Sociology,Psychoanalysis, and Marginalization: Unconscious Defenses and Disciplinary Interests

American sociology as a field tends to marginalize psychoanalytic perspectives despite scholars Cavalletto and Silver showing that this was not the case during Talcott Parson's intellectual heyday in the 1940s. From the 1970s on, though, constructionists emphasized the conservative rather than liberatory side of the Freudian tradition and symbolic interactionism took the place of psychoanalysis as the legitimized framework for understanding individuals. Marginalization has occurred for at least three reasons: (1) the legacies of positivism created a bias toward empirically observable rather than relatively unmeasurable concepts like the Freudian unconscious; (2) psychoanalysis uses internal data whereas sociologists look externally rather than inward; (3) because psychoanalysis focuses on individuals and sociology on groups, it is argued that the two are incommensurate. Nevertheless, even in the face of marginalization, some scholars have combined psychoanalytic and sociological perspectives in myriad ways conceiving of multi dimensional rather than rationalistic individuals within social and cultural settings; exploring interactional dynamics that are at once psychic‐and‐social; and, as in the work of Wilfred Bion, studying the psychoanalytic mechanisms of groups themselves. I posit that the ongoing marginalization of psychoanalysis deprives the discipline of an innovative tool of analysis, an especially salient one at times when the emotional and psychological dimensions of social life are glaringly evident.     

Developing a Research Agenda on Resident-to-Resident Aggression: Recommendations From a Consensus Conference

This article provides an overview of the development of a research agenda on resident-to-resident aggression (RRA) in long-term care facilities by an expert panel of researchers and practitioners. A 1-day consensus-building workshop using a modified Delphi approach was held to gain consensus on nomenclature and an operational definition for RRA, to identify RRA research priorities, and to develop a roadmap for future research on these priorities. Among the six identified terms in the literature, RRA was selected. The top five priorities were: (a) developing/assessing RRA environmental interventions; (b) identification of the environmental factors triggering RRA; (c) incidence/prevalence of RRA; (d) developing/assessing staff RRA education interventions; and (e) identification of RRA perpetrator and victim characteristics. Given the significant harm RRA poses for long-term care residents, this meeting is an important milestone, as it is the first organized effort to mobilize knowledge on this under-studied topic at the research, clinical, and policy levels.     

Individualism and Its Discontents in Social Work: Proposing a Counternarrative for a New Vision of Social Work Theory and Practice

The ideology of individualism undermines the foundation of social work theory and practice. Hyper-individualism drives cultural systems and institutions, rendering the social work profession fundamentally incapable of promoting social change for social justice. A radical communitarian counternarrative provides a critical analysis of the disconnect between the needs of individuals and the capacity of communities to meet those needs. A real-world application of radical communitarian principles is demonstrated in cohousing, a contemporary movement in community building. The cohousing model shows how social work might reorient its vision for professional theory and practice.     

Thinking Critically

This study evaluated a ten-week course designed for social work field instructors interested in developing a critically reflective approach to field instruction. The course trained participants to think critically about their role in preparing professional social workers. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent comparison group design was utilized. The Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal was used as the measurement instrument. Using t-tests, the findings indicate that the participants significantly increased their overall ability to think critically when compared to the control group. The implications for practicum instruction are addressed.     

The Importance of Early,Targeted Intervention: The Effect of Family,Maternal, and Child Characteristics on the Use of Physical Discipline

Secondary analysis of Early Head Start Research and Evaluation Study longitudinal data explored family, parent, and child factors that contribute to the use of physical discipline with infants and toddlers. The sample included mothers (N = 1,580) who self reported the use of spanking at 14, 24, and 36 months. Eighteen percent of the mothers (n = 287) indicated that their children experienced consistent physical discipline. Data were analyzed using binary logistic regression. Participation in parenting classes resulted in a 30% reduction in the use of physical discipline. For every year older the mother was at the birth of the child, there was a 7% decrease in physical discipline. Increased knowledge of child development reduced spanking by 35%. Implications for social work practice with families of young children are discussed.     

Many Faces of Openness in Adoption: Perspectives of Adopted Adolescents and Their Parents

Parents and adolescents (mean age, 15.7 years) from 177 adoptive families participating in the second wave of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project were interviewed about their post-adoption contact arrangements. The sample included families with no contact, stopped contact, contact without meetings, and contact with face-to-face meetings between the adolescent and birth mother. Openness arrangements were dynamic, and different openness arrangements were associated with different experiences and feelings. Adoptive families with contact reported having higher levels of satisfaction about their openness arrangements, experiencing more positive feelings about the birth mother, and possessing more factual and personal knowledge about the birth mother than did families without contact. Adolescents and adoptive mothers in the contact with meetings group reported the greatest satisfaction with their openness arrangements; those with no contact or stopped contact reported the least satisfaction with their arrangements. Participants having no contact were more likely to want the intensity of contact to increase in the future rather than stay the same. Many participants already having contact wanted it to increase in the future. Fewer than 1 percent of all participants wanted to see the intensity of contact decrease.     

Femininity and family planning

Kosnik, Anthony, William Carroll, Agnes Cunningham, Ronald Modras and James Schulte. Human Sexuality: New Directions in American Catholic Thought. New York, N. Y.: Paulist Press, 1977. 320 pages. $8.50.

Lloyd, Robin. For Money or Love: Boy Prostitution in America. Introduction by Birch Bayh. New York: Vanguard Press, 1976. 236 pages. $8.95.

Sagarin, Edward. “Prison Homosexuality and Its Effect on Post‐Prison Sexual Behavior.” Psychiatry, August 1976, 39 (3), 245–257.     

Maternal mental health in Australia and New Zealand: A review of longitudinal studies

AimThe aim of this paper is to describe the factors that impact on the mental health of Australian and New Zealand (NZ) women in the perinatal period (pregnancy and the year following birth), and to determine the impact of perinatal mental health on women's subsequent health by summarising findings from prospective longitudinal studies conducted in Australia and NZ.MethodsA systematic search was conducted using the databases, Scopus, Medline, PsychInfo and Health Source to identify prospective longitudinal studies focused on women's social and emotional health in the perinatal period. Forty-eight papers from eight longitudinal studies were included.ResultsThe proportion of women reporting depressive symptoms in the first year after birth was between 10 and 20% and this has remained stable over 25 years. The two strongest predictors for depression and anxiety were previous history of depression and poor partner relationship. Importantly, women's mood appears to be better in the first year after birth, when compared to pregnancy and five years later. Becoming a mother at a young age is by itself not a risk factor unless coupled with social disadvantage. Women report a high number of stressors in pregnancy and following birth and the rate of intimate partner violence reported is worryingly high.ConclusionMidwives have an important role in the identification, support and referral of women experiencing mental health problems. As many women do not seek help from mental health services, the potential for a known midwife to impact on women's mental health warrants further examination.     

Historical epidemiology of smallpox in Åland,Finland: 1751–1890

We analyze a 140-year series of smallpox deaths in the Åland Islands, Finland. Vaccination, introduced in 1805, dramatically reduced the annual number of smallpox deaths. It also influenced the age distribution of smallpox deaths, changing smallpox from a childhood disease before 1805 to one which affected both adults and children after 1805. This appears to be due to the fact that Ålanders were usually vaccinated only once during childhood and often lost their immunity during adulthood. Spectral analysis of the prevaccination time series of smallpox deaths demonstrates a strong seven-year periodicity, reflecting the amount of time necessary to build up a cohort of nonimmune individuals. After the introduction of vaccination, the periodicity changes to eight years. The probability that a parish in Åland was affected by a smallpox epidemic is shown to be highly correlated with migration patterns and parish population sizes.     

Skin Color and Intelligence in African Americans: A Reply to Hill

Hill's theory that the positive association between light skin color and intelligence among African Americans can be explained as a result of discrimination by whites against darker skinned blacks is implausible. There is no direct evidence for this theory. If it were true, dark skinned blacks should earn less than light skinned blacks as a result of greater discrimination against them. The NORC data show that this is not the case. Hill's analysis is an example of the Sociologists' Fallacy that consists of treating correlates as causes.