Family Therapy's Coming of Age: Less Haste,More Speed

Responding to the question implicit in the title of the 1985 National Family Therapy Conference ‘Coming of Age’, the author argues that Australian family therapy still has a number of issues to face before it can be said to be a mature and independent adult. The paper focuses on three issues — ideology in family therapy, theory for practice, and practice itself— and raises questions about the adequacy of Australian family therapy's theoretical maturity, suggesting that there is still too much reliance on the ‘new’ and on the ‘guru’ rather than on a solid building on therapeutic experience.     

Resettlement and Social Change in Newfoundland

Le gouveroement de Terre-Neuve amorca, en 1953, un programme de relocalisa-tion visant a demenager les habitants des petits villages de peche (outport) vers les grands centres qui offrent plus de possibilites. Les quatre monographies que nous couvrons ici discutent les resultats de ce programme ainsi que les reactions des insulaires eux-memes. Ces rapports sont bases sur des etudes effectuees de 1966 a 1968. Trois d'entre eux sont des etudes de cas de relocalisation et de changement social dans certaines regions de Terre-Neuve. L'etude d'Ottar Brox presente une vue generate des conditions economiques et sociales de la Province. On considere que Terre-Neuve possede une economie dualiste. Les rapports con-tiennent un certain nombre de recommandations specifiques.
In 1953, the government of Newfoundland initiated a resettlement programme to move people from the small outports to larger centres with more opportunities. The four reports discuss the results of this programme, and the reaction of the people on the island to them. They are based on research carried out in 1966–1968. Three reports are primarily case studies of resettlement and social change in different parts of Newfoundland. The report by Ottar Brox provides an overview of the social and economic conditions in Newfoundland, which is identified as having a dualistic economy, in which the two halves are separated by a "conversion barrier." The reports contain a number of specific recommendations.     

SOME ASPECTS OF NEGOTIATED ORDER,LOOSE COUPLING AND MESOSTRUCTURE IN MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISONS*

Even in total institutions, control is far from total. In custodial organizations, for example, staff and inmates negotiate their own interpretation of the social order, often rejecting formal rules and control techniques, and substituting alternatives that may be just as formal, although tacit, as those they replace. This creates “gaps” betwen formal organizational structure and individual behaviors which partially decouple formal rules from the behaviors intended to carry out those rules. This study integrates organizational and prison research to develop the concepts of negotiated order, loose coupling, and me-sostructure. The goal is to examine the context in which negotiations occur and the manner in which negotiated order activates the interactions and understandings through and by which organizational structure is generated and maintained.     

Probabilities and Possibilities: The Strategic Counseling Implications of the Chaos Theory of Careers

The chaos theory of careers emphasizes both stability and change in its account of career development. This article outlines counseling strategies derived from this emphasis in terms of convergent or probability thinking and emergent or possibility thinking. These 2 perspectives are characterized, and practical counseling strategy implications are provided. In addition, an illustrative technique example is described. The authors conclude that the challenges of modern career development demand the complementary and the interactive use of both probability and possibility thinking strategies.     

Issues in end-of-life product recovery and reverse logistics

There is a fundamental shift in waste management responsibility from the private waste management industry and local governments towards manufacturers, distributors, and retailers. In recent years the responsibility of manufacturers has been extended to cover the entire life of certain products. This also includes responsibility for the products safe disposal. As the enforcement of environmental legislation becomes more stringent and an increasing number of customers are demanding take-back of their old products, companies are beginning to focus on possible distribution channels for the return of their products i.e. reverse logistics. The aim of this paper is to examine the emerging issues in reverse logistics, in particular the information requirements for reverse logistics within the Extended Enterprise. A study of end-of-life vehicles (ELVs) will illustrate the specific information flow between the key players within the automotive industry. This paper addresses the initial development of possible distribution channels, their key operational decisions and supporting information systems for the recycling of end of life products.     

The Interface Between Ethnic and Social System Attachment: The Differential Effects of Hierarchy-Enhancing and Hierarchy-Attenuating Environments

Social dominance theory distinguishes between hierarchy-enhancing environments, which promote inequality between groups (e.g., American society), and hierarchy-attenuating environments, which promote equality between groups (e.g., universities). Consistent with predictions derived from this distinction, a panel study that assessed attitudes prior to university exposure and after one year of university exposure yielded three findings: (1) exposure to the university decreased antiegalitarian attitudes; (2) at the end of their first year of college, European Americans exhibited greater national attachment than Asian Americans, Latinos, and African Americans, but members of all groups exhibited similar levels of university attachment; and (3) European Americans exhibited a more positive association between ethnic attachment and national attachment than members of the other three groups, but members of all groups exhibited similar relationships between ethnic attachment and university attachment.     

Testing the 3-factor model of occupational stress: the impact of demands, control and social support on a mail sorting task

This study tests a 3-factor model of occupational stress, which predicts that job demands, job control and social support influence levels of strain. In a laboratory simulation of mail sorting, task demands, control and social supports were manipulated systematically. Pre- and post-task measures of self reported stress and arousal were compared across groups. Performance was measured continuously during the computer task and all 120 participants reported their perceived performance afterwards. Stress was found to be higher and perceived performance was lower in conditions of high demand; this pattern was also observed in conditions of low social support. Contrary to the hypotheses put forward in this paper, task control did not affect stress and the manipulations did not interact to produce elevated stress. However, task performance was poorer in conditions of high demand and in conditions of low control, and there was a significant interaction between demand and control for performance. Work preference measures indicated that the level of fit between ideal and actual social support influenced stress and perceived performance.     

Failure and maintenance data extraction from power plant maintenance management databases

Reliability analysis is plagued by a lack of accurate data, leading to suboptimal parameter estimates and inaccurate decisions about replacement intervals and preventive maintenance activities. This paper discusses some of the problems associated with failure and maintenance data extraction from coal-fired power plant maintenance databases. Data from four generating units were observed for over 5 years and a reasonable number of equipment classes reviewed. The coal mills are identified as significant equipment that affects the availability of the generating units. This paper describes the interplay of events which includes failure modes, failure, repair and operating time. We investigate a database showing operation of coal mills, and give an exploratory data analysis in which we investigate engineering hypotheses related to mill operation. A competing risk probability model is proposed which captures some of the observed features of the systems under study.