Youth cultures and the rest of life: subcultures,post-subcultures and beyond

Recent debate on the conceptualisation of youth cultures has been characterised as an irreconcilable stalemate between materialist defenders of a version of subcultural theory derived from the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) and post-subcultural theorists who favour more individualised understandings. This article suggests that, beneath this facade lies a more complex and reconcilable debate and that it may be time to move beyond the polarising presence of the CCCS as primary reference point for the discussion. Turning to substance, I go on to examine how enduring areas of disagreement within the debate can be resolved, establishing ways forward with respect to the interplay between spectacular groupings and individual pathways and the contextualisation of youth cultures, including with respect to material and structural factors. I advocate greater emphasis on the study of collective youth cultures as part of broader biographies as a way forward that can draw together these substantive strands and bring together insight from across the subcultures/post-subcultures debate.     

Clients' views of live supervision and satisfaction with therapy

In this study we examined clients' perceptions of live supervision and their satisfaction with therapy in a university-based training clinic for marriage and family therapists. A total of 108 clients completed the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 and a modified version of the Purdue Live Observation Satisfaction Scale. Clients' comments on the advantages and disadvantages of live supervision were also solicited through short-answer questions. Results indicated that clients were generally satisfied with therapy and found the live-supervision process satisfactory as long as the perceived helpfulness of live supervision outweighed its perceived intrusiveness. The challenge for training clinics is striking a balance between helpfulness and intrusiveness in an effort to both train competent therapists and provide quality treatment.     

A constructivist approach to the help-seeking process of clients: A response to cultural diversity

The issue of cultural diversity presents clinicians with both delemmas and opportunities. To deal with such a challenge, I have proposed a constructivist approach to the help-seeking process of clients from diverse ethnoracial backgrounds. A model of clients' help-seeking processes provides a useful and systematic frame for clinicians to understand clients' construction of their problem situations and possible solutions. It provides a useful key for clinicians non-presumptuously to understand clients' subjective experiences, and to enhance clients' ability to resolve problems.     

Assessing Efficacy and Importance of Career Counseling Competencies

The authors examined self‐efficacy and perceived importance of several career counseling competencies among counselors in school settings (N = 567). The social cognitive career theory was used as a conceptual framework. Participants completed a modified version of the Career Counseling Self‐Efficacy Scale (CCSES) that also included an importance rating. A principal components analysis was used to examine the factorial structure of the modified CCSES and to determine the generalizabilty of the original CCSES findings to practicing school counselors. In addition, counselors' importance ratings were compared to those of a panel of counselor educators and career guidance consultants.     

Client satisfaction in a community crisis center

Variables determining client satisfaction with crisis intervention services were evaluated. The short version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8), and open ended questions were used in telephone interviews of clients and significant others. Results showed that 40% of the total variance of client satisfaction was explained by clients' evaluation of workers. Low correlations were found between reports of clients and significant others, implying that different factors determine satisfaction for each group.     

Global scales : Strengths, uses and problems of global scales as an evaluation instrument

A global scale can provided means for integrating a variety of client/patient assessment techniques to complement each other in a useful manner. Global scales have been applied to service planning and evaluation as well as being useful for the on-going communication of clients' clinical/functioning status. Global scales are attractive to many service programs because of their apparent ease of implementation and their apparent face validity. Furthermore, there is an extensive body of literature describing global scales as hightly reliable and valid when properly implemented and maintained. The literature also suggests that there are some serious pitfalls. While initial implementation of a global scale is easy, the maintenance of a reliable, valid and useful scale appears to require their active use in treatment planning, treatment review and clinical supervision processes. It also requires that more extensive multidimensional ratings be made at intake, review and termination. Furthermore, staff training and development sessions two or three times a year are needed to surface and deal with differences in clinician ratings. Given these sorts of supports, then, a global scale has been demonstrated as a useful tool in service program management as well as clinical process and outcome studies, including studies of cost effectiveness. Since the major use of a global scale is as an integrating construct, a quantitative model is offered to describe the relationship between global scale ratings and multidimensional facets influencing the global ratings.     

The Extraction of Nonverbal Behaviors: Using Video Images and Speech-Signal Analysis in Dyadic Conversation

This study examined the validity and possible utility of a new procedure for the extraction of nonverbal behaviors from dyadic conversation. Three methods were used to extract nonverbal behaviors (i.e., hand gestures, adaptors, and utterances). A novel automated method employing video images and speech-signal analysis software programs was compared to the more traditional coding and behavioral rating methods. The automated and coding methods provided an objective count of how many times a target behavior occurred, while behavioral ratings were based on more subjective impressions. Although there was no difference between the automated and coding methods for hand gestures, the coding method using an event recorder yielded marginally significantly more instances of adaptors and utterances as compared to the software programs. Measures of each nonverbal behavior were positively correlated across the different methods. In addition, interpersonal impressions of each speaker were rated by both observers and conversational partners. Although R ² was lower than for the coding/behavioral rating methods, nonverbal behaviors extracted using the software programs significantly predicted familiarity and activeness ratings from both observer and partner points of view. These results support the validity and possible utility of the software-based automated extraction procedure.     

Differences in Audiotaped Versus Videotaped Physician-Patient Interactions

Most medical interaction studies have been conducted on audiotaped recordings of physician-patient encounters. Empirical studies have not previously demonstrated whether coders' scores differ on audio-only versus videotaped data. Data from a convenience sample of forty-seven physician-patient interactions were analyzed using the same coding systems to judge audio-only versus video-based data formats. All coding conditions demonstrated acceptable reliability, using intraclass correlation coefficients. However, MANOVA analyses show that ratings of audiotaped physician-patient interactions are not equivalent to ratings of videotaped encounters. Exploratory factor analyses show differences in the underlying structures of the data derived from the audio-only versus the video information. The differences in the video-based factor solutions account for more total variance and are more consistent with theoretical expectations.     

Tracking the Sexual Behavior-Specific Effects of a Foster Family Treatment Program for Children with Serious Sexual Behavior Problems

Few treatment programs exist for very young children with serious sexual behavior problems. Fewer still have produced data relating to their effectiveness, and the sparse data that have emerged have focused on global social adjustment or improvement rather than on sexual behavior- specific changes. This study tracked both frequency of problem sexual behaviors and care giver estimates of the propensity to re-offend of six initial clients referred to a treatment-intensive foster care program for sexually reactive children and pre-adolescent sexual offenders. A simple pre-post (basepoint-treatment) design was used, and in-treatment data gathered over a two-year interval are presented. Initial results indicate that the problem sexual behaviors of most of these youthful clients were effectively and immediately suppressed in the context of their treatment intensive foster placements, but that the program's impact on the clients' propensity to re-offend given the opportunity—a crude measure of treatment internalization—was much less immediate, less pronounced, and less predictable across clients. Recommendations based on these data are offered concerning the viability of foster care intervention for sexualized and offending children, as well as optimal durations for such treatments. The strengths and weaknesses of the novel progress tracking method are discussed.     

Corruption as a site for contested meaning: Elite constructions in India

This paper investigates the problem of corruption in India from a social constructionist perspective. The constructions of corruption among five elite groups (bureaucrats, judges, politicians, industrialists, and journalists) in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh were obtained through a total of 60 interviews. Members of these five elite groups play a critical role in constructing the problem of corruption for public discourse. These elite groups, with the possible exception of the media elite, are also primary targets of public accusations of corrupt behavior. This paper examines three major issues related to corruption: the definition of corruption, the so-called functionality of corruption, and the role of culture in fostering or inhibiting corruption. Narrow/legalistic or broad/moralistic definitions of corruption, the acceptance or rejection of functionality, and modernist or nationalist responses to the question of culture are shown to constitute the varied structures of reality constructed by the different elite groups. These constructions of the corrupt reality in India are explained with reference to specific interests of the elites and their positions in the social structure. Instead of treating corruption as an objective condition, this study seeks to view corruption as a process in which strategic elites in society, define the problem and negotiate solutions to it.A previous version of this paper was presented at the 1991 New York Conference for Asian Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca.     

The Role of Rhythm and Pitch in the Evaluation of Human Laughter

Human laughter vocalizations are composed of highly variable sounds. We investigated the evaluation of laughter sounds and concentrated especially on the role of two acoustic features of laughter series: specific rhythms and changes in the fundamental frequency. Experimentally modified laughter series were evaluated using listener self-report data. Participants evaluated laughter series with differences in duration (Experiment 1), or in duration and frequencies (Experiment 2) of successive elements. Serial patterns with varying parameters received good ratings that were close to those received for natural laughter. By contrast, series with a stereotyped patterning received poor ratings. In addition, we found that self-report data strongly correlated to participants' direct behavioral reactions while listening to a specific stimulus. We suggest a three-part model to describe mechanisms underlying the evaluation of laughter.     

Modified track shoes and their effect on the EMG activity of calf muscles

Although track and field spike shoes are crafted for runners, these shoes are not designed for regular walking. With such shoes, runners may eventually encounter serious chronic injuries such as plantar fasciitis, shin splints, achilles tendinitis, chondromalacia, and iliotibial band syndrome. To address this problem, a modified spike shoe was tested and compared to a regular spike shoe. The modification consists of adding a removable heel to the shoe sole in order to reduce the flexion of the foot and properly level the foot for walking. Nine healthy participants performed walking drills at 2 and 3 mph, using the original and the modified shoes. Electromyography (EMG) measurements were used to evaluate muscle activities. Participants also rated their discomfort on a 0-10 scale. Results show that the use of modified shoes resulted in a reduction of 22% and 24.25% EMG activity for the tibialis and gastrocnemius muscles, respectively. Comfort ratings increased by an average of 2.7, 2.6, 3.9, and 4.2 points at the knees, calves, ankles, and feet, respectively.     

The quantification of smiling using a microcomputer-based approach

This study examines the relationship between the ratings made of a set of smiling and neutral expressions and the facial features which influence these ratings. Judges were shown forty real face photographs of smile and neutral expressions and forty line drawings derived from these photographs and were asked to rate the degree of smiling behavior of each expression. The line drawings of the face were generated by a microcomputer which utilizes a mathematical model to quantify facial expression. Twelve facial measures were generated by the computer. Significant differences were found between the ratings of smile and neutral expressions. The Mode of Presentation did not contribute significantly to the ratings. Using the facial measures as separate covariates, five mouth measures and one eye measure were found to discriminate significantly between the ratings made on smile and neutral expressions. When entered as simultaneous covariates, only four mouth measures contributed to the differences found in the expression ratings. Future research projects which may utilise the computer model are discussedThe research reported in this paper was conducted in the Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide. The authors would like to thank Ulana Sudomlak for her assistance in the gathering and recording of the data for this project, and the reviewers for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.     

Clients' relational conceptions of conjoint couple and family therapy quality: a grounded formal theory

Based upon a qualitative metasynthesis of 49 articles centered on clients' experiences of their conjoint couple and family therapy, the investigators constructed a grounded formal theory of Clients' Relational Conceptions of Conjoint Couple and Family Therapy Quality. The theory suggests from pretherapy conceptions to posttherapy reflections, clients' perceptions of conjoint couple and family therapy quality appear to consist of clients' constructed meanings regarding a series of interrelated relationships between clients and their therapists and therapy environments, between clients and themselves, between clients and other family members, and between process and outcome both inside and outside therapy. Within and across these relationships, clients appear to focus on expectations, connections, balance, and change when evaluating the quality of their clinical experiences. Based upon this theory, the investigators recommend that researchers continue to explore this clinical phenomenon and that therapists regularly seek clients' conceptions of quality in therapy.     

Postmodernism,constructionism and the idea of reality: A contribution to the ‘ism’ discussions

There has been a tendency to negate the idea of an external reality in the current systemic uses of postmodernist and social constructionist ideas. Postmodernism challenges us to abandon the modernist idea of reality, but as therapists we are still left needing to understand the social and emotional worlds which our clients inhabit. Social constructionist theory has become attractive in the attempt to advance new understandings of those realities. However, there is a critical distinction between a version of social constructionism which defines the realities of the social world as being (simply) social constructions, versus a version which uses the idea of social construction to understand how we come to know and experience the social world. Both versions are often run together in the systemic discussions, but it is the second version which allows the acknowledgment of the existence of external realities separate to our constructions of them. This paper argues that it is important to allow the space for an understanding of ‘the subject, the world and the space in-between’ in thinking about the idea of reality in the domain of therapy.     

Reduced Risk-Taking After Prior Losses in Pathological Gamblers Under Treatment and Healthy Control Group but not in Problem Gamblers

A group of pathological gamblers and a group of problem gamblers (i.e., gamblers at risk of becoming pathological) were compared to healthy controls on their risk-taking propensity after prior losses. Each participant played both the Balloon Analogue Risk Taking task (BART) and a modified version of the same task, where individuals face five repeated predetermined early losses at the onset of the game. No significant difference in risk-taking was found between groups on the standard BART task, while significant differences emerged when comparing behaviors in the two tasks: both pathological gamblers and controls reduced their risk-taking tendency after prior losses in the modified BART compared to the standard BART, whereas problem gamblers showed no reduction in risk-taking after prior losses. We interpret these results as a sign of a reduced sensitivity to negative feedback in problem gamblers which might contribute to explain their loss-chasing tendency.     

Conceptualizing Cultural Politics in Subcultural and Social Movement Studies

In this article it is argued that combining theories of social movements and subcultures provides a way of 'conceptualizing cultural politics'. The focus is on debates that have taken place over the conceptualization of subcultures and social movements as well as the status and viability of cultural politics. Contemporary subcultural theorists are critical of the rigid concepts used by the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies (CCCS) but, it is argued, they provide few feasible alternatives. They also have little to say about the supposed contemporary significance of cultural politics. New social movement (NSM) theorists, on the other hand, have generated conceptual frameworks that recognize the complexity of collective phenomena and have developed an approach which enables us to engage with the controversy over cultural politics. However, they concentrate too narrowly on struggles waged at the level of lifestyle, culture and civil society. The article shows how, like the CCCS, critics of NSM theory rightly question the potency of symbolic challenges and stress the persistent role of material issues and the continued part that conventional political actors, such as the state, play in contemporary social conflicts. Finally, the case of New Age Travellers is used to illuminate these debates in subcultural and social movement studies and to show how elements of each approach can be employed fruitfully in empirical research.