What is meta for?

Metaphors provide bold, rich and distintive windows on the world. They offer dynamic and dramatic views beyond the surface of things into their deeper significance. This paper offers guidelines for discovering and developing metaphors in clinical practice with individuals and families. It also demonstrates how dramatization techniques are used to extend, enlarge and shape metaphors for effective diagnosis and treatment. It builds upon real case material of active metaphorical work with individuals and families for illustrative exposition.     

Managing Potential Health Risks from Electric Powerlines: A Decision Analysis Caught in Controversy

Over the past 20 years, several epidemiological studies have found an association between exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) and health effects, including childhood leukemia and adult brain cancer. However, experts strongly disagree about whether this association is causal and, if so, how strong it is. In this article, we examine several alternatives to reduce EMFs from sources of the California power grid, including undergrounding distribution and transmission lines and reconfiguring or rephasing lines. The alternatives were evaluated in terms of the potential health risk reduction, cost, impacts on service reliability, property values, and many other consequences. Because of the uncertainty about an EMF-health link, the main effort was to determine the sensitivity of the decisions to the probability and seriousness of an EMF hazard. User-friendly computer models were developed to allow stakeholders to change the model assumptions and parameters to analyze the impacts of their own assumptions and estimates on the decision. The analysis clearly demonstrated that only four of the many concerns raised by the stakeholders could make a difference in the decision: health risks, costs, service reliability, and property values. Whether undergrounding, moderate alternatives for EMF reduction, or no change was the best decision depended on a few key factors, including the probability that EMF exposure is a hazard, the severity of this hazard, how the EMF reduction measures are financed, and the impacts on property values. While the analysis did not resolve the EMF issues, it showed that even in the most controversial settings, a little analysis goes a long way to clarifying the issues and to focus the debate.     

Residential Differences in Filial Responsibility Expectations Among Older Persons1

Abstract This study examines variation in filial responsibility expectations-the extent to which adult children are expected to assist and care for their aging parents-among a sample of 440 older persons. The analysis focuses on the relationship of filial responsibility expectations to residential location and tests the hypothesis that older rural residents have higher expectations for assistance from their children than do older urbanites. Current residential location is found to have little impact on expectations, but older persons who were raised in rural areas, particularly on farms, have significantly higher expectations for filial assistance than do older persons from urban backgrounds. Possible consequences of these patterns for the transmission of expectations from parents to children are discussed.     

Global sociology or “Ghettoized” knowledges? The paradox of sociological universalization in the Third World

The relationship between First and Third World scholarship may be characterized as a type of ideological dependency. This dependency can be seen in the founding of sociology departments in many Third World universities that followed closely the development of tertiary education during the colonial and postcolonial periods. These departments provide an important link between Third World aspirations to modernize and First World production of sociological knowledge for rationalizing modern experiences. They can therefore be considered a type of institutional measure of the fate of modernity in the Third World. Because of the quest for modernity in the Third World, postmodernism will not likely be considered seriously as a reevaluation of and challenge to modernity. The institutionalization of sociology and its probable response to postmodernism will be examined in the context of a Third World nation, namely Malaysia.     

Lifestyles and identity maintenance among gay Japanese-American males

An exploratory study of thirteen Japanese-American gay men residing in the Los Angeles area found that those men who had disclosed their sexual orientation to family members were more likely to express more positive attitudes concerning a variety of issues. Detailed personal accounts of these patterns are presented along with discussions of how Asian homosexuals maintain their “double-minority” identities as both Japanese and gay.     

THE EFFECT OF THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM ON NUTRIENT INTAKE

Receipt of food stamps is often observed to be positively correlated with intake of nutrients. However, this observed fact could be the result of self-selection into the food stamp program by those individuals who are more interested in maintaining good nutrition. We observe that, controlling for participation in the food stamp program, nutrition is negatively affected by food stamp income for a sample of elderly people. However, we find that the levels of nutrients do not decrease enough to cause individuals to fall below the Recommended Dietary Allowance.     

Preparing parents for children with special needs: A three-part approach

This paper describes a community-based educative-small group method for working with prospective foster and adoptive parents. As an educational approach, the program prepares applicants to be substitute parents. The small group process method provides the applicants with an atmosphere conducive to discussing fears and frustrations while gaining peer and professional support. Community-centeredness not only allows the agency to recruit much-needed minority parents, but to make a contribution to the community in the form of prevention of problems through availability and education. Evaluation of the program demonstrates that the combined communitybased, small group approach is an effective and efficient method for “screening-in” foster and adoptive parents for children with special needs.     

Current drug education policies in NCAA institutions: perceptions of head athletic trainers

This study compared the perceptions of head athletic trainers (HATS) from NCAA member Divisions I, II, and III regarding current athletic department drug education policies in their institutions. A Web-based questionnaire collected responses from 353 HATS. Drug education programs focused more on providing information about the negative consequences of drugs than changing the attitudes and behaviors of students in relation to drug use. More Division I and II schools offered comprehensive ATOD education programs to their athletes compared to Division III schools; however, the majority of these programs were not scheduled on a regular basis. HATS in all divisions reported that the abuse of alcohol and other drugs by student athletes during and after athletic and social events was a significant concern and indicated the importance of scheduling drug education programs closer to such events. Majority of HATS did not view participating in the drug education programs as part of their professional duties; however, they expressed an interest to increase their involvement in these activities.