The Impact of Emotions on Practicum Learning

Nine mature aged, experienced practitioners enrolled to gain a BSW qualification in social work were interviewed regarding a course requirement to complete the first placement. At the time of interview no recognition of prior learning for previous experience in the field was made possible for these students. As educators we had experienced considerable hostility from students who believed they should be exempt from completing this course requirement. This paper reports on interviews with the nine students, where we consider how student sentiment about completing the practice learning component might impact upon their learning experience. As anticipated, some students expressed strong negative views about being on placement. However, others were much more positive about the experience. These mixed views prompted us to explore further the relationship between emotion and practice learning. The article begins with a review of the literature concerning mature student engagement with tertiary education, followed by an overview of theory and research related to the ways feelings and emotion influence learning. Using passages from the interviews, expressions of participant anxiety, anger and excitement about the practicum are discussed with the view to extending discourse about practicum learning to include consideration of emotional intelligence and investment.     

Gender and Aging in the Developing World: Where Are the Men?

In recent years, both population aging and gender issues have gained prominence in international forums concerned with population. It is frequently asserted or implied that older women are universally more vulnerable to social, economic, and health disadvantages than older men. The most significant manifestation of this exclusive concern with women when considering gender and aging is the Plan of Action adopted by the Second World Assembly on Aging in 2002. The assumed relative disadvantage of elderly women is commonly attributed to gender differences in earlier life experiences. But are older women truly disadvantaged globally with respect to all or most essential aspects of well‐being? The authors provide empirical evidence that clearly shows that older women are not invariably disadvantaged vis‐à‐vis men. In particular, they call into question the wisdom and equity of a virtually exclusive emphasis on the needs of women when incorporating gender concerns into policies and programs related to aging. A more balanced perspective that recognizes gender as a potential, but not necessarily central, marker of vulnerability for various aspects of well‐being in specific settings and times, and that allows for male as well as female disadvantage, would serve the current and future elderly generations far better.     

Differences between lesbians and heterosexual women in disordered eating and related attitudes

This study examined differences between lesbians and heterosexual women on disordered eating, awareness and internalization of cultural attitudes concerning thinness, and body esteem concerning weight, physical condition, and sexual attractiveness. In this community sample, lesbians exhibited higher levels of body esteem concerning sexual attractiveness and lower levels of internalization of cultural standards. No differences were found on awareness of cultural standards, disordered eating, or body esteem concerning either weight or physical condition. Implications are discussed.     

Repairing the nest: A psychodynamic developmental approach to clients with severe behavior disorders

In this article, the authors explicate concepts from psychodynamic developmental theory that can foster affirmative assessment and intervention with clients who have developmental disabilities and present severe behavior disorders. A case example illustrates how making bonding the primary goal of intervention appears to facilitate positive behavior change in these clients while reducing feelings of helplessness and discouragement in their caregivers.     

The Career-Personal Dichotomy: Perceptual Reality,Practical Illusion,and Workplace Integration

The implicit definitions we give to career and personal counseling reflect a dichotomy between the two areas of research and practice. The field's research focus and counseling trainees' early practice experience probably reinforce the idea that career counseling is prototypically concerned with young adult career choice. A case study of targeted coaching in business is presented to illustrate how career and personal issues are intertwined in adult career adjustment.     

Who is responsible for household tasks in long term marriages of the “young-old” elderly?

Little is known about the way in which golden anniversary couples divide the responsibility for household tasks. This article examines the division of responsibility for 12 households tasks within a sample of 18 couples. At least one partner is under 75 years of age, the findings indicate that these young-old couples have developed interdependent, gender differentiated divisions of household tasks, although they share several tasks. There is congruence between what they expect and how they actually divide the responsibility for household tasks.     

Perceived Racial Discrimination and Self-Esteem in African American Youth: Racial Socialization as a Protective Factor

Racial socialization was examined as a protective factor that might buffer African American youth from the negative effects of perceived racial discrimination. Two types of racial socialization were examined: messages about race pride and preparation for bias. One hundred twenty-eight eighth-grade African American students participated in the study. As anticipated, both types of socialization moderated the relationship between discrimination and self-esteem. The negative relationship between perceived discrimination and self-esteem was mitigated for youth who reported more messages about race pride and a moderate amount of preparation for bias from their parents. In contrast, low race pride socialization and both high and low preparation for bias were associated with a negative relationship between perceived discrimination and self-esteem.     

Lesbian Blood Drives as Community-Building Activism in the 1980s

As gay men began voluntarily withdrawing from blood donation in the early 1980s, lesbians in community with gay men in several U.S. cities organized drives to replenish the blood supply. These drives were sometimes the continuation of previously established drives by gay–lesbian organizations or faith communities, sometimes new initiatives in response to HIV/AIDS. However, after the initial publicity, mention of lesbian blood drives in print is both scarce and brief. Focusing on drives organized from 1983 to 1992 by a group known as San Diego Blood Sisters, this article is an initial step in documenting lesbian blood drives to inform and enrich conversations about histories of responses to HIV/AIDS, theoretical discussions of how community connections in the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer spectrum are enacted and understood, and emerging research on intersections of gender and sexuality as they are expressed through blood donorship.     

Including employees with disabilities in emergency evacuation plans: 9/11's effect on the demand for information

Interest in emergency evacuation planning has increased since the September 11 terrorist attacks (9/11). In turn, the Job Accommodation Network (JAN) started receiving more questions about how to include employees with disabilities in such plans. JAN case data on the emergency evacuation of people with disabilities were reviewed. Case data from the four years prior to 9/11 (from September 11, 1997, to September 11, 2001) were compared to case data from the four years after 9/11 (from September 11, 2001, to September 11, 2005).     

Do face-to-face interactions support 6-month-olds' understanding of the communicative function of speech?

Infants by 6 months recognize that speech communicates information between third parties. We investigated whether 6-month-olds always expect speech to communicate or whether they also consider social features of communication, like how interlocutors engage with one another. A small sample of infants watched an actor (the Speaker) choose one of two objects to play with (the target). When the Speaker could no longer reach her target object, she turned to a new actor (the Listener) and said a nonsense word. During speech, the actors were either face-to-face, the Speaker was facing away from the Listener, or the reverse. When the actors had been face-to-face, infants looked longer when the Listener selected the non-target object compared to the target. Infants looked equally regardless of what the Listener chose when either actor had been disengaged. Area-of-interest gaze coding suggests that infants were similarly interested in the interaction across conditions, but their pattern of attention to Speaker and Listener differed when the Listener was disengaged during speech. Although these experiments should be replicated with a larger sample, the findings provide initial evidence that 6-month-olds do not expect speech alone to communicate, but also attend to the social context in which speech is produced.