This is Common Factors

Common factors are conditions and processes present in, among, and surrounding participants in clinical work. In the past 20 years, increasing attention and research on common factors has generated a great deal of discussion in clinical psychology, psychiatry, marriage and family therapy, and to a lesser extent, social work. While there is no single definition of common factors, they are generally discussed as the non-technical aspects of therapeutic work—such as the relationship between the practitioner and client and the expectancy of the client—that have been shown to be associated with successful outcomes. Common factors also include attributes of the practitioner and client, the support system of the client, the institutional and organizational conditions in which the practitioner practices, and also the strategic actions employed by the practitioner, client, and all those involved in the work that promote change. This paper will discuss key concepts in a common factors practice perspective and how evidence is used by common factors practitioners, highlight features of common factors practice, and suggest implications for developing a common factors practice approach.     

Public nudity on cell phones: Managing conflict in crisis situations

Analyzing news coverage to recount a fast-moving, dramatic marketing PR incident that occurred in South Korea, the contingency theory of conflict management and crisis management strategies are integrated to examine how crisis is communicated and managed in a very short period of time. Several types of strategies were utilized by contending parties through the various stages of the crisis life cycle. We found evidence for a new contingent variable that should be added in the matrix of contingent factors--the importance of Internet community and Netizens as organized and influential public. Netizens played an important role throughout the crisis period in changing the organization's stance from advocacy to accommodation.     

Styling the worker: Gender and the commodification of language in the globalized service economy

This paper discusses some sociolinguistic characteristics of the speech style prescribed to workers for interacting with customers in service contexts, focusing in particular on the linguistic and vocal 'styling' prescribed for operators in telephone call centres in the U.K. Attention is drawn to the similarities between the preferred style of speech and what is popularly thought of as 'women's language'. The intensive regulation of service workers' speech and the valorization of 'feminine' communication styles are analysed in relation to changes occurring as a consequence of economic globalization.     

Is the Relationship between Socioeconomic Status and Health Stronger for Older Children in Developing Countries?

Recent research on the relationship between child health and income in developed countries reveals a positive gradient that is more pronounced for older children, suggesting that the impact of income upon health accumulates. This article examines whether the same is true in a developing country. Using data from the Indonesian Family Life Survey on children aged 0 to 14 years, we find that although low income adversely affects health, its impact does not differ by age. This finding is robust to the use of both subjective and objective health measures, controlling for selective mortality, the use of alternative measures of households’ resources, and the inclusion of indicators of health at birth and parental health. One explanation for the constancy of the health-income relationship that we explore is the dominant role played by acute illness in determining the general health status of children in a developing-country context compared with the more central role played by chronic conditions in developed countries.     

Conditionality in the context of housing-led homelessness policy: Comparing Australia’s Housing First agenda to Scotland’s “rights-based” approach

Homelessness services and policy have historically tended to be organised by an explicitly conditional logic, wherein people experiencing homelessness must prove their “housing readiness” before accessing settled housing. This model has been robustly challenged in recent decades by “housing-led” approaches that ostensibly eschew conditionality and prioritise the rapid rehousing of people experiencing homelessness. Various countries now include housing-led approaches in the national policy frameworks, including Australia, which overhauled its approach to homelessness in 2008, and Scotland, where a housing-led approach is supported by a legal right to housing for homeless households. Notwithstanding this policy shift, conditionality remains an enduring feature of responses to homelessness in both jurisdictions. This paper sheds light on this phenomenon by comparing the Australian experience with that of Scotland. We demonstrate how conditionality remains a feature of both jurisdictions; however, there is greater effort in Scotland to identify and minimise conditionality, whereas in Australia it is able to persist relatively unchallenged. We conclude with some reflections on what Australia can learn from Scotland’s relative success, highlighting the importance of a national-level policy framework and an adequate affordable housing supply.     

Where the wild things are! Do urban green spaces with greater avian biodiversity promote more positive emotions in humans?

Urban Ecosystems - Urban green space can help mitigate the negative impacts of urban living and provide positive effects on citizens’ mood, health and well-being. Questions remain, however,...     

The measurement of structural ageing – an axiomatic approach

Contraceptive access is influenced by policy decisions, which can expand and constrict the contraceptive options available. This study explored the impact of recent US federal policies on contraceptive access by identifying and reviewing empirical literature, which is then presented and discussed using Levesque et al.’s (2013) healthcare access framework. A scoping review was conducted to identify empirical studies (N = 96) examining the impact of recent federal policy (passed from 2009 to 2019) on contraceptive access. Most identified studies examined the role of the Affordable Care Act (n = 53) and Title X of the Public Health Service Act (n = 25), showing many benefits of both policies for contraceptive access, particularly through improved affordability, availability, and appropriateness of contraceptive care. Other identified studies examined the impact of policies funding abstinence-only sex education (n = 2) and the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Program (n = 3), military policies related to the availability of contraception (n = 1), guidelines for quality contraceptive care (n = 3), Title IX of the Education Amendments (n = 4), the Violence Against Women Act (n = 1), and the Veterans Access, Choice, and Accountability Act (n = 4). Through increased outreach efforts, normalising of care, availability of services, cost subsidies, and provider competencies, recent federal policy has, overall, enhanced contraceptive access across the dimensions of healthcare access. Numerous policy and practice gaps and needs are identified, and future directions for research, policy, and practice are suggested.

     

Power to the people—health PR people that is!

Inspired by the seminal typology of power first suggested by French and Raven, this study identified five types of power (Expert, Information Reward, Information Coercive, Advertising Coercive, and Influence Powers) that health public relations practitioners believed they have in media relations. This study also examined the effect of four variables, such as personal closeness with reporters, openness towards the media, perceived media job performance, and perceived expertise in the health field, on these five types of perceived power. The results suggested that public relations practitioners who highly evaluate themselves as an expert in health and as a competent media communicator, and who are personally close with reporters have greater Expert Power in media relations. Also, when practitioners are personally close to reporters, they are more likely to use Information Reward Power.