A Model Curriculum for Occupational Social Work

This paper reports the results of a survey experiment in which a national sample of NASW members was presented with systematically altered versions of a summary of a hypothetical study of casework effectiveness and asked to make judgments about the quality of the research, its importance to social work, and its significance for their own practice. It was found that although respondents distinguished between studies with good and bad research designs, their judgments of the quality of the research and its implications for their own practice were significantly influenced by whether the findings were positive or negative.     

The Phallus and the Person: Commentary on Paper by Taras Babiak

This discussion of Babiak's clinical account traces the macrotrajectory of Bart's therapeutic process toward broadly competent personhood rather than narrowly phallic compensation. The steps toward accomplishing this complex macrotransition are delineated in the microtrajectory of the “crunch” session between Babiak and Bart, during which Babiak traverses shock and challenge by introducing between them empathic recognition, evidence of mentalization, survival of boundaries and containing limits, down-regulation of raw affective urgency, “paternal” improvisation and a metaphorization of concrete action imperatives, interpretive linking, and a negotiation process that widened potential space for an eventual approach to intersubjectivity.     

The Perception of Societal Models of Power Distribution by Recent Male College Graduates

Abstract

This study examines the perception of power among young adult males. A sampleof 1971 male graduates of a state university were asked in 1974 to choose from among pluralistic and elitist models of power in the U.S. The correlates of the various perceptions of power were elaborated using political attitudes, degree of political activism, change in political beliefs, locus of control, and status inconsistency. The findings were that: (1) the respondents tended to perceive an elitist model, although they preferred a pluralist model; and (2) those most likely to perceive power in elitist terms were activists, those with changed political beliefs, those most status inconsistent, and those with external locus of control.     

Remeasuring ageing in Hong Kong SAR; or ‘keeping the demographic window open’

Hong Kong SAR has among both the lowest fertility rates and highest life expectancy in the world. Under the current calculation of the Old Age Dependency Ratio (OADR), Hong Kong is, understandably, ageing extremely rapidly. This is a cause of significant concern among policy makers. However, OADR assumes that the entire population aged above 65 is both ‘old’ and ‘dependent’, neither of which is clearly defined, and that all aged below 65 are active in the labour force. Furthermore, because the rate is fundamentally based upon a European/North American model of pension and retirement it is arguably less appropriate to areas of the world where retirement ages are more fluid and pension systems less developed. We apply and extend a method for Hong Kong, designed by Sanderson and Scherbov, to ‘remeasure ageing’ by taking remaining life expectancy as the constant, rather than years lived by using projected life tables and 1 × 1 population projections. In doing so, we show that Sanderson and Scherbov’s new ‘prospective’ measurements of ageing more accurately reflect the increased longevity and vitality of Hong Kong’s population. Rather than passively accepting fate as a ‘rapidly ageing’ population, East Asian economies can be active in rethinking society’s relationship to work and other activities across the life-cycle. By adapting existing measurements to take into account the different welfare regimes in East Asia, we can radically alter the timeframe in which population ageing becomes ‘critical’. This allows more time to develop a more holistic life-course view of the relationship between work, longevity and fertility and to actively tackle ageing in an optimistic way.     

The truncation-by-death problem: what to do in an experimental evaluation when the outcome is not always defined

Although experiments are viewed as the gold standard for evaluation, some of their benefits may be lost when, as is common, outcomes are not defined for some sample members. In evaluations of marriage interventions, for example, a key outcome--relationship quality--is undefined when a couple splits up. This article shows how treatment-control differences in mean outcomes can be misleading when outcomes are not defined for everyone and discusses ways to identify the seriousness of the problem. Potential solutions to the problem are described, including approaches that rely on simple treatment-control differences-in-means as well as more complex modeling approaches.     

Evaluating the benefits and costs of regulatory reforms: what questions need to be asked?

In 1984, Portney argued that "[w]e should scrutinize proposed reforms of the rulemaking process every bit as carefully as the regulations that process produces." In the 23 years since then, the regulatory process on the federal level has been continuously reformed by statute, by executive order, and by directives from the OMB. Despite the extensive debate on the need for these reforms, there has been very little analysis of the reforms themselves. This paper updates Portney's work on analyzing cost-benefit analysis and expands it to evaluate reforms of the regulatory process. I use as my primary example the recent peer-review guidelines issued by OMB. I argue that we may have reached a point of diminishing returns in regulatory reforms, that the peer-review guidelines likely have costs that exceed their benefits, and that further regulatory reforms merit closer evaluation.     

Women's risk for revictimization by a new abusive partner: for what should we be looking?

The purpose of this article was to examine the prevalence of, as well as risk factors for, revictimization by a new partner. Data was collected via face-to-face interviews at Time 1 (about 5 weeks after obtaining a protective order against a violent partner [DVO partner]) and at Time 2 (approximately 12 months later). Of those women who reported having a new partner at Time 2 (n = 412), 35.2% reported abuse. Findings indicate that there is a subset of women who are at greater risk of experiencing abuse by future partners: women with greater cumulative lifetime victimization and those who abuse or are dependent on illicit drugs. Intervening with women when they obtain a protective order is a critical point of intervention to reduce women's risk for revictimization.