Between badness and sickness: Reconsidering medicalization for high risk children and youth

Most of the sociological literature about “troubling” children and youth focuses on how the scientific authority of medical experts, with a discourse of sickness, has come to displace the moral authority of justice enforcement officials and their rhetoric of badness as arbiters of childhood pathology. Yet my experience working with high-risk children and youth during a post-MSW fellowship strongly suggests that discourses of badness have not supplanted discourses of sickness. Indeed, these discourses remain deeply intertwined with implications for the way we conceptualize troubling children and youth, for the treatment we prescribe, and for how children and youth understand themselves. Discussing two composite cases to illustrate how negotiations of badness and sickness unfold, I argue that shifts in attributions of badness and sickness follow predictable patterns generally occurring in response to: (1) changes in the context (whether the child is at home, school, or in a treatment setting); (2) changes in an actor's interests or role (parents may attribute troubling behaviors as badness at home but frame them as sickness with people outside the family); and/or (3) changes in external structures of time (e.g. the end of the school year or the end of a Medicaid authorization). In conclusion, I consider the implications of partial medicalization and these patterns of narrative negotiations for future research and practice.     

Between reforms and birth rates: Germany, Japan, and family policy discourse

This paper examines the development of employment-oriented family policy in Germany and Japan, two countries united by conservative welfare legacies and very low birthrates, through a close analysis of discourse. Why have recent reforms in Germany moved well beyond those in Japan despite remarkably similar “human capital” discourses? The relative strength of interpretative patterns—in this case, discursive patterns that successfully frame family policy reform as an economic imperative—and the role of employers are identified as critical explanatory factors. Further comparative attention is called to the role of the state as a guarantor of new family policy entitlements.     

“Right to the City” and the Structure of Civic Organizational Fields: Evidence from Cape Town

This article proposes a network analytic approach to the role of frames in shaping the structure of civic organizational fields. Adopting a perspective from the global South, it looks at the impact of the expression “Right to the city” (RTC) over alliance building among civil society actors, exploring patterns of collaborative ties among 129 civil society organizations active in Cape Town from 2012 to 2014. The article addresses two broad questions: What is the relation between RTC and other frames that are also frequently invoked to describe urban struggles and issues? Does the RTC frame affect the structure of urban civic organizational fields in significant ways? Data suggest that while RTC plays a significant role in local civil society, it is neither the only interpretative frame that Capetonian civic organizations draw upon to characterize their activity, nor the more salient. “Urban conservation,” especially tied to nature conservation and environmental issues, actually shapes the structure of local organizational fields in a sharper manner. This is, however, a potentially more divisive frame, rooted as it is in the apartheid legacy that still shapes urban dynamics in the city.     

Process‐Oriented Sampling

Using the concepts of “duration” and “temporal patterns,” this paper discusses how key steps during sampling change, if researchers take temporality seriously: When defining cases, scholars have to select a suitable temporal scale and reflect on possible changes of boundaries and properties of cases. When defining the population or field, researchers need to set an appropriate time frame and define periods within this time frame to be analyzed. When selecting the actual cases for analysis, researchers have to choose an appropriate sampling procedure, decide upon relevant periods of analysis as well as the number of points in time to be analyzed.     

Framing Chinese civil actors: earthquake relief and unintended consequences for media coverage

In 2008, the participation of NGOs in disaster relief during and after a severe earthquake attracted public attention and extensive media coverage. This study analyzes how mainstream Chinese news media framed NGOs in 2008. The findings suggest that after the earthquake, not only did the amount of media coverage about Chinese NGOs increase but also the patterns of coverage changed. Furthermore, the Chinese party media and market-oriented media demonstrated different coverage patterns. The party media tended to frame the contributions of NGOs as dependent on governmental leadership and downplayed their role in disaster relief to one of support. The market-oriented media increasingly covered NGOs from multiple angles and depicted them as service providers, decision makers, and resource mobilizers.     

On the prevalence of framing effects across subject-pools in a two-person cooperation game

In this experimental study, involving subjects from Abu-Dis (West Bank), Chengdu (China), Helsinki (Finland), and Jerusalem (Israel), we test for a presentation bias in a two-person cooperation game. In the positive frame of the game, a transfer creates a positive externality for the opposite player, and in the negative frame, a negative one. Subjects in Abu-Dis and Chengdu show a substantially higher cooperation level in the positive externality treatment. In Helsinki and Jerusalem, no framing effect is observed. These findings are also reflected in associated first-order beliefs. We argue that comparisons across subject-pools might lead to only partially meaningful and opposed conclusions if only one treatment condition is evaluated. We therefore suggest a complementary application and consideration of different presentations of identical decision problems within (cross-cultural) research on subject-pool differences.     

Losing Ann: Countertransference Aspects of Altering the Frame with a Long Term Patient Facing Atypical Dementia

This paper chronicles the journey of a long term, suicidally depressed patient’s struggle of growth and survival, only to be struck down by a form of Dementia: Lewy Body Disorder. Focus of the paper highlights the myriad complications and struggles that developed in the countertransference as therapist, patient, family, and medical caregivers, try to ascertain: What is psychological and regressive? What is neuro-degenerative? How can the therapist cope with this confusion while maintaining the frame? The paper highlights how the frame as we know it, is altered to meet the medical and psychological crisis presented and how that alteration impacts the treatment and the therapist’s changing perception of what the work is about.     

Constructivist self-development theory: a theoretical framework for assessing and treating traumatized college students.

The authors present a new conceptual framework for assessing and treating traumatized college students. The framework, constructivist self-development theory (CSDT), blends object relations, self-psychology, and social cognition theories. It is founded upon a constructivist view of trauma in which the individual's unique history shapes his or her experience of traumatic events and defines the adaptation to trauma. Within this theory, the authors suggest approaches to setting the frame for trauma therapy, including stabilizing acute symptoms and setting appropriate expectations for treatment. CSDT provides a framework for the systematic assessment and practical treatment of three aspects of the self that are affected by trauma. These include self-capacities, or the ability to tolerate strong affect and regulate self-esteem; cognitive schemas, or beliefs and expectations about self and others in the areas of frame of reference (or identity and world view), safety, trust, esteem, intimacy, power, and independence; and intrusive trauma memories and related distressing affect. Finally, the authors provide guidelines for assessing the need for longer term treatment.     

Taking Tilly south: durable inequalities, democratic contestation, and citizenship in the Southern Metropolis

Drawing on Charles Tilly’s work on inequality, democracy and cities, we explore the local level dynamics of democratization across urban settings in India, South Africa, and Brazil. In all three cases, democratic institutions are consolidated, but there is tremendous variation in the quality of the democratic relationship between cities and their citizens. We follow Tilly’s focus on citizenship as the key element in democratization and argue that explaining variance across our three cases calls for analyzing patterns of inequality through the kind of relational lens used by Tilly and recognizing that patterns of contestation are shaped by shifting political relationships between the nation and the city. We conclude that Tilly’s theoretical frame is nicely sustained by the comparative analysis of cases very different from those that stimulated his original formulations.     

Climbing the Family Tree: Working with Genograms

The genogram is a practical and widely adopted tool for mapping families in therapy. Its use can be easily learnt and is recommended for beginners in family therapy. The genogram promotes thinking In system and transactional terms, and shifts emphasis away from individual problems to relational issues. A family system can be given a visual focus, and this often reveals patterns and connections previously unnoticed. A set of conventions for constructing genograms is suggested, with ways of elaborating on this basic frame. The applications of the genogram in joining families, in planning interventions, as a clinical communication medium, and in learning family therapy are discussed. Other types of network diagrams are briefly listed, and a clinical example of a genogram is given. Finally, limits and cautions on the use of genograms are discussed.     

Orderly mixing and accommodation in South African codeswitching

'Mixed Language,' a characteristic pattern of language use among African township residents in South Africa, may well include words or full constituents from several languages. However, from both a structural and a social perspective, such speech has a systematic nature. In reference to grammatical structure, within any CP (projection of COMP) showing codeswitching, only one language (the Matrix Language) provides the grammatical frame in the data studied. Also, while speakers from different educational levels engage in codeswitching with similar frequencies, the types of codeswitched constitutents they prefer are different. In reference to the social use of language, we argue that specific patterns of codeswitching indicate how language is both an index of identity and a tool of communication in South Africa. In the codeswitching patterns they use, speakers exhibit strong loyalty to their own first languages. Yet, because they recognize that codeswitching facilitates communication with members of other ethnic groups, they use a number of codeswitching strategies as a means of accommodating to their addressees and simultaneously as a means of projecting multiple identities for themselves.     

Stories of strangers: Writing donor acquisition letters in the human services

This study explores the choices fundraisers make in crafting letters to acquire new donors for a human services organization, and whether the type of client served affects those choices. We use an experiment to control for organizational differences, and code the resulting letters written for elements identified in theory and practice, then perform an exploratory factor analysis to find patterns of co‐occurring variables. Writers tended to focus either on the quality of the organization or the unmet need in the community, but not both. Two of the factors, Universalism and Security, describe distinct personal value constructs that may reflect the preferences of the writer or the presumed preferences of the reader. Compared to participants writing for an older adult client base, participants writing for clients with mental illness were less likely to use a negative frame, more likely to use statistical evidence, and used lower expectations in describing successful client outcomes. Within letters, clients were described using three patterns: by describing a stranger who is worth helping because of intrinsic attributes; by describing a stranger who is worth helping because of their relationships within the social order; by describing the client group using facts and statistics, rather than an emotionally compelling story narrative.     

Telephone surveys under different frame constructions—evaluating differences in estimates,precision, and cost

Dual-frame, random-digit-dialing (DFRDD) surveys, using a frame of landline telephone numbers and a frame of cell phone numbers, have become the norm for telephone surveys. Two alternative frame constructions sample exclusively from a cell phone frame, referred to as the ‘single-frame cell,’ and sample from the listed landline frame and the cell phone frame, referred to as ‘listed/cell.’ The listed/cell frame construction differs from the DFRDD in that it does not select unlisted-landline frame members. We observe in our simulated data that the listed/cell frame construction results in estimates that more closely approximate the estimates from DFRDD compared with the single-frame cell, results in an improvement in precision compared with the DFRDD that is not as large as the improvement in the single-frame cell, and has lower cost than both the DFRDD and the single-frame cell. We conclude that a listed/cell frame construction might be a better solution than either a DFRDD or single-frame cell frame construction.     

Mitchell's Relational Conflict Model: An Analysis of Its Usefulness in Clinical Social Work

This article examines the relational conflict model developed by Stephen A. Mitchell. The main concepts of Mitchell's relational conflict model are discussed, particularly early patterns of connection to parental figures and the interactive treatment approach to understanding and changing those relational patterns. The model is contrasted with classical drive and developmental arrest theories in the psychodynamic treatment of psychopathology. We explain how Mitchell's model, in keeping with a social work perspective, takes into consideration the social, cultural, and environmental factors as well as the intrapsychic. We discuss how patterns of relating are reworked throughout the life course, and we explore the potential for individual agency in constructing new patterns of relating. We also highlight the social constructivist aspects of Mitchell's approach which are congruent with current contemporary trends in social work theory. A case vignette is presented to illustrate the viability of this model for clinical social work practice.     

Collective and Reflexive Styles of Volunteering: A Sociological Modernization Perspective

This paper presents a theory-guided examination of the (changing) nature of volunteering through the lens of sociological modernization theories. Existing accounts of qualitative changes in motivational bases and patterns of volunteering are interpreted against the background of broader, modernization-driven social-structural transformations. It is argued that volunteer involvement should be qualified as a biographically embedded reality, and a new analytical framework of collective and reflexive styles of volunteering is constructed along the lines of the ideal-typical biographical models that are delineated by modernization theorists. Styles of volunteering are understood as essentially multidimensional, multiform, and multilevel in nature. Both structural-behavioral and motivational-attitudinal volunteering features are explored along the lines of six different dimensions: the biographical frame of reference, the motivational structure, the course and intensity of commitment, the organizational environment, the choice of (field of) activity, and the relation to paid work.     

Practical-Moral Knowledge: The Social Organization of Regulatory Processes in Academic Contexts

In this article, we developed a theoretical frame to analyze how practical-moral knowledge structures the regulatory processes of learning to control and direct behavior during literacy lessons in two elementary classrooms. We describe how regulatory behaviors were congruent with the local social and moral order, constituents of practical-moral knowledge. Variance in the practical-moral knowledge of each classroom revealed two different patterns of regulation: (a) a toggle or shift from other-regulation to self-regulation, with an emphasis on other-regulation and (b) a dynamic pattern of fluid shifts between other-regulation, coregulation, and self-regulation, with an emphasis on coregulation. We argue that regulatory processes do not originate within the individual but rather in and through learning practices.     

The Process of Cognitive Liberation: Cultural Synapses,Links, and Frame Contradictions in the U.S.-Central America Peace Movement*

Based upon qualitative interviews with thirty-two Central American peace activists, this article elaborates the process of “cognitive liberation” through the application of frame analysis. In addition, I seek to explain the diffusion of this social-psychological state from Central to North America. Attention is given to the role of the church as a common cultural link that functioned as a micro-mobilizing context, which provided missionaries who served as “meso-mobilizing actors.” The term frame contradictions is introduced to specify the condition in which irreconcilable differences between a movement's frame and its opponent's frame are exposed, thereby facilitating frame adoption. I conclude that some type of cultural link is necessary for the development of a common frame that can integrate groups cross-nationally and that can provide agents of mobilization to serve as a synapse through which frames can be transmitted from one country to another.     

The Dynamics,Implications and Treatment of Extramarital Sexual Relationships for the Family Therapist*

This article presents the dynamics, implications and treatment of extramarital sex. Historical and cultural perspectives, various types of infidelity experiences and family therapy implications will be discussed. Marital styles will be outlined as a frame of reference in understanding the topic and the importance of symptom generation vis-a-vis infidelity. Finally, specific recommendations for treatment and a brief consideration of extramarital relationships as a healthy alternative marital style will be offered.     

The Clergyman and the Psychologist as Marriage Counselors: Differences in Philosophy,Referral Patterns and Treatment Approaches to Non-Marital Relationships*

This paper reflects the thoughts, observations and clinical experiences of the authors and two dozen of their colleagues in treating people involved in an assortment of non-marital sexual relationships. The scant existing literature is alluded to when pertinent. Ten types of non-married couple and group sex patterns and four special kinds of relationships that are of particular interest to therapists and to which they might find themselves peculiarly susceptible are described. Similarities between the philosophies, treatment approaches and referral patterns to psychologists and clergymen are elucidated; major differences are highlighted. One conclusion is that there is a need for much research into what constitutes effective treatment for people living alternate lifestyles to monogamous unions.     

Gambling Screens: Does Shortening the Time Frame Affect their Psychometric Properties?

Gambling screening tools such as the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS) and a DSM-IV Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) developed by the National Opinion Research Council have psychometrically validated lifetime and past-year versions. As research questions often dictate shorter time intervals, researchers have adapted the time frames of these instruments to their specific purposes without examining whether changing the time frame affects the psychometric properties. In this study, 3-month versions of SOGS and NODS were administered to a sample of 80 pathological gamblers (59 men, 21 women, mean age 44) seeking treatment at a state-funded facility. The 3-months versions had good internal consistency, good convergent validity with each other, with gambling behaviors assessed via the timeline followback method, and with measures of impulsivity. The 3-month versions also showed good discriminant validity with demographic variables and a measure of verbal IQ. Together the data indicate that shortening the time frame to 3 months does not seem to have adverse effects on the psychometric properties of SOGS and NODS. Thus these adapted versions could profitably be used for shorter time intervals, including as pre/post-treatment and follow-up measures in treatment outcome studies.