Asylanten auf der Saualm

The following article deals with the question of how socio-political questions such as integration and asylum policy can be processed within a self-organised project and which concomitances, irritations and difficulties may be encountered; it is exemplified through a regionally based case study. The basic assumption is that topics which are relevant to current social political topics require processes which can function across systems. These processes must be sensitively steered, have a concrete application and involve structures of self-organisation. The authors outline how self-initiated projects can be supported professionally and how accompanying phenomena need to be taken up and considered as well in order to ensure that they can at least be partially steered. At the same time the authors look at social and emotional influences, including both emotions which determine the actors’ capacity to act within the project and emotions which must be considered as “environment” outside the project. The article draws analytical distinctions in order to make the complexity of the topic comprehensible. However, in actual practice all these topics interweave continuously and must be balanced accordingly.     

USE OF THE DSM IN MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY PROGRAMS: CURRENT PRACTICES AND ATTITUDES

The DSM has largely become the common language of behavioral health which its authors intended. Although family systems theory resulted in part from the study of major mental illness, it later became distanced from considerations of individual psychopathology. No studies have assessed current practices and views within the field of family therapy on teaching students the use of the DSM. Member training programs of the Education and Training Council of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy were surveyed regarding their practices in teaching the DSM. Seventy-nine of 177 surveys (45%) were returned. Ninety-one percent of these programs offered training in the DSM, and in 93% of those such training was mandatory. Written comments indicated that pragmatic concerns about students being able to speak a common language with other behavioral health providers were among the primary reasons for teaching the DSM.     

EVOLUTION AND SPONTANEOUS UNIFORMITY: EVIDENCE FROM THE EVOLUTION OF THE LIMITED LIABILITY COMPANY

We examine whether the unguided state-by-state evolution of limited liability company statutes has led to efficient interstate uniformity. Our evidence suggests significant uniformity has been produced in cases where the net benefits of uniformity are positive, and that such uniformity has not been produced by herd behavior. Our results are consistent with Alchian's intuition about the role of market processes, and suggests that the survival of efficient rules, fostered by the rational behavior of decentralized economic actors, are produced by forces beyond the control or foresight of individual lawmakers or legislatures.     

USING PATIENT NARRATIVES TO TEACH PSYCHOPATHOLOGY

Psychopathology courses are usually taught using a biomedical perspective and the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM IV) as the primary text. This can result in students developing little empathy for their patients and objectifying them as disorders rather than people with problems. Using narrative, music, and art in teaching psychopathology can balance the scientific, objective style of the DSM IV. Resources and suggestions for ways to humanize a psychopathology course are given.     

Simple random sampling with over-replacement

There are several ways to select units with replacement and an equal inclusion expectation. We present a new sampling design called simple random sampling with over-replacement. Its interest lies in the high variance produced for the Horvitz-Thompson estimator. This characteristic could be useful for resampling methods.     

Gender,Social Bond,and Academic Cheating in Japan*

There is evidence that females are less likely to cheat than males on college campuses. A frequently offered but still untested explanation is that females, with a stronger sense of responsibility for the maintenance of social relationships, tend to develop a stronger bond to a conventional society—a key explanatory concept in Hirschi’s (1969) social control theory. With academic cheating as the dependent variable, we test the hypotheses that the four elements of social bond are the intervening variables linking gender to such dishonesty among Japanese students who, due to their stronger orientation toward masculinity on Hofstede’s (1980) scale of gender role separation, are subject to more gender distinct socialization, leading to greater gender differences in the strength of social bond than those previously reported in the United States. The analysis provides rather limited support for the theory, most of which is due to the stronger belief in the legitimacy of societal rules among the females.     

Organizational tenure among child welfare workers,burnout, stress,and intent to leave: Does employment-based social capital make a difference?

Research has shown that child welfare organizations have a prominent role in safeguarding their workers from experiencing high levels of job stress and burnout, which can ultimately lead to increased thoughts of leaving. However, it is not clear whether these relationships are shaped by their length of organizational tenure. A cross-sectional research design that included a statewide purposive sample of 209 child welfare workers was used to test a theoretical model of employment-based social capital to examine how paths to job stress, burnout, and intent to leave differ between workers who have worked in a child welfare organization for less than 3 years compared to those with 3 years or more of employment in one organization. Path analysis results indicate that when a mixture of dimensions of employment-based social capital are present, they act as significant direct protective factors in decreasing job stress and indirectly shape burnout and intent to leave differently based on organizational tenure. Thus, organizations may have to institute unique intervention efforts for both sets of workers that provide immediate and long-term structures of support, resources, and organizational practices given that their group-specific needs may change over time.