Post-Occupancy Evaluation of a Transformed Nursing Home: The First Four Green House® Settings

To study how well the physical environments of four Green Houses® served the residents, staff, and visitors and to develop recommendations for similar small-house nursing home projects. Longitudinal post-occupancy evaluation of four houses using mixed-methods, including behavioral mapping, checklist ratings of individual bedrooms and bathrooms, place-centered time scans, environmental tracers, and questionnaires and interviews. The small residential environments achieved the desired functional results for residents and staff. Some components of the environment proved problematic, especially bathroom designs, lighting and fixtures, and storage spaces. Certain areas of the buildings were under utilized, particularly a den. Space was used differently in the two houses dedicated to residents with dementia compared to the other two houses. In the latter, residents tended to use their own rooms for a variety of activities, including visits, and often kept their doors closed, whereas in the former the central hearth area was used more frequently. The physical design of the Green Houses was associated with desired behavior and outcomes in residents and staff. Post-occupancy evaluation methods were useful to elicit detailed information about environmental performance and suggest modifications for the next iteration of Green Houses.     

Youth at a Leftist and Rightist Political Rally: Reasons for Participating

Abstract

This paper investigates the degree of uniqueness of the contribution of youth to an anti-war rally of 1970. It contrasts that contribution to the part played by youth at a pro-war rally of the same year. Both rallies took place near the Washington Monument in Washington, D. C. Data collection consisted of on-the-spot interviews of a sample of participants at both rallies. The focus of the interview was on reasons expressed by participants for their attendance at the rally. The data support the following hypotheses: that youth at the anti-war rally were more highly oriented towards specific objectives and general objectives than were older participants at that rally or youthful ones at the pro-war rally; that youth at the anti-war rally were less highly oriented towards personal reasons than older participants at that rally or younger ones at the pro-war rally. Generally reasons for participating were found to be influenced by the interaction of age cohort and ideological thrust of the rally. The importance of belonging to the modal age group for a particular rally was discussed, along with other implications such as the role of generational conflict during the late 1960s and early 1970s.     

“Vygotskian-izing” Psychotherapy

Although Vygotsky’s ideas are applied to dozens of disciplines/practices, psychotherapy is not among them. With few exceptions, contemporary Vygotskians have stayed clear of the subject; and most psychotherapy researchers and clinical practitioners have little familiarity with Vygotsky—despite Vygotsky’s challenge to psychology’s isolation of the intellectual from the affective. Recent manifestations of psychotherapy’s cognitive bias are discussed, showing the need to “Vygotskian-ize” the discipline. The Vygotskian-influenced social therapy, focused on group creativity and emotional development, is presented as an expansion of Vygotsky’s dialectical methodology: method as tool-and-result, the unity learning-and-development, the zone of proximal development of play, and language completing thought.     

What we value: A Delphi study to identify key values that guide ethical decision-making in public relations

This study recommends that the Public Relations Society of America expand its professional values list to include respect and trustworthiness. This addition also shows the value this study's public relations participants place on mutually beneficial relationships with their clients/employers, customers, communities, and society as a whole. The findings contribute to the growing attention to and value of relationship management theory for effective public relations.     

Rural Housing Adequacy and Civic Structure

One persistent problem that many small rural towns face is housing adequacy, which encompasses interior and exterior structural conditions; assessments of heating, cooling, and sanitation systems; and residence size relative to space needs. The creation and reproduction of vibrant rural communities is grounded in the capacity of citizens to solve local housing problems. We posit that towns with strong norms of mutuality, high information flows, and inclusive behaviors have a civic structure that produces the capacity to frame and resolve housing concerns. We find that perceptions of civic structure are a significant factor in explaining the variation in rural housing adequacy, net of income, age, and tenure. This implies that the social and political environment is an important influence on the quality of housing stock found in rural places.     

Building an organizational capability for radical innovation: The direct managerial role

Our research examines practices for managing project leaders as a component of an organization's capability for radical innovation. Our qualitative analysis of 246 interviews in twelve industry-leading corporations suggests that managers use performance-based assessment to select project leaders with demonstrated experience and skills for innovation, as well as passion that extends beyond a single project toward an awareness of its broader contribution to the organization's growth objectives. The managerial role includes concurrent hands-off/hands-on involvement, which balances autonomy and accountability with guidance. Additionally, downside/upside management involves removing the negative consequences associated with failure while providing recognition for the project leader's efforts.     

Psychotherapeutic approaches to the cancer patient

Three basic therapeutic approaches applicable to the majority of cancer patients are outlined and illustrated with case vignettes. They are: (1) Initial catharsis and validation of feelings, (2) Restoring communication impaired by denial, and (3) Understanding the psychological meaning of the illness. Using this framework, the therapist's professional skills may be organized toward specific interventions, thereby stabilizing the associated ego functions against the regression often induced by the anxieties mobilized by working with seriously ill patients.     

Hedonism and the Family: Conflict in Values?*

In American society (and maybe all of the “Western world), there seems to be an increasing emphasis on instant gratification and avoidance of pain for its individual members. These two trends—one towards hedonism and the other involving the centrality of the rights of the individual—are closely connected. Both implicate basic values. Both have important effects upon the family. The purpose of this paper is to highlight issues related to these values, discuss their past and potentially future effects on the family, and reflect upon the role of the educator and helping professional in encouraging or discouraging certain biases among their students and clients and in the more general community.     

‘Community’: The Spray-on Solution

Community is one of those ‘motherhood’ words with great potential for mystification of social issues. This paper examines the way the term has evolved and is currently used in Australia. Special attention is given to the contradiction between the claims to radicalism of much community work and the system preserving effect the term actually lends to programs. To illuminate the process under consideration alternative approaches are briefly considered but recognized as generally unacceptable to official social policy and practice because of the implicit threat to the current distribution of power and resources.