Screening stress factors survey in an institute of advanced studies: health and safety integrated plans

The current paper presents the study of organizational stressors survey carried out in a military institute, responsible for researches of high demand on aerospace technology. The study considered the theoretical framework of Organizational Ergonomics, combined with the technical guidelines of Psychology applied to Work Safety. The participatory approach was used on daily work assessment and decision making, aiming the adoption of corrective and preventive measures, considering possible distortions and imbalances between prescribed and actual activities. Thus, it was sought to engage and encourage the participation of the Institute's workers in the reflection/creation of better solutions to daily problems and to achieve productivity, without prejudice in the occupational health and safety.     

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES: PREDICTING FAMILY THERAPY OUTCOME*

A pre-defined list of family therapy intervention strategies was used to predict post-therapy perceived life happiness and marital happiness among husbands and wives. Clients presented with both child and marriage-focused problems. The data were analyzed separately for husbands and wives. In general, favorable outcome for husbands was associated with active restructuring operations on the part of the therapist. Prediction of outcome for wives was less clear. However, wives did appear to respond favorably to less active interventions such as actualizing transactional patterns and reframing.     

Can't do it alone: housing collaborations to improve foster youth outcomes

Research documents that youth transitioning out of the foster care system experience a variety of negative outcomes, including homelessness. Housing collaborations, which aim to comprehensively address resource and service needs for transitioning youth, including permanent connections, education, and employment, have resulted in innovative programming and forged new relationships among child welfare, social service and housing developers, and providers. This article describes the partners, models, and resources several collaborations used and their progress and outcomes; shares insights gained; and explores productive directions for future work.     

From the Mute God to the Lesser God: disability in Medieval Celtic and Old Norse literature

The oldest Norse and Celtic literature is likely to treat of exceptionalities, including those that we would call disabilities, in a fashion quite unlike that to which we are accustomed to find in modern literature. In the archaic literature, we find mythological motifs about contact with the supernatural and the related notion of a trade-off of a body part for superhuman abilities, and at the same time we notice a general disinterest in impairments as they might affect a character's competence. While there does seem to be some concern for dangers an individual's impairment might pose to society and some desire for cures, there is no evidence for the later disabling notion of daemonic possession, little recognition that impairments might be medical conditions or personal tragedies, and no hint of marginalizing pity or consequent charity.     

Community Organization and Social Activism: Black Boston and the Antislavery Movement*

This paper uses data from an intensive study of Boston's antebellum black community to demonstrate how sustained social activism is embedded in the formal and informal institutions of the community. The social networks of cooperative institutions were primary factors in this community's ability to mobilize and sustain protest actions and to call attention to social injustice. This examination of antebellum black Boston indicates that the issue of slavery was crucial to social activism. This suggests that the presence of a salient issue which links the everyday lives of participants with a public issue may be an important factor in building a social movement based in a poor, relatively powerless community.     

Abuses and Uses of Evaluation

In its recent report entitled Through a Glass Darkly, the Senate Standing Committee on Social Welfare claims that there is insufficient evidence available to evaluate welfare services, yet even within a brief paper this can be demonstrated to be not so. The Senate Committee however chose to ignore information about services as such, in order to discuss the process of evaluation. The apparent shortcomings of current services and the way the committee largely ignored these must be viewed in the light of the role welfare fulfils within the state—a role in which serving the interests of claimants is clearly not the major component.     

Sex role perceptions and the abortion decision

This paper is concerned with the relationship between two aspects of self‐concept—perception of gender role and perceived competence—and the decision to have an abortion as a solution to a problem pregnancy. It was hypothesized that (1) there will be a positive relationship between the choice of abortion and perceived competence, and (2) there will be a negative relationship between the choice of abortion and the degree to which female role is perceived traditionally. The data came from a broader study conducted throughout Michigan during 1974–75. The study group consisted of 921 women who chose to have an abortion. A comparison group included 360 women with problem pregnancies who chose to keep their child. Data were obtained through an anonymous questionnaire which included the two relevant indices. The abortion group was found to be significantly higher in perceived competence than those who chose to keep the child, and the black abortion group was significantly less traditional than the black group which chose to keep the child. These relationships remained significant when age was controlled. Race did not affect subjects' degree of perceived competence, but blacks were more traditional than whites regardless of decision.     

A global disability indicator

Disability is difficulty performing roles and activities due to health problems. It is largely experienced by older persons as they accumulate progressive chronic conditions. To measure functional status of individuals and populations, contemporary surveys include sets of detailed items about disability. Little effort has gone into developing global indicators of disability that cover the concept briefly but well. A global disability indicator is a compact and inexpensive device for public health surveillance and scientific study of disablement. I present and critique items that have been used in North American surveys. Good candidates are selected for methodological study. Both laboratory-based cognitive studies and large-scale statistical studies are recommended; the first will reveal meanings of items and responses and the second, items' systematic structure and prediction ability. The ultimate goal is to identify one or a few fine indicators for widespread inclusion in population health surveys.