Challenging Professional Roles: Lay Carers' Involvement in Health Care in the Community

The bulk of care in the community is carried out by lay carers. Recent policy initiatives to support them in the United Kingdom are outlined. There remains evidence of significant gaps in support from professional health and social‐care workers including community nurses. This paper reports three studies of lay carers: those caring for older people, carers of technology‐dependent children, and home‐care workers involved in the “direct payments” scheme. Findings are reported in the areas of decisions about appropriate caring roles, the lay–professional boundary, training and respite opportunities and the expertise of lay carers. Recommendations for policy and practices are made.     

Lay Assessors and Care Home Inspections: Is There a Future?

This paper reports on research funded by the Nuffield Foundationexploring the role of lay assessors in the care home inspectionprocess in England and Wales. Lay people have been includedin many care home inspections for the past decade. Similar layinvolvement is included in other public service inspectionssuch as the Office for Standards in Education (OFSTED) inspectionsof schools. The Board of the short-lived National Care StandardsCommission (NCSC) controversially decided to dispense with suchlay involvement in the inspection process. The replacement body,the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI), intends toinclude lay people in the inspections of support services inthe community but is hesitating about reintroducing them intocare home inspections. This research project was able to explorethe role taken by lay assessors in thirteen inspections of carehomes for older people and for adults with learning disabilities.The research concluded that lay assessors had a significantrole in communicating with residents and staff and observingcare home life. Their role was particularly important, as inspectorswere often so involved in paperwork and checking policy compliancewith the national minimum standards that they were often ableto spend little, if any, time talking to residents or staff.It is argued that there is considerable potential for a strengthenedrole of lay people in the care home inspection process.     

The Role of Lay Perceptions of Ethnic Prejudice in the Maintenance and Perpetuation of Ethnic Bias

This article discusses the role of lay perceptions of ethnic prejudice in the maintenance and perpetuation of prejudicial attitudes. We first discuss the importance of lay beliefs about ethnic prejudice for understanding processes underlying prejudice and its reduction. We also discuss the potential relations between two individual differences—social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism—and these beliefs. Next, we describe the research that we have conducted on lay perceptions of ethnic prejudice, including perceptions of causes of prejudice, solutions to prejudice, and the inevitability and justifiability of prejudice. This research demonstrates that individuals who are high in social dominance orientation and, to a lesser extent, right-wing authoritarianism, hold beliefs which may serve to maintain and perpetuate prejudicial attitudes. We conclude by discussing the implications of these findings for developing effective intervention strategies.     

Accounting for Everyday Incivility: an Australian study

The question of how we live among strangers in daily life is an established concern in contemporary social analysis. A key topic has been the achievements of the individual in rendering daily life among unknown others possible. Yet, questions of residual failure await full development. The study aims to describe the results of an Australian study that examined the significance and meaning of interactional breakdown with strangers in everyday life for the contemporary individual. Focus group methodology is used to describe common threads of understanding that ordinary people have developed around such events in terms of prevalence, reasons and remedies. Noteworthy findings are (i) the use of period and generational kinds of historical thinking in lay reflections on the state of everyday incivility (ii) the materialization of excessive individualism, runaway capitalist values and diminished community as key ideas within lay talk about the generators of everyday incivility, and (iii) the articulation of communitarianism as a preferred panacea to everyday incivility for lay actors.     

Psychological Well-Being and Social Support Among Elders Employed as Lay Helpers

Impacts on lay helpers of participation in part-time work supporting rural elders with severe mental illness were explored in a group of 17 older adults employed in a demonstration project. Self-rated well-being and social support were assessed over 1 year. Ratings of autonomy and positive relations with others varied over 1 year. Perceptions of the amount of social support provided showed a trend toward improvement at 1 year. Results are considered in the context of role theory and illustrated with an ethnographic case study of the service environment. The lay helper role is a form of productive engagement through paid caregiving, with potential to supplement rural mental health service systems while supporting elders' needs for meaningful civic engagement.     

“声调渐响”——论张说对初唐渐盛时期七言歌行的贡献

张说是推动七言歌行由初唐婉转流丽的风格向盛唐拗峭劲健的风格过渡的桥梁式人物。他对七言歌行的贡献不可小视。文章从题材、情感、所势、声律、句式、结构几方面论述了张说对唐代七言歌行发展的贡献     

Self-experimentation

Except in certain cases of unusual risk, self-experimentation should not be encouraged. It is usually scientifically inadequate for lack of proper controls and sufficient subjects to generate meaningful results. It is also inadequate as an ethical test because even if lay persons are also enrolled, self-experimentation is neither necessary nor sufficient to establish that they may participate. It is not necessary to establish that lay persons may participate because institutional ethics review and informed consent are better ways to determine this. It is not sufficient because the investigator may be more risk accepting or not medically typical. Moreover, because scientific research is now done in teams, self-experimentation may involve undue influence when junior investigators participate as research subjects.     

Too Many Rationales,Not Enough Reason: A Call to Examine the Goals of Including Lay Members on Institutional Review Boards

Every major U.S. commission appointed to review Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) as well as numerous reports and scholarly articles have recommended increasing the number of lay (nonscientist and unaffiliated) members on IRBs. Meanwhile, qualitative studies have shown that lay IRB members experience confusion about their roles, including ambiguity whether their roles are different from other members of the board. Without articulating the unique reasons why unaffiliated and nonscientist members are needed, IRBs have little guidance on how to recruit and train these members, and how many should be at the table. By looking back through the history of IRB regulations, policies, and commentaries we can articulate unique contributions these members can make. Only with these contributions in mind can we make arguments for how to best achieve them and make the case that increasing their numbers is necessary.     

Who Believes in the Storybook Image of the Scientist?

Do lay people and scientists themselves recognize that scientists are human and therefore prone to human fallibilities such as error, bias, and even dishonesty? In a series of three experimental studies and one correlational study (total N = 3,278) we found that the “storybook image of the scientist” is pervasive: American lay people and scientists from over 60 countries attributed considerably more objectivity, rationality, open-mindedness, intelligence, integrity, and communality to scientists than to other highly-educated people. Moreover, scientists perceived even larger differences than lay people did. Some groups of scientists also differentiated between different categories of scientists: established scientists attributed higher levels of the scientific traits to established scientists than to early-career scientists and Ph.D. students, and higher levels to Ph.D. students than to early-career scientists. Female scientists attributed considerably higher levels of the scientific traits to female scientists than to male scientists. A strong belief in the storybook image and the (human) tendency to attribute higher levels of desirable traits to people in one’s own group than to people in other groups may decrease scientists’ willingness to adopt recently proposed practices to reduce error, bias and dishonesty in science.     

转型转轨与中国社会学

文章从中国经济体制转轨和社会结构转型的大的背景和格局出发 ,提出转型转轨为中国社会学搭了一个表演的大舞台 ,学科发展之生命力在于适应社会之要求 ;创新是中国社会学研究之价值所在。侧重从五个方面探讨了中国社会学的价值目标问题 ,尖锐地提出当今中国社会学所面临的学科建设上亟待解决的几个基本问题     

论唐代扬州为鉴真东渡提供的社会基础

唐代扬州为全国第一大都市,著名国际通商口岸,全国和东南亚物资集散地。经济繁荣,物产丰盛;商贾云集,百货丰足;水运发达,造船业兴盛;手工业发达,工匠如云;佛教兴盛,高僧辈出;文人荟萃,文化昌盛,为鉴真东渡和文化传播提供了得天独厚的社会基础。     

中国妇人会与北京女界赈灾

1906年,美国旧金山发生特大地震,唐人街化为一片废墟,数万受灾华侨流离失所,北京女界遂展开赈济我受灾侨民的活动,并由此产生了北京历史上最早的妇女社团——中国妇人会和中国妇女会。     

略论中国古典小说人物形象的塑造

明清时期是中国古典小说的鼎盛时期,创造了多种艺术技巧和艺术形式,塑造出许多不朽的人物形象.中国古典小说家在塑造人物形象,反映社会生活时,为了更好地突出人、景、情的和谐统一,形成了一套独具特色的塑造人物的技巧和方法,给读者留下了深刻的印象,为以后小说的发展奠定了基础.     

Medicine on the line? Computer‐mediated social support and advice for people with diabetes

The advent of thousands of Usenet groups on the Internet, covering a vast range of medical and welfare issues and ostensibly devoted to the mutual social support of participating members, has raised the potential for the development of new forms of 'virtual' health care. This article critically analyses the use by people with diabetes of one such Usenet group. It seeks to establish, first, the extent to which such a site provides some demonstrable measure of social support to its participants. This is approached by undertaking a structural analysis of the site to identify the extent of usage, and the nature of supporting interventions using a fivefold classification (instrumental, informational, esteem and social companionship and other). Second, the article attempts to identify any disparity between the lay health-knowledge in evidence and biomedical opinions proffered by the use of a panel of consultant diabetiologists. The results of the analysis suggest that the diabetes newsgroup provides an example of an active forum for largely well-informed participants who routinely use the media as an aid to the reflexive management of their medical condition. It also raises the prospect of a renegotiated relationship between medical knowledge and lay experience based upon shared learning     

Group Work with the Deinstitutionalized Elderly

Two series of group sessions were conducted with elderly residents of a group home for deinstitutionalized mental hospital residents. Entitled, "Improving Communication Skills," the sessions were designed to enhance the residents' verbal and non-verbal communication skills and to lay the foundation for greater interpersonal contacts. An evaluation of this pilot program suggests that it did, in fact, help participants improve their interpersonal skills. The paper concludes with suggestions for the establishment of similar groups.     

论亚行大湄公河次区域合作未来发展规划与中国的任务

亚洲地区在经济发展过程中面临着新的挑战。大湄公河地区是亚洲经济增长较为薄弱的次区域之一。该地区的经济繁荣与社会稳定不仅能够为亚洲经济的进一步发展打下基础,而且也有助于中国未来地缘经济和政治目标的实现。亚行将制定未来10年大湄公河次区域发展战略,中国应及时把握亚行战略方向,以亚行自身发展战略为基础,结合中国未来10年经济社会发展总体目标,推动大湄公河次区域合作向有利于各成员国的方向发展。     

唐宋诗的文本差异及其文化原因

唐宋诗的差异是人所共知的事情,但这种差异在具体文本上的表现却少有细致分析.堪称唐诗代表的是李杜,堪称宋诗代表的是苏黄.将李白与苏轼、杜甫与黄庭坚的几首题材相近、体裁相同的诗作进行比较分析就可以看出他们或重生命体验的完整性,或重艺术构思的精妙深微的两种不同的创作倾向.而在这种不同的创作倾向背后则隐含着以消解生存焦虑为目的和以实现主体意识为目的的两种不同的文化价值取向,诗歌文本差异不过是文化价值取向差异的表征而已.     

论汉代田庄形成的基础

私有土地和依附人口是汉代田庄形成、存在和发展的物质基础。田庄主通过国家的授田、赐田、继承、买卖或强取豪夺获得了大量土地，并依靠其控制的宗族、奴婢、宾客、徒附等依附人口建立起了自己的田庄。土地和人口的流动性使得以土地和人口为基础的田庄不能在某一个家族中长久地延续下去。     

SPECIAL ISSUE： INCOME INEQUALITY IN CHINA Inter-industry Inequality： An Important Source of the Urban Income Gap--Regression-based Decomposition

基于回归方程的收入差距分解发现,1988年、1995年和2002年,行业间收入不平等对中国城镇居民收入差距的贡献越来越大,而且这主要是由一些收入迅速提高的垄断行业造成的。同时,区位、教育、所有制和职业类型以及是否有第二职业对收入差距的贡献也在提高,是否完全就业和年龄对收入差距的贡献明显下降。因此,缩小中国城镇收入差距,亟需打破劳动力市场进入壁垒和产品市场行业垄断。此外,减轻地区间的劳动力流动障碍、普遍提高劳动者的受教育水平等措施也将是未来政府缩小城镇收入差距的重要政策着力点。     

查尔斯·弗里斯与对比语言学

弗里斯首倡语言对比分析,为英语教学实践提供指导.他认为二语学习与一语学习相比是截然不同的过程;二语学习的根本难题来自于母语习惯中的那套特殊的特征;最有效的教学材料应以对一、二语的科学的平行描写与对比为基础;在语言测试中要集中关注那些数量相对较少却有战略意义的项目;完整的双语对比应包括社会文化特征的描写和对比.弗里斯从理论与实践上为语言对比分析做好了铺垫,开启了现代对比语言学的大门.