“You Just Might Get It Right One Day”: On Being Informed By Carl J. Couch

The founders of the intellectual tradition that became known as symbolic interaction theory were the first to articulate the principle that society exists in communication…. Let us focus our analytic powers on social acts.     

Transform methods for the hypergeometric distribution

Two new methods for computing with hypergeometric distributions on lattice points are presented. One uses Fourier analysis, and the other uses Gröbner bases in the Weyl algebra. Both are very general and apply to log-linear models that are graphical or non-graphical.     

Self- and caregiver-reported experiences of young adults with developmental disabilities

The purpose of this study was to describe the experiences of young adults with developmental disabilities (DD) who were living in community settings with the aid of government-supported services. Six male and 10 female volunteer subjects (mean age = 24 years) were interviewed and the narrative data were analyzed revealing themes in six categories: (1) Home Life, (2) Relationships, (3) Health and Health Care, (4) Personal Growth and Accomplishments, (5) Occupation, and (6) Transportation. Subjects' most positive experiences were associated with integrated, comprehensive and timely services delivered by knowledgeable and sensitive service providers. Strong parental advocacy facilitated these features. Additionally, experiences were most positive when daily activities occurred within the sphere of either family or the disability community, as opposed to the broader community. Research is suggested to further understand the dynamics of integration in the broader community and to devise strategies to successfully facilitate this integration.     

The Metrics of Societal Happiness

Growing interest in the measurement of subjective well-being (SWB) has also been accompanied by scientific debate on the optimal method for measuring SWB. The momentary perspective, which is represented by the ecological momentary assessment (EMA) and day reconstruction method (DRM), emphasizes the momentary experiences and aims to measure SWB in an objective manner via the aggregation of happiness levels over time and activities. The global reporting perspective emphasizes the subjective evaluation of life experiences and aims to capture the overall evaluation using retrospection or global evaluations. We discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these different perspectives and methods by examining conceptual, methodological, and practical issues. We propose adopting a multi-method assessment approach to SWB that uses both perspectives and the corresponding methods in a theory-driven and complementary manner. For the purposes of measuring and tracking SWB of societies, we also call for more research on the reliability and validity of EMA and DRM.     

Cultivating a Research Tool Kit for Social Work Doctoral Education

ABSTRACT

Social work doctoral education can prepare students to become research scholars whose work has impact by providing and promoting the development of an appropriately sophisticated and diverse research methods tool kit. Students can cultivate their tool kits through course work, mentored research experience, and specialized workshops. The tool kit is best grounded in guided reading of methodological texts—that is, reading methodological texts while conferring with advanced peers, faculty, and research supervisors—which provides essential teaching and experiences to enhance understanding and use. This article lays out a rationale for guided reading and provides an example of primer text and recommended readings to support guided reading for one set of related research methods: randomized experimentation and finite mixture modeling.     

Stopping Child Bullying: Educators' Diverse Approaches for School Improvement

This original case-study research investigates educational professionals' answers to survey questions regarding how to eradicate child bullying. Twenty school professionals from two different schools—one school at the elementary level and the other school at the high school level—detailed their own particular bullying problems they see while serving in their own unique leadership capacity role and learning organization and what proactive initiatives they have modeled or participated in either individually or collectively to stop school bullying. Educational professionals were asked to detail any school-based policies already set in place or any procedural guidelines that will soon become implemented regarding stopping child bullying. Of the study results from participants, findings demonstrate that more critically intensive focus should be placed on school bullying by district wide anti-bully programs and being more frequently assessed. The survey is included at the end of this article (see Appendix).     

Donning the Mask of Motherhood: A Defensive Strategy,a Developmental Search

Psychoanalysis has begun to place motherhood in a theoretical context, but mainly mothering is seen through the unconscious fantasies of children and adults in analysis who are reflecting on the mothers of their childhood. Little has been written about how mothers unconsciously view themselves and their mothering. Through the analyses of two women and their mothering anxieties, I focus on the intrapsychic conflicts of gender identity that can be masked by a culturally sanctioned obsessive preoccupation with their children. I describe how their developmental search for their female selves leads them to disavow states of being that they concretely deem as masculine.