Detection of elder abuse: Exploring the potential use of the Elder Abuse Suspicion Index© by law enforcement in the field

There are no known instruments to aid law enforcement officers in the assessment of elder abuse (EA), despite officers’ contact with older adults. This study aimed to identify: 1) officers’ perceptions and knowledge of EA, 2) barriers in detecting EA in the field, 3) characteristics officers value in a detection tool, and to explore 4) the potential for officers to use the Elder Abuse Suspicion Index (EASI)©. Data was collected from 69 Connecticut officers who confirmed that barriers to effectively detecting EA included a lack of EA detection instruments, as well as a lack of training on warning signs and risk factors. Officers indicated that the important elements of a desirable tool for helping to detect EA included ease of use, clear instructions, and information on follow-up resources. Approximately 80% of respondents could see themselves using the EASI© in the field, and a modified version has been developed for this purpose.     

Characteristics of Gambling Helpline Callers with Self-Reported Gambling and Alcohol Use Problems

The characteristics of problem gamblers calling the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling (CCPG) gambling helpline during the years 2000–2001 (n = 960) were examined based on the presence or absence of self-reported alcohol use problems. A relatively low proportion of callers reported a problem with alcohol use (173/960 or 18.0%), and of those acknowledging an alcohol use problem, the majority reported a past rather than current problem (143/173 or 82.7%). A logistic regression analysis found that, as compared with problem gamblers denying any alcohol use problems, those reporting past or current alcohol use problems were more likely to be male and more frequently acknowledged problems with more forms of gambling, suicide attempts related to gambling, arrests secondary to gambling, daily tobacco use, drug use problems, prior substance abuse treatment, and family histories positive for alcohol and drug use problems. The findings highlight the strong relationship between alcohol use problems and other substance use problems, and suggest that problem gamblers with as compared with those without alcohol use problems demonstrate greater problems in multiple areas (arrest, attempted suicide) linked by impaired impulse control.Please address correspondence to Marc N. Potenza, Director, Problem Gambling Clinic; Director, Women and Addictive Disorders Core, Women’s Health Research at Yale; Yale University School of Medicine, Connecticut Mental Health Center, Room S-104, 34 Park Street, New Haven, CT 06519. E-mail: marc.potenza@yale.edu.     

Social Classes in Contemporary Sweden*

Survey data from Gavle, Sweden, are examined to determine whether the three Swedish occupational groups reflect actual social classes. Analyses reveal that (a) occupational status is heavily influenced by educational attainment; (b) education and amount and source of income all differ significantly among the three social groups; (c) upward generational occupational mobility is largely restricted to the top two groups; (d) Sweden is generally perceived as having three social classes; (e) most persons in all three groups identify with Group II; and (f) Swedes in all social groups desire to increase economic and social equality. The argument is made that Sweden may indeed contain a three class structure based primarily on occupation, but many Swedes view this class structure largely in economic terms. Recent marked rises in income across all social classes in Sweden have therefore left most people relatively satisfied with their society.     

ORGANIZATION OF EXPERIENCE AMONG FAMILY MEMBERS IN THE IMMEDIATE PRESENT: A GESTALT/SYSTEMS INTEGRATION

How processes of family functioning are conceptualized influences a therapist's understanding and use of immediate experiential phenomena in the therapy setting. This article outlines two basic formulations that generate different conceptual perspectives of immediate phenomena. One recognizes that the family system has a time-enduring stability, while the second postulates that the family system has an immediate and temporary organization. The latter position is developed as an appropriate and useful application of systems thinking. Integrating systems thinking and Gestalt Therapy provides a framework for this application, one that recognizes individual experience as organized and as embedded in a mutual causal, self-maintaining system of the whole. The nature of such wholes, how they maintain their stability, their potential for change, and implications for therapy are described.     

The Effect of Nonviolent Action on Social Attitudes*

Nonviolent action will produce attitude change to the exlent that it satisfies either or both of two prerequisites. It must either interfere with the functions served by the attitudes or it must produce some inconsistency between the attitudes and other orientations of the persons affected by the action. The three major functions served by attitudes are object orientation, ego-support, and ego-defense. For many social attitudes the ego-support provided by attitudes which help define a person's relation to a reference group is especially powerful, Functions may be blocked by a particular set of conditions, which may have little in common with one another. Inconsistencies may occur among different attitudes or among the components of a single attitude. One class of inconsistencies that is of particular importance occurs when people are persuaded or mildly pressured into action contrary to their attitudes. Each of the sources of attitude change pressure carries its own requirements for producing change and its own mechanisms for protecting attitudes against change pressures. Nonviolent action does not necessarily meet these requirements or overcome the defenses. However, with knowledge of the functional bases and conceptual contexts of the attitudes being challenged it may be possible to utilize the resources present in nonviolent action to increase the likelihood of a desirable impact.     

高等教育职业化:教育信念的胜利

信息革命改变了工作的性质,使工作从植根于工业生产转换到与知识和信息息息相关,这种教育信念促使美国的高等教育急剧地扩大招生数量和更加强调职业目标,逐渐地向职业化的过程发展。而文章则主要从七个角度来叙述了美国高等教育的职业化过程。     

Formation of land market institutions and their impacts on agricultural activity

The process of transformation of Bulgarian agriculture from a centrally controlled economy to a market-oriented economy is resulting in land reform, which will necessitate the immediate development and operation of land markets. On the one hand, the land reform is restoring land to those who owned it in the year 1947, or their heirs, who not only have very small and scattered holdings, but who often live in urban areas far from the claimed land and do not practice farming. On the other hand, farming is being changed by the liquidation of the former collective farms and the emergence of privately managed farms and new forms of co-operatives. These new operating units may or may not have their own land claims, but in most cases, do not have immediate access to sufficient land for adequately sized operations. Without land market institutions for information, contracting land use, and enforcement of contractual rights, the transaction costs of bringing the suppliers of land together with those demanding land will result in unused land and distorted agricultural activity. The paper explores both the formation of institutions and the evidence of transactions, as well as the possible impacts on farming.