The Place and Relevancy of Practice with Couples in Graduate Social Work Education

Social workers often provide services and therapy for couples; however, little literature has been published that suggests models for teaching—from a social work perspective—marriage counseling or social work with couples. This article reports the results of a survey that examined how faculty in graduate schools of social work are teaching practice content in marriage counseling and their perceptions of its relevancy to social work practice. Findings indicated that some content on social work practice with couples is evident in most master of social work programs. Moreover, faculty perceived social work practice with couples as moderately relevant to all practice settings listed in the survey.     

Sleep hygiene practices and sleep duration in rotating-shift shiftworkers

Abstract

Alcohol, caffeine and tobacco intake, exercise, activities on going to bed, and sleep-enhancing measures were assessed in 72 rotating-shift shiftworkers to determine whether these variables differ following day shifts and night-shifts, and which are related to sleep duration. Only alcohol intake and exercise prior to sleep, and feeling drowsy when retiring, differed following the night-shift. Workers generally followed recommendations concerning alcohol intake, sleeping immediately on retiring, and exercising, but acted contrary to recommendations concerning caffeine and nicotine intake. The only behaviour clearly associated with poor sleep was smoking, which reduced sleep duration.     

Formative research methods to understand patient and provider responses to heart attack symptoms

Formative research is often required for program planning, and for reducing uncertainty about generalizability of program effects. This article describes and justifies methods of formative research conducted for the REACT study (Rapid Early Action for Coronary Treatment), a multi-center collaborative randomized community trial aimed at reducing patient delay in seeking care for acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Formative research cast light on patient and community members’ decision-making process in seeking help for AMI, as well as barriers and facilitators of this process. Investigators at all five REACT Field Centers participated in the formative research. The process consisted of: (1) developing a common theoretical framework for the study intervention; (2) conducting a literature review and qualitative research to identify and address gaps in knowledge; and (3) developing a common protocol for the REACT study that accommodated the diversity of the target communities in terms of services, resources, history, and ethnicity. Analysis employed triangulation, defined as an explicit search for heterogeneous data sources to reduce uncertainty about forces at work and opportunities for intervention across settings and populations. Because the collection and interpretation of data went in stages, staff of several REACT Field Centers had independent input to the overall synthesis, then shared and revised the results. Advantages and limitations of this approach are discussed.     

The race relations problematic in American sociology: A case study and critique

This article reports the results of an analysis of all racial and ethnic relations articles published in the American Journal of Sociology, the American Sociological Review, Social Forces, and Social Problems, from January 1969 through December 1995. The analysis identifies by journal: 1) major methodological orientation(s); 2) how the concepts of “race,” “ethnicity,” and racial and ethnic relations are operationalized, which is useful for examining tendencies toward, or against, reification; 3) substantive content—that is, what a sociology of racial and ethnic relations is; and 4) primary context—that is, are racial and ethnic relations treated as a substantive subdiscipline in their own right, or are they merely a topic of interest for other subdisciplines such as social psychology? In brief, although some differences exist between the journals, all four journals publish disproportionately racial and ethnic relations research that: 1) is highly quantitative as opposed to theoretical, conceptual, or sociohistorical; 2) reifies U.S. Census definitions of race and ethnicity as opposed to critically evaluating such definitions; 3) social psychologizes racial and ethnic relations, or subsumes such relations under stratification processes; and 4) subsumes the racial and ethnic relations problematic under subdiscipline rubrics other than a sociology of racial and ethnic relations. The conclusion discusses the implications of these findings; for example, by virtue of what they publish, these journals construct a paradigmatic frame that gives precedence to, or legitimizes, some views and excludes, or de-legitimizes others.     

A Formal Restatement of Durkheim's "Division of Labor" Theory

Despite frequent references in the sociological literature to Durkheim's theory about the division of labor, sociologists have made few attempts to test it. The paucity of attempts and the very debatable outcomes thereof are due largely to Durkheim's use of the traditional discursive mode of theory construction. A discursively stated theory's logical structure is likely to be obscure, and for that reason alone tests of it are difficult and controversial. Rather than perpetuate the exegetical tradition in sociological treatments of the subject, this paper restates Durkheim's theory in accordance with a particular formal mode. That restatement identifies the theory's shortcomings and problems. But the eight premises imply only one testable theorem, and the theorem's predictive accuracy appears minimal unless "population concentration" is substituted for "density" in the first axiom. Nonetheless, the restatement clearly shows how extension of the theory (additional postulates) could further its testability.     

Antiracist Education in Theory and Practice: A Critical Assessment

“Antiracist Education in Theory and Practice: A Critical Assessment” As a set of pedagogical, curricular, and organizational strategies, antiracist education claims to be the most progressive way today to understand race relations. Constructed from whiteness studies and the critique of colorblindness, its foundational core is located in approximately 160 papers published in peer-reviewed journals in the past 15 years-identified through a comprehensive search of Academic Premier Search, EBSCOMegaFile, Education Abstracts, JSTOR, and SOCIndex. A critical assessment of these papers concludes that antiracist education is not a sociologically grounded, empirically based account of the significance of race in American society. Rather, it is a morally based educational reform movement that embodies the confessional and redemptive modes common in evangelical Protestantism. Inherently problematic, whether or not antiracist education achieves broader acceptance is open to debate. Presented at the joint meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society/North Central Sociological Association, Chicago, IL, April 7, 2007     

DETECT

DETECT is an inexpensive, easy to use, general-purpose, Monte Carlo simulation program for IBM and compatible personal computers. It can be used to quickly analyze fault trees or functions of random variables. DETECT provides a wide variety of input distributions to choose from and a dependency (correlation) option. The result of the analysis is a probability distribution over the variable of interest. We look forward to further improvements (e.g., graphics, full-screen editing, ability to inspect intermediate results) that will make DETECT even more useful and attractive.     

The effect of the united mine workers of America on the probability of severe injury in underground coal mines

This paper examines the efficacy of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA) in achieving safe working conditions by reducing the probability of severe injury. A detailed data base has been constructed for underground mines during the period 1986–1988. The results obtained fail to provide convincing evidence that the UMWA reduces the severity of injury, even though the UMWA has safety committees and inspectors in the mines where it is the bargaining agent. Further testing reveals that there is no significant difference in the probability of injury due to roof falls, haulage, and handling material, between union and nonunion mines.