From Problems to Personal Resilience

SUMMARY

This paper reviews data on select areas relevant to the status, functioning, and general well-being of African American Youth. Practitioners in both policy and clinical intervention must assert a greater role in helping these adolescents grow, develop, and become prepared to take their rightful place in American Society. Attention is afforded the African American Family, particularly Black youth and the threats, both historical and contemporary, which confront their ability to survive, cope, and sustain a resilient presence. Conflict theory is used to understand how this population interfaces with oppression, and a resilience framework, coupled with group as a method are presented as strategies for working with Black adolescents. The authors proffer that a justice-based model is useful in supporting this resilience framework within a group approach.     

Methodological Issues in Conducting Community-Based Health and Social Services Research Among Urban Black and African American LGBT Populations

Abstract

Health and social service utilization experiences of disenfranchised groups have recently gained renewed public attention. Reducing and eliminating racial disparities in health care has become a major national agenda. While a fairly substantial literature on Black and African American health outcomes and social service utilization does exist, and may help to influence interventions to reduce disparities, there is no comparable literature for Black and African American lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons. In this article the author examines factors affecting research with urban Black and African American LGBT populations. A brief case study is included that demonstrates the viability of the recommended research methods and discusses the possible negative consequences of deviating from these methodological suggestions.     

The rise and fall of the Institute for Government Public Information Research, 1978–1981

This historical case study recounts the short life of the Institute for Government Public Information Research at American University in Washington, DC. It was established in 1978 and was largely defunct by 1981. The significance of this brief event is that it helps illuminate the status of the subject of the Institute's attentions, namely the practice and study of government public relations. The somewhat shaky status of public information officers in the federal executive branch partly explains the fate of the Institute. It could not thrive in a field that itself was not thriving. The case study serves as an historical documentation of this (failed) effort to elevate the practice and study of public relations in the American national government in face of the second class status that Congress has relegated the profession to.     

Formative research methods to understand patient and provider responses to heart attack symptoms

Formative research is often required for program planning, and for reducing uncertainty about generalizability of program effects. This article describes and justifies methods of formative research conducted for the REACT study (Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment), a multi-center collaborative randomized community trial aimed at reducing patient delay in seeking care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Formative research cast light on patient and community members’ decision-making process in seeking help for AMI, as well as barriers and facilitators of this process. Investigators at all five REACT Field Centers participated in the formative research. The process consisted of: (1) developing a common theoretical framework for the study intervention; (2) conducting a literature review and qualitative research to identify and address gaps in knowledge; and (3) developing a common protocol for the REACT study that accommodated the diversity of the target communities in terms of services, resources, history, and ethnicity. Analysis employed triangulation, defined as an explicit search for heterogeneous data sources to reduce uncertainty about forces at work and opportunities for intervention across settings and populations. Because the collection and interpretation of data went in stages, staff of several REACT Field Centers had independent input to the overall synthesis, then shared and revised the results. Advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed.     

An Introduction to the Research Process

Abstract

College health professionals are often intimidated by the research process and thus miss opportunities to develop and communicate their ideas. The present article, the first in a series on college health research, describes the basics of the research process, including the purpose and nature of research and the ways in which ideas are developed into research hypotheses. The process of reviewing research literature is described in detail, including methods for computerized searching.     

Invitation to Research: Invitation to Learn

This article analyzes the process of acquiring informed consent from parents of economically disadvantaged children 7 to 12 years of age at a Boys &; Girls Club in a Midwest city. The article addresses the following question: What are the obstacles in mainstream research to including children’s voluntary participation in research that intends to benefit their lives? The lessons gained from requesting an invitation into the lives of poor children through informed-consent processes inform future social work research methods.     

Marketing Archetypes: Applying Jungian Psychology to Marketing Research

In the current situation of growing information overload, individuals are gradually becoming less sensitive to traditional marketing communications. For this reason, traditional marketing research models are no longer capable of giving useful insights to management. This calls for new approaches that can grasp the inner meaning of consumer behaviors and evaluate their relevance. To this end, a new multidisciplinary approach is needed to interpret complex behavioral patterns so as to gain deeper and more effective insights into customers and to understand their behavioral patterns. In this paper, following a short introduction to the basic concepts of Jung's analytical psychology and their relevance for marketing, we propose the use of the Jungian archetypes to implement a market research model, considering the case of an Italian research company's development of the Archetipus® model.     

上海新型工业化道路的探索与实践

工业化是一个国家和地区经济实力的象征,也是经济发展和社会进步的必经阶段。新型工业化既不同于发达国家已经走过的工业化发展道路,也不同于我国传统的工业化道路。上海在推进新型工业化进程中,深入贯彻落实科学发展观,坚定不移走科技含量高、经济效益好、资源消耗低、环境污染少、人力资源优势得到充分发挥的新型工业化之路,在实践中探索,在探索中提升,逐步提高对新型工业化的具体内涵、实现途径和发展模式等认识,努力走出一条符合客观规律、体现国家要求和具有上海特点的新型工业化道路。     

Using Active Learning Projects to Teach Research Skills Throughout the Sociology Curriculum

A core element of the sociology curriculum is the methods course, intended to teach students the value of systematic observation and analysis of the social world. However, this one-shot approach to teaching methodological skills is ineffective and not well liked by students or faculty. A more effective approach is the integration of active learning assignments and projects that teach and reinforce these skills throughout the curriculum, from the introductory course to the substantive content courses. This paper describes my experiences with this approach, outlining various activities and research projects used to teach methodological skills. Also highlighted are the outcomes reported by students and the benefits for teaching sociology courses. A discussion of the possibilities for disseminating and using the research beyond the classroom and the strengths and weaknesses of integrating research across the curriculum, as well as several teaching tips are also included.     

Research initiation based on idea-circles: from research object to co-actor

This article details an evaluation of a research project based on participatory research methods organized by the Swedish Disability Federation from 2008 to 2011. In Sweden there has been a lack of productive dialogue with the traditional academic world and the question was raised whether proposals for future research would be different if disabled people formulated them. Nine idea-circles with disabled participants and invited researchers from fields of interest close to the participants produced ideas, developed out of the life experience of being a disabled person. These ideas were developed into 72 research drafts that often reflected key advocacy areas, rather than operationalized research issues. The adjustment from the familiar discourse of political struggle to discussion of research was a complicated process for many. When asked to prioritize among areas for research, the representatives from the disability movement chose areas that are not stressed in mainstream disability research in Sweden.     

地方政府开展基层妇女职后教育工作对策研究

基层妇女的职后教育是妇女提升综合竞争能力,提升社会地位的重要途径。各级政府特别是地方政府对本辖区基层妇女开展职后教育工作重要而必要。结合职后教育的育人功能,以中山妇联与电子科技大学联合开设的网络教育妇女学员为样本,就基层妇女开展职后教育的影响因素进行了分析,并着重针对地方政府在基层妇女的职后教育工作的对策进行了深入分析。     

Synthesizing ENABLE-AGE Research Findings to Suggest Evidence-Based Home and Health Interventions

ABSTRACT

As the quest for knowledge translation from research to practice and policy contexts is growing stronger, researchers need to develop strategies for synthesizing research findings. Since home environments constitute an important context for the delivery of health care and social services to older adults and people aging with disabilities, research in this field can serve as an example for such endeavors. Using 35 original publications and one unpublished doctoral dissertation based on the European ENABLE-AGE Project, we aimed to demonstrate a systematic approach to synthesize research findings generated by large research projects as the basis for evidence-based interventions. The synthesized findings highlighted the complex interactions between objective and perceived aspects of housing and aspects of health in very old age, impacting on, for example, residential decision making. Independence in daily activity is influenced by the sociocultural care and service context. A familiar and safe neighborhood, a social network, and a good supply of services are important to perceptions of participation. Going further, we suggest housing-related interventions that address problems and challenges related to ongoing demographic changes. This article contributes to the development of strategies for knowledge translation, connecting research and practice and policy contexts struggling to meet the societal challenges that accompany population aging.     

Strategies for Creating MIS Technology to Improve Social Work Practice and Research

SUMMARY

This paper illustrates the potential for Management Information System (MIS) technology to integrate information collection, management and reporting within a single program or network of organizations. Properly devised and created, MIS applications can improve administration, service delivery and practice evaluation. Three strategies are offered to guide the design and development of MIS software. This paper is based on lessons from the production and implementation of MIS software that serves as a management and evaluation tool for a nationwide policy demonstration. Data from the MIS have helped to shape state and federal policy.     

Adoption Research: An Assessment of Empirical Contributions to the Advancement of Adoption Practice

This article examines the current state of adoption research as it applies to each member of the adoption triad. It includes a review of the research that has focused on birth mothers and fathers in both domestic and international adoptions; adopted children, adolescents, and adults; and adoptive parents. The paper also examines the areas of research in which a paucity of studies currently exist, and suggests that although major contributions to clinical practice and policy have been made, the dialogue should continue to seek to study issues such as international adoption and the adoption of children in foster care.     

Using Online Databases to Guide Practice and Research

Abstract

As tools for human service practitioners and researchers, online databases to locate evaluation literature are becoming increasingly useful. This article uses a clinical problem (concern about the effectiveness of electroconvuisive shock therapy for depressed persons), and a researcher's problem (planning a study to evaluate group treatment for child abusers), to illustrate logic of online searches for evaluation literature. New techniques for synthesizing many studies may require sweeping changes in how abstracts are formulated for bibliographic databases. Study synthesis techniques suggest ways to code studies to describe treatment method, client type, outcome measures, indices of study quality, and indices of treatment effect size. By replacing abstracts with such coded information, evaluation studies could be synthesized continuously for their program and policy implications.     

Postmodern Research,Postmodern Practice: Studying the Barriers to Cyberliteracy Among Mentally Disabled Women

The conversation about the postmodern challenge to sociological practice is just beginning. Harding advocates a positive tension between the postmodern vision of an antiessentialist, antiepistemological future and the postmodern vision of successor science projects grounded in the epistemologies of marginalized communities. In this paper, I describe my study of barriers to cyberliteracy among mentally disabled women and how it has been informed by these two contrasting postmodern visions represented, respectively, by the work of Newman and Holzman (The End of Knowing: A New Developmental Way of Learning, Routledge, London, 1997) and Smith (Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples, Zed Books, London, 1999).