Power and Role-Taking

Abstract

Power and role-taking theory argues that social structural arrangements influence face-to-face communication processes. Specifically, powerful and powerless interactants tend to differ in their motivation to take the other's role and in the accuracy of their interpersonal understandings. Basic concepts of the theory and its interrelated propositions are identified. A comprehensive literature review gauged its empirical support. With some qualifications, a set of 26 quantitative studies supported propositions regarding the relationship of unequal power to role-taking propensity, accuracy, and empathy. Examination of 8 qualitative studies offered fruitful directions for theoretical refinements. A set of 15 practice effectiveness studies suggest that role-taking processes in asymmetrical relationships can be changed. Practice implications for social workers committed to challenging the power imbalances typical to crossgender, interracial, interclass, and crossposition relationships are suggested.     

Role-Taking Accuracy in Medical Encounters: A Test of two Theories

Abstract

This paper tests five hypotheses derived from two contrasting theoretical perspectives on role-taking accuracy: a social contact theory and an institutional resource theory. We investigate how well doctors and patients perceive one another's perspectives in a medical encounter. The cumulative weight of the data supports the proposed social contact theory. Increased contact between residents and patients, as reflected in physician's year in residency, contributes to more accurate role-taking on the part of physicians. Conditions of social compatibility between doctors and patients vis a vis gender or race lead to more accurate role-taking. Finally, personal characteristics are better predictors of role-taking accuracy than institutional status variables such as type of residency training program or doctor's year in residency status.     

Treatment of the mother in the incest family: The beginning phase

This paper discusses significant counter-transference issues and presents a conceptual framework for ordering the strategies in treating the mother in the incest family. The development of empathy is suggested as the primary engagement tool, and obstacles to its development are analyzed.The major theoretical construct that is employed in formulating the treatment approach is that of the traumagenic dynamics model presented by Finkelhor and Browne (1985). The manner in which this framework can be employed in assessment and prioritizing treatment goals is outlined. Specific approaches for the beginning phase of work with the mother are then described.     

Toward a Cultural Competence Measure for Social Work with Specific Populations

Abstract

The notion that cultural competence is crucial to sound social work practice is widely accepted in the profession. However, there exists a gap between the achievement of the goal of developing culturally competent practitioners through social work education and the ability to measure such competence. A second gap exists between education and the providing of culturally appropriate services in everyday practice. These gaps are likely due to (1) the broad terms used to define cultural competence, (2) the slow evolution of instrumentation to measure cultural competence, and (3) the lack of culture-specific training and measurement techniques. This paper assesses the need for further refinement of the concept and suggests a new approach for the development of instruments to measure it. The authors provide an overview of the construct of cultural competence, analyze the conceptual and empirical foundations of four well-known measures, and provide a rationale forthe development of culture-Specific instruments.     

A Behavioral Examination of Mead's View of Role-Taking

According to Mead, self appears as individuals take the role of others toward their own gestures. In two investigations, the hand movements of subjects were observed as they verbalized different commands specifying hand or head movement to another person. The first investigation explored the possibility of directly observing and recording instances of role-taking. In the second, the visual accessibility between experimental subjects was varied in order to assess its effect on the frequency of overt role-taking. Results indicate that the process of role-taking is amenable to direct observation; and, furthermore, that overt role-taking decreases as visual accessibility increases.     

Abstract and engaged critique in sociology: on football hooliganism

This note is a response to a critical review of some of my own work published recently in the British Journal of Sociology but it does not reply to the specific criticisms made in that article. Rather it addresses the question of what constitutes appropriate critique in sociology by developing a distinction between abstract and engaged criticism.     

The World Bank's “Employing Workers” index: Findings and critiques – A review of recent evidence

This note provides an update on the ongoing debate over the World Bank's Doing Business project with a particular focus on its “Employing Workers” index, which is intended to measure difficulty of hiring, rigidity of working hours and difficulty of firing. The authors review the findings of studies that have used this index or been influenced by it and of those that inspired its construction. They go on to examine criticisms of this instrument, highlighting both conceptual and empirical problems. Their paper concludes with suggestions for alternative approaches and future research.     

Reflective ability,empathy, and emotional intelligence in undergraduate social work students: a cross-sectional study from India

The extant literature indicates that social work is a high stress profession owing to multifarious and complex demands of practice. There is also evidence of stress experienced by student trainees who aspire for a career in social work. Working with service users and the distressing life scenarios encountered on placement often involves negotiating complex emotions and requires reflective skills. Effective practice requires rapport building skills and the ability to demonstrate empathy is a core skill for effective practice. While there is a plethora of Western literature on these issues, the Indian literature has not adequately explored them. Framed against this background, this quantitative study collected data from students of all three years of their undergraduate social work course from a ‘women only’ college in India. Standardised instruments to assess empathy, reflective ability and emotional intelligence were administered. Statistical tests revealed a higher manifestation of these dimensions in final-year students than those in the first year. Further it was seen that the total emotional intelligence and empathy scores were positively correlated. Implications of these findings for the education and training of social work students has also been discussed in this article.     

Hearts and Minds: Aspects of Empathy and Wellbeing in Social Work Students

Although empathy is critical to social work practice, the extent to which it can be measured, nurtured or taught is hotly debated. Furthermore, definitions of empathy are typically one-dimensional referring to the ability to adopt the perspective of others in order to understand their feelings, thoughts or actions. Such definitions do not adequately reflect the realities of empathy in the social work context or recognise its potential to lead to distress. This study utilises data from 359 social work students to examine relationships between several dimensions of empathy (i.e. perspective taking, concern and distress), reflective ability and wellbeing with a view to using the findings to develop evidence-based interventions to help staff develop appropriate empathic responses to service users' experiences. Whilst students reported fairly high levels of empathic concern, they also disclosed considerable empathic distress. Some evidence was found that reflective ability might protect social work students from empathic distress. Findings suggest that students require support to develop their empathic and reflective skills to effectively manage the emotional demands of practice. The use of techniques such as mindfulness and experiential learning for enhancing such skills is explored.     

Non-profit institutions in an input-output framework

This paper discusses the conceptual treatment of non-profit institutions in the US input-output (I-O) accounts prepared by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, describes the sources and methods used to identify and measure the output of non-profits by I-O industry, and analyses the published benchmark I-O data for 1982 identifying output attributable to non-profits. In the context of the I-O framework, which is detailed and comprehensive, some conceptual and statistical questions associated with the treatment of non-profits are identified and discussed. These issues of definition, scope and measurement are particularly pertinent in light of the recommendations in the 1993 international System of National Accounts on sectoring and on presentation of flows.The author wishes to acknowledge the helpful comments of colleagues at the Bureau of Economic Analysis and other participants in the Workshop, as well as those of two anonymous reviewers. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author's own. They do not necessarily represent the views of the Bureau of Economic Analysis and the US Department of Commerce.     

Measuring Social “Informatization”: A Factor Analytic Approach*

Some scholars have argued that we are witnessing a new social revolution—social “informatization”—that is comparable in scope and impact to that of the Industrial Revolu‐tion of the eighteenth century. Others have argued that it is a much more modest phase in the ongoing development of communication and information‐processing technology. While there are a number of reasons for disagreement about what exactly “informatization” is, and what its impact will be, two are paramount: (1) conceptual imprecision, and (2) issues of measurement. Using factor analysis, this study aims to clarify its conceptualization, and, then, rather than focusing on a single dimension (e.g., technological or economic), it will develop a comprehensive multiple‐indicator measure that captures the economic, technological, and size (stock) dimensions of social informatization. We find that this measure of social informatization strongly correlates with the general level of socioeconomic development. This result implies that social informatization may be a more continuous and cumulative process than a disjunctive or discontinuous “revolution.”     

Consensus or Confusion in Research on Children and Divorce

The body of literature on children and divorce presents a confusing picture, but the need to understand divorce has never been greater. In an effort to clarify the literature, 18 studies published between 1978 and 1981 were compared and contrasted for conceptual and methodological features. Studies were selected using a multistage sampling technique. Each study was reviewed for conceptual and methodological dimensions, and major conclusions were categorized as positive, neutral, or negative. Both conceptual and methodological issues seem to account for some of the apparent discrepancies in the literature. In particular, the types of variables chosen (a conceptual dimension) and the measurement strategy (a methodological dimension) seemed to account for the most variation across the studies. Future researchers are encouraged to be more cognizant of how conceptual and methodological features of their work will affect their outcomes.     

Revisiting Ethnic Entrepreneurship: Convergencies,Controversies, and Conceptual Advancements1

In the past thirty years, many concepts and theories on ethnic entrepreneurship have been developed, challenged, and revised to provide a fuller account of the phenomenon. This article revisits the existing literature to address some of the conceptual and methodological issues and the controversies that have lingered around them and to highlight important advancements that have broken through conventional frameworks of this lasting subject matter. It first reexamines the meaning and analytical distinction of such relevant concepts as the middleman minority, ethnic economy, and enclave economy, arguing that ethnic social structures in which entrepreneurs are embedded must be stressed in the understanding of these concepts. It then draws attention to the convergencies and controversies in research on the causes and consequences of entrepreneurship. Finally, it highlights two interrelated conceptual advancements in the study of ethnic entrepreneurship ‐ transnational entrepreneurship and the synergy of entrepreneurship in community building.     

A Hybrid Model of Moral Panics: Synthesizing the Theory and Practice of Moral Panic Research

We seek to address criticisms of the concept of moral panics (MPs) by offering a hybrid model of MPs that synthesizes theory and practice of MPs research. A review of the literature on MPs from sociology, media studies and related fields shows a wide variety of usage and lack of conceptual clarity of the term ‘moral panic’. Yet there are few articles explaining how to analyze MPs. We present a theoretical clarification of MPs by addressing elements of scope, intensity and reception, to create distinction from other related theoretical concepts. To develop a working method for researching MPs, one must have an understanding of social conditions that give rise to, sustain and result in the success or failure of MPs, as well as possible lasting effects. We synthesize Cohen’s process-oriented model of MPs and Goode & Ben-Yehuda’s attribution-oriented model of MPs, creating a critical hybrid model of MPs that integrates processes and attributes. We then utilize the hybrid model to offer practical suggestions for researching and analyzing the conditions, processes and effects of MPs, in the hopes of encouraging a more rigorous research agenda for scholars of MPs.     

How to make head or tail of ‘bridging’ and ‘bonding’?: addressing the methodological ambiguity1

A distinction has recently been proposed between bridging (or encompassing) and bonding (or inward-looking) social networks. However, existing theoretical contributions remain vague as to the fundamental meaning of both concepts. As a consequence, two distinct interpretations have developed alongside each other. In the present paper, we employ data on voluntary association membership in Flanders to empirically illustrate that both approaches can lead to substantially different outcomes and therefore appear to tap into different dimensions of bridging versus bonding. These findings underline the problematic nature of the current conceptual ambiguity. We conclude that should the bridging/bonding distinction add meaningfully to our understanding of the external effects of social networks, it is essential to resolve the conceptual and methodological imprecision.     

Ursache oder Urheber: Argumente gegen einen reduktiven IndividualismusCause or Creator: Arguments against Reductionist Individualism

In sociological action theory, individualistic positions typically criticize practice theoretical approaches in regard to their assumption that individual acts are the products of collective social processes. Instead, individualistic theories generally reduce every action and all social processes to individual actors. This critique on practice theoretical arguments, however, is based on a missing distinction between the cause and the creator of the social meaning of action. Drawing on conceptual distinctions between cause and creator, causality and coordination, and causality and constitution of meaning, I will reject the individualistic critique on theories of practice in this article. Furthermore, I will determine problems of a social theory that is based on an individualistic ontology more generally.     

Wie valide sind Selbsteinschätzungen der Empathie?

Despite the relevance of the empathy-construct with regard to social behaviour, only some of the items, which are supposed to assess empathy, are theoretically useful according to Holz-Ebeling and Steinmetz (1995). This study investigates the empirical validity of the theoretically estimated useful items. As validity aspects, connections of the self-estimation with the estimation of empathy by others, with the “objective” measure of the perspective coordination, as well as connections with the self-estimated social competence, uncertainty orientation and the mental health, are investigated. Results show that different dimensions of self-estimation empathy correlate differently with other-estimation and “objective” indicators of perspective-coordination and thereby affirm the multidimensionality of the empathy-construct. As conclusion, the need to validate empathy self-reports using objective measurements is emphasised and possibilities to promote the relevant dimensions of empathy which are important to solve conflicts are developed.