Multidimensional approach to helping emotionally abused and neglected children and abusive parents

Emotional abuse is notoriously difficult to define and, thus, to assess and operationalise for intervention purposes. This paper addresses these issues and emphasises the heterogeneous nature of emotional maltreatment, a fact that demands a multi-level, multidimensional approach to intervention. Some of the available methods for tackling the various facets of a complex social and personal problem will be outlined and discussed. Social work and other professionals involved in child care protection work may find the material provided here helpful when working with these children and families. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Introduction to the Issue

Gordon Willard Allport was born more than 100 years ago on November 11, 1897. In honor of the centennial of his birth, this issue of the Journal presents a collection of articles on the social psychology of prejudice and intergroup relations—the field that Allport pioneered with his classic 1954 book, The Nature of Prejudice. The articles provide insights into both perpetrators and targets of prejudice and the conflict that often takes place between members of different societal groups. In the tradition of Gordon Allport, these articles demonstrate that it is possible for social science to make theoretical, empirical, and practical contributions to the understanding and resolution of social problems. This introductory article high-lights Allport's contributions to the social psychology of prejudice and intergroup relations. Overviews of the articles in this issue are also provided, and the recurring theoretical and methodological approaches are considered.     

Integrating Theory and Research on the Institutional Determinants of Fertility

This article links recent conceptual theories regarding the determinants of fertility with research designs appropriate for testing those theories. The most important causal factors in these theories--typically social or cultural institutions, occasionally emergent properties of the collective behavior of individuals--are properly conceptualized at the macro level. Research designs must therefore feature variation at this level and are at a minimum comparative. Noncomparative micro-level research designs will be misspecified from the standpoint of theory. A case is also made for continuing to incorporate the observation of individual-level behavior into any comprehensive research design. A focus on macro determinants of fertility does not imply that fertility outcomes are determined at the institutional level. Instead, there remains some process whereby systemic properties are translated into individual behaviors. Recommendations for comparative community-level studies are discussed. The multilevel analysis framework is reviewed as a paradigm for the conceptual features of cross-contextual analysis.     

Graduate Training and Initial Job Placement*

This study examines the extent to which professional credentials accrued during graduate school are related to postgraduate employment. The undergraduate and graduate records, demographic characteristics, and initial job placements of 711 Ph.D. recipients from the University of California, Santa Barbara, are analyzed. We find that several aspects of graduate training (e.g., holding research assistantships) have greater influence on the initial placement of women than men. Further, coauthored publications with the mentor influence the initial placement of men and women somewhat differently. Given the importance of initial placement in determining career productivity (e.g., Long and McGinnis, 1981; Reskin, 1978). these differences may have considerable impact on professional life chances.     

Leaving a licensed boarding house: transcending trans-institutionalisation with person-centred transitions

While de-institutionalisation set out with the laudable aim to improve the quality of life of people with disability, the untethering of accommodation from support services has in some cases led to less than desirable outcomes. Poor regulation of for-profit boarding houses licensed to care for people with disability has led to the exploitation and abuse of some of Australia’s most vulnerable and marginalised people. Recognition of this, and a number of other factors, has led to the closure of many of New South Wales’ licensed boarding houses. This research presents the experiences of 15 former residents of licensed boarding houses and their supporters spanning from their time as a resident, the transition to other accommodation and their quality of life post transition. While finding the transition challenging, almost all of the former residents identified improvements in their lives since leaving the boarding house.     

Objective knowledge out of ignorance: Popper on body,mind, and the third world

In the fifties, Popper defended an interactionistic version of body-mind dualism. It distinguished between the world of physical bodies and states and the world of mental states. Later he added a third world of objective thought contents. He claims the assumption that there is the third world is a necessary presupposition of problem-solving in general and of his philosophy of science in particular. The present article contains separate reasonings to the effect that this presupposition is neither necessary nor even possible. It is further argued that postulating the existence of entities makes sense only relative to a criterion of ontological commitment, which Popper does not mention and obviously does not have, and that in addition it presupposes a theory, which is tentatively accepted as true and which according to the criterion implies the existence of the entities. But as yet there is no testable theory involving terms like mind, intention etc., which made the notion that itself or its terms are essentially different from what is already known in the empirical sciences at least plausible. Therefore the body-mind controversy is still pointless. Popper's stand on it seems to be but a reflex of his anti-behavioristic and anti-psychologistic attitude.     

Reviews

Tony (A.R.J.) Kushner, The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British Society During the Second World War (Manchester: Manchester’ University Press, 1989), Pp.ix + 257. £29.95.

Calvin W. Ruck, The Black Battalion, 1916–1920: Canada's Best Kept Military Secret. (Halifax NS: Nimbus Publishing, 1987). Pp.124. £6.95 pb.

Valerie Marett, Immigrants Settling in the City (London: Leicester University Press, 1989). Pp.vii + 207. £35 hb.

Keith Thompson, Under Siege: Racial Violence in Britain Today, (London: Penguin Books, 1988). Pp.xx + 204. £3.99p/b.

W. Montgomery Watt, Islamic Fundamentalism and Modernity (London: Routledge, 1988). Pp.ii + 158. £25.00.     

Adaptive Jonckheere-type tests for ordered alternatives

Testing against ordered alternatives in the c -sample location problem plays an important role in statistical practice. The parametric test proposed by Barlow et al .-in the following, called the 'B-test'-is an appropriate test under the model of normality. For non-normal data, however, there are rank tests which have higher power than the B-test, such as the Jonckheere test or so-called Jonckheere-type tests introduced and studied by Buning and Kossler. However, we usually have no information about the underlying distribution. Thus, an adaptive test should be applied which takes into account the given data set. Two versions of such an adaptive test are proposed, which are based on the concept introduced by Hogg in 1974. These adaptive tests are compared with each of the single Jonckheere-type tests in the adaptive scheme and also with the B-test. It is shown via Monte Carlo simulation that the adaptive tests behave well over a broad class of symmetric distributions with short, medium and long tails, as well as for asymmetric distributions.