Typification in a neuro-rehabilitation centre: Scheff revisited?

This paper presents data on the admissions process in a Regional neuro-rehabilitation centre, using the framework proposed in Thomas Scheff's classic paper on typification in the diagnostic process as a starting point for analysis. We argue that typification is a more complex and diffuse process than Scheff's ‘diagnostic stereotype’ concept suggests, and that this may be linked to the particular work imperatives and relevancies that are important in this setting.     

Understanding socially inhibited behaviors in managers

The authors' purpose in this study is to define and highlight socially inhibited behaviors among managers, explore the implications of these behaviors for the workplace, identify ways to assist inordinately shy managers, and help staff to understand and relate more effectively when subjected to an inhibited manager. The authors search for the origins of shyness, surveying the various perspectives in personality theory and within the concept of situational causality.     

Mary Parker Follett: epilogue to or return of a social work management pioneer?

The authors present an overview of the major concepts and contributions of Mary Parker Follett to the development of social work management theory, past and present. The case is made for Follett to be afforded a more visible role in the profession's understanding and teaching of modern management theory and practice. The authors show how Follett's work served as an important bridge between changing eras in management thought, specifically as related to scientific management and the subsequent human relations models. Even after six decades, Follett's work, in its timelessness and timeliness, remains contemporary, for it is rooted in her keen ability to grasp the complexities inherent in the human services enterprise, and thus it continues to inform one's understanding and behavior within the organizational context.     

The acquisition,development, and maintenance of fruit machine gambling in adolescents

In the U.K., the major commercial gambling activity in adolescents is the playing of slot machines (commonly known as “fruit machines”). Over the past few years, the negative effects of “fruit machine addiction” have been reported by various helping organizations (e.g. Gamblers Anonymous) and the national press, including allegations of attempted murder, suicide and prostitution as well as a wider incidence of petty crime. Fifty adolescent fruit machine players from a ‘user population’ participated in a face-to-face interview and questionnaire study examining factors in the acquisition, development and maintenance of gambling behaviour. Nine adolescent males were deemed to be pathological gamblers as measured by the American Psychiatric Association DSM-III-R diagnostic criteria, and a number of serious consequences were reported including gambling debts, truancy and stealing.     

Why don’t we care more about carelessness? Understanding the causes and consequences of careless participants

ABSTRACT

Although careless respondents have wreaked havoc on research for decades, the prevalence and implications of these participants has likely increased due to many new methodological techniques currently in use. Across three studies, we examined the prevalence of careless responding in participants, several means of predicting careless respondents, and the implications of careless respondents on data quality and recruitment attempts. At the same time, we sought to examine the geographic differences of careless responding and provide psychometric evidence for using embedded questions to detect these participants. In Study 1, we found over 1/3^rd of participants showed some evidence of careless responding and that careless respondents exhibited certain personality and demographic characteristics. In particular, carelessness seemed more prevalent in Asian samples than in North American samples. In Study 2, we found nearly 1/4^th of participants showed evidence of careless responding and that conclusions based on data including versus excluding these participants differed in significant yet unpredictable ways. Finally, in Study 3, we found that nearly 2/3^rd of participants who signed up for the study did not meet advertised study requirements for participation and including these participants changed the structure of the data obtained.     

Heteronormative Labour: Conflicting Accountability Structures among Men in Nursing

Drawing on interview and diary data from 40 men in nursing in the US, the current study advances our theoretical understanding of how heteronormativity and masculinity intersect to shape men's performance of carework. Men in nursing are constrained by their accountability to stereotypes that they are gay and/or hypersexual, challenging their work in the feminized profession of nursing. As heteronormativity is embedded in the institution of health care, men nurses of all sexualities must perform additional labour on the job to reconcile their conflicting accountability to heteronormative stereotypes and occupational standards of care. We conceptualize this additional labour as heteronormative labour — work performed in order to strategically manage heteronormative expectations and realized through discursive, cognitive and emotional strategies. The experiences of men in caring professions remain rich for advancing theory on the relationship between sexuality and gender generally and in the workplace.     

Causality in Contemporary American Sociology: An Empirical Assessment and Critique

Using a unique data set of causal usage drawn from research articles published between 2006–2008 in the American Journal of Sociology and American Sociological Review, this article offers an empirical assessment of causality in American sociology. Testing various aspects of what we consider the conventional wisdom on causality in the discipline, we find that (1) “variablistic” or “covering law” models are not the dominant way of making causal claims, (2) research methods affect but do not determine causal usage, and (3) the use of explicit causal language and the concept of “mechanisms” to make causal claims is limited. Instead, we find that metaphors and metaphoric reasoning are fundamental for causal claims‐making in the discipline. On this basis, we define three dominant causal types used in sociology today, which we label the Probabilistic, Initiating and Conditioning types. We theorize this outcome as demonstrating the primary role that cognitive models play in providing inference‐rich metaphors that allow sociologists to map causal relationships on to empirical processes.