A response to paper "systems thinking" by D. Cabrera et al.: additional thoughts on systems thinking

The paper by Cabrera, Colosi, and Lobdell presents a valuable explanation of ST and its relationship to evaluation. Given the complexity of the processes addressed by evaluators, it seems evident that ST is a valuable perspective and tool for evaluators as it facilitates the perception, analysis, and communication of complex issues and topics. It is my interpretation that the practice of evaluation may be becoming increasingly oriented to the future. I want to thank the authors for sharing their insights regarding ST and evaluation. I hope newcomers to ST find my comments useful.     

Systems thinking

Evaluation is one of many fields where “systems thinking” is popular and is said to hold great promise. However, there is disagreement about what constitutes systems thinking. Its meaning is ambiguous, and systems scholars have made diverse and divergent attempts to describe it. Alternative origins include: von Bertalanffy, Aristotle, Lao Tsu or multiple aperiodic “waves.” Some scholars describe it as synonymous with systems sciences (i.e., nonlinear dynamics, complexity, chaos). Others view it as taxonomy—a laundry list of systems approaches. Within so much noise, it is often difficult for evaluators to find the systems thinking signal. Recent work in systems thinking describes it as an emergent property of four simple conceptual patterns (rules). For an evaluator to become a “systems thinker”, he or she need not spend years learning many methods or nonlinear sciences. Instead, with some practice, one can learn to apply these four simple rules to existing evaluation knowledge with transformative results.     

On lateral thinking

Lateral thinking led to results on the measurement of risk being applied to the problem of measuring income inequality. In this, and in other areas of economics, lateral thinking has made a significant contribution. At the same time, there are dangers. The parallel may be deceptive. The paper examines two ways in which a straightforward translation of techniques from one field to another can be misleading and one example where lateral thinking about multi-dimensional inequality has considerable promise.     

"Race" as an Interaction Order Phenomenon: W.E.B. Du Bois's "Double Consciousness" Thesis Revisited

This article reports on a study of interaction between Americans who self-identify as Black and White that reveals underlying expectations with regard to conversation that differ between the two groups. These differences seem not to have much to do with class or gender, but rather vary largely according to self-identification by "race." The argument of this paper will be that the social phenomena of "race" are constructed at the level of interaction whenever Americans self-identified as Black and White speak to one another. This is because the Interaction Order expectations with regard to both self and community vary between the two groups. Because the "language games" and conversational "preferences" practiced by the two groups are responsive to different Interaction Orders, the "working consensus" is substantially different, and as a consequence, conversational "moves" are not recognizably the same. It will be argued that a great deal of institutional discrimination against African Americans can be traced to this source.     

Irrational thinking among slot machine players

According to the cognitive perspective on gambling, regular gamblers persist in trying to win money at gambling because they hold a set of false beliefs about the nature of gambling, the likelihood of winning, and their own expertise. In order to investigate this claim, twenty seven university students were recruited who played one of three types of games at least twice a week: slot machines, video draw poker, and video amusement games. Subjects played their preferred machines on site (clubs, hotels and amusement arcades) first for at least thirty minutes and then the other two games for a minimum of twenty minutes each. During play, each subject spoke aloud into a microphone describing what he or she was doing or thinking about in the game. It was hypothesised that slot machine players would verbalise more irrational thinking than video poker or video amusement players and that slot machines would elicit more irrational thinking than video poker or video amusement machines. Most importantly, it was hypothesised that slot machine players would exhibit relatively greater amounts of irrational thinking when playing their preferred game. The data supported all three hypotheses. Out of all of the statements made by slot machine players when playing slot machines, 38% were categorised irrational. Furthermore, 80% of the strategic statements made by slot machine players while playing slot machines were categorised as irrational. These results are consistent with earlier work which showed high levels of irrational thinking in artificial gambling games. Together, the results provide support for a cognitive view of the origins of gambling problems.     

Women's Rights vs. "Fetal Rights":

Policies restricting the employment opportunities of women have a long history in the U.S. The most recent manifestation has been so-called "fetal protection" policies, which exclude women of childbearing age from jobs involving exposure to toxins considered dangerous to a developing fetus. Traditional arguments that women's biology is justification to keep them from jobs have resurfaced in a new form. In the present debate the issue is framed as one of competing rights, those of fetus versus those of the woman. An analysis of public policy on this issue from a feminist legal standpoint reveals how the law's implicit male standard hinders the attainment of equal employment opportunity for women, as they must now compete with hypothetical fetuses sa well sa with men.     

对美国大学生人格发展"系列计划"的研究

20世纪70年代，美国加州大学欧文分校开展了一项关于大学生人格发展的实验研究，主要包括课程设置、环境创设、跟踪测评等内容与方法．被称为“系列计划”。尽管这项研究已经过去多年，但其对于提高我国大学生人格教育研究的科学性、系统性与操作性仍具有重要价值。     

Relationship-based thinking and practice in social work

Abstract

Relationships with the users of social work are increasingly seen in procedural, legal and administrative terms. However, research studies examining both client satisfaction and intervention effectiveness regularly find that the psychosocial qualities of the worker-client relationship are a major component in the success or otherwise of the service offered. The case is made that the psychological selves of both practitioners and users acquire many of their characteristics, including personality, esteem, efficacy and defensive behaviours, within relationships throughout the lifespan. The level of social understanding and social competence that people develop depends on the quality of their relationship history. If poor relationships are where psychosocial competences go awry, then good relationships are where they are likely to recover. This observation has major implications for the quality, character and skill of the relationship experiences offered to clients by social workers     

The rise of network thinking in anthropology

The encyclopedic inventory of the first half of the twentieth century, “Anthropology Today”, published in 1953, gave little inkling that within a few decades developing trends in social theory, in field experience, in electronic data processing, and in mathematics would combine to bring to prominence a distinctive theoretical approach using a quite formal network model for social systems. Now, sophisticated mathematics and computer programming permit sophisticated network models — networks seen as sets of links, networks seen as generated structures, and networks seen as flow processes. Although network thinking has shown a dramatic rise from the “Anthropology Today” of 1953 to the current anthropology of 1978, it is predicted to soar in the next quarter century, much of the weighty burden of network analysis having been lifted from us by ever more rapid electronic data processing.