Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

An Analysis Of The Use Of Special Masters For Assuring Compliance With Judicial Decrees In Corrections Litigation, Richard J. Liles

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the recent practice of judges appointing remedial special masters to oversee the implementation of consent decrees and court orders. These orders are a response to the spate of inmate suits demanding compliance with the constitutional guarantees provided in the Fourth, Eighth, and Fourteenth Amendments. As more courts have become involved in adjudging the constitutionality of conditions in correctional institutions, there has been a trend toward the judge becoming a quasi-manager in assuring compliance with the court's orders. To conduct this oversight, they have turned more and more to the practice of hiring …

Policy Gambit: Conservative Think Tanks Take On The Welfare State, David Stoesz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Conservative policy institutes have reevaluated their position regarding welfare and begun to present proposals to change social welfare policy. Instrumental in this development are the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, conservative think tanks which have developed projects for the purpose of making social policy more consonant with conservative philosophy. If progressive organizations are to reassert their role in the policy process, they will have to use some of the aggressive techniques pioneered by the conservative think tanks.

Reconsidering Drug Involvement Among Youth And Young Adults: Implications For Targeted Primary Prevention, Mark W. Fraser

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this; paper is to review two dominant social perspectives on the etiology of substance abuse among youths and young adults-the stage and risk factor outlooks-and to discuss them in light of recent demographic and ecological research. The differential demography of drug abuse strongly suggests that the environmental context influences the use and abuse of substances. In an era of great public concern about substance abuse, the use of individually-focused perspectives appears to have resulted in person-centered skills training programs and "say no" media campaigns. Consideration of community-level factors in the etiology of drug abuse permits the identification …

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 14, No. 4 (December 1987)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

CONTENTS

• Policy Gambit: Conservative Think Tanks Take on the Welfare State - DAVID STOESZ
• Reconsidering Drug Involvement Among Youth and Young Adults: Implications for Targeted Primary Intervention - MARK W. FRASER
• Reforming the Juvenile Correctional Institution: Efforts of the U.S. Children's Bureau in the 1930s - MARGUERITE G. ROSENTHAL
• Historical Perspectives on the Care and Treatment of the Mentally Ill - ALBERT R. ROBERTS AND LINDA FARRIS KURTZ
• Sexual Abuse at Charity House: A Case Study of Social Policies in Action - MAUREEN KELLEHER
• Predictors of Job Satisfaction Among Three Racial/Ethnic Groups of Professional Female Human Service Workers - R.L. …

Sexual Abuse At Charity House: A Case Study Of Social Policies In Action, Maureen Kelleher

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper explores Wiseman's theory of policy intervention using a case study of institutional abuse for illustration. Social policy intervention is an ongoing process. In this case, a single policy agenda, deinstitutionalization, was modified by a variety of stakeholders and compounded by a series of other child specific policy agenda including child abuse reporting procedures

Predictors Of Job Satisfaction Among Three Racial/Ethnic Groups Of Professional Female Human Service Workers, R. L. Mcneely

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Three hundred and thirty-six female human service workers were studied to determine whether or not racial/ethnic status was related to job satisfaction among managerial, supervisory and professional employees. Both overall and intrinsic satisfaction were assessed. Two groups were similar in the patterns predictive of their satisfaction but the third group appeared to be influenced by concerns peculiar to those achieving recent professional status.

Staff Development: A Challenge Of Privatization, Wynn S. Wright, Mark Fraser

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Privatization is a major trend in social welfare, and it is placing new emphasis on staff development in both public and private agencies. By permitting services that are often considered "public" to be provided under contract with non-profit and for-profit agencies, public policymakers have sought to increase the efficiency of social welfare programs. This has produced greater competition in the welfare marketplace. In a competitive environment, staff development is a key element that enables agencies to respond quickly to market demands for new or imaginative services. The purpose of this article is to describe an innovative staff training program and …

An Evaluation Of The Effects Of An Infant-Care Skills Training Program On Fathering Behaviors, G. Joseph Vrazo

Masters Theses

This study replicated the findings and expanded the assessment procedures of a previous study that had established the effectiveness of a multi-component infant-care skills training program for first-time fathers. A multiple probe design was used in this study to demonstrate that the training program produced criterion performance of the infant-care skills by four experimental fathers; also, an increase in the frequency of infant stimulation activities initiated by these fathers was observed. A pre/post training evaluation of the effects of the training program on the fathers' performance of play and affectional behaviors and daily infant-care activities yielded negative results. Four control …

Modernization In West Africa: How Women's Lives Have Been Marginalized, Patricia S. Peterman

Masters Theses

Social scientists have documented the effects of colonialism and independence in West Africa, but have focused on male roles in economic institutions. Recent research reveals not only the importance of women as agricultural producers but also the marginalization of women in contemporary national society. Development projects have not eased economic hardship, rather emphasis on industrialization has led to agricultural underdevelopment, borne more heavily by women and children than by men.

This paper looks at the micro-level issues of the division of labor, the structure of the household, the status of women, and issues concerning fertility and reproduction. In doing so, …

Congruence Between Type Of Activity And Volition And Its Relationship To Life Satisfaction In Nursing Home Residents, David De Noble

Masters Theses

This study examines the relationship between life satisfaction and the volition subsystem of 32 older adults who reside in nursing homes. Specifically, it attempts to measure congruence or the perception of the individual that the inherent characteristics of an activity "fit" his or her sense of personal causation, values and interests. The study examines the relationship between this congruence and life satisfaction.

Results of the study identified positive correlations between congruence and life satisfaction. Correlations between congruence of volition subsystem components and activity were at a statistically significant level (p <.05) for personal causation, values and total volition. Correlations between congruence of volition subsystem components and some specific activities were also found.

Lead Seals From Fort Michilimackinac, Mackinaw City, Michigan, Diane L. Adams

Masters Theses

Archaeologists have routinely identified small lead seals found on sixteenth- to eighteenth-century sites in North America as "bale seals." An analysis of the lead seals from Fort Michilimackinac, Mackinaw City, Michigan, (1715-1781) was conducted to determine whether the seals are actually cloth seals from individual textiles.

Four lines of evidence were examined in order to clarify the function(s) of lead seals: documentary sources, quantitative analysis of archaeological data from Fort Michilimackinac, comparative data from site reports, and cloth imprint analysis.

Available evidence supports an interpretation that most lead seals are cloth marks. Lead seals served as indicators of quality, ownership, …

Development And Evaluation Of An Infant-Care Training Program With First-Time Fathers, Ronald S. Dachman

Dissertations

We evaluated the effectiveness of a multicomponent package in training infant-care skills to first-time fathers. After developing and socially validating a set of infant-care skills, we assessed the effects of training in a hospital-based program with expectant fathers (Experiment 1) and in a home-based program with fathers having varied degrees of experience with their infants (Experiment 2). In both experiments, a multiple probe design demonstrated that the training package was responsible for producing criterion performance by the expectant and first-time fathers. A one-month generalization probe in Experiment 1 showed that the effects transferred across training conditions (training doll to human …

Development Of Michigan Jtpa Title Iia Performance Standards Regression Models Under The New Federalism, Yung Sung Wu

Dissertations

The purpose of this study has been to make some contribution toward an understanding of the United States Department of Labor's (USDOL) JTPA Title IIA performance standards models and their policy implications. The major objective of the study has been to construct, evaluate, and document short-run econometric models which would be available for policy analysis and ex ante forecasting. The consequences of job training programs may have important effects on participants and the manpower service delivery system--hence, this study of the relationship between program activities and their consequences.

The State of Michigan has been using USDOL's JTPA Title IIA performance …

Advocacy And The Adversary System, Herb Kutchins, Stuart Kutchins

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

If advocacy is to be a significant aspect of social work it is necessary to distinguish it from other forms of action in which social workers engage, and it must be practiced methodically. This paper offers an approach to advocacy as a technique applied to conflicts resolved within the adversary system. The elements of the adversary system are identified and discussed; then the use of this model is illustrated with an example of its successful application.

Privatization: Reforming The Welfare State, David Stoesz

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The American social welfare institution is in transition. Constituencies of the welfare state-the public, clients, and professionals-have registered dissatisfaction with traditional methods of providing services. Analysts from liberal and conservative think tanks have proposed relying less on government and more on the private sector to provide for welfare. To a substantial degree privatization is already evident in several areas: the expansion of for-profit health and welfare corporations, the application of entrepreneurial methods in community development, and the encouragement of private retirement plans. The liberal response to privatization is poorly developed, and could benefit from insights by welfare professionals who seek …

Stability And Fluctuation In Juvenile Delinquency In Israel, Ram A. Cnaan, Itzhak Hocherman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A review of the literature indicates two major approaches in official crime rate analysis. The first approach postulates a positive correlation between recorded crime rates and a number of factors including police strength, organizational structure of social control agencies, opportunity, and social pathologies. The second postulate is based on Erikson's hypothesis of stability of deviance over time, namely that recorded crime rates in a given society will remain comparatively stable over time. We tested these approaches based on 15 years of juvenile delinquency statistics in Israel. Official statistics on both recorded juvenile delinquents and their recorded crimes were tested through …

Community-Based Self-Help Groups For The Treatment Of Agoraphobia, Bruce A. Thyer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The design and conduct of community-based self-help groups for the treatment of agoraphobia are discussed. Such groups incorporate procedures encouraging members to engage in prolonged therapeutic exposure to anxiety-evoking situations. Exposure therapy and its variants have been empirically established as the treatment of choice for agoraphobia, and self-help groups lend themselves extremely well to community mental health outreach and service efforts.

Journal Of Sociology & Social Welfare Vol. 14, No. 3 (September 1987)

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Contents

• Privatization: Reforming the Welfare State - DAVID STOESZ
• Registering the Poor to Vote: Lessons from the 1984 General Election - IRA COLBY
• Refeminization of Child Care: Causation, Costs and Cures - ROBERT WEINBACH
• Stability and Fluctuation in Juvenile Delinquency in Israel - RAM A. CNAAN, ITZHAK HOCHERMAN
• The Use of Survey Methods in Researching Parents of Adjudicated Child Prostitutes - JOHN LONGRES
• Sex-Role Stereotypes about Social Work Administration - REGINALD O. YORK
• Burn-Out Among Social Work Professionals: A Behavioral Approach to Causal and Interventive Knowledge - KAREN M. SOWERS-HOAG, BRUCE A. THYER
• Advocacy and the Adversary System - …

Registering The Poor To Vote: Lessons From The 1984 General Election, Ira Colby

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Voter registration and educational programs for the poor and moderate income groups were a dominant political strategy embraced by a number of social welfare organizations during the 1984 general election. This article reviews one such project that registered 4,124 individuals and implemented a follow-up survey of 500 new registrants. Based on the survey, the author identifies a number of voting and nonvoting behaviors that should be considered in future voter registration and education projects. The author also identifies critical policy issues that impede voter participation among the poor.

Refeminization Of Child Care: Causation, Costs And Cures, Robert W. Weinbach

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Recent media attention to sexual abuse in various child care settings appears to have created an exodus of males. Refeminization has the potential to support sex roles stereotypes and to result in loss to all concerned. Strategies for combatting this phenomenon and its effects are proposed.

The Use Of Survey Methods In Researching Parents Of Adjudicated Teenage Prostitutes, John Longres

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper is methodological in its orientation. It describes experiences in applying survey methods to a difficult and hard to reach population - parents of adjudicated teenage prostitutes.

Sex-Role Stereotypes About Social Work Administration, Reginald O. York

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In this article, the issue of sex-role stereotype about administration was examined through a survey of social workers in one state. The analysis of data revealed that, in their descriptions of the good social work administrator, females held a greater preference for the male stereotype than did males. This female preference substantially explained the overall preference for the male stereotype over the female stereotype for the entire sample. The need for further examination of this female preference for the male stereotype about administration is discussed.

Burn-Out Among Social Work Professionals: A Behavioral Approach To Causal And Interventive Knowledge, Karen M. Sowers-Hoag, Bruce A. Thyer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Although the phenomenon of staff burn-out represents a significant problem for the effective administration and functioning of social service settings, there has been a general paucity of empirically based research on this issue. The staggering financial, personal and social costs associated with staff burn-out emphasize the fact that we can no longer accept the sole use of descriptive and correlational studies of the problem. This paper suggests refocusing our theoretical perspective of the problem of staff burn-out from an emphasis on the dispositional qualities of burnedout staff members, to examining the social and situational contingencies of reinforcement responsible for the …

Minimizing Stimulus-Reinforcer Contributions To Operant Latency, Mario Miguel Delgado Zambrano

Masters Theses

The present study involved two experiments using an unlighted food hopper. The first provided magazine training with the darkened hopper, followed by a test for autoshaping potential. The second, using birds that showed very little autoshaped behavior in the first experiment, and continuing to use the unlighted hopper, measured operant latencies in a Hesse (1984) discrete-trial multiple schedule using a two-key procedure for separating stimulus-reinforcer and response-reinforcer contributions. The objective here was to demonstrate latency differences between favorable and unfavorable schedule components, while limiting the possible confound of stimulus-reinforcer contributions as measured by initial stimulus-key responding.

Despite being unable to …

Recidivism Of 17-21 Year-Old Misdemeanants Participating In A Prosecution Diversion Program, Gerald D. Snodgrass

Dissertations

Criminal activity involving the youthful offender is a serious problem in law enforcement. The monetary considerations of processing a criminal case in the established criminal justice system are not declining. Youthful crime, like all forms of criminal activity, is a considerable drain on the resources of this country. The personal costs to the 17-21 year-old offender may include curtailment of employment opportunities, limited educational prospects, and the establishment of adverse life patterns, leading to further criminal involvement. The youthful offender who resorts to crime again and is arrested because of such criminal activity adds additional costs to the criminal justice …

An Analysis Of The Effects Of A Low Glycemic Diet On The Antisocial Behavior Of Juvenile Offenders, James Edward Longhurst

Dissertations

The objective of this study was to determine if a low glycemic diet contributes to a reduction in the incidence of antisocial behavior among male juvenile offenders.

One hundred forty juvenile offenders at a residential treatment center were randomly divided into treatment and nontreatment groups. The treatment group ate from a diet which contained foods low in glycemic characteristics. There was no dietary alteration for the control group.

Three instruments were used to measure differences between groups in antisocial behavior following a 5-week experimental period. These instruments include: (1) the Unusual Incident Report--a systematic and objective observer report form, (2) …

Power And Dependency In Close Heterosexual Relationships: A Test Of An Exchange Theory Hypothesis, Gregory L. Sanders

Masters Theses

Ninety-nine heterosexual couples were surveyed to test the exchange theory hypothesis that interpersonal power and relative dependency are inversely related in dyadic relationships. Controlling for gender, this hypothesis was examined through a path analysis for each of six groups: the overall population, dating couples, engaged couples, cohabiting couples, married couples, and couples treated as a single unit. Results indicate that males are reported as relatively more powerful than females, and this gender effect is found to increase with the permanence of the relationship. Relative dependency has effects on power which also vary according to the type of relationship. Self-reported "subjective …

A Comparison Of Retail Sales Performance Under Individual And Group Quota Systems, Karen Beth Bishop

Masters Theses

The research goal of this study was to determine if changing from an individual to a group quota system changed variability in sales performance. Data were collected within three branches of the company. Within subject and within group variances were calculated using salesclerk's sales figures. Three months of 1986 represented individual quota figures, while the same three months of 1987 represented group quota figures. Results of the within group variance found two departments had a variance decrease and one department had a variance increase. Cumulative sales for both systems found decreases in sales using the group quota system for two …

The Socializer, June 1987, Department Of Sociology

The Socializer

Volume 1, Number 26 of the Socializer, published June, 1987.

The Evolution Of Turkey's Foreign Policy: The Truman Doctrine And Turkey's Entry Into Nato, Sinan Toprak

Masters Theses

This thesis examines the historical development of Turkey's foreign policy up to the period immediately following World War II, and its decision to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

The study begins with a survey of Turkey's geopolitical importance. The narrative highlights political conditions from the Ottoman period to the years following World War II. Domestic political developments, as well as foreign relations of Turkey in the Republican period, are analyzed.

Turkey's current foreign policy was established during the initial years following World War II. The thesis discusses the reasons for the shift in Turkey's foreign policy, from peaceful …