The Inseparability of “Career” and “Personal” Counseling

In this article it is argued that “career” and “personal” counseling should not be viewed as different types of counseling because: (a) the holistic philosophy of counseling emphasizes helping “whole” persons whose lives contain many important and meaningful roles; (b) recent research on the implications of gender and race for career development further demonstrates the inseparability of our career and “personal” lives; and (c) there are numerous commonalities in the “career” and “personal” counseling process.     

A Framework for Promoting Women's Career Intentionality and Work–Life Integration

Work–life integration is a major problem for today's working women, as the demands of full‐time work conflict with the relational factors of family life. Women feel they have to make difficult decisions that sacrifice their career or family, with little understanding of the influences that affect decision making. Career counselors may not be discussing the strain of Work–life integration with female college students, leading them to believe “having it all” is attainable. A framework blending the Kaleidoscope Career Model with the Systems Theory Framework to help women understand the environmental, societal, and personal influences on Work–life integration is proposed as a solution. This framework allows college women to make decisions with an intentional background of how these systems interact and sway perception. Using this framework, career counselors may help students identify goals, research the benefits and challenges, and clarify their authentic selves in personal and work realms.     

Negotiating Personal Experience over the Lifetime: Narrative Elasticity as an Analytic Tool

Sociology and neighboring disciplines have produced different analytic tools to examine the dialogical relationship between individuals and society (“narrative work,” “identity work,” “moral career,” “moral breakdown”). However, the question of how individuals negotiate the interpretation of personal experience over their lifetimes in a changing cultural context remains unexplored. This article introduces narrative elasticity as a feature of narrative work and as a time‐sensitive analytic tool for conducting inquiries into processes of temporal retraction and expansion of what storytellers conceive as the normal order of significance. The application of this tool to the analysis of mature and elderly Chileans' life stories shows how cultural change occurs at the individual level, considers factors that motivate and inhibit processes of reinterpretation of personal experience, and identifies different levels at which it operates.     

Modernism and the Esthetics of Personal Computing

This paper is a contribution to the study of the esthetics of personal computing. The personal computer (PC) is shaped by ideas, including esthetic values, which it in turn carries into the broader social and cultural context where it is used. Until the early 1990s, this context was limited to a minority subculture who enjoyed interaction with the machine through the medium of learnt “command lines” in arcane computer languages. In the past decade, however, the PC has become more overtly estheticized – a source of multi-medic sensation and apparent personal empowerment – as it has moved into the cultural mainstream. The rise of the seductive “user-friendly” interface has led some to speculate that the PC is a “postmodern” cultural phenomenon, stimulating relativist and anti-realist lines of self-reflection on the part of its users. The paper accepts that the PC has acted as a catalyst for cultural change, raising the profile of some esthetic values and creating awareness of new principles that may be relevant to the esthetics of the future. In place of the idea that this development is “postmodern”, however, the modernist esthetic values of openness to interpretation, challenging audiences to participate in the construction of esthetic effects, and simultaneity as key organizing principle of the work, are put forward as alternative design principles for PC interfaces. It is suggested that application of these principles might produce artefacts that comport better with the ideal of an enlightened autonomous citizenry than do current design standards.     

“I saw the handwriting on the wall”: shades of meaning in reasons for early retirement

This article attempts to locate people's individual decisions to take early retirement in the particular social and economic context in which these decisions are being made. Results are presented from a phenomenological case study of a particular group of people who talked about their reasons for having taken early retirement from a particular company. The analysis indicates that the reasons people give for their decision do not always fall neatly into dichotomous explanatory categories such as “health versus wealth,” “push versus pull factors,” or “voluntary versus involuntary,” as suggested by much of the current literature. Rather, this decision is fraught with shades of ambiguity, and involves complex and multiple considerations at the personal, workplace, and societal levels.     

Transporting Movement Ideology into Popular Culture: Right-Wing Think Tanks and the Case of “Virgin Chic”

This article argues that social movements can contribute to the development and integration of new narratives into the cultural stock by sponsoring new rhetorical frames and by sponsoring legislation, thus entering into policy debates. A case study of a new cultural narrative, dubbed “virgin chic,” shows the imprints of the American Right. Through analysis of the mobilizing efforts of right-wing think tanks, this article shows that the Right's development of the “family values” frame and its sponsorship of federal bills aimed at legislating morality resulted in “virgin chic.” Analysis of the origins and career of this narrative shows that it circulated widely (and continues to circulate, 20 years after its emergence in 1990), and that it successfully carries right-wing ideology into popular culture.     

The impact of welfare reform on the parenting role of women in rural communities

Current family policy suggests that in order to restore family values we, as a society, need to focus on reviving a child-centered household. Full-time mothering is lauded as an honorable choice that will advance this goal and ultimately strengthen traditional family values. However, current welfare policy is contrary to this notion in that mandatory welfare-to-work programs deny women receiving public assistance the choice to be full-time mothers. Based on in-depth interviews with female welfare recipients in four rural Appalachian counties, this paper evaluates the problems women face as they confront the difficult choices of being either a “good mother” or a “good recipient.” From a feminist perspective, findings suggest that welfare reform programs in rural communities have put poor women in a proverbial “catch-22” with regard to effective parenting. Although many of the women strive to be ideal mothers as defined by societal standards, they often find that they cannot carry out the role effectively because of welfare reform regulations.     

Burnout als Gruppenphänomen. Ein soziologisch – gruppendynamischer Beitrag zum Wandel der (Team-)arbeit

This paper addresses changes in work processes from a sociological perspective. Organizations have been undergoing dramatic changes with regard to long term membership and individual recognition. The new paradigm of the individual as self-entrepreneur creates stress for team members when attempting to live up to this new standard of conduct and work-ethic. Lacking recognition in the work place leads to exhaustion and burnout. The author suggests a new interpretation of this process. As opposed to traditional wisdom burnout is perceived as a form of “legitimate reaction to overload”. This reaction can be understood as an adequate response to the larger societal and organizational context – at the individual and at the group level alike. A new stage-model developed by this author to cope with burnout at the group-level is introduced. Work teams with burnout symptoms display deviant behaviors and may be disintegrating. This process can be taken as an indicator pointing to an imbalance of externally imposed demands and resources available within the team. Lacking adequate opportunity structures for the development of interpersonal relations, teams moving towards burnout are deprived of this exit option. In many cases the team process freezes at an early stage of burnout: what remains is a continuous overload.     

Vision and Mission of Sociology: Learning from the Russian Historical Experience

The present study demonstrates that the path of the “organic public sociology” (proposed by Michael Burowoy in his famous call of the 2004) as the dominating mode of sociological practice in the national context can be menacing with the serious pitfalls manifested in broad historical perspective. We reveal the four pitfalls basing on the analysis of the Russian experience through the last 150 years. First, the over-politicization and ideological biasness of sociological activities; second, the “personal sacrifice” of sociologist as a romanticized practice, potentially harmful for the discipline; third, the difficulties of the professional sociology institutionalization; fourth, the deprivation of the policy sociology development. Analyzing the history of Russian sociology in the context of the current international discussions, we give particular reference to the idea of the “Scientized Environment Supporting Actorhood” elaborated by John Meyer. We suggest the mode of communication between sociology and society, which, in our view, could be helpful for improving their interactions in various local, national and global contexts in the XXIst century. This mode escapes the political emphasis and ideological claims but rather concentrates on the more fundamental ethical issues. It also tries to overcome the limitations of the contemporary professional mainstream (instead of idealizing it). Finally, it presents itself to the publics in the understandable way, while remaining properly scientifically validated (however, avoiding the exaggerated accent on the statistical procedures and fitishization of the natural science’ principles (“numerology” and “quantofrenia”)). The public activities of the prominent sociologist Pitirim Sorokin in the American period of his career are a good example of this approach to the interactions with society.     

Career‐Life Preparedness: Revisiting Career Planning and Adjustment in the New Workplace

Although the economic and social context of work appears to be changing for more and more people, the author argues that time‐honored and empirically supported theories of career development continue to be relevant and useful. However, these theories and the core assumptions that underlie them (e.g., the “matching metaphor”) may need to be augmented by models and methods that help students and workers to prepare to a greater degree for difficult developmental transitions, obstacles to preferred career paths, and negative career‐life events such as unplanned job loss. The author offers a view of “career‐life preparedness” that, while informed by social‐cognitive career theory, is largely compatible with other approaches to career development and is linked conceptually to other recent work on career adaptability, resilience, and coping.     

Two lives in transition: Agency and context for assisted living residents

This research uses data on two “focal case” individuals residing in one residential care/assisted living (RC/AL) facility, collected as part of a larger ethnographic study exploring later-life transitions, including those leading to the moves into housing and care settings. In-depth examination of the 10-year transition histories of these two women highlights the major erosion of autonomy with advancing frailty, illness, and relocation into supportive housing. A second major theme is that an understanding of the contemporary events and challenges for these two individuals is substantially enhanced by nesting them within the temporal context of earlier life events, including personal relationships, social events, and preferences. Individual history, elicited from resident, family, staff and professional views, serves to contextualize current choices and reactions to key events. As researchers, adding this temporal context moves our understanding of their identities well beyond a simplistic snapshot view as “resident” in AL.     

Self-Accomplishment Through Running*

Self transformation as a personal and shared social experience is shown to be achievable through distance running. Ethnographic materials, extensive interviews, and questionnaire results obtained over a two-year period show how distance running becomes a meaningful activity that is central to a runner's daily routine as well as a progressive personal identity. The researchers examine the motives and felt self-accomplishments for a wide range of runners, e.g., “joggers” to “marathoners” to “world-class” competitors, and then show how each is informed by other realms of meaning, especially the work and the family contexts. The place of running in the context of broader social changes which promote the enhancement of physical well-being is shown, as are the runners' concerns that the unique running experience may be coopted by organizational and bureaucratic demands.     

近年来我国大学生自杀心理剖析

研究自杀大学生的心理变化过程,对预防大学生自杀具有积极的作用。对大学生自杀案例进行剖析的结果表明,大学生自杀行为“因穷至卑”和“因穷自杀”现象不明显;不同原因自杀的心理动机存在差异,并且主要集中在“情感挫折”、“学习就业压力”、“个人心理障碍”、“家庭原因”和“生理健康”5类。自杀大学生的心理状态随着自杀意念的发生发展呈现一定的规律性,他们在实施自杀的过程中都经历了复杂的心理过程。     

Toward a Radical Model of Social Work in Rural Communities

“Rural” areas as distinct from “urban” continue to be defined by greater personal interactions and less emphasis on formal systems of support. This reality rests in contradiction to the overwhelming majority of social work scholarship and theory development which takes place in an urban context. As such the present-day act of being a “social worker” in a rural community can, in many ways, feel like a bad fit, back-applying the model of an urban generalist into an environment whose organic community ties the social work model itself was originally designed to substitute for. In recognition of this, it is necessary to develop a “combined” model of practice for social work with rural communities and peoples. The fundamental distinction to be made is that rural social work, in its most radical form, is less concerned with adapting persons to the Gesellschaft than it is with strengthening the capacity of the Gemeinschaft to provide the kind of support capacity it historically has, taking into account changes and challenges resulting from factors such as globalization, urban sprawl, and cultural change.     

Etzioni’s new theory: a synthesis of liberal and communitarian views

There has always been a rather strong contrast between liberal and communitarian views. The liberal doctrine of “irreversible plurality of philosophical and moral ideas” for instance does not only mean that consensus about social values is difficult. “A public consensus about the necessary conception of the good cannot be obtained,” says Rawls. On the other hand, communitarians such as MacIntyre, Sandel, and Walzer, are deeply convinced by the idea of an “immanent telos” of societies, which in their opinion have the utmost influence on the development of individuals. A similar strong contrast exists between the liberal universalism of values and the communitarian particularism. Etzioni’s New Theory now tries to overcome these unsatisfactory “tyrannies of dualism” (A. Gutmann) Instead of the traditional and hostile either- or, Etzioni puts a reconciliatory as well as. “As many other dichotomies the dualism between universalism and particularism stands in the way of the development of a social Paradigm,” he regrets. Therefore Etzioni wants to combine instead of dividing. For example, social order (communitarian value) and personal autonomy (liberal value). So he proposes to install more personal autonomy in states with strong social order, as for instance Japan, and he demands more social order in traditional individualistic states like the United States (“Inverse Symbiosis”). Such “combining and balancing solutions” coincide with the theory of a “Flexible System of Private Rights” created and proposed by the famous Austrian Legal Scholar Walter Wilburg. On the level of “value principles” in the sense of Ronald Dworkin (instead of “rules” of law), Wilburg combines the differing “weights and strengths” of values (elements). An example of this is negligence, dangerous behavior, and economic capacity of risk spreading to more or less far reaching compensations of private damages, instead of the traditional either-or. The underlying idea is that of proportion. In terms of Etzioni, “The more social order within a state or society—the more individual autonomy has to be promoted.”     

Theoretical Voices Directing the Career Development Journey: Holland,Harris‐Bowlsbey,and Krumboltz

The counselor's role in facilitating career development remains dynamic as lifelong learning, expanding lifestyle options, and the changing workplace present new opportunities. In response, most practitioners follow some common theoretical assumptions as their foundation. As the career development field celebrates its place and embraces the millennium, the work of John Holland, the developmental perspective promoted by JoAnn Harris‐Bowlsbey, and John Krumboltz's social learning theory are captured through this personal view of the career development journey. Unique insights about the context of their work and view of the future workplace are shared.     

Explicating the public memory dialectic in public relations: The case of Donald Trump,The Oath Keepers,and January 6, 2021

The public relations practice participates in making, shaping, telling, and interpreting societal memory to influence issue positions and related actions. That claim implies several themes. One, societal memory is a useful concept for understanding the strategic processes of meaning and meaning making, narratives which constitute society. Two, the content of their prevailing memories shapes the choices individuals make separately and collectively. Public relations’ centrality to societal memory remains an underappreciated and underexplored research area. Scholars have explored the role public relations plays in societal memory by examining, for instance, the textuality of art as well as memorials and statues, their erection and erasure. To better understand this process, scholarship needs to examine strategic public relations efforts to “blur” societal memory as a means of creating alternative versions (revisionist history) of lived truth, values, norms, and policies. After examining memory, including blurring, we use the January 6, 2021 United States presidential election (Congressional Certification) Capitol “protest event” to demonstrate how blurring occurs and its potential adverse implications. We suggest and conceptualize in a model that societal memory occurs as a dialectic; some etched version of history (i.e., thesis) comes under question (i.e., antithesis), and through either a process of blurring, erasure, or retention, that etched history is then muddied, expunged, or lives on (i.e., synthesis). Meaning matters in the enactment and critical assessment of public relations’ role in societal agency.     

Integrating Sexual Orientation in Career Counseling: Acting to End a Form of the Personal-Career Dichotomy

Ignoring sexual orientation in career counseling practice is presented as a specific case of failing to integrate an aspect of the personal dimension into career counseling. Three case examples illustrate specific actions that career counselors must take to integrate this important aspect of the personal dimension into career counseling. The actions suggested involve three general areas: (a) signaling lesbian and gay affirmation in career counseling practice, (b) enhancing the development of a positive gay or lesbian identity in the context of career development work, and (c) recognizing and integrating the reality of anti-gay stigma in career counseling.     

Why Are So Many (If Not Really All) People and Families Disturbed?*

Many personal and family problems grow out of our not knowing how to process an intricate network of dualities, contradictions, dilemmas, paradoxes, and momentums that are intrinsic to the human condition rather than resulting from “disturbance” or pathology. What we have been learning in family therapy is that the processing of both “right” and “wrong” ways, or “good” and “bad” behaviors, is more likely to yield health and growth, whereas failures to process these dualities are far more the culprit of emotional disorders than bad or wrong behaviors as such. What really becomes important in family life is not the ability to stay out of trouble, but to get out of trouble, that is the ability to process conflicts and dilemmas and unfairness constructively. This way of looking at families helps us to account for and integrate many of the hard empirical findings that have been gathering now for twenty years in family therapy.     

Young Women's Life Stories and Accounts of Parental Divorce

ABSTRACT

This article presents the results of an analysis of 7 young women's life story accounts of the experience of parental separation during adolescence. The young women took part in the Life Stories and Family Transitions Study conducted in New Zealand. The qualitative methodology used in this study allowed for an investigation of the ways that participants made sense of their experiences of parental separation within the life story. The narratives of parental separation were extracted from the interviews and analyzed for form and content. The analysis of form found that the stories progressed through a number of stages, titled “The Early Years,” “The Deteriorating Parental Relationship,” “The Climax,” and “The Aftermath.” A number of themes emerged from a process of interpretive thematic analysis. These themes were often associated with different stages of the story of separation, and were titled “Putting Together the Pieces,” “The Struggling Self,” and “Self-Determination and Competency.” As participants put together the stories of separation, they considered their parents' perspectives and integrated these with their own experiences of family events, developing their own personal theories. The stories of struggle, and of personal strength and self-determination, emerge from the analysis.