Student and Counselor Perceptions of Career Counselor Work Activities in a Community College

This study examined whether differences exist between student and counselor perceptions of work activities performed by the latter group in a large Southern California community college. Participants responded to a 40-item questionnaire indicating whether tasks were actually performed, and whether they ought be performed by counselors when providing career guidance. Chi-square with Yates's correction for continuity and Fisher's Exact Test were used to analyze the data. Statistically significant results indicated that students did not believe that counselors were actually performing the majority of tasks commonly and ideally associated with career counseling services. Although students and counselors agreed on ideal career counselor work activities, counselor responses revealed no difference between their actual and ideal duties.     

“A 30% Chance of Rain Tomorrow”: How Does the Public Understand Probabilistic Weather Forecasts?

The weather forecast says that there is a "30% chance of rain," and we think we understand what it means. This quantitative statement is assumed to be unambiguous and to convey more information than does a qualitative statement like "It might rain tomorrow." Because the forecast is expressed as a single-event probability, however, it does not specify the class of events it refers to. Therefore, even numerical probabilities can be interpreted by members of the public in multiple, mutually contradictory ways. To find out whether the same statement about rain probability evokes various interpretations, we randomly surveyed pedestrians in five metropolises located in countries that have had different degrees of exposure to probabilistic forecasts--Amsterdam, Athens, Berlin, Milan, and New York. They were asked what a "30% chance of rain tomorrow" means both in a multiple-choice and a free-response format. Only in New York did a majority of them supply the standard meteorological interpretation, namely, that when the weather conditions are like today, in 3 out of 10 cases there will be (at least a trace of) rain the next day. In each of the European cities, this alternative was judged as the least appropriate. The preferred interpretation in Europe was that it will rain tomorrow "30% of the time," followed by "in 30% of the area." To improve risk communication with the public, experts need to specify the reference class, that is, the class of events to which a single-event probability refers.     

For whom the bell tolls: The institutionalization of homeless families in america

A peek through the doors of New York City's Emergency Assistance Unit (EAU), the entryway into the City's family shelter system, presents a shocking snapshot of life for the poorest of America's welfare families: the homeless. Burgeoning with young single mothers and children sitting on floors and sleeping in chairs as they wait for someone to send them on to temporary shelter, the EAU offers a vivid example of the overburdened institutions of support on which poor families depend daily.     

Using Average Lifetime Dose Rate for Intermittent Exposures to Carcinogens

The effect of using the average dose rate over a lifetime as a representative measure of exposure to carcinogens is investigated by comparing the true theoretical multistage intermittent-dosing lifetime low-dose excess risk to the theoretical multistage continuous-dosing lifetime risk corresponding to the average lifetime dose rate. It is concluded that low-dose risk estimates based on the average lifetime dose rate may overestimate the true risk by several orders of magnitude, but that they never underestimate the true risk by more than a factor of k/r, where k is the total number of stages in the multistage model and r is the number of stages that are dose-related.     

Trends in American family size diversity

Population Research and Policy Review - How diverse is American society and are Americans becoming more or less diverse? Contemporary discussions claim high and increasing diversity, but analyze...     

Homeless violence and the informal rules of street life

Successful adaptation to street life requires that risk of violence, an often present aspect of this lifestyle, be reduced to as low a level as possible. This means knowing the informal rules which permit avoiding the pitfalls of street life. It is argued in this paper that safety and security are a function of interactions occurring within a specific place, with particular associates, and involving safe and unsafe behavior. Carelessness with respect to any of these factors can result in victimization. These issues are discussed using survey and ethnographic data collected in Chattanooga.     

Sociology as a vocation

During the 1950s, when sociology modeled itself on the natural sciences, the vocational ideals that shaped the profession were also modeled on the natural sciences; objectivity, peer review, and other such ideals were linked to the epistemological assumption that reality existed out there in the world to be discovered by the techniques of science. With postmodern and other similar philosophical challenges in the air, it is no longer possible to believe that the relationship between reality and its representations is so uncomplicated. But what do these new epistemologies have to say about professional conduct? This paper argues that it would be a mistake to practice the deconstruction one preaches. Epistemological skepticism, far from leading to an attitude toward professional conduct that “anything goes,” requires an ever-greater belief in professional responsibility.