The Sea Monster: An Ethnographic Drama

The characters are Laurel, a sociologist, and Ernest, a novelist. They live together, and they have been writing, and talking about writing for years. There is also a discussant who lives in Laurel's study. The drama begins in a neo-colonial home in the heartland of America, where Laurel—who has been invited to be a “Discussant” of “Ethnographic Novels” at the Society for the Study of Symbolic Interactionism-Stone Symposium at St. Petersburg Beach—is waking up.     

Consumer store choice behavior: A new approach

The consumer store-choice process has historically been examined via the semantic differential scale technique. It is the purpose of this investigation to determine if the methodological shortcomings of this technique may be overcome through the use of nonmetric multidimensional scaling.     

Elizabeth Clemens and Doug Guthrie (eds): Politics and Partnerships: The Role of Voluntary Associations in America’s Political Past and Present

VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations -     

Pollinating animals in the urban environment

Urban environments contain habitats for flowering plants and their pollinating animal species. It is, however, unclear how the urban matrix influences plant-pollinator processes. We recorded plant diversity, floral abundance, flower visitor diversity and plot visits at 89 plant patches within the city of Zürich. The urban matrix surrounding each site was analyzed for the landscape metrics edge density and the extent of green area up to 200 m radius. The correlation between edge density and bee diversity and visitation frequency varied over the entire spatial range, while the correlation for syrphid diversity and visitation frequency levelled off at 80 m radius. In contrast, the correlations with green area were more consistent, with bee diversity levelling off after 100 m, while syrphid diversity and visits continued to increase. The variation in the correlation of bee visits was partly accounted for by the large contribution of honeybees. Plant diversity significantly affected bee diversity and visits, and syrphid visits. Floral abundance had a positive effect on bee visits and bee diversity. Syrphid diversity had a negative interaction with floral abundance and green area. The extent of green area increased bee diversity and visits, and syrphid visits, while edge density reduced visitation by bees. This study showed that plant diversity and floral abundance in urban environments promote pollinating flower visitors. The extent of green area and edge density are important urban mosaic attributes that affect pollinator abundance and visitation frequency at multiple scales.     

Person × Context Effects on Anticipated Moral Emotions Following Aggression

We investigated person (sex, aggression level), context (witness type, victim reactions), and person × context effects on children's anticipated moral emotions following hypothetical acts of aggression against a peer. Children (N = 378, mean age = 11.3 years) were presented a series of hypothetical vignettes in which the presence of witnesses (no witnesses/most liked classmates/all of the class) and victim's reactions (neutral/ sad/ angry) were manipulated. The results indicated several person effects (e.g., girls anticipated more guilt and shame but less pride than boys; aggressiveness was related to less guilt and shame), as well as context effects (e.g., anticipated shame depended on who witnessed the situation and the emotional reactions of the victim). However, person × context effects predominated. The overall pattern of results indicated that girls and low‐aggressive children were more sensitive to contextual cues than boys and high‐aggressive children. The findings support the importance of a person × context approach to understanding the emotional reactions of different children in different situations.     

The Purposes of Undergraduate Education for Social Welfare

This paper discusses efforts to introduce fundraising courses into the curriculum of graduate social work schools. It suggests that such courses are inadequate to meet the growing need for social workers capable of coping with the economic facts of agency life. It proposes the concept of resource development as a viable alternative. Continued grounding in basic social work skills, values, and knowledge for personnel engaged in resource development is stressed. Questions are raised about the orientation toward money in social work education. The paper also explores the mutual benefits of cooperation between social work and the fundraising field.     

The accommodation and support needs of people with a mental illness: A process and framework for action

Abstract

This paper reports the results of a consumer-focused assessment of the accommodation and support needs of people with a mental illness living in a regional city. The study utilises a 'pathway to stability' approach to assess the phase-contingent accommodation and support needs of mental health consumers through interviews and focus groups with consumers, carers and service providers. The study identifies five broad phases of the life course impacted by mental illness—beginnings, long-term needs become clearer, instability as needs evolve, finding stability and ongoing. Five key issues—information, self-competence, comorbidity, coordination and flexibility were expanded upon in focus groups. Principles for planning future service delivery are identified. The implications of the findings and research methodology for social work practice and research are discussed.     

Prefamily Counseling: Working with Blended Families

According to the literature, approximately 50% of all Americans have some kind of step-relationship. Living in a blended family has become more commonplace, as have significant issues related to family members' adjustment to and day-to-day maintenance of them. In the majority of instances, blended families enter into life together with little awareness of what to expect, common problems blended families experience, and plausible solutions to the difficulties often faced. Based on the current literature and clinical experience, preblended family counseling, a framework approach that brings family members together prior to remarriage or cohabitation, has been developed.