Statistics in the elementary school

This paper discusses the role of statistics within an interdisciplinary program on real problem solving in elementary schools (through grade 8). We first describe some general features of the USMES (Unified Science and Mathematics for Elementary Schools) curriculum and some situations where the application of statistical principles and techniques can enter the program. Then we present our ideas concerning the kinds of statistical methods that are appropriate in this environment, and we discuss the use of this material with both elementary school students and elementary     

Preparing Social Workers for the Inevitable

Despite the centrality of grief as a universal response to loss, and its prevalence in the social work domain, little empirical attention has been given to the impact of grief instruction in social work courses. This article presents results of a study examining the impact of a multimethod grief course on graduate social work students' level of death acceptance and sense of preparedness to respond to personal and professional losses. A quasi-experimental, nonequivalent control group design was used. Findings suggest that the grief course assisted students to perceive greater competence in their knowledge, skills, and sense of preparation for working with grieving clients, and that the course increased cognitive and affective dimensions of death acceptance in students. Implications for future research and for social work education are discussed in light of the study limitations.     

Major Depressive Disorder and Cardiovascular Disease in African-American Women

Major depression is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD). This study used the National Survey of American Life (NSAL) to examine the co-occurrence of major depressive disorder (MDD) and CVD in a nationally representative sample of African American women (n = 2,216). Results from a series of logistic regression models indicated high rates of MDD and CVD in the sample, and the African American women with MDD were 1.59 times more likely to have CVD compared to those without MDD. High rates of MDD/CVD co-morbidity appeared across those living in and not living in poverty. These individuals demonstrated greater functional impairment and were high users of mental health services. Our findings validate that MDD and CVD co-occur and the need for more holistic interventions are warranted. The interface of co-morbid health conditions is critical to developing integrated models of care. Integrated health care systems are central for improving physical and mental health outcomes. These findings facilitate developing targeted assessment procedures and culturally appropriate treatment interventions. Increased knowledge regarding the role of gender, chronic health conditions, and the burden of mental illness in African American Women provides the opportunity to examine other chronic health conditions co-occurring with MDD.     

Transfer of Social Learning Across Contexts: Exploring Infants' Attribution of Trait‐Like Emotions to Adults

We explored whether 15‐month‐olds expect another person's emotional disposition to be stable across social situations. In three observation trials, infants watched two adults interact. Half the infants saw one of the adults (“Emoter”) respond negatively to the other adult's actions (Anger group); half saw the Emoter respond neutrally to the same actions (Neutral group). After a change in social context, infants participated in novel tasks with the (now‐neutral) Emoter. Infants in the Anger group were significantly more likely to relinquish desirable toys to the Emoter. We hypothesize that, in the initial observation trials, infants learned that the Emoter was “anger‐prone” and expected her to get angry again in a new social situation. Consequently, infants readily gave the Emoter what she wanted. These findings reveal three key features of infants' affective cognition: (1) infants track adults' emotional history across encounters; (2) infants learn from observing how people interact with others and use this to form expectations about how these people will treat them; and (3) more speculatively, infants use appeasement to cope with social threat. We hypothesize that infants form “trait‐like” attributions about people's emotional dispositions and use this to formulate adaptive responses to adults in novel social contexts.     

Clinical implications of attachment narratives

This paper discusses attachment theory and research with emphasis on the empirical studies of Many Main. Main's work emphasizes the relationship between an individual's narrative regarding attachment relationships and their underlying internal working model of attachment. The internal working model of attachment is a representation of attachment experience and a set of rules for processing attachment experience. This paper describes various categories of attachment narrative construction and presents a case history that is discussed from an attachment theory perspective.     

A discussion of current attachment research and its clinical applications

This article highlights Stern's recent conceptualization of the infant's development of internal working models of attachment and the relationship between internal working models and the narrative self. Research studies, including Ainsworth's and Main's seminal work on types of infant attachment models, are reviewed. These include secure, avoidant insecure, ambivalent insecure, and disorganized-disoriented types of infant attachment. Later research supports the continuation of these same attachment patterns in the children at age six. A clinical case, a sixteen year old and her infant, is presented to illustrate how the client's working model of attachment plays out in the treatment process.     

Responses to poverty in post-apartheid South Africa: some reflections

I discuss in this article the challenge of addressing people's psychosocial needs when the causes of problems are environmental or structural. I argue that poverty can be addressed only by tackling its structural causes and removing social inequalities. In so doing, I argue that a range of antipoverty measures introduced by the government have proved ineffective, including neoliberal measures to foster economic growth, such as GEAR and ASGISA, public works programmes, social security, and poverty alleviation projects (PAPS) which, while mildly effective, were poorly administered. My strategy of choice is an 'all hands to the pumps' approach involving participatory community development, social action, policy change and joint partnership between civil society, the state and the private sector. I do not suggest particular approaches or solutions but highlight the role of social workers and community development workers in poverty alleviation.