The Taxonomy, Model and Message Strategies of Social Behavior

In an era of rising social awareness, both academics and practitioners have been concerned about the effectiveness of pro‐social consumer influence strategies. The main assumption here is that for social marketing to succeed one must first understand the factors underlying pro‐social consumer behavior. Firstly, drawing on two dimensions (i.e. the welfare receiver and restitution intention) the authors first identify four types of social behavior (altruism, compensation, reciprocity, and egoism). Next, the model describes social behavior as a result of preceding social behavior motivation and actual social behavior intention. Norms and economic evaluation have an impact on social behavior motivation, which in turn influences social behavior intention, eventually leading to actual social behavior. Actual control factors, such as the availability of resources and opportunities, decide whether social behavior intention can really translate into actual social behavior. Finally, authors propose message strategies (incorporating message appeal, message frame and central/peripheral processing) for each type of social behavior.     

Why Do They Help People with AIDS/HIV Online? Altruistic Motivation and Moral Identity

Abstract

With the help of information and communication technologies, people can enjoy online social services, especially some stigmatized groups. In China, it is popular for AIDS patients to seek help online since the anonymity of cyberspace can protect people from stigmas and mocking evaluations. This article conducts a content analysis on 216 volunteers’ applications in an AIDS forum and measures their online helping behavior after application to explore what motivates volunteers to help AIDS patients online, how it affects them, and why the moral implication attached to AIDS fails to prevent them. The author indicates that helping behavior may be inspired by varied motivation from altruism to egoism, including kindness, values, sympathy, reward, atonement and benefit. Among them, the closer to altruism the motivation is, the more likely it is to be mentioned, while the “reward” motivation has the most significant effect. This article then examines volunteers’ moral identity of AIDS, arguing that the moral identity of humanitarianism can counteract the moral criticism of high-risk behavior related to AIDS. Future research in this area should examine the relationship between motivation and moral identity, the change in different phases, and compare different helping situations to encourage more forms of social services and supportive behavior.     

Beneficial Effect of Altruism on Well-Being Among Chinese College Students: The Role of Self-Esteem and Family Socioeconomic Status

ABSTRACT

The motivation for voluntary social service has been identified as altruism. This study aimed to establish the relationship between altruism and well-being in Chinese college students at the undergraduate level. To better understand altruism, two groups were selected, one that used self-reporting and another related to the perception of peers. Self-reported altruism and self-reported decisions to help in real-life situations were measured in the first sample (N₁ = 525); peer-rated altruism was measured in the second sample (N₂ = 189). The results showed (when socially desirable responding was controlled) (1) self-reported altruism and self-reported decisions to help exerted significant direct effects on well-being, while peer-rated altruism did not; (2) self-esteem mediated the effects of self-reported altruism, self-reported decisions to help, and peer-rated altruism on well-being; (3) family socioeconomic status moderated the effects of self-reported altruism on well-being via self-esteem; college students with low family socioeconomic status were more likely to reap benefits from altruism. These findings confirm the emotion-elevating effects of altruism in collectivistic societies like China, which may encourage more people to engage in voluntary social service. Future research should adopt longitudinal or experimental designs with a more nationally representative sample to better confirm these findings.     

Assessing the value of family safety networks in child protective services: Early findings from Minnesota

The considerable number of families served continues to place systemic challenges on the child welfare system. Jurisdictions are turning to new strategies to increase family engagement in services and to leverage taxed or limited resources. Signs of Safety® is a strengths‐based and safety‐focused approach to child protection work that is grounded in partnership and collaboration. This exploratory pilot study with a referred participant sample used interviews with 26 parents and 32 safety network members to explore respondents' perceptions and use of a safety plan and safety network, core components of the Signs of Safety framework. Findings from this pilot investigation include insights about how safety plans and safety networks are established, how they function, and opportunities for enhancing their use with families with the goal of providing supports that increase the likelihood of continued safety for children after case closure. Preliminary results also suggest these tools may contribute to reduced re‐reports to child protection.     

中等国家与全球多边治理

尽管中等国家的概念内涵存在争议,但是它们在国际社会中的地位、利益、共有观念和认同等使其成为塑造全球多边治理的重要力量。中等国家可根据不同情势,灵活选择个体主义、社会交往及制度主义方式中的一种或多种,旨在实现全球多边治理的系列目标和努力提升它们在国际舞台上的话语权和影响力。从现实层面来看,多边主义是中等国家在准确定位自身能力之后而形成的"利他"与"利己"彼此交错的优先选择,但这种选择面临着巨大的挑战。     

The advantages and disadvantages of different social welfare strategies

This paper presents a framework for consideration of change in or reform of social welfare systems. The author describes characteristics of the approaches to providing social welfare most commonly used in North America and western Europe. These include social insurance, employer mandates, individual mandates, voluntary arrangements (tax expenditures), means-tested programmes, and universal programmes (demogrants). He then evaluates each of the approaches in terms of its ability to achieve a set of social and economic objectives. The social protection objectives include treating people with dignity and respect, assuring complete coverage, equitably distributing costs and benefits, and operating efficiently to lower overhead. The objectives important to promoting a healthy economic environment include encouraging individual saving and work effort, fostering government fiscal responsibility, and facilitating smooth market functioning. The author concludes that there is no one correct way to organize social welfare systems, that each approach has strengths and weaknesses, and that different societies will attach different priorities to different objectives. Thus, as social goals change, we may expect that the particular mix of approaches used will also evolve and change over time.     

Parents' involvement in care order decisions: a cross‐country study of front‐line practice

This article examines parents' involvement in care order decision‐making in four countries at one particular point in the care order process, namely, when the child protection worker discusses with the parents his or her considerations regarding child removal. The countries represent different child welfare systems with Norway and Finland categorized as ‘family service systems’ and the USA as a ‘child protection system’, with England somewhere in between. The focus is on whether the forms and intensity of involvement are different in these four countries and whether the system orientation towards family services or child protection influences practice in the social welfare agencies with parents. Involvement is studied in terms of providing information to parents, collecting information from parents and ensuring inclusion in the decision‐making processes. A vignette method is employed in a survey with 768 responses from child protection workers in four countries. The findings do not show a consistent pattern of difference regarding parental involvement in care order preparations that align with the type of child welfare system in which staff work. The goal in each child welfare system is to include parents, but the precise ways in which it is carried out (or not) vary. Methodological suggestions are given for further studies.     

Every Three Seconds: A Review of an Innovative Documentary on Research and Stigma Surrounding Dementia Across the Globe

Every Three Seconds is an innovative documentary provided by Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) and In the Moment (ITM) Productions which explores the impacts of dementia, national and international frameworks and strategies for helping communities,and technological advancements aimed to slow and potentially cure dementia in addition to efforts to raise awareness and reduce stigma. In this review, a general summary of the documentary is provided and its organization, audience and quality related concerns, relevance to gerontological social work and social welfare, the credibility of ADI and key strengths and weaknesses of the film are also explored. Finally, the review concludes with a discussion of how this documentary may be useful for caregivers,individuals with dementia, researchers, and lay audience members alike as well as how it may be used in classroom and/or in organizational settings.     

超越国家利己主义：气候变化与生态价值观

在气候变化问题上,各主权国家过多关心国家利益,极少关注相关的道德义务,造成了利益与道德严重失衡的现象。事实证明,主权国家之间缺乏道德基础的利益纷争只会使气候变化问题更加难以解决,必须促进各主权国家形成基本的道德共识,世界气候大会达成的气候变化协议才会得到自觉而有效的实施。就目前的国际社会而言,道德共识的形成需要超越国家利己主义,需要强有力的全球政府。生态价值观的培育与普及有利于超越国家利己主义。     

Re‐Conceiving the Good Life – the Key to Sustainable Globalisation

Resource‐intensive, high‐carbon, Western lifestyles are frequently criticised as unsustainable and deeply unsatisfying. However, these lifestyles are still attractive to the majority of Westerners and to a high proportion of the developing world's middle classes. This paper argues that the imminent threat of catastrophic climate change constitutes an immediate political, economic and ethical challenge for citizens of the developed world that cannot be tackled by appeals to asceticism or restraint. There can be no solution to climate change until sustainable conceptions of the good life are developed that those in the West want to live and which others might want to live. While the ultimate solution to climate change is the development of low carbon lifestyles, it is important that government initiatives, governance arrangements and economic incentives support rather than undermine that search. Like the global financial crisis, the climate change crisis also demonstrates what happens when weaknesses in national, corporate and professional governance are exacerbated by weaknesses in global governance. In tackling the latter, it is critical the mistakes now evidenced in the former are avoided – including a rethinking of carbon market and carbon tax alternatives. It is also critical that individuals must take responsibility for their actions as consumers, voters and investors.     

The sexual division of labour: A qualitative analysis of social organisations in Peru

This is a study on participation in civil society organisations in Peru, which adopts a gender perspective to understand the dynamics of social welfare production in a family model, and in which there is also a preponderance of community intervention in the field of social protection. The study uses a qualitative methodology and an ethnographic analysis based on 21 organisations. The results indicate polarity of discourses between those who recognise gender differentiation and those who consider that there is gender equality. Despite the polarity, differences in roles, quantity and quality of services, leadership, involvement and motivation are shown. The differences identified vary according to the type of organisation, which shows the relationship between the organisations and the intervention in territories-regions.     

Welfare Chauvinism in Populist Radical Right Platforms: The Role of Redistributive Justice Principles

Welfare chauvinism has become an important element in the agenda of the populist radical right. This article proposes a novel argument to explain variation in the strength of welfare chauvinist appeals across social policy programmes. It theorizes that the redistributive justice principles (equity, equality, and need) that underpin a social programme matter. Equality‐ and need‐based programmes are more likely to contradict a nativist worldview in principle or practice, whereas equity‐based schemes are less vulnerable to welfare chauvinistic appeals. As a consequence, welfare chauvinism should be targeted at social policies that provide universal or means‐tested benefits. Insurance‐based systems are more likely to be immune. This argument is tested through a qualitative content analysis of populist radical right election manifestos in four West European democracies. The results show that insurance‐based systems (pensions, unemployment) are less likely to attract welfare chauvinism, whereas universal healthcare and means‐tested social assistance programmes are more prone to draw nativist appeals. Universal family allowances, however, are less likely to attract welfare chauvinism than predicted by the theory.     

How does socio-economic environment influence the distribution of altruism?

This paper analyzes how socio-economic environment affects the extent of individual altruism and its distribution within a society. We show that if the socio-economic institution that structures interactions between individuals can be represented by a supermodular game, individuals tend to become more homogeneous in terms of altruism as spillover effects increase. This implies that people living close to one another and engaging in joint production, such as irrigation agriculture in a rural village, are more likely to exhibit similar levels of altruism than those living apart and engaging in more or less independent work.     

The Resurgence of Community Centres

Small community centres have mushroomed in numbers during the 1980s. Most State welfare departments have announced policies and funding programs to support these centres. These policies espouse potentially conflicting purposes. They include the community development goal of mobilising the community through self help ventures, the reform of the social service delivery system via a local base for better services, and the devolution of welfare responsibilities from central government agencies to community groups.     

From altruism to sociality: A switch in perception

The article critically reviews concepts and uses of the term altruism in relation to the emergence of the capitalist welfare state. It argues that altruism may be regarded as a fetishized representation of ‘sociality’ and that notions of altruism tend to obscure or distort understandings of the essential social interdependence that characterises humanity as a species. The article reaches back to anthropological evidence, to religious and philosophical influences, and to insights from scientific inquiry and it makes a case for a humanistic switch in perspective within the study of social policy.     

Spirituality and child welfare reunification: a narrative analysis of successful outcomes

When children are removed from their families because of maltreatment, the child welfare system seeks reunification whenever possible. Despite the importance of this goal, little is known about families who are able to achieve and maintain successful reunification. This qualitative study conducted in‐depth interviews with 15 families who completed their child welfare case plans, were reunited with their children and remained together for at least 1 year post‐reunification. Narrative analysis using a combination of thematic and structural coding was completed to examine the strengths and process families discussed related to their successful child welfare outcomes. This paper discusses one of those strengths, spirituality, in greater depth. Specifically, 12 participants situated the strength of spirituality within their stories as an important narrative element they perceived as critical, leading to important changes. Findings highlight the benefits some families receive from their spiritual beliefs, practices and faith communities when working towards reunification, suggesting child welfare practitioners be prepared to identify and honour this family strength.     

Altruism,Social Responsibility,and Government Support For Social Welfare

The study concerns altruistic behaviour in Hong Kong and its relation to social responsibility and support of government responsibility for social welfare. The findings indicated that the community as a whole is likely to engage in altruistic acts. The responses reflect a sense of social responsibility as the most important factor contributing to the explanation of altruism. Independent of other characteristics, those respondents who were more socially responsible were more altruistic. These findings suggest that the people's willingness to help others is largely independent of concern about the interests of society as a priority of responsibility. The general finding is that people are more concerned with individual or familial interests and would sacrifice the interests of society in situations where the two are in conflict.     

低保对象为何退保难?动态分析策略下的退保模式及其变迁趋势研究

本文基于民政部2014年“中国城乡困难家庭社会政策支持系统建设”调查的数据，运用事件史分析方法，对城市低保接受时长和退保影响因素进行探究。研究发现，低保对象的救助接受时间呈现明显的长期化特点，但随着低保接受时间的延长，低保对象退保风险会逐渐上升。这与“时间依赖论”关于长期化救助接受会逐渐弱化救助对象工作伦理，进而造成救助退出可能性逐步下降的理论预设恰好相反，说明中国城市低保对象退保难与工作积极性下降无关。进一步的研究发现，弱势化的低保人口构成及就业救助服务缺失是长期低保接受的重要原因。此外，中国的非正规就业结构也对退保构成显著的不利影响，不过，该影响随着时代的发展在不断减弱。     

Comparing statistical packages: SPSS,Biomed, and SAS

SPSS, Biomed, and SAS are three statistical packages widely available to social scientists. Although similar, each has different capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Beside their use on mainframe computers, each is available for personal computers.     

Chinese seniors’ attitudes towards government responsibility for social welfare: Self‐interest,collectivism orientation and regional disparities

Government responsibility for social welfare remains a significant issue in the field of social welfare. Public welfare attitudes not only refer to the social needs of members of society, but also are viewed as the basis for government responsibility for social welfare. Data used in this study came from the Moderate Universalist Social Welfare Survey with a final sample of 1,166 seniors from four Chinese cities in 2012. This study examined seniors’ attitudes towards government responsibility for providing specific welfare and mixed welfare. It concluded that seniors’ welfare attitudes share the traits of self‐interest in general. Seniors’ perception of social rights and cities of residence were two important factors associated with welfare attitudes in both aspects of specific and mixed welfare. The stronger seniors’ social rights perception was the more favourable were the attitudes they held towards government responsibility for social welfare, indicating the collectivism orientation of their welfare attitudes.