Theoretical Implications of Regional Effects

Local economic institutions (systems of property rights and rules of land use) influenced the course of economic change in European history, as well as state formation and religious change. In this paper, I outline the theoretical implications of these regional effects. None of our existing macrolevel theories and explanations of the rise of the West can adequately incorporate them, so I present an alternative theory, based on rational choice premises. Yet the existence of these regional effects also highlights the deficiencies of a rational choice theoretical approach. First, the approach is unable to explain historical contexts, institutional legacies, or the effects of timing, which were vital for outcomes of social change but that lie outside the model itself. Second, although it can be very useful, the model of the actor motivated by material self-interest often proved inadequate in historical situations. Solutions are suggested.     

The child abuse and divorce myth

When the authors of this article undertook a study into the way the Australian legal process managed child abuse allegations in custody and access disputes following partnership breakdown in de facto and legal marriages, they encountered what they came to think of as ‘the child abuse and divorce myth’. The myth centred around a belief that child abuse allegations made during or after partnership breakdown were weapons fashioned to gain advantage in the marital war. Therefore, they were not real; therefore, they should not be taken seriously. Despite little previous research, these views were strongly held by both families and professionals. The article examines the myth, believed to be an international phenomenon, and shows, in detail, how the study's findings do not support it. In fact, the findings from this unique study contradict the myth in its totality and in its specific aspects. Thus, it is argued that the myth should be abandoned and a new knowledge base for professional intervention that recognizes the reality of this problem be adopted instead. As a result of the study, a new specialized intervention program for children involved in residence and contact disputes where child abuse was alleged is being trialled in the Family Court of Australia. Hopefully, the introduction of further intervention programmes based on the reality of child abuse in these circumstances rather than on the myth will follow. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Women's Career Success and Work–life Adaptations in the Accountancy and Medical Professions in Britain

This article examines gendered career paths in two feminizing and highly qualified professions. Quantitative data show that in medicine the profession is internally segregated by sex, as women tend to opt for the family friendly but clinically inferior specialty of general practice. In accountancy internal segregation by sex is considerably less evident but women fail to rise through organizational hierarchies. Qualitative interviews with qualified doctors and accountants suggest that sex discrimination is to some extent still an issue but that the major factor underlying these different gendered career trajectories is that women still retain the major responsibility for domestic work and caring. They also suggest that doctors have been able to exercise more control over their working hours than accountants and that even when accountants work part‐time, they work longer hours than contracted. Part‐time work is also seen as seriously career‐limiting. In our conclusions, we briefly examine the gender equality implications of these contrasting self‐regulated and market‐driven adaptations to occupational feminization.     

Temperamental,Parental, and Contextual Contributors to Early‐emerging Internalizing Problems: A New Integrative Analysis Approach

This study evaluated a comprehensive model of factors associated with internalizing problems (IP) in early childhood, hypothesizing direct, mediated, and moderated pathways linking child temperamental inhibition, maternal overcontrol and rejection, and contextual stressors to IP. In a novel approach, three samples were integrated to form a large sample (N = 500) of Canadian children (2–6 years; M = 3.95 years; SD = .80). Items tapping into the same constructs across samples were used to create parallel measures of inhibited temperament, maternal positive, critical, and punitive parenting, maternal negative emotionality, family socioeconomic and structural stressors, and child's IP. Multiple‐groups structural equation modeling indicated that associations were invariant across samples and did not differ for boys and girls. Child inhibition, less positive and more critical parenting, maternal negative emotionality, and family socioeconomic disadvantage were found to have direct associations with IP. In addition, maternal negative emotionality was associated with IP through more critical parenting, and both maternal negative emotionality and socioeconomic stress were associated with IP through less positive parenting. Results highlight the multiple independent and cumulative risk factors for early IP and demonstrate the power of integrating data across developmental studies.     

“That Model is Sooooo Last Millennium!” Residential Long-Term Care as a System,Not a Place

The current quandary with the design of existing long-term care settings results from focus on structures (“institutions”) instead of on a system of supports and services that transcends physical and traditional boundaries across settings, including nursing homes, assisted living residences, and the home. Supported by analyses of the commonalities, socio-historical and political contexts, core values, and fallacies of social and medical models in existing and emerging long-term care options, a holistic model is proposed based on new core values that facilitate community and family integration and that asserts dignity and personhood as universal attributes in an array of settings.     

YOUR SECOND LIFE?

This article examines the performativity of intellectual property in digital gaming environments, with a focus on Massively Multi-Player On Line Games (MMOGs). The analysis centers on the creation and management of goodwill, an intangible asset of considerable value to corporations based on affective bonds between consumers, corporations, and their commodities in the marketplace. Most critical analyses of intellectual property consider neither the centrality of goodwill to corporate management of their intellectual properties in digital environments, nor the significance of the legal conditions that structure activity in such contexts. We develop a theoretical framework based on cultures of circulation involving network sociality, circuits of interactivity and the extensibility of the computer/user interface. This enables us to better understand shifting relations of power and reciprocity between corporations and consumers in digital gaming contexts, where the division between player-consumption and player-production is increasingly blurred. Technological capacities for consumers to become producers of gaming content changes the terrain upon which conflicts between corporations and consumers about intellectual property are negotiated and enhances the value of goodwill. An examination of Linden Lab's Second Life – one of the fastest growing MMOGs and the first to affirm players’ intellectual property rights in their digital creations – provides an illustration of both the limits and possibilities afforded by goodwill as a form of emerging governance in game worlds.     

Student Knowledge of and Attitudes toward Psychotropic Drugs

Abstract

Expanding social work roles in medication management and psychoeducation, especially in mental health, clearly require that students possess an enlarged knowledge base and a set of enlightened attitudes regarding psychotropic medications and their use. This article reports the results of a survey that investigated the knowledge of and attitudes toward psychotropic medications among a population of social work students. If the survey results were scored like a school exam, then the average student surveyed scored a “C !.” The article also suggests that both personal and professional experiences in the mental health field apparently influence knowledge of and attitudes toward psychotropic drugs. It is recommended that social work course content be expanded to include relevant information on psychotropic drugs.     

An examination of gender difference in advancement and salary for Marriage and Family Therapy faculty members working in public universities

Evidence for inequitable advancement and salary disparity for women in academia is compelling, but only a marginal amount of research has explored this in the field of Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) specifically. Current research provides preliminary evidence that women remain underrepresented at the Full Professor rank and are paid less than men MFT faculty. This study collected publicly available data for MFT faculty in public universities to explore gender differences in advancement between ranks, salary disparity, and the representation of women and men in the highest and lowest paying niches of MFT academia. Results showed that, despite being 60.15% of MFTs in public universities, women were paid an average of $5596.25 less than men. Men were 1.40 times more likely than women to be promoted to Full Professor on time—within 13 years of their terminal degree. Implications for addressing inequitable advancement and salary disparity for women MFT faculty are discussed.     

Gender as an element in the intersubjective field: The female therapist and the male patient

Gender identity is a fundamental component of core identity and it lays the ground plan for the creation of the specifics of the individual's self representation through varied early self- and object experience. This paper seeks to illuminate some of the unconscious dynamics emerging out of profound developmental differences between women and men. The effects of these unconscious dynamics upon the relationship between the male patient and the female therapist are examined, drawing upon transferential and extratransferential phenomena. Illustrations are presented, demonstrating interpretive work directed toward resolution of conflicts around male identity and aimed at fostering self-object differentiation.Revised version of a paper presented at the Third National Clinical Conference of the Committee on Psychoanalysis