Prompts,Not Questions: Four Techniques for Crafting Better Interview Protocols

Qualitative Sociology - We offer effective ways to write interview protocol “prompts” that are generative of the most critical types of information researchers wish to learn from...     

In Touch With People,not Paper: An Interview With Doug Sotheren

Doug Sotheren has been conducting well‐regarded training courses in relationship counseling for over 25 years, outside a university setting. In conversation with his former trainee Cathy Zervos, he presents his personal philosophy of counsellor training, emphasising the need for trainees to be ‘in touch with people’ rather than with theory. His whole course is experiential and based on the concept that training (including the way the co‐trainers handle their own relationship in front of the group) should model the counselling process itself. He talks about his way of selecting students, and his views on counselling students out of the course where necessary. A long‐serving member of the AAMFC and former editor of their newsletter, Sotheren praises the AAMFC for requiring demonstrated competence in its members.     

My Discipline is Better Than Your Discipline: Some Barriers to interdisciplinary Research*

Les frontières traditionnelles entre les champs du savoir se sont estompées au cours des dernières années. Le vent est à la collaboration étroite entre chercheurs de même persuasion et l'on accorde une importance croissante aux recherches que poursuivaient des équipes mixtes. Ces dernières tentative sont cependant en butte à bien des obstacles qu'il faudra vaincre avant que la recherche de caractère mixte atteigne sa majorité L'auteur fait état de quelques-uns de ces obstacles et suggère une méthode pour avoir raison d'eux.     

When Memory is Better for Out-group Faces: On Negative Emotions and Gender Roles

Memory for in-group faces tends to be better than memory for out-group faces. Ackerman et al. (Psychological Science 17:836–840, 2006) found that this effect reverses when male faces display anger, supposedly due to their functional value in signaling intergroup threat. We explored the generalizability of this reverse effect. White participants viewed Black and White male or female faces displaying angry, fearful, or neutral expressions. Recognition accuracy for White male faces was better than for Black male faces when faces were neutral, but this reversed when the faces displayed anger or fear. For female targets, Black faces were generally better recognized than White faces, and female faces were better remembered when they displayed anger rather than fear, whereas male faces were better remembered when they displayed fear rather than anger. These findings are difficult to reconcile with a functional account and suggest (a) that the processing of male out-group faces is influenced by negative emotional expressions in general; and (b) that gender role expectations lead to differential remembering of male and female faces as a function of emotional expression.     

Joint control and generalized nonidentity matching: Saying when something is Not

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior - This study investigated how the absence of a specified stimulus can control behavior. Four children were trained in nonidentity matching, and as a control, four...     

Helping Respondents Get It Right the First Time: The Influence of Words, Symbols, and Graphics in Web Surveys

We utilize and apply visual design theory to experimentallytest ways to improve the likelihood that web respondents reportdate answers in a particular format desired by the researcher,thus reducing possible deleterious effects of error messagesor requests for corrections. These experiments were embeddedin a series of web surveys of random samples of university students.We seek to examine the sequential and cumulative effects ofvisually manipulating the size and proximity of the answer spaces,the use of symbols instead of words, the verbal language ofthe question stem, and the graphical location of the symbolicinstruction. Our results show that the successive series ofvisual language manipulations improve respondents’ useof the desired format (two digits for the month and four digitsfor the year) from 45 percent to 96 percent. These results suggestthat writing effective questions for web surveys may dependas much or more on the presentation of the answer categories/spacesas the question wording itself.     

Love is Not All You Need: A Revolutionary Approach to Parental Abuse

This case story is a composite of similar family situations where the parents were at risk of harm from their teenage children and commonly the father/step‐father has moved out of home leaving the mother to parent the children on her own. Several of these cases involved physical threats to the lives of the parents. These referrals occurred in a Child, Adolescent and Family Mental Health Service and a Family Therapy NGO between 1985 and 2005. This approach is offered as a complement to the widely published ‘non‐violent resistance’ approach of Haim Omer and his colleagues. We hope it goes some way to address what Lavi‐Lavavi et al ( 2013 , Journal of Systemic Therapies, 32(4), 79–93). describe as ‘the mother's plight’:

The plight of the mother continues to present a major challenge… We are also seeking ways to allow the mother more breathing space, help her to disengage from abrasive conflicts, acknowledge her contribution and sacrifice, and provide her with vantage points that may help her recognize and enhance small improvements. Hopefully, these measures will enable women to evolve from unacknowledged victims to pillars of the family’ (p. 92).

     

One is Not Enough: Multiple Exemplars Facilitate Infants' Generalizations of Novel Properties

Across three experiments, we examined 9‐ and 11‐month‐olds' mappings of novel sound properties to novel animal categories. Infants were familiarized with novel animal–novel sound pairings (e.g., Animal A [red]–Sound 1) and then tested on: (1) their acquisition of the original pairing and (2) their generalization of the sound property to a new member of a familiarized category (e.g., Animal A [blue]–Sound 1). When familiarized with a single exemplar of a category, 11‐month‐olds showed no evidence of acquiring or generalizing the animal–sound pairings. In contrast, 11‐month‐olds learnt the original animal–sound mappings and generalized the sound property to a novel member of that category when familiarized with multiple exemplars of a category. Finally, when familiarized with multiple exemplars, 9‐month‐old infants learnt the original animal–sound pairing, but did not extend the novel sound property. The results of these experiments provide evidence for developmental differences in the facilitative role of multiple exemplars in promoting the learning and generalization of information.     

In Search of a Better Life: The Experiences of Working Poor Immigrants in Vancouver,Canada

We utilized data from 72 in‐depth interviews with immigrant hotel and hospital support workers employed in the service sector of Vancouver, Canada to analyse migration decisions and subsequent experiences after arrival. We found that migrant social networks were centrally important, both as a stimulus for migration and in shaping post‐arrival experiences. At the same time, the working conditions faced by immigrants after arrival, such as low pay and long work hours, resulted in serious challenges. While some struggled with multiple jobs to make ends meet, others felt their economic circumstances prevented them from even bringing their children to Canada. In some cases, children were returned to their country of origin. Features of low‐wage service sector jobs also limited the time available for participation in community life. The findings both support and advance recent theoretical contributions about the incorporation of immigrants in the United States and Canada. As immigrants frequently face occupational downgrading and are channelled into low‐wage service sector jobs, the conditions of work and social policies are important for their post‐arrival experiences and incorporation. Going beyond traditional conceptions of citizenship in the immigration literature, some respondents acted through their union and community organizations to attempt to change society and improve their fortunes. While some sought social justice through political activism, others used their limited family and community life time to reterritorialize values from their countries of origin. Part of their activism was transnational, such as sending remittances to help loved ones back home, but other involvement included participation in organizations with the aim of promoting social justice or improving life in their new country. The experiences of immigrant service sector workers in Vancouver suggest a need for greater emphasis on the role of both immigrant and non‐immigrant specific social and labour policies for understanding immigrant incorporation in North America.     

Two is Better than One: Use of Behavioral Techniques within a Structural Family Therapy Model

This paper encourages the combination of behavioral and family therapeutic techniques within the family context. The approach discussed is most helpful during the beginning to intermediate stages of family therapy and serves to provide the therapist with the necessary leverage to allow for effective intervention and change. Three case histories are presented to illustrate the techniques discussed     

Imagining is Not Observing: The Role of Simulation Processes Within the Mimicry-Liking Expressway

Journal of Nonverbal Behavior - Individuals automatically mimic a wide range of different behaviors, and such mimicking behavior has several social benefits. One of the landmark findings in the...     

That's Not Fair!: The Social Construction of Organizational (In)Justice among Professionals

Building on the work of organizational justice researchers, this research is an attempt to come to a greater understanding of the social construction of perceived injustice among professionals employed in large, bureaucratic organizational structures. It suggests that professional employees experience a perceived injustice in an organizational workplace outcome, procedure, or interaction when a likely, positive, and valued expectation has been violated or unfulfilled. These expectations are socially constructed from various organizational "stocks of knowledge" available to professionals. These include: (1) organizational cultural norms; (2) professional occupational subcultural norms; and (3) employee prior work experiences. The research suggests that in instances of perceived injustices in organizational outcomes, professionals'expectations are primarily rooted in organizational cultural norms for the allocation of such outcomes. In instances of perceived injustices in organizational procedures, professionals'expectations are primarily rooted in prior work experiences surrounding such procedures and processes, while in instances of perceived injustices in organizational interactions, professionals'expectations are primarily rooted in professional occupational subcultural norms surrounding such interactions.     

The issue is human quality: In praise of children

This essay is based on the premise that quality in human life is inseparably linked to the well-being of children. In this view, the well-being of children is both the principal challenge faced by a modern society and the principal focal point tor a society “bound to move away from ‘growth’ defined as quantitative product irrespective of what and whom it is for.” Children and their needs provide an anchoring point for adult relationships that is “labor intensive” and intrinsically satisfying when set within a social context rich in enduring, reciprocal interpersonal relationships. The principal threats to the quality of social life are trends toward universalistic rather than particularistic systems for evaluating individuals, and materialistic rather than social criteria for evaluating productivity. Both these trends threaten childrearing as a valued activity. Both emphasize the “hurdensomeness” of children. Large schools and socially isolated families are the contexts in which these two trends find their most dangerous expression. A sustainable society requires a pro-family orientation if it is to meet the needs of children and thus provide for the fundamental psychic needs of adults. A variety of implications for individual action and social planning are derived from this discussion. These implications include the need to preserve and restore socially strong neighborhoods, reduce school size, and conduct “family impact analysis” as a basis for guiding decisions in the public and private sectors.     

Scissors, Surveys, And Psycho-Prophylactics: Prenatal Health Care Campaigns And State Building In China, 1949–1954

This paper examines how the Chinese state's prenatal health care campaigns of the early 1950s attempted to redefine women's social and political roles. The replacement of local midwifing practices with a uniform birthing method in order to radically reduce infant and mother mortality entailed complex ramifications regarding the relationship of women vis-a-vis the state. Campaigns involved demonizing "traditional" midwifing, promoting a statistical vision of female reproductivity and children as national resources, and the isolation of individual mothers as directly responsible to the state for managing reproduction for the national interest. In sum, a physiological definition of gender was used to open women's bodies to state management. Utopic visions of painless childbirth and of the socialist nation as a giant new family were used to promote participation in grassroots campaigns, but the sources also point to forms of local resistance to the micro-level reorganization of power these campaigns intended.     

Not all luck is created equal: Sources of income inequality and willingness to redistribute

Despite steadily rising inequality in the US over the last few decades, demand for increasing tax rates and redistribution has not increased. A growing literature argues that one reason for this is that people might perceive inequality to be fair. This literature has documented that Americans tend to perceive economic inequality stemming from merit as being fair and inequality stemming from luck as unfair. However, “lucky breaks” in the real world do not necessarily come from a lottery or random chance but from the actions of the government favoring a “lucky” few. People might be more willing to redistribute if it compensates those negatively affected by government action. Using an online experiment we show that luck stemming from the action of a government-like actor influences individuals’ desire to redistribute earnings making them more likely to favor redistribution than in instances where inequality is caused by merit or by random luck.     

My Home is Not My Castle: Follow-Up of Residents of Shelters for Homeless Youth

The paper presents a follow-up evaluation of Israel’s first two shelters for homeless youth. The main research questions were: (a) Did the youngsters achieve the shelters’ main goal of reaching a normative and suitable post-shelter residence? (b) How do the youngsters evaluate their stay at the shelter and its impact on them? (c) Is there a relationship between youngsters’ post-shelter residence and their evaluation of the shelter stay? Data on 345 youngsters were collected through follow-up telephone interviews with the youngsters, their parents, and community social workers. The findings indicate that the majority of these youngsters left the shelter to living arrangements that were normative but not necessarily fitting with their wishes and needs. Most of the youngsters were satisfied with the shelter, but no relationship was found between general satisfaction and achievement of the shelters’ declared goal. The discussion focuses on the significance of the findings with regard to the declared and operative goals of shelters.     

“What Happens at Home Does Not Necessarily Stay at Home”: The Relationship of Observed Negative Couple Interaction With Physical Health,Mental Health,and Work Satisfaction

Using data from a sample of 281 couples (the Flourishing Families data set), the authors tested a systemic theoretical model that examined the relationship among observed marital interaction, physical and mental health, and work satisfaction. The results showed that negative marital interaction was associated with significantly lower work satisfaction and poorer health for men. Higher negative marital interaction scores were significantly related to elevated depression scores for both women and men. For both men and women, negative couple interaction was associated with work satisfaction through depression and health. Overall, 34% of the variance in work satisfaction for men and 24% for the women was explained by the model. The results suggest that marriage‐to‐work spillover can be costly for families, organizations, and governments.     

It's Not as Simple as It Seems: Ambiguous Culpability and Ambivalent Affect In News Representations of Violent Youth

While violence problems are a staple of both the mass media and work by constructionist social problems theorists, most of the latter has focused on violent adults. Constructionist research suggests that the media depict violent persons as evil victimizers, deserving of fear and condemnation, and their victims as deserving of sympathy. This article extends the constructionist literature on violence problems by examining news stories that construct youth violence as a social problem. My findings suggest that these media constructions are considerably more complex than previous work has claimed. Specifically, I find that the media (a) contextualize youth violence by casting extant, familiar social problems as its origins and (b) engender an ambiguous sense of culpability and ambivalent emotional orientations toward violent youth. This complexity is shaped, in part, by the media's appropriation of two seemingly contradictory cultural discourses—the evil, violent predator and the innocent child. I suggest that although aspects of these findings may be specific to the problem of violent youth, the contextualization, ambiguity, and ambivalence may well be found in social constructions of a variety of other problems.