Geriatric Social Work Career Tracking: Graduates of the Hartford Partnership Program for Aging Education (HPPAE)

Despite a growing need for geriatric social workers, there is a question as to whether MSW graduates who are gerontologically prepared actually enter the workforce to serve older adults. By tracking MSW graduates who had special training in aging, this study aims to explore their job search and career experience. Findings show that most graduates located aging-related jobs 4 months postgraduation and remained committed to the field 1 to 2 years later. The majority were working in direct service provision in clinical settings. Their salaries compare favorably with those of generic social workers. Implications for geriatric social work education are discussed.     

Beyond Income: A Social Justice Approach to Assessing Poverty among Older Adults with Chronic Kidney Disease

ABSTRACT

How social workers define and assess poverty is a matter of economic and social justice. Recent conceptual and measurement advances point to a multidimensional definition of poverty which captures material, social, and political deprivations. Using data from a survey, this article describes how nephrology social workers assess poverty among older adults living with a chronic kidney disease (N = 52). Results suggest respondents already conceive of poverty as a multidimensional experience, support awareness-raising about poverty, and primarily assess poverty by employment status, income, access to transportation, and education. Opportunities to expand poverty assessment in future work are promising.     

The Use of Body Movements and Gestures as Cues to Emotions in Younger and Older Adults

Eighty-two younger and older adults participated in a two-part study of the decoding of emotion through body movements and gestures. In the first part, younger and older adults identified emotions depicted in brief videotaped displays of young adult actors portraying emotional situations. In each display, the actors were silent and their faces were electronically blurred in order to isolate the body cues to emotion. Although both groups made accurate emotion identifications well above chance levels, older adults made more overall errors, and this was especially true for negative emotions. Moreover, their errors were more likely to reflect the misidentification of emotional displays as neutral in content. In the second part, younger and older adults rated the videotaped displays using scales reflecting several movement dimensions (e.g., form, tempo, force, and movement). The ratings of both age groups were in high agreement and provided reliable information about particular body cues to emotion. The errors made by older adults were linked to reactions to exaggerated or ambiguous body cues.     

Nonverbal Behavior in the Digital Age: Meanings,Models, and Methods

This Special Issue of the Journal of Nonverbal Behavior explores nonverbal issues in the digital age, with an emphasis how digital technologies provide researchers with new tools for exploring nonverbal components of interpersonal interactions in digital environments. In addition to showing a range of exciting applications, the featured articles also touch upon the challenges of new digital strategies.     

The impact of variations in height on young children's impressions of men and women

Two studies examined whether variations in height influence children's impressions of men and women. In Study 1, 28 preschool-aged children judged the strength, dominance, smartness, and concern for others of male and female targets of different heights. Children judged both taller male and female targets as stronger and more dominant, but not to have more concern for others or smartness than shorter targets. In Study 2, 71 preschool-aged children viewed pairs of male and female targets in three height conditions (male target taller, female target taller, targets equal height) and made trait judgments as in Study 1. Again, taller male targets were judged to be stronger, more dominant, and smarter, but not to have more concern for others than shorter female targets. Moreover, disruptions of gender-typical height differences were associated with reversals in impressions of male and female targets. That is, taller female targets were judged to be stronger, more dominant, and smarter when they appeared with shorter male targets. The present findings not only support the claim that physical stature figures importantly in the process by which children form trait impressions but also indicate that covariations between height and gender exert a strong impact on particular traits children attribute to men and women.Portions of this paper were presented at the 1991 meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, Seattle, Washington. Special thanks are extended to Stephanie Fein who created the stimulus materials and interviewed the children in Study 2, and to Todd Horvitz who interviewed the children in Study 1.