Human Motivation and Professional Practice: of Knights, Knaves and Social Workers

Efforts to improve the efficiency and responsiveness of public services by harnessing the self‐interest of professionals in state agencies have been widely debated in the recent literature on welfare state reform. In the context of social services, one way in which British policy‐makers have sought to effect such changes has been through the “new community care” of the 1990 NHS and Community Care Act. Key to this is the concept of care management, in which the identification of needs and the provision of services are separated, purportedly with a view to improving advocacy, choice and quality for service users. This paper uses data from a wide‐ranging qualitative study of access to social care for older people to examine the success of the policy in these terms, with specific reference to its attempts to harness the rational self‐interest of professionals. While care management removes one potential conflict of interests by separating commissioning and provision, the responsibility of social care professionals to comply with organizational priorities conflicts with their role of advocacy for their clients, a tension rendered all the more problematic by the perceived inadequacy of funding. Moreover, the bureaucracy of the care management process itself further negates the approach's supposedly client‐centred ethos.     

Wavelets

Wavelets have aroused much interest and offer advantages in signal and image processing. Wavelets and also the wavelet transform are defined here. Their use as a vehicle for multi-resolution image analysis is discussed in the cases of one and two dimensions, and the decomposition-reconstruction algorithm is described. Some simple examples are presented to illustrate the ideas, and several applications are described. Some ideas for further reading are given.     

Laugh and the World Laughs with You: An Attachment Perspective on the Meaning of Laughter in Psychotherapy

From infancy laughter is a right-brain-to-right-brain attachment behavior mutually aroused and regulated within the caregiver–infant partnership. Laughter continues to be attachment behavior throughout life with potential for enhancing attachment bonds or for defending against them. Laughter in psychotherapy has primarily been viewed as a discharge phenomena with typical interpretations focused on the humor that elicits the laughter rather than the meaning of the behavior itself. Viewing laughter as attachment behavior in psychotherapy provides the clinician with valuable insight about its meaning and management within the therapeutic relationship.

Maximizing Content on Elders with Dementia While Teaching Multicultural Diversity

This article focuses on African American, American Indian/Native American, Asian/Pacific Islander American, and Hispanic/Latino American elders and caregivers who are affected by Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia. Three specific areas are considered for each of these ethno-cultural groups: (a) diverse perceptions of Alzheimer's disease and other types of dementia; (b) barriers to service utilization; and (c) caregiving responsibilities. Finally, suggestions are offered for the use of this information in the classroom, which may better prepare future practitioners for competent practice with minority elders with Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia.     

The ‘animal‐advocacy agenda’: exploring sociology for non‐human animals

This paper focuses on sociology and the study of human non‐human animal relations. Using as a catalyst referees' comments on a previous paper about experiments using non‐human animal subjects, in this present paper three problematics are identified and discussed. These problematics centre on the ‘acceptable’ content of sociological inquiry, the ‘permissibility’ of advocacy‐oriented sociology, and the ‘admissibility’ of non‐human animal‐advocacy to advocacy‐oriented sociology. The three problematics are explored through the lens of reflexive and critical sociology. Two central questions are raised: first, should sociology include the study of non‐human animals and secondly, can sociology advocate for non‐human animals? The paper concludes with an affirmative response to both of these questions. The paper ends by stressing that sociology has so much to offer the study of human non‐human animal relations. Professional sociologists have a key role to play in enabling this work to move from margins to centre in published sociology.     

Relationship Help-Seeking: A Review of the Efficacy and Reach

ABSTRACT

Formal and informal relationship help-seeking is becoming increasingly common. This article discusses seven forms of relationship help-seeking: couple therapy, couple relationship education, self-help books, internet resources, other media sources, talking with clergy, and talking with friends and family. The purpose of this literature review is to organize the relationship help-seeking research, bring to light some of the less accessible research, and offer recommendations to researchers and practitioners regarding the efficacy and reach of relationship help-seeking. In addition, differences in relationship help-seeking based on gender are explored and current relationship help-seeking trends are discussed.     

Mobile Phone Use in Romantic Relationships

ABSTRACT

There is a growing body of research regarding the role of mobile phones in romantic couple communication processes. The purpose of this review is to highlight the state of the literature in this area in terms of positive and negative aspects of the constant contact afforded by mobile phones. We use symbolic interactionism to discuss ways in which mobile phones provide a vehicle of symbol-creating interaction when actors attach and glean meanings from interactions via mobile phones. Text and phone conversations tend to be stripped of many cues often used to decipher meaning in face-to-face interactions. Thus, symbolically, meaning derived from mobile phone use may consist of more than the recordable contents of the conversations. Implications for research are discussed.     

Healthy Relationship Education: A Statewide Initiative Case Study and Outcome Evaluation

Couple and relationship education (CRE) is effective in improving relationship quality and communication skills. However, its methods and structures of delivery (e.g., content, intensity, and settings) vary widely and have lacked empirical scrutiny. This article examines both the structure (i.e., initiative inputs and outputs) and the outcomes of one healthy relationship initiative. First, we use the comprehensive framework for CRE proposed previously to examine ways in which relationship education may be delivered by way of a statewide initiative in which 19 Cooperative Extension County Faculty provided education. Second, we analyze and report outcome data from 2,219 participants. A variety of CRE delivery methods significantly increased perceived levels of relationship knowledge regardless of gender, income, marital status, and whether participants had previous relationship education. Perceived knowledge acquisition differed by participant ethnicity, participant satisfaction with the education, and by CRE format such as single events versus multiple events. Programmatic implications are discussed.     

The readiness is all. Planning and training for post-disaster support work

Having acknowledged the world-wide impact of the terrorist attacks in New York on 11 September 2001 attention is drawn to the number of recent peace-time disasters that have happened in Great Britain. Local authority social services departments have been suggested as being best placed to be the lead agency in co-ordinating responses to such disasters. This paper describes how Buckinghamshire social services is working in partnership with its local voluntary counselling agencies to establish and maintain a trained team able to respond to disasters if needed. Contemporary theory relating to post-traumatic stress disorder, the imprint of death, psychic numbing and survivor guilt is cited and illustrated. The team has not yet been involved in a major disaster but examples are given showing its responses to various smaller scale, local disasters. It is acknowledged that counselling and de-briefing after disasters are not necessarily beneficial and therefore some critics of its provision are quoted. Lessons distilled from practice wisdom are provided. Responses to disasters are more likely to be effective, and least damaging to those involved, if potential helpers are trained as a team and are fully aware of the likely impact of such events.