Setting Criterion Thresholds for Estimating Prevalence: What is Being Validated?

Much of the debate over how best to estimate the prevalence of problem gambling in the general population is driven by a number of misconceptions, misinterpretations, and questionable, sometimes erroneous assumptions. Among the latter is the failure to understand that what is being validated is not the test but the interpretation of test scores for a specific purpose. In addition there has been a lack of attention to defining the clinical and/or epidemiologic relevance of case definitions in terms of severity and other clinical attributes, a misunderstanding of how test values are interpreted when criterion thresholds or cut-off points are selected, and a failure to replicate the validation of criterion thresholds for defining cases of problem gambling. It is argued further that the distinction between dichotomy and continuum is a false choice, and any emphasis on overestimation is misdirected. Alternative methods for evaluating tests and estimating prevalence are described and a pragmatic empirical approach to the interpretation of prevalence estimates is recommended.     

A tale of two ontologies: an immanent critique of critical realism

In this article is it argued that critical realism has two mutually exclusive definitions of ontology. Ontology is defined as both a fallible interpretation of reality and as a definitive definition of a reality beyond our knowledge claims. A slippage in meaning occurs from the former to the latter, as critical realists try to justify the claim that their ontology ought to supply the terms of reference for all scientific research. Rather than defend an alternative ontology, it is argued that ontology needs to be defined in terms of fallible interpretations of social reality. This necessitates the revision and replacement of ontological theories in the course of an on‐going critical dialogue about reality, and precludes the use of one fixed ontology to supply the terms of reference for the sciences. ²     

The specific value of freedom

This article examines the question of how to assess our overall freedom in terms of its so-called specific value, i.e., the part of its value that can be reduced to the value of the various specific things we are free to do or be. It is argued that existing preference-based freedom rankings may fail to capture this value adequately and, drawing on earlier work by Puppe (J Econ Theory 68:174–199, 1996; in: Laslier et al. (eds.) Freedom in economics. New perspectives in normative analysis, 1998) and Puppe and Xu (Soc Choice Welf, this issue, 2010), an alternative, more general framework is proposed. Two rankings of freedom’s specific value are axiomatically characterized. The article concludes with a discussion of possible extensions of the framework.     

Defining social work is a never-ending story

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we present some of the reasons why defining social work is a difficult task. A brief history of the definition of social work is presented. We introduce a division of definitions of social work into the enumerative and abstract. The first fail to cover the entire palette of social work practices, while the second are paradoxically both too narrow and too inclusive. In order to tackle the problem of the over-inclusiveness of the definitions, we delimit the area of operation of social work using the duality of Habermas’ lifeworld and system. We maintain that Habermas’ theory should be used as a guideline for re-thinking what ‘goes wrong’ when social work is to be defined. Namely, social work practice mainly takes place in the borderlands between lifeworld and system, where both fail. This fact influences the definitions of social work, its theory, and its practice. The definition of social work is dependent not only on local knowledge and determinants, but on social problems that are local but also globally determined as well. As social problems change and evolve, the definition of social work remains a never-ending story.     

A Disabling Education: the case of disabled learners in Malaysia

Currently there is a move by the government towards improving the state of education for disabled learners in Malaysia. It is believed that current policy and practice do not meet the needs and requirements of these learners, partly because of the different definitions of disability adopted by various government agencies that are empowered to assist them. Employing a social constructivist framework, these definitions are examined specifically in the way they have been developed into different practices. It is argued that some of the common practices in educating disabled learners are discriminatory and haphazardly planned. The material effects of these practices on the actual provisions of education for these learners are then observed and evaluated. It is suggested that the education system be improved by including disabled learners in mainstream education, so as to help instigate positive changes in the lives of these learners through the wider process of social inclusion.     

Locating Self-advocacy in Models of Disability: understanding disability in the support of self-advocates with learning difficulties

Recent appraisals of self-advocacy groups of people with learning difficulties have tended to focus on the constitutional and structural facets of groups whilst failing to explicitly engage with disability theory. This paper explores different understandings of disability and examines how these are or can be implicated in the self-advocacy movement. First, the effects of the dominant individual or personal tragedy model of disability on self-advocacy will be examined with reference to the advisor's position. It is argued that if advisors hold such understandings of disability then they threaten to stifle the selfdetermination of self-advocates. Secondly, self-advocacy framed in terms of the alternative social model of disability will be presented. It is argued with reference to the advisor's role that self-advocacy is best understood and practised when it is grounded in this persuasion. Here, the views of self-advocates themselves are called upon. Finally, understanding self-advocacy in terms of the social model is taken further. It is suggested that self-advocates themselves directly challenge dominant understandings of disability in general and can contribute to the formulation of a social theory of disability.     

Constructs and Events in Verbal Behavior

Skinner''s (1957) analysis of verbal behavior has been the subject of much controversy in recent years. While criticism has historically come from outside the field of behavior analysis, there are now well-articulated arguments against Skinner''s analysis of verbal behavior from within the field as well. Recently, advocates of Skinner''s analysis have attempted to respond to the critiques, particularly to those regarding Skinner''s definition of verbal behavior articulated by proponents of relational frame theory. Specifically, it has been suggested that talk about definitions equates to making the essentialist error. This paper provides an overview of these issues in the context of understanding the role of constructs in science more generally. It will be argued that definitions are central to scientific progress, and are not only relevant to a functional analysis, but a central prerequisite to the pursuit of such an analysis.     

Symbolic Justice: The Status Politics of the American Probation Movement

Abstract

This paper addresses in substantive terms an emerging debate between Marxian and Weberian perspectives on crime and law. It is argued that the cooptive character of the American probation movement and its impact on juvenile and criminal law is an anomaly for orthodox Marxian theory and its preoccupation with coercive strategies of crime control. Revisionist Marxian perspectives similarly fail to account for the growth of this movement. An alternative Weberian approach is then articulated. It is found that probation legislation evolved at a federal level in juxtaposition to American temperance legislation, drawing its base of support from status groups reluctant to support the latter social movement, as well as from the leadership and rank and file organization of a voluntary association, the National Probation Association. The attention of a Weberian approach to such factors of organization and status helps to correct a one-sidedness in the Marxian class analysis of crime and law.     

Social Position and Commitment to Core Values:

The present analysis addresses whether gender influences support for the core values of individualism, self-reliance and equal opportunity. Both a capitalist economic system and democratic political system emphasize the value of the individual, self-reliance and equal opportunity. It is argued that socialization within these systems promotes individualistic beliefs even among those who are discriminated against. The impact of gender on commitment to core values and the influence of these values among women and men on support for government helping women is explored. The results suggest that men and women equally support individualistic values and that these values are similarly influential on questions of government intervention on women's behalf. Exceptions are found among younger men, who more likely support intervention than older men, and that among women, positive regard for women achieves a significant impact on policy support whereas the same does not hold true among men. It is argued that individualistic commitments among women and men provide the impetus to evaluate policy decisions in terms of the nature of government intervention even though women comprise the targeted beneficiaries of these policies.     

A Dynamic‐Maturational Model of Attachment

This article provides an overview of an attachment‐based approach to formulation of behavioural and psychiatric disorder. The dynamic‐maturational model (DMM) of attachment places many such problems within a context of family‐attachment relationships. In the DMM, neurological maturation interacting with experience is central to the self‐protective strategies that individuals develop to regulate familial attachments. When the relationships fail to protect child (or parent), more extreme strategies are organised to wrest some measure of safety and comfort from an otherwise threatening environment. A wide range of such strategies is described. It is argued that recognising attachment strategies in patients is crucial to providing helpful treatment (and to reducing the risk of inappropriate treatment).     

Social security and social networks among the urban poor in Pakistan

This paper is based on the urban case studies undertaken during a study of social safety nets and social networks and their role in poverty alleviation among low-income communities in Pakistan. A participatory assessment approach was adopted and findings reflect the perceptions of the urban poor themselves, disaggregated on the basis of age, gender and occupation. It was found that official safety net programmes fail to reach the poorest. Instead people rely on informal social networks of exchange and reciprocity during times of economic stress. However, the coping mechanisms of the poor do not always represent sustainable survival strategies. Some customary forms of obligations such as dowry, can constitute an obstacle to social development. Social networks are not always harmonious or undifferentiated, while some can be both oppressive and exploitative. It is argued, therefore, that to understand and build positively on the experience and life chances of the urban poor, the processes which undermine their ability to sustain or improve their circumstances and assure their long-term security must be addressed. It is suggested that the concept of social security provides the basis for a more flexible policy framework for responding to the particular characteristics of urban poverty than one which relies exclusively on the individual or collective coping strategies of the urban poor themselves, topped up with targeted social safety nets which often fail to hit the mark.     

Anthropology and Social Work: engagement with humans,moral dilemmas and theories of difference

This article compares similarities between two disciplines traditionally distinguished by applying a praxis–theory dichotomy. It is argued that this equally simple and historical opposition is reducing the current multiple realities of both fields in Europe inaccurately, as both disciplines have more in common than normally appreciated. Therefore, the contribution compares the subjects ‘culture’ and ‘social problem’, showing some interesting overlaps in recent definitions. Furthermore, methodological parallels are traced in concepts such as participant observation, empathy or in-betweenness. In the third step, common roots in social theory and moral dilemmas of the past and the present for both social work and anthropology are discussed. Finally, the paper argues in favor of more collaboration, respectively, in practical training and academic research.     

Pygmies and Villagers,Ritual or Play? On the Place of Contrasting Modes of Metacommunication in Social Systems

How are social activities and relations maintained despite actors holding to divergent definitions of these activities and relations? This is explored through a reexamination of an ethnographic account of two groups that participate in joint activities but interpret them differently. The account is that of the Mbuti Pygmies and their neighboring Bantu villagers as described by Colin Turnbull. It is argued is that the maintenance of continued interactions between such groups is facilitated by the grounding of the divergent interpretations of these interactions in contrasting modes of metacommunication: ritual and play. This article concludes with an exploration of some theoretical and comparative issues raised by the analysis.     

Performance measurement: Some conceptual issues

Measures of how well a system is operating are clearly of interest to a wide range of users, from organizational researchers to system managers. The current literatures in such areas as “performance measurement, ” “organizational effectiveness, ” and the like show little consistency in their definitions of terms or in their methods for generating measures. The present paper attempts a clarification of these issues in the form of a conceptual minimalist position which requires only three basic definitions, and leaves, as far as possible, all remaining issues open to empirical investigation.We first review the literature on “organizational effectiveness” contrasting the organizational goals and systems paradigms, and note the lack of either theoretical or empirical convergence between the two. An examination of the nature of effectiveness statements suggests that this failure of convergence flows mainly from the different criterion sets generated by the two paradigms — and, importantly, that one should not expect convergence on a single measure or set of measures which uniquely define how well a system is performing. One's view of how well a given system is performing is a function of where one stands (either theoretically or in relationship to the system), and pursuit of the one true set of performance measures is a futile exercise. Instead, we propose to redirect attention to the identification of the various individuals and groups (“constituencies”) with an interest in system performance, and to the investigation of those items of system relevant information (their “performance measure sets”) which do, in fact, change their evaluations of how well the system is performing. This perspective will, we hope, redirect effort from futile theoretical debate to empirical investigations of what measures are used, by whom, and to what effect, in specific settings.     

The conditions of action,power and the problem of interests

It is argued that the problem of ‘structure and agency’ should be reconsidered as the problem of ‘fate and agency’ for event causation and agency causation). The problem of fate and agency is addressed by outlining a model of the conditions of action derived from work by Giddens and Wright Mills. The model uses the concepts of different forms of knowledge and of the unintended consequence to set up a framework by which it should, in principle, be possible to decide of fate or events. This framework is then used to discuss the problems raised by defining power in terms of interests. It is argued that this definition is inadequate and suggested that a definition of power based on access to resources and causal responsibility for outcomes may be more useful.     

Simulation Exercises in Disability Awareness Training: A Critique

This paper takes a critical look at simulation exercises. Little evidence exists that these exercises have a positive effect on either attitudes or behaviour but, despite this, they are used extensively in disability awareness training, both for children and adults. It is argued in this paper that by individualising and medicalising disability, and by focusing excessively on problems and difficulties, simulation exercises provide false and misleading information, and inculcate negative, rather than positive, attitudes towards disabled people. It is suggested that simulation exercises fail to simulate impairment correctly, and address neither the coping strategies and skills disabled people develop in living with impairment, nor the cumulative social and psychological effect of encountering social and physical barriers over a lifetime. Rather than using simulation as a means of attempting to understand the experience of disability, the paper concludes by advocating the use of disability equality training, which is devised and run by disabled people themselves.     

The concept of social movement

Recent developments in social movement research have evidenced a greater underlying consensus in the field than one might have assumed. Efforts have been made to bridge different perspectives and merge them into a new synthesis. Yet, comparative discussion of the concept of ‘social movement’ has been largely neglected so far. This article reviews and contrasts systematically the definitions of ‘social movement’ formulated by some of the most influential authors in the field. A substantial convergence may be detected between otherwise very different approaches on three points at least. Social movements are defined as networks of informal interactions between a plurality of individuals, groups and/or organizations, engaged in political or cultural conflicts, on the basis of shared collective identities. It is argued that the concept is sharp enough a) to differentiate social movements from related concepts such as interest groups, political parties, protest events and coalitions; b) to identify a specific area of investigation and theorising for social movement research.     

SOCIAL INFLUENCE, SELF-REFERENT IDENTITY LABELS, AND BEHAVIOR

Self-referent identity labels are frequently argued to be a central component of the self and to be important in the planning of conduct. Despite the attractiveness of this argument, relatively little research has yet appeared that supports it, and studies of the etiology and effects of self-referent labels often fail to control for the confounding effects of preferences, norms. or other conceptions that are known to affect conduct. In this paper, propositions are argued concerning the causes and independent effects of self-referent labels. Some of these propositions are then tested in two studies, one concerned with alcohol use among adolescents in four Western countries, the other focused on alcohol and tobacco use among American high-school and undergraduate students. Both studies found strong ties between reports of peer modeling and respondents self-referent labels and that the latter had significant and independent effects on reported behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications of findings are discussed.     

An interference analysis of crowding

The behavioral consequences of crowding are analyzed in terms of mediation by the amount of interference experienced in a setting. It is argued that the amount of interference is the major determinant of crowding stress and one of several determinants of the subjective feeling of being crowded. Research implications of this analysis are discussed.