Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Unemployment And Social Integration: A Review, Loring Jones

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A review of the literature identifies the loss of work as a stressful life event that has been linked to a number of psychosocial ills. The paper examines the loss of social relationships, a major noneconomic cost of unemployment, as a major contributor to the development of those ills. Practice implications of this finding are identified.

Economic Motivators For Shoplifting, Joann Ray, Katherine Hooper Briar

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Shoplifting has been attributed to many psychological and physiological factors, especially when women are involved. This article examines the many factors that account for shoplifting behavior focusing on research findings which suggest economic and employment precipitants of the problem. Changes in policy and programmatic responses to shoplifters are suggested.

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 15, No. 4 (December 1988)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• "NEW" DIRECTIONS IN THE WELFARE REFORM DEBATE: THE PROBLEMS OF FEDERALISM - W. Joseph Heffernan
• THE ENVIRONMENTAL, ECONOMIC, AND SOCIAL IMPACTS OF RESORT DEVELOPMENT AND TOURISM ON NATIVE HAWAIIANS - Jon Matsuoka and Terry Kelly
• A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS OF PSYCHIATRIC SYMPTOM EXPRESSION USING LANGNER'S TWENTY-TWO ITEM INDEX - Robert Nishimoto
• HEALTH AND SOCIAL SERVICE NEEDS IN A NORTHEASTERN METROPOLITAN AREA: ETHNIC GROUP DIFFERENCES - Paul D. Cleary and Harold Demone, Jr.
• THE RELATIONSHIP OF RACE, SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS AND MARITAL STATUS TO KIN NETWORKS - Ferol E. Mennen
• NEIL BROCK, SOCIAL WORKER: TWENTY-FIVE YEARS LATER - Janice Andrews …

The Relationship Of Race, Socioeconomic Status And Marital Status To Kin Networks, Ferol E. Mennen

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Data from a purposive sample of families of elementary school children in New Orleans regarding contact and assistance with extended family members was analyzed to see if race, socioeconomic status or marital status predicted involvement in a kin network. Analysis of variance revealed that black and lower class families had higher levels of contact and black families had higher levels on one of the assistance measures. However when the distance from the extended family was used as a covariate the relationship disappeared. Marital status had no ability to predict.

A Cross-Cultural Analysis Of Psychiatric Symptom Expression Using Langner's Twenty-Two Item Index, Robert Nishimoto

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An analysis of psychiatric symptom response using Langner's twentytwo item index was conducted across three cultural settings. Respondents were Anglo-American, Vietnamese Chinese, and Mexican. Some similarities did exist in response patterns and in those symptom items highly correlated with the total psychiatric screening score. Close examination revealed between-group differences indicating that not all twenty-two items were valid indicators of psychological disorder across cultures. The study highlights issues in the development and use of symptom checklists to measure and assess mental health constructs across cultures.

Neil Brock, Social Worker: Twenty-Five Years Later, Janice Andrews

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This article reviews the role of the social worker, Neil Brock (played by George C. Scott) in the TV series, East Side/West Side which aired in 1963/64. The series is placed within the context of the social, political, economic environment of the 1960s. The analysis includes how Brock's character was developed, the role played by NASW, responses to the series by TV critics and social workers, and the role of television in portraying a profession.

An Analysis Of The Lithic Material From The Late Woodland Component Of The Draper Park Site (20sc40) In Port Huron, Michigan, Fran Seager

Masters Theses

This research examines the lithic assemblage of the Draper Park site, which consists of over seventeen thousand specimens including detrital material, implying on-site manufacturing techniques. Artifact attributes are analyzed and correlated within the context of the site and compared with known Late Woodland fishing sites. The intensive use of the site and strategic location suggest that it was a fishing station located at the headwaters of the St. Clair River. The site was seasonally occupied from A.D. 600 through A.D. 1300.

Productivity And Affective Responses To Work Tasks And Leisure Activities In Type A And Type B Individuals, Susan Jean Paske

Masters Theses

The Type A Personality Index, a measure of whether an individual tends to be a Type A or a Type B personality, was given to 30 male and 30 female college students who then participated in a planting activity, presented as either a work task or a leisure activity. Productivity was measured by number of pottings, and affective responses to the activity in the areas of evaluation, power, and action were determined by Osgood's 12-scale short form semantic differential (OSD). No significant correlations were found between personality type and productivity or OSD scores in either the work or leisure conditions. …

An Analogue Of Science, Michael Albert Minervini

Dissertations

There is no science of human behavior, not even an incipient one. The popular conception of applied behavior analysis as a genuine principle-driven technology is mostly an illusion. Two sorts of evidence support this conclusion. The first is an ever widening split between the field's basic and applied realms. The second, thus far unacknowledged, is that when the concepts of operant and respondent conditioning are extended to human behavior, they are often rendered as no more than metaphors. These metaphors are not confined to casual discourse or even to interpretation. In fact, they are the prevailing form of extension in …

The Psychological Needs Of Sex Offenders Of Children As Measured By The Personality Research Form, Shirley Anne Miller

Dissertations

Major contributors in the field of child sexual abuse have agreed that sex offenders who sexually abuse children are not primarily motivated by sexual desire and have proposed that the simultaneous satisfaction of a number of psychological needs is the prominent motivation of sex offenders of children. Few attempts have been made to empirically validate the clinical and theoretical impressions regarding the psychological needs of this group using psychological measures designed to assess needs or motives.

The purpose of this study was to investigate to what extent the assumptions about the psychological needs of sex offenders of children would be …

Behavioral Impacts Of The Fear Of Aids: A Sociological Model, Raghu N. Singh, N. Prabha Unnithan, James D. Jones

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The paper demonstrates the conceptual meaning and utility of a sociological model for identifying correlates of the fear of AIDS and its consequent changes on peoples' behaviors. A sociological notion of levels of analysis is employed for classifying correlates of AIDS' fears under structural and individual categories. A tentative list of these correlates and their projected relationship with peoples' fears is suggested to illustrate the model.

Strategic Planning In Human Service Agencies, Stephen A. Webster, Mary Wylie

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recent public policy initiatives including deinstitutionalization, deregulation, decentralization, and privatization have resulted in: (a) rapid growth in the number of private not-for-profit organizations; and, (b) competitive environments. These conditions have forced agencies to examine their planning processes to determine if agency goals are appropriate for meeting market demands. An exploratory study of 154 human service agencies examined if and how strategic planning was used to respond to these conditions. The Chief Executive Officers for those agencies reported that strategic planning was replacing incremental planning as a preferred planning model. However, the choice resulted because of pressure from outside influentials not …

"Our Town": A Case Study Of Ideology And The Private Social Welfare Sector, William M. Epstein

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This case study explores the relationship between ideology and the performance of the voluntary social welfare sector in Western New York. Data were collected from the directors of 22 of the largest and most important voluntary social welfare agencies relating to their own social attitudes and those of their boards. The common expression of similar agency attitudes toward a variety of social policies were in narrow conformity with the conservative values of the current national administration. The common core of conservative values, suggesting that the agencies perform an ideological role within the community in addition to their service role, may …

Profits, Welfare, And Class Position: 1965-1984, Marcus D. Pohlmann

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The study utilizes an extended version of a Charles V Hamilton paradigm in order to estimate yearly income transfers between classes in America's system of "welfare state capitalism." Analyzing the period from 1965 to 1984, what becomes most obvious is the substantial annual transfer from the middle/working class to the owning class. The transfer rose to more than $150 billion by 1984-a full 10% of middle/ working class income. Yet when looking at the implications, an interesting paradox emerges. Although the amount of transfer has increased some over the period, it has not grown nearly as fast as the after-tax …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 15, No. 3 (September 1988)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Table of Contents

• PROFITS, WELFARE, AND CLASS POSITION: 1965-1984 - Marcus D. Pohlmann
• BEHAVIORAL IMPACTS OF THE FEAR OF AIDS: A SOCIOLOGICAL MODEL - Raghu N. Singh, N. Prabha Unnithan, and James D. Jones
• STRATEGIC PLANNING IN HUMAN SERVICE AGENCIES - Stephen A. Webster and Mary Wylie
• CHALLENGING THE PROPOSED DEREGULATION OF P.L. 94-142: A CASE STUDY OF CITIZEN ADVOCACY - James G. McCullagh
• MENTAL HEALTH TREATMENT REFUSAL IN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS: A SOCIOLOGICAL AND LEGAL ANALYSIS - Rudolph Alexander, Jr.
• "OUR TOWN": A CASE STUDY OF IDEOLOGY AND THE PRIVATE WELFARE SECTOR - William M. Epstein
• RECISIONS, ORGANIZATIONAL CONDITIONS AND …

Mental Health Treatment Refusal In Correctional Institutions: A Sociological And Legal Analysis, Rudolph Alexander Jr.

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recently, the courts have recognized the right to a minimum level of mental health treatment for individuals confined in both mental and correctional institutions, utilizing a different rationale for each system. As mental health administrators in state mental hospitals accepted that they were responsible for providing an increased level of mental health services, they were disappointed that courts had subsequently ruled that individuals in state hospitals had a right to refuse treatment. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate, sociologically and legally, upon treatment refusal in the correctional system since most of the attention on treatment refusal has focused …

Recisions, Organizational Conditions And Job Satisfaction Among Black And White Human Service Workers: A Research Note, R. L. Mcneely

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the growing attention evident in the human services literature on the related topics of job satisfaction and burnout, virtually none of the empirical studies published to date have examined the possible influences of recent federal and state cutbacks in human service funding levels on the job satisfaction of human service workers. One outcome of these cutbacks has been the curtailment of services offered by county welfare departments, often achieved by reducing the number of public welfare workers through hiring freezes, attrition, layoffs, etc. The remaining public welfare workers often have then been placed in the unenviable position of trying …

Challenging The Proposed Deregulation Of P.L. 94-142: A Case Study Of Citizen Advocacy, James G. Mccullagh

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Public Law 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, considered by many to be the most significant federal legislation for children in need of special education, was proposed for deregulation by the Reagan administration in 1982. This study examines actions taken by citizen advocates-consumer/advocacy/parent (CAP) organizations and groups, parents, and other advocates for exceptional children-who gave testimony in opposition to the proposed changes at public hearings held by the United States Department of Education in late 1982. The most controversial proposed rules were withdrawn on September 29, 1982, while the remaining proposed changes were not implemented. Citizen …

Recidivism After Youth Imprisonment In Relationship To Criminal Career: A Twenty Year Follow Up Study, Helmut F. Janssen

Masters Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of early biographical factors on the future development of the juveniles and focusses on recidivism and factors influencing the development of a criminal "career." It includes a twenty year follow-up period, studying 500 juveniles released from two juvenile prisons of West Germany in 1961.

From a data set originally created in 1966, which included 290 variables, 29 variables, including individual and social characteristics as well as variables dealing with prior experiences with sanctioning, were ultimately used for this study. In addition, some new variables were created from the variables of …

An Analysis Of Four Empathy Variables As Predictors Of Marital Satisfaction, Teck Seong Chee

Masters Theses

The objective of this study was to determine if empathy was predictive of marital satisfaction, and which, if any, of the four empathy variables from Davis' Interpersonal Reactivity Index (1980), would serve as predictors of marital satisfaction. Correlation and regression analyses were used to evaluate the relationships of fantasy, empathic concern, perspective taking and personal distress with marital satisfaction. Variables of secondary interest included those of sex. birth order, length of marriage and age married. Both Individuals and couples were used as units of analysis.

Empathic concern and perspective taking were found to be predictors of marital satisfaction. No significant …

A Preliminary Report Of Investigations At The Kline 1 Site (20sj29), St. Joseph County, Michigan, Dale W. Quattrin

Masters Theses

The Kline 1 site, located in Mendon Township, St. Joseph County, Michigan, is a multi-component site situated on the eastern shore of Portage Lake. While the projectile points recovered during surface collecting suggest interm ittent presence on this site from late Paleo-Indian to Late Woodland times, the occupation offering the most substantial cultural and subsistence data is attributed to the Late Woodland period. Radiocarbon assays received on two features gave dates of 830 + 70 B.P. and 810 + 50 B.P. calibrated to be A.D. 1215 and A.D. 1223 respectively. The importance of this site relates to its spatially intermediate …

Self-Control In Mentally Retarded Adolescents: Choice As A Function Of Amount And Delay Of Reinforcement, Steven P. Ragotzy

Dissertations

Three severely mentally retarded adolescents were studied under discrete-trial procedures in which a choice was arranged between edible reinforcers that differed in magnitude and, in some conditions, delay. In the absence of delays, the larger reinforcer was consistently chosen. All subjects directed the majority of choice responses to the smaller reinforcer when the larger reinforcer was sufficiently delayed, although the value at which this occurred differed across subjects. Under conditions where the larger reinforcer initially was sufficiently delayed to result in preference for the smaller one, progressively increasing in 5-s increments the delay to both reinforcers increased percent trials with …

Effects Of Task Difficulty, Performance Consequence, And Social Interaction On Physiological Reactivity In Post-Coronary Patients, A. Janelle Maldonado

Dissertations

Three experiments were performed to determine the effects of three task variables and Type A behavior pattern on physiological reactivity to time-limited math and anagram tasks. In the first experiment, ten post-coronary patients performed time-limited computer tasks under two performance consequence conditions: Point Reward or presentation of an Auditory Blast combined with two task difficulty conditions (40% and 60% difficult). The findings of Experiment 1 indicated that while the tasks did produce levels of physiological reactivity comparable to those observed in the literature, there were no significant main effects for either variable for any of the five measures. A significant …

Construct Validation Of The Family Of Origin Scale: A Factor Analysis, Omar L. Mangrum

Dissertations

The major purpose of this two-part study was to contribute to the body of knowledge concerned with the construct validity of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS). The issues of construct and discriminative validity were specifically addressed. The first phase was an attempt to empirically establish the underlying factor structure of the Family of Origin Scale (FOS) through factor analytic techniques. The analysis utilized data collected from a previously studied population (i.e., college students) and a demographically different population (i.e., prison inmates). Results from this study indicate that the FOS appears to measure at least seven distinct factors/constructs, four of …

An Evaluation Of An Intervention Program For Juvenile Probationers, Kevin I. Minor

Dissertations

Although the efficacy of correctional rehabilitation was questioned during the early 1970s, recent research has demonstrated that certain intervention programs, when implemented under appropriate conditions, are effective in reducing illegal behavior. The objective of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a court-based intervention for juvenile probationers.

The program was developed on the basis of caseworkers' assessments of youths' problems and needs. The theoretical perspective underlying the intervention consisted of a joint combination of critical, social control, and differential association theories. A major implication of theory is that the juvenile court's capacity to facilitate informal social control should be …

The Effectiveness Of Feedback Procedures On Machine Set-Up Time In A Manufacturing Setting, Connie J. Wittkopp

Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment package designed to improve and maintain set-up time in the extrusion department of a rubber manufacturing company. Subjects were exposed to various behavioral techniques including training and a feedback system in the form of both written and verbal supervisory comments with an emphasis placed on improving performance through use of videotaping. An attempt was made to maintain treatment gains by teaching supervisors how to give information concerning set-up performance to their employees. Results indicate that average weekly set-up times for each machine were significantly below baseline …

Choice Responding In Pigeons Exposed To Sequences Of Fixed-Ratio Schedules: Effects Of Multiple Components, Susan Goeters

Masters Theses

The present study used a discrete-trials procedure to examine choice in pigeons presented with two- to five-component sequences of fixed-ratio schedules of reinforcement. Results of the first phase indicate that the majority of choice responses were allocated to the schedule containing the shorter initial fixed-ratio component regardless of the number of components assayed. These findings support the notion that temporally prior reinforcers minimize the effects of subsequent reinforcers and overall response requirements. Phase two findings indicate, however, that under some conditions, fixed-ratios other than the first, lawfully, although weakly, influence choice.

Evaluation Of A Psychoeducational Curriculum For Promoting Psychological Health And Self-Esteem, Michele Susan Meola

Dissertations

This study was designed to investigate the effectiveness of a psychoeducational curriculum in psychological health skills, entitled Psychological Health and Self-Esteem (PHSE). The study evaluated PHSE which is a 10-week class offered through the Psychology Department at Michigan State University, East Lansing, and is part of the Health Promotion Program, partially funded by a Kellogg Foundation grant.

Two hundred students participated in the study, and complete data were obtained from 117, 56 of them enrolled in PHSE and 61 enrolled in a different class designated as a control group. The design of the study was a pretest-posttest quasi-experiment with a …

Psychotherapists' Responses To Anger Manifested By Female Clients, Lisa L. Morshead

Dissertations

The responses of therapists to anger directed at them by female clients was the topic under investigation. Sixty-nine professional therapists were engaged as subjects, with each therapist reading two fictitious transcripts depicting the first portion of a therapy session. The two transcripts portrayed an angry client and a nonangry client, with client sex varied in each condition for a total of four transcripts. Each subject read both an angry and nonangry transcript of either two male or two female clients. Subjects were then asked to rate the client on competence, and interpersonal functioning, along with providing diagnostic impressions. A four …

Repeated Acquisition With The Developmentally Disabled, Jeannie Madsen

Masters Theses

Repeated-acquisition data were obtained from four developmentally disabled adults. The task was selecting the poker chip with the sticker on its underside in a sequence of sets of chips. When a sequence was mastered (four consecutive errorless runs) the subjects were given a new sequence to learn. Money was reinforcement for correct sequence completion. Total errors before mastery was the dependent variable.

In Phase 1 the subjects completed as many sequences as possible during each 15-minute session. Errors per sequence was a reasonably stable dependent variable within subjects, and between-subject differences were what would be expected on the basis of …