Differences by Race in Social Work Students’ Social Distancing,Treatment Options,and Perceptions of Causes of Mental Illness

ABSTRACT

Research has shown that racial and cultural differences are related to the degree of social distancing associated with mental illness, beliefs about what causes mental illness, and what treatment options are best; however, there is little information on how this may manifest in social workers’ perceptions of these issues. This cross-sectional survey analyzed the differences in perceptions by race of 835 students enrolled in social work classes in the United States. Results indicated that individuals who self-identify as African American/Black expressed the greatest social distance concerning mental illness. Whites were most likely to endorse the use of medication and were least likely to normalize mental illness. The most frequently endorsed mental health provider varied according to racial/ethnic groups. Our findings show that future research may be needed to further investigate the conceptualization of the role of social work among different groups. The need for self-reflection and keeping biases in check are discussed as implications for social work practice and education. Suggestions for working with diverse clients, including religious diversity, are offered as well.     

A test for the composite hypothesis that a population has a gamma distribution

A test of the composite hypothesis that a population has a gamma distribution is presented. The test is conducted by using a rank test of bivariate independence, such as the one .based on Kendallfs sample tau coefficient. The performance of the test is examined by means of a Monte Carlo study.     

Crossover designs for comparing test treatments to a control treatment when subject effects are random

We study crossover designs for the comparisons of several test treatments versus a control treatment and partially generalize the results of Hedayat and Yang (2005) to the situation in which subject effects are assumed to be random. More specifically, we establish lower bounds for the trace of the inverse of the information matrix for the test treatments versus control comparisons under a random subject effects model and show that most of the small size (3-, 4- and 5-period) designs introduced by Hedayat and Yang (2005) are highly efficient in the class of designs in which the control treatment appears equally often in all periods and no treatment is immediately preceded by itself.     

Forest ethnography: An approach to study the environmental history and political ecology of urban forests

Urban Ecosystems - A landscape succession paradigm has shaped much of our understanding about the processes of forest emergence and transformation in the United States. Drawing heavily from theory...     

Emotion Knowledge,Loneliness, Negative Social Experiences,and Internalizing Symptoms Among Low‐income Preschoolers

Children with poor emotion knowledge (EK) skills are at risk for externalizing problems; less is known about early internalizing behavior. We examined multiple facets of EK and social‐emotional experiences relevant for internalizing difficulties, including loneliness, victimization, and peer rejection, in Head Start preschoolers (N = 134; M = 60 months). Results based on multiple informants suggest that facets of EK are differentially related to negative social‐emotional experiences and internalizing behavior and that sex plays a moderating role. Behavioral EK was associated with self‐reported loneliness, victimization/rejection, and parent‐reported internalizing symptoms. Emotion recognition and expressive EK were related to self‐reported loneliness, and emotion situation knowledge was related to parent‐reported internalizing symptoms and negative peer nominations. Sex moderated many of these associations, suggesting that EK may operate differently for girls vs. boys in the preschool social context. Results are discussed with regard to the role of EK for social development and intervention implications.     

Investment and planning in R & D

When planning investment in R & D the required resources must be available—including intellectual resources. Ideally all the issues should be clear: and the R & D programme itself should be the most direct route to the objective, avoiding costly lavishness that may divert attention and effort. Innovation involves using intellectual capital and resources to their best advantage, for commercially worthwhile technical progress in industry. Planning is one of the ‘tools’ and both R & D and investment are ‘materials’ of progress. In this paper, the author examines the many implications behind this statement.     

Use of a more general model for bioavailability studies

Use of a multivariate model for bioavailability crossover studies is discussed. The model affords a convenient way to obtain from untransformed data exact confidence intervals and general hypothesis tests for ratios that are pertinent for comparing formulations. Previously, confidence intervals for the case of a two period study of two formulations have been presented. This paper treats the case of three or more formulations in a study in which each subject receives each formulation. The model requires weaker assumptions than the assumptions of other models that have been commonly used. In addition to inferences on ratios, it is pointed out how to obtain from the model tests of the hypotheses of equal formulation effects, equal period effects, and equal sequence effects. The use of these concepts for studies in which a formulation is received more than once by subjects isalso discussed.     

On the distribution of a new measure of heaviness of tails

Distributional properties are given for a statistic T*, which has previously been reported to have power properties as a test of normality as attractive as those of the sample kurtosis or perhaps slightly more attractive. Asymptotic results, the mean and variance under normality, the range of variation, and approximation of critical values for testing normality are obtained     

Conspiracy culture,blame culture,and rationalisation1

This paper outlines an approach to conspiracy culture that attempts to resolve the conundrum posed by the parallel logics of conspiracy and sociological theorising, without reducing the former to an irrational response to hidden social forces. Rather, from a re‐crafting of Weber's rationalisation thesis as an analysis of the developmental logic of theories of suffering, it argues that conspiracy culture is an outcome of the means of moral accounting, or blame attribution, that inform mundane reasoning in modernity, as also are the human sciences. As part of this, the paper sketches a tentative framework of moral accounting in relation to the notion of ‘blame culture’ based in part on a distinction between a culture of blaming and the blaming of culture. This is used to argue that there is nothing irrational about conspiracy culture – or at least no more so than there is about sociology.     

The Hypothesis as Dialogue: An Interview With Paolo Bertrando

The following interview was conducted during the 29th Australian Family Therapy Conference, September 29 to October 3, 2008, at The University of Queensland, Australia. Paolo Bertrando, psychiatrist and systemic psychotherapist, was trained in Milan by Gianfranco Ceechin and Lugi Boscolo, with whom he collaborated in the 1990s. His present interests concern the dynamics of systemic therapy, the use of systemic therapy with individuals and the relevance of emotions for systemic practice. Michael Locke works as a consultant in practice development and service delivery systems at Centacare Catholic Family and Community Services, Brisbane. He has worked in both public and community based agencies utilising both systemic and brief therapy orientations with individuals, couples and families.