What's All this Talk About Emotion? Developing Emotional Intelligence in Social Work Students

The capacity to manage emotional reactions effectively, frequently in complex care settings, is central to the role of a social worker. Nonetheless, there is evidence that social work students frequently find their placements emotionally demanding and stressful. It is proposed that emotional intelligence may help students manage their emotional reactions more effectively during placements and their subsequent career. To date, however, little systematic research has explored whether emotional intelligence and associated competencies can be enhanced during social work training and the implications for wellbeing. This paper presents a mixed-methods two-stage study which aimed to increase emotional competencies in social work students during the first year of training. More specifically, it assesses the impact of a workshop designed to enhance emotional competencies and an emotional writing task on levels of emotional intelligence, reflective ability and empathy which were assessed via questionnaire and reflective logs pre- and post-intervention (Times 1 and 2). Levels of reflective ability and empathy increased significantly between Times 1 and 2 and psychological distress decreased. Content analysis of reflective logs found evidence that reflective ability, empathy and emotional intelligence were enhanced following the interventions. The implications of the findings for the development of the curriculum are considered.     

Design catalogue for eco-engineering of coastal artificial structures: a multifunctional approach for stakeholders and end-users

Urban Ecosystems - Coastal urbanisation, energy extraction, food production, shipping and transportation have led to the global proliferation of artificial structures within the coastal and marine...     

‘A Common Sense of the Times’? Neo‐liberalism and Changing Public Opinion in New Zealand and the UK

Neo‐liberalism represents a significant and enduring shift in the politics shaping social policy. Although frequently ascribed a hegemonic, all‐powerful status that focuses our attention on the coherence found in neo‐liberal policies, this article builds on scholarly work highlighting variegation in the neo‐liberal project across different policy areas, national settings and time periods. Specifically, it employs Peck's and Tickell's (2002) view that neo‐liberalism has gone through multiple phases in response to both external and internal crises as an entry point for studying neo‐liberalism's impact on public support for the welfare state. Drawing upon New Zealand and British attitudinal data, the article argues that public reactions to an early period of retrenchment (‘roll‐back’ neo‐liberalism) differ from those reported in the ‘roll‐out’ or embedding phase of neo‐liberalism implemented by Third Way Labour Governments in both countries. Indeed, continuing public support in many policy areas arguably contributed to the internal crisis that provoked an adaptation to the neo‐liberal project. The article further explores public support for the welfare state following the external crisis provoked by the financial meltdown of 2008–09 asking whether New Zealand and British attitudes showed signs of resisting austerity measures or whether they, instead, indicated a third, ‘roll‐over’ period of neo‐liberalism where the public accepted not only a neo‐liberal economic agenda but also the need for further retrenchment of the welfare state. Conclusions about the politics of social policy at the level of public opinion offer both good and bad news for welfare state advocates.     

Transformational leadership and ambidexterity in the context of an acquisition

This study explores the role of transformational leadership and the values incorporated in a learning culture in promoting ambidexterity (the ability to explore new capabilities while exploiting existing ones) in teams involved in acquisition integrations. Data from a field study of an acquisition integration (N = 71 work teams) support hypotheses arguing that transformational leadership behaviors and the development of a learning culture, characterized by psychological safety, openness to diverse opinions, and participation in decision making, promote ambidexterity at the team level. We also found support for the association between transformational leadership and learning cultures.     

BRINGING CLIENTS BACK IN:

Using qualitative data from a cohort sample of 76 current or former Wall Street professionals, I argue that the perception that clients prefer homophily with their service providers shapes Wall Street careers and contributes to gender inequality. I also reveal how some women on Wall Street partially insulate themselves from biases against them by deliberately avoiding positions that are most dependent on client relationships. I hypothesize that the strength of client preferences for homophily in service providers in the Wall Street context is related to the high status of this service profession and its clients.     

A Semiparametric Approach to Risk Assessment for Quantitative Outcomes

Characterizing the dose-effect relationship and estimating acceptable exposure levels are the primary goals of quantitative risk assessment. A semiparametric approach is proposed for risk assessment with continuously measured or quantitative outcomes which has advantages over existing methods by requiring fewer assumptions. The approach is based on pairwise ranking between the response values in the control group and those in the exposed groups. The work generalizes the rank-based Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test, which for the two-group comparison is effectively a test of whether a response from the control group is different from (larger than) a response in an exposed group. We develop a regression framework that naturally extends this metric to model the dose effect in terms of a risk function. Parameters of the regression model can be estimated with standard software. However, inference requires an additional step to estimate the variance structure of the estimated parameters. An effective dose (ED) and associated lower confidence limit (LED) are easily calculated. The method is supported by a simulation study and is illustrated with a study on the effects of aconiazide. The method offers flexible modeling of the dose effect, and since it is rank-based, it is more resistant to outliers, nonconstant variance, and other departures from normality than previously described approaches.     

Detecting ongoing intimate partner violence in the emergency department using a simple 4-question screen: the OVAT

We wanted to prospectively evaluate the use of a brief screening tool for ongoing intimate partner violence (IPV), the OVAT, and to validate this tool against the present Index of Spouse Abuse (ISA). The design was a prospective survey during randomized 4-hour shifts in an urban emergency department setting. The scale consists of four questions developed based on our previous work. The ISA was compared as the gold standard for detection of present (ongoing) IPV. Of 362 eligible patients presenting during 75 randomized 4-hour shifts, 306 (85%) completed the study. The prevalence of ongoing IPV using the OVAT was 31% (95% CI 26% to 36%). For the ISA, the prevalence was 20% (95% CI 16% to 25%). Compared with the ISA, the sensitivity of the OVAT in detecting ongoing IPV was 86%, specificity 83%, negative predictive value 96%, positive predictive value 56%, with an accuracy of 84%. In conclusion, four brief questions can detect ongoing IPV to aid in identifying the victim.