American welfare state. Further, the author presents three themes to thwart the conservative critique of welfare-mobility, empowerment, and restructuring. As illustrative of "proactive rhetoric", these themes are proposed to guide future social policy in the United States.

For Crying Out Loud: Women's Poverty In The United States. Diane Burton And Ann Withorn (Eds.). Reviewed By Tracy Maybrey, Western Michigan University., Tracy Maybrey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Diane Burton and Ann Withorn (Eds.), For Crying Out Loud: Women's Poverty in the United States. Boston, MA: Southend Press, 1997. $ 22.00 papercover.

The New Temperance: The American Obsession With Sin And Vice. David Wagner.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

David Wagner, The New Temperance: The American Obsession with Sin and Vice. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997. $60 hardcover, $16.00 papercover.

Welfare Capitalism In Taiwan: State, Economy And Social Policy. Yuen-Wen Ku.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Yuen-wen Ku, Welfare Capitalism in Taiwan: State, Economy and Social Policy. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997. $69.95 hardcover.

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 25, No. 3 (September 1998)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• DISCOURSE ANALYSIS AND ACTIVIST SOCIAL WORK: INVESTIGATING PRACTICE PROCESSES - Karen Healy and Joan Mulholland
• PROACTIVE RHETORIC - David Stoesz
• UNDERSTANDING THE DEBATE OVER THE PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY - Eric R. Kingson and John B. Williamson
• THE RUSH TO MEASURE PERFORMANCE - Lawrence L. Martin
• "SAFE PLACES TO GO AND THINGS TO DO:" POLITICAL TEXTS FROM URBAN YOUTH OF COLOR - Amory Starr
• KNOWLEDGE UTILIZATION IN SOCIAL WORK AND LEGAL PRACTICE - Karen M. Staller and Stuart A. Kirk
• COMMUNITIES IN CONFLICT: RESOLVING DIFFERENCES THROUGH COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING AND HUMAN SERVICE DELIVERY - Thom …

"Safe Places To Go And Things To Do": Political Texts From Urban Youth Of Color, Amory Starr

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper is the first to examine the political texts of urban youth of color. It presents their assessments of what kinds of policies and programs would improve their lives.

Knowledge Utilization In Social Work And Legal Practice, Karen M. Staller, Stuart A. Kirk

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The gap between knowledge generated by systematic inquiry and its eventual use by practitioners has been a concern in social work for several decades. Explanations for the gap have been identified as the orientation or attitudes of practitioners, the character of professional education, and the nature of scientific inquiry. The structural character of both practice itself and its knowledge base have been overlooked as an explanation. By comparing legal and social work practice, we suggest that characteristics of social work practice and knowledge also impede research utilization.

On Whose Watch? The Silent Separation Of American Children From Their Fathers, Nancy S. Coney, Wade C. Mackey

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Within two generations, the primary reason that American children were deprived of a father shifted from a father's death to a woman's choice. That is, prior to the 1960s, the major cause of fatherlessness was the death of the father through illness or accident. After the 1960s, the children became deprived of fathers primarily because of women's decisions to petition for a divorce or to become a single parent mother. The path of the shift is examined, and the consequences writ small per child and writ large for the commonweal are examined.

Review Of Nothing Happens To Good Girls: Fear Of Crime In Women's Lives. Esther Madriz. Reviewed By Deborah Page Adams, University Of Kansas., Deborah Page Adams

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Esther Madriz, Nothing Happens to Good Girls: Fear of Crime in Women's Lives. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997. $40 hardcover.

Review Of Ethnicity, Crime And Immigration: Comparative And Cross National Perspectives. Michael Tonry (Ed.). Reviewed By Jewelle Taylor-Biggs, University Of California At Berkeley., Jewelle Taylor-Biggs

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Michael Tonry (Ed.), Ethnicity, Crime and Immigration: Comparative and Cross-National Perspectives. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1997. $56.00 hardcover, $22.50 papercover.

Violent Criminal Acts And Actors Revisited. Lonnie Athens

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Lonnie Athens, Violent Criminal Acts and Actors Revisited. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997. $24.95 hardcover, $14.95 papercover.

Against The Odds: Social Class And Social Justice In Industrial Societies. Gordon Marshall, Adam Swift And Stephen Roberts.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Gordon Marshall, Adam Swift and Stephen Roberts, Against the Odds: Social Class and Social Justice in Industrial Societies. New York: Clarendon Press, 1997. $29.95 hardcover.

Perceptions Of Social Workers On Factors Associated With Foster Care Outcomes, Larry L. Kollman

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this exploratory study is to elicit the perceptions of social workers on factors which may be associated with a stable reunification following discharge from foster family care. Twenty-four social workers from the Waterloo Region of The Iowa Department of Human Services completed a survey in which they identified their perception of reunification factors pertaining to the birth parents, foster parents, child, social worker, and agency. The findings suggest that the maintenance of the connection between the child and birth family, the child's development of healthy attachment experiences, an ecologically-based assessment, and the social worker's rapport with and …

Community Empowerment And Social Policy Design: A Case Study Of The Creation Of A School-Based Health Center, R. Ian Costello

Masters Theses

Studies of community empowerment have shown the benefits of involving recipient communities in the process of designing and implementing social aid programs. One of these benefits is the empowerment of previously disenfranchised individuals and communities. Through qualitative ethnographic research, this thesis shows how residents of one low-income community in South-West Michigan have become more empowered through their involvement in the design and implementation of a school-based health center.

The Process Of Identity Change From Entitled Controller To Batterer, Evelyn Powell

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The primary purpose of this research was to investigate any catalysts to changes in self-concept that may have occurred among thirteen men who had been labeled as batterers by the courts and who were about to graduate from the Project to End Abuse through Counseling and Education (PEACE), a court-mandated batterers' intervention program, in Nashville, Tennessee. It is deemed necessary for a batterer to first recognize himself as such before he is able to stop battering. The second purpose of this research was to document the men's attitudes about PEACE and how it affected them. Within the framework of symbolic …

Acknowledging The Crisis In Social Liberalism: A Call For A New Approach To Teaching Social Policy, Roger A. Lohmann

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

A graduate social policy course at West Virginia University has been redesigned by a senior faculty member and lead instructor to recognize advances in political philosophy and to confront the decline of the social liberal welfare state and the rise of populist radicalism, through civic engagement by citizen-professionals.

A Needs Assessment For Parents Of Children With Developmental Disabilities, Susan E. Peterson

Theses and Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to explore the needs of parents of young children with developmental disabilities. The survey included 70 families served through Early Childhood Special Education. Data collection utilized the Family Needs Survey (Bailey & Simeonsson, 1990). Topics examined were: Information, Family and Social Support, Financial, Explaining to Others, Child Care, Professional Support, and Community Services. Findings indicated that parents have a high need for information about current and future services available for their children. Family and social support data indicated that parents have a need to find time for themselves. The financial needs parents reported were …

The Relationship Between Job Satisfaction And Job Tenure, Jamey M. Whitney

Theses and Graduate Projects

This exploratory quantitative study was conducted to ascertain the correlation between job satisfaction and job retention among employees from two different job settings. Seventy employees, thirty five from a public social service and thirty five from a private social service setting, completed a modified Job Satisfaction Survey developed by PauI E. Spector. The employee's responses to questions were developed to measure 9 facets of job satisfaction which were correlated with the demographic information of length of employment with their current employer. The intent was to determine, if any, the prominent characteristics that explain the reasons for their length of tenure …