ICONOCLASM VERSUS INNOVATION: BUILDING A SCIENCE OF FAMILY THERAPY-COMMENTS ON MOON, DILLON, AND SPRENKLE

We dispute Moon, Dillon, and Sprenkle's (1990) claims regarding the unique advantages of qualitative methods and inherent limitations of traditional quantitative approaches for addressing the needs of family therapy research. We support the role of qualitative research as a generative phase in theory development and concur that exclusive allegiance to a standard set of research methods may limit our attention to important family therapy processes. However, we also assert the need to document generalizability of informal observations through controlled procedures using appropriate quantitative techniques. Both ethical and practical considerations demand that we document treatment efficacy based on a science of family therapy.     

ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME: A PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION OF THE EFFECTS ON GAY COUPLES AND COUPLING

The AIDS epidemic brings with it a great many changes in attitude about life and lifestyles. Among gay men this seems to mean an increased consideration about coupling and the nature of coupled relationships, along with parallel struggles around the issues of sex and intimacy. In addition, the disease has forced large numbers of people to deal with death long before the normal time. This paper discusses the impact of AIDS on the early stages of gay coupling as well as the final stage of death.     

Gender differences in factors that influence time spent planning for retirement

Retirement research has shown that planning activities are influenced by a variety of demographic and psychological variables. However, few investigations have focused on how demographic and psychological factors influence the time and effort men and women allocate to retirement preparation. In the present study, 184 individuals completed a survey designed to assess future time perspective (FTP), worry about retirement, age, and income level. Hierarchical regression techniques were used to examine how these variables influenced the amount of time men and women spent planning for and thinking about retirement. Results revealed that women spent less time thinking about retirement than men, and gender was differentially related to the factors predictive of this activity. From an applied perspective, these findings suggest that separate retirement intervention programs are warranted that meet the unique needs of working men and women.     

Advocacy by Proxy: The Children's Lobby in American Politics

This essay considers the organizational and political activity of the children's lobby in the United States with reference to four issues: how advocacy groups emerge and are sustained, how various groups are legitimated, how advocates participate in constructing a children's agenda, and how advocates respond to changes in this agenda. The essay argues that this group sector has mobilized and become stagnant in response to various structures of opportunity. Second, it suggests that children's representation evolves over time, with various facets of the issue gaining currency in turn. Attuned to these changes, advocates shift their collective focus to emerging concerns, or fail to remain viable. Third, public interest groups scramble to differentiate their programmatic foci, sources of revenue, ana services offered to members. Fourth, the essay considers how their ability to navigate these organizational concerns determines the ability of children's advocates, and of public interest groups more generally, to provide representation for otherwise marginalized groups in American politics.     

Robust weighted Cramér-von Mises Estimators of location,with minimax variance in ϵ-contamination neighbourhoods

We construct weighted Cramér-von Mises location estimators which are asymptotically normally distributed throughout an ?e-contamination neighbourhood of a given, strongly unimodal distribution function, and which minimize the maximum asymptotic variance in such neighbourhoods. Applications to the estimation of a normal or logistic mean are given.     

Methodological issues in the social cost of gambling studies

The appropriate way to classify and measure the social costs of gambling is a very important, unresolved methodological issue that has been addressed by Collins and Lapsley (2000); Thompson, Gazel, and Rickman (1999); and Walker and Barnett (1999), among others. What should be included and excluded from social cost studies continues to be a controversial issue, as illustrated in the literature and recent conferences. This paper is an attempt to explain the economics conception of social costs in accessible language. By using a simple economic model and everyday examples, it shows that the economics methodology is better than the other methodologies currently available. There are four specific goals of the paper: (1) Discuss the importance of the social cost methodological debate and the state of research in the area; (2) Explain the Walker–Barnett definition of social cost in the context of a simple production possibilities frontier and indifference curve model; (3) Use simple illustrative examples to show why many of the alleged social costs should not be classified as such; and (4) Suggest a new method for analyzing the social costs and effects attributable to pathological gambling.