BOOK REVIEWS

Book reviewed in this article:
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Burck, C., & Daniel, G. (1995). Gender and family therapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Comas-Diaz, L., & Greene, B. (1994). Women of color: Integrating ethnic and gender identities in psychotherapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Hendrick, S. S. (1995). Close relationships: What couple therapists can learn .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Ackerman, M. J. (1995). Clinician's guide to child custody evaluations .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Andolfi, M., & Haber, R. (Eds.). (1994). Please help me with this family: Using consultants as resources in family therapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Shapiro, E. R. (1994). Grief as a family process: A developmental approach to clinical practice .
GENERAL INTEREST BOOK: Nichols, M. P., (1995). The lost art of listening .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: O'Hanlon, B., & Hudson, P. (1995). Love is a verb: How to stop analyzing your relationship and start making it great!
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Hall, C. M. (1994). New families: Reviving and creating meaningful bonds .     

RESEARCH IN FAMILY THERAPY: A GRADUATE LEVEL COURSE

Training in family therapy research must move beyond traditional methods courses. This paper describes a five-unit course which (a) reviews the fundamentals of research methodology and grounds the student in the history of psychotherapy research in general; (b) gives an overview of family research through detailed analysis of major review articles; (c) covers instrumentation tools and techniques; (d) critically evaluates key investigations in the field; and (e) examines the challenges of the "new epistemologies" for family therapy research. Learning activities are described for each unit that engage the student in such a way that the learning of research might be enjoyable as well as interesting. The paper may also be employed as a guide for self-study in family therapy research.     

THE "PROBLEM" OF MICHAEL WHITE AND MICHEL FOUCAULT

The following essay proposes to look at the “problem” of the family therapist, Michael White, and the philosopher, Michel Foucault. The problem generally defined is the following: what are the key features of the relationship between Foucault and White? To answer this question, four areas need to be examined. First, it is important to look at the relationship between personal stories and cultural and institutional discourses. Second, there is a need to address the local use of power. Third, attention needs to be paid to the positions of Foucault and White vis-à-vis their respective disciplines. Lastly, the issue of the proper use of Foucault's methodology as applied to family therapy needs to be explored.     

Leave arrangements for parents: Overview and future outlook

This article provides an overview of statutory leave arrangements in the European Union (EU), Central European countries, and Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the USA. It concludes with a brief review of recent parental leave research, and by considering future directions for policy and research. Paid maternity leave and paid or unpaid parental leave are now available throughout Europe--Western, Central and Eastern. Paternity leave has an increasing presence, but so far exists in only a minority of European countries. Except for Canada, leave policy in the four non-European countries lags behind Europe. Recent policy developments in the EU have been mainly in paternity and parental leave, with an emphasis on fathers. Nearly all countries remain far behind Sweden, which has the most effective leave policy for parents. Looking ahead, there is a need to adopt a holistic approach both in research and policy, for example understanding decision making as a complex process involving many influences and relationships and locating leave arrangements within a 'total policy package'. Future policy needs to move beyond a narrow focus on early parenthood to adopt a broader, life-course approach to increasing management of the use of time. El articulo aporta una perspectiva general do los acuerdos legales sobre el permiso laboral en la Unión Europea (UE), los páses centroeuropeos, en Australia, Canadá, Nueva Zelanda, y los Estados Unidos. Se concluye con una evaluación breve de las ultimas investigaciones sobre la baja por paternidad/maternidad, y se consideran orientaciones futuras para la política y la investigación. Ahora existe la baja pagada para madres, y la baja por paternidad/maternidad (pagado o no), por todo Europa--del oeste, central, y del este. La baja por paternidad esta en aumento, pero hasta ahora existe sólo en una minoría de los países europeos. Salvo en Canadá, la política del permiso en los cuatro demás países no europeos se queda atrás de la de Europa. Acontecimientos recientes en la UE se han tratado en gran parte de la paternidad y de la baja de para ambos padres, con énfasis en solo los padres. Casi todos los países se quedan muy atrás de Suecia que tiene la mas eficaz política de permiso para ambos padres. Para el futuro, será necesario adoptar un marco holístico, tanto en la investigación como en la política, por ejemplo entender la toma de decisiones como un proceso complejo con muchas influencias y relaciones, situando el orden del permiso dentro de un 'conjunto total de la política'. La política del futuro debe extenderse fuera de un enfoque estrecho en la paternidad temprano, para adoptar un enfoque más amplio que trata del manejar el uso del tiempo a lo largo de la vida.     

REVIEWS

PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Gurman, A. S., & Kniskern, D. P. (Eds.). (1991). Handbook of family therapy (Vol. 2).
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Brock, G. W., & Barnard, C. P. (1992). Procedures in marriage and family therapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Hooper, D., & Dryden, W. (Eds.). (1991). Couple therapy: A handbook .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Collins, R. L., Leonard, K. E., & Searles, J. S. (Eds.). (1990). Alcohol and the family: Research and clinical perspectives .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: de Shazer, S. (1991). Putting differences to work .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Worden, M. (1991). Adolescents and their families: An introduction to assessments and interventions .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Pillari, V. (1991). Scapegoating in families .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Carlson, J., & Lewis, J. (1991). Family counseling: Strategies and issues .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Simon, R. (1992). One on one: Conversations with the shapers of family therapy .
PROFESSIONAL BOOKS: Simon, R., Barrilleaux, C., Wylie, M. S., Markowitz, L. M. (Eds.). (1992). The evolving theraist: Ten years of the family therapy networker .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Adams, C., & Fay, J. (1992). Helping your child recover from sexual abuse .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Williamson, P. (1990). Good kids, bad behavior .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Armstrong, T. (1991). Awakening your child's natural genius: Enhancing curiosity, creativity, and learning ability .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Schulman, M. (1991). The passionate child: Bringing up an intelligent and creative child .
SELF-HELP BOOKS: Brown, S. (1991). Safe passage: Recovery for adult children of alcoholics .
VIDEO REVIEWS: Anger Management for Parents . (1991). (A therapist and her puppet discuss and role-play anger management in parent-child relationships; accompanying Program Guide and Parent's Manual ).
VIDEO REVIEWS: Two years, eight months, and a few weeks . (1991). By Walter Kempler, The Kempler Institute, PO Box 1692, Costa Mesa, CA 92628.     

The impact of positivity and transparency on trust in leaders and their perceived effectiveness

A critical challenge facing today's organizational leaders is gaining their followers' trust and having them view leaders as effective in addressing turmoil and change. Using a downsizing scenario as the context, this field experiment examined how a leader's positivity and transparency impacted followers' perceived trust, defined in terms of willingness to be vulnerable, and effectiveness of their leader. To test the hypotheses, 304 participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions of high (low) leader positivity × high (low) leader transparency. Results of our mixed methods study indicated both the leader's level of positivity and transparency impacted followers' perceived trust and evaluations of leader effectiveness. Besides limitations and suggestions for future research, we conclude with the practical implications that positive, transparent leaders may have on building trust and perceived effectiveness among their followers.     

Of maids' uniforms and blue jeans: The drama of status ambivalences in clothing and fashion

Culturally derived ambivalences of social identity lie at the heart of much that is communicated by clothing and fashion. In the West gender, age, sexual and social status identities are all subject to such vacillating clothing impulses and representations. In the instance of social status a culturally encoded tension generated by, at one end, a class based system of invidious distinctions and, at the other, a Judeo-Christian ethic of asceticism and modesty has for some seven hundred years now propelled an ongoing identity dialectic of status claims and status demurrals in clothing. Sartorial issues of ostentation vs. understatement, overdressing vs. underdressing, conspicuous poverty and the commission of disingenuous mistakes in dress reflect this underlying tension. In particular, the maid-inspired little black dress of the 1920s and 30s and, more recently, the fluctuating status symbolism attaching to blue jeans afford dramatic evidence of the play of status ambivalences in clothing. Identity ambivalence, in general, constitutes an important symbolic resource for fashion's constant forays upon established dress codes.A prior version of this paper was read at the meetings of the American Sociological Association, Atlanta, Ga., August 28, 1988. I wish to thank theQualitative Sociology editors and an anonymous referee for their many useful suggestions for revision.     

New productive forces and the contradictions of contemporary capitalism

Conclusion The analysis that we have put forward is necessarily incomplete without developing its implications for political practice. However, considerations of space prevent us from elaborating on this aspect of our argument here. It is also the case that our ideas on politics are less coherent and developed than the theoretical perspective that we have outlined. This seems inevitable, since political thinking must be a collective project; political programs written by isolated individuals always sound hollow and abstract.Yet there are a few broad political implications of our analysis that are important to state here. The first is that any emancipatory politics in the present must begin with the realities of contemporary society, rather than from Marxist categories that have been rendered obsolete by the passing of accumulationist capitalism. While this point might seem obvious, it bears restating since so much current Marxist writing fails to grasp this idea. Second, while some might read our argument as an optimistic alternative to those theorists (Piccone, Lasch, Jacoby) who despair of the existence of emancipatory possibilities in the present, that is not our intention. For us, optimism and pessimism are not the important categories. In fact, our analysis incorporates the most pessimistic possible scenarios, since continued social stalemate in the face of post-industrial transition can unleash awesomely powerful pressures for individual and social regression. The point is rather that we have sought to develop an analysis that is genuinely dialectical — recognizing in this historical moment the interlocking processes of decay and development.This essay is a further elaboration of themes developed by L. Hirschhorn in a number of articles, see particularly Toward a Political Economy of the Service Society, Working Paper No. 229, Institute for Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley (IURD): The Social Crisis, Parts I and II, Working Papers No. 251, 252, IURD; Social Services and Disaccumulationist Capitalism, International Journal of Health Services, May, 1979; The Political Economy of Social Service Rationalization, Contemporary Crisis (Winter, 1978).