Counselors' Beliefs About Ritual Abuse: An Australian Study

ABSTRACT

This study compares the beliefs held by Center Against Sexual Assault (CASA) workers, psychiatrists, and psychologists about ritual abuse. These beliefs were examined across a number of dimensions, of which five are discussed here: definitions of ritual abuse; number of cases identified between 1985–95; belief of client statements; religious beliefs; and training in therapy for sexual assault. In spite of the literature indicating broad disagreement with the definition of ritual abuse in other studies, results indicate 70% of all counselors agreed with a single definition of ritual abuse, and 85% agreed that ritual abuse was an indication of genuine trauma. There were 153 cases of ritual abuse identified by counselors between 1985-1995. Not one of these counselors believed that any of the claims made by their clients were intentionally fabricated. Overall, the CASA workers were much more likely to believe their client's ritual abuse and marginally more likely to identify ritual abuse cases than other therapists. Religious beliefs had no relationship to the identification of ritual abuse. Training in recognition and treatment of sexual abuse was significantly positively related to the identification of ritual abuse cases.     

Development of the Drake Beliefs about Chance Inventory

The present research describes the development and validation of a cognitive assessment instrument, the Drake Beliefs about Chance (DBC) inventory, designed to determine and quantify erroneous beliefs about games of chance. Principal components analyses showed that the DBC assesses two primary dimensions, Illusion of Control and Superstition. Correlation analyses showed that scores on these two dimensions are related to higher frequency of gambling behaviors in both adults from the general population and clients from gambling treatment centers. Of the two sets of erroneous beliefs, Illusion of Control was a better predictor of gambling than Superstition. This investigation provides additional evidence that participants in games of chance such as casino gamblers possess certain classes of erroneous beliefs regarding the games they play.     

An Exploratory Examination of Students' Family Policy Beliefs

Abstract

Family policy is coming to be recognized as an important component of programs focusing on family issues. As political leaders continue to engage in debates about family issues and family service professionals report spending more time on policy issues within their professional practice, attention to policy issues has become more important in the education of students in family courses. Because of the increasing presence of public policy study within the family studies curricula, it is important to consider students' policy perceptions and experiences as they enter family policy classes. Argued here is that students are more likely to become engaged with family policy topics that are timely and meaningful to them. This research examines student perceptions of various policy topics and issues in an attempt to better design courses with family policy content.     

Public Beliefs About the Beliefs of the Public

Perceptions of the opinions of others are examined on a varietyof issues using data from three sample surveys of metropolitanDetroit. A greal deal of inaccuracy in such perception is evident.Three broad tendencies or patterns can be discerned: "lookingglass perceptions," the general propensity to believe that others'opinions are the same as one's own; "conservative bias," thebelief that the population is more conservative on racial issuesthan it actually is; and limited response to reality constraints.The overall findings suggest that perceptions of public beliefsand attitudes are personally and socially constructed to a muchlarger degree than is often assumed.     

Beliefs About Gambling Problems and Recovery: Results from a General Population Telephone Survey

Respondents were asked their beliefs about gambling abuse as part of a general population telephone survey. The random digit dialing survey consisted of 8,467 interviews of adults, 18 years and older, from Ontario, Canada (45% male; mean age = 46.2). The predominant conception of gambling abuse was that of an addiction, similar to drug addiction. More than half of respondents reported that treatment was necessary and almost three-quarters of respondents felt that problem gamblers would have to give up gambling completely in order to overcome their gambling problem. Problem gamblers (past or current) were less likely than non- or social gamblers to believe that treatment was needed, and current problem gamblers were least likely to believe that abstinence was required, as compared to all other respondents. Strong agreement with conceptions of gambling abuse as disease or addiction were positively associated with belief that treatment is needed, while strong agreement with conceptions of disease or wrongdoing were positively associated with belief that abstinence is required.     

Intergenerational Support and Marital Satisfaction: Implications of Beliefs About Helping Aging Parents

Everyday support given to aging parents is a salient aspect of married life that may have implications for marital quality. Among 132 middle‐aged couples drawn from Wave 1 of the Family Exchanges Study, the authors examined the moderating effects of each spouse's normative and motivational beliefs about helping parents on associations between the frequency of everyday support that wives and husbands gave to their own parents and marital satisfaction. Husbands' more frequent provision of support was linked to wives' greater marital satisfaction when reports of personal rewards linked to helping parents were high for wives or low for husbands. Conversely, wives' more frequent provision of support was linked to husbands' lower marital satisfaction when reports of filial obligation were low for husbands or high for wives. Findings highlight the interdependence within couples and indicate that both spouses' perceptions are important in understanding linkages between intergenerational support and marital satisfaction.     

"我晒故我在":移动传播时代的青年游客凝视与自我建构

随着视觉技术的发展,旅行摄影成为了游客凝视自然或人文风景区的有形化与具体化实践.通过对20位青年旅行者的深度访谈,发现游客通过将风景转化成照片,使旅游的瞬时体验成为了永恒的收藏,而社交媒体的发展导致了游客凝视的进一步转向.一方面,受访者希望将旅行中的个人体验在社交媒体上分享以形塑关系自我、改善人际关系,并通过良好的线上互动行为进一步激发创作与分享的热情;另一方面,受访者会因为群体压力,通过设置分组等方式来隐藏旅游中的"集体自我".     

Conflicting or Compatible: Beliefs About Religion and Science Among Emerging Adults in the United States1

A wide‐held assumption is that increased religiousness is associated with stronger perceptions of a conflict between religion and science. This article examines this assumption using four distinct questions asked on the third wave of the National Study of Youth and Religion (NSYR). Results indicate a variety of viewpoints for constructing the relationship between science and religion, rather than a simple conflict‐compatibility continuum. Further, findings suggest that increased religiousness among emerging adults is associated with a stronger agreement in science and religion’s compatibility, rather than conflict. Incorporating New Age or non‐Western spiritual tradition and a strict adherence to fundamentalist Christian doctrine are associated with complex configurations of beliefs on the relationship between religion and science. Collectively, the findings among emerging adults contradict traditional assumptions about how religious experiences influence beliefs, suggesting that such social factors may influence beliefs and attitudes uniquely at different points in the lifecourse or across generations. More broadly, the findings speak to the ongoing debate about the extent to which differing social experiences may produce consistent or discordant sets of beliefs and values, and in turn how particular configurations may impact strategies of action across a range of life domains.     

Rumor: An Examination of Some Stereotypes

Third in Symbolic Interaction's symposium tribute to Tamotsu (Tom) Shibutani (1920–2004), this article pays homage to Shibutani's work on rumor. In his book, Improvised News, Shibutani introduced a grounded theory of rumor that was a radical break from the dominant approach of the time. This break was based on the observation that rumor is not a deviant act, but rather the routine social act of defining ambiguous but important situations. Implicit in his work is a critique of rumor stereotypes including the notion that those involved in rumoring are highly suggestible, irrational, and dangerous; that rumors are inaccurate, distorted, and exaggerated; and that rumors threaten the social order. The article concludes by challenging assumptions about the spread of rumor and that rumors are single, stand‐alone statements.     

Toward a Sociology of the Person

This paper proposes a sociology of the person that focuses upon the socially defined, publicly visible beings of intersubjective experience. I argue that the sociology of the person proposed by Durkheim and Mauss is more accurately described as a sociology of institutions of the person and neglects both folk or ethnopsychologies of personhood and the interactional production of persons. I draw upon the work of Goffman to develop a sociology of the person concerned with means, processes, and relations of person production. I also propose that the work of Goffman, Foucault, and others provides insights into the contemporary technology of person production and into how its control and use affects relations of person production. I conclude with a brief outline of the theoretical connections among institutions of the person, folk psychologies, the social constitution of the person, and the prospect of a distinctively sociological psychology.     

Imputing Beliefs: a Controversy in the Sociology of Knowledge1

The problem of imputation - how to ascribe ideas and beliefs to groups, or to individuals on the basis of their group membership - has occasionally occupied the attention of those working in the sociology of knowledge. This article offers a critical discussion of this debate. It is argued that the various proposed solutions - idealist, empiricist, and structuralist - do not adequately tackle the problem since each assumes a deterministic model of sociological explanation, and adheres to a dualism of actor versus structure. We suggest that a theory of group formation informed by a social action perspective may offer some pointers towards taking such issues beyond self-sustaining debate between sociological idealism and objectivism.     

An Examination of the Construct of Homophobia

Abstract

Despite mounting debate as to its accuracy, the term homophobia continues to serve as the primary label associated with anti-homosexual responses. Logan's (1996) study demonstrated that homoprejudice is a more valid way to characterize such responses in college students. The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of anti-homosexual responses in a diverse adult population. Findings indicated support for Logan's hypothesis, demonstrating that anti-homosexual responses are better characterized as a form of prejudice than as a phobia. Further, results also indicated that individuals are less tolerant of gay men than lesbians, and that racial minorities are less tolerant than their white counterparts. The implications of these findings as well as those associated with a change in terminology from homophobia to homoprejudice are discussed. Areas of further research are also identified.     

Prisonization and its Consequences: An Examination of Socialization in a Coercive Setting

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to outline and assess the utility of a model capable of accounting for several consequences of confinement. Toward that end an attempt is made to integrate several variables emphasized by the two basic paradigms which have been advanced to account for patterns of assimilation into the inmate society, the “deprivation model” and the “importation model,” into a model that draws heavily on the logic of Etzioni's compliance theory.

The findings, which are based on an analysis of data obtained from a sample of 276 inmates confined in a maximum security penitentiary, provide substantial support for the theoretical expectations. Specifically, two measures of assimilation into the inmate society, degree of prisonization and type of social role adaptation, are shown to be related to several indicators of preprison experience, prison-specific influences, and the quality of post-release expectations. These two assimilation variables, in turn, are shown to be strongly associated with variables which imply that coercive organizations of the type represented by prisons are most unlikely to attain any rehabilitative goals. To the contrary, they seem far more likely to stimulate changes that are predictive of postrelease reinvolvement in criminality.     

Problem Gambling in Adolescents: An Examination of the Pathways Model

This research tests the applicability of the Integrated Pathways Model for gambling to adolescent problem gamblers, utilizing a cross-sectional design and self-report questionnaires. Although the overall sample consisted of 1,133 adolescents (Quebec: n = 994, 87.7 %; Ontario: n = 139, 12.3 %: Male = 558, 49.5 %; Female = 569, 50.5 %), only problem gamblers were retained in testing the model (N = 109). Personality and clinical features were assessed using the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory, attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD) using the Conners–Wells’ Adolescent Self-Report Scale, and the DSM-IV-MR-J and Gambling Activities Questionnaire to determine gambling severity and reasons for gambling. Latent class analysis concluded 5 classes, yet still provided preliminary support for three distinct subgroups similar to those proposed by the Pathways Model, adding a depression only subtype, and a subtype of problem gamblers experiencing both internalizing and externalizing disorders. ADHD symptoms were found to be common to 4 of the 5 classes.     

The Implicit Curriculum Survey: An Examination of the Psychometric Properties

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Implicit Curriculum Survey (ICS) using an exploratory factor analysis (EFA). Students enrolled in four different MSW programs (N=262) from different geographic locations completed the ICS, which is a Web-based survey. The domains of the ICS include field, academics, community, diversity, faculty advising, and support services. The ICS includes quantitative and qualitative responses. However, for this study only the quantitative results were used. The EFA revealed that for each of the subscales, Cronbach’s alphas ranged from .52 to .90 and validity of the ICS was demonstrated through the good model fits found during the factor analysis. Implications for social work education and future research are discussed.     

Public Opinion du Jour: An Examination of the Spiral of Silence

This study investigates the spiral of silence theory using perceivedvote outcomes as well as actual vote behaviors. The first majorhypothesis—that those who see their position as gainingsupport will be more likely to discuss while those who see theirposition as losing support will be less likely to discuss—wassupported by the data. Some support was also found for the hypothesisthat individuals perceiving support for a certain candidatewould be more likely to express a preference for the candidate.Results also seemed to justify the Noelle-Neumann distinctionbetween the resistant hardcore and other types of citizens.The relative independence of perception of opinion judgmentsfrom own preferences also was investigated and support was foundfor this difference.     

Juvenile Offender Recidivism: An Examination of Risk Factors

One hundred and seventy three male juvenile offenders were followed two years postrelease from a residential treatment facility to assess recidivism and factors related to recidivism. The overall recidivism rate was 23.9%. Logistic regression with stepwise and backward variable selection methods was used to examine the relationship between recidivism and nine specific variables: offense type, age at initial involvement in juvenile justice, child welfare system involvement, termination of parental rights, parental criminal history, family support, program completion status, length of treatment stay, and discharge placement. Offender type was the only factor found to have a significant impact on recidivism with general and substance-involved offenders more likely to recidivate than sex offenders. Implications for future research are discussed.