Poems, patients, and psychosocial nursing

1. Holism can prove just as elusive in psychosocial nursing as in any other specialty area. 2. Students in an undergraduate psychosocial nursing course used poetry to express the fullness of the situations in which they found themselves. 3. The poems touched a deeper and more complete sense of humanity than had been possible in other, more traditional, assignments.     

Abstracts

Ahrons, C. R. Divorce: A crisis of family transition and change. Family Relations ,
Elmer, E. Child abuse and family stress. Journal of Social Issues .
McCubbin, H. I. Integrating coping behavior in family stress theory. Journal of Marriage and the Family ,
Reiss, D. & Oliveri, M. E. Family paradigm and family coping: A proposal for linking the family's intrinsic adaptive capacities to its responses to stress. Family Relations ,
Richman, J. The family therapy of attempted suicide. Family Process ,
Stanton, M. D. Family treatment approaches to drug abuse problems: A review. Family Process ,
Unger, D. G. and Powell, D. R. Supporting families under stress: The role of social networks. Family Relations ,
Wiseman, J. P. The "home treatment": The first steps in trying to cope with an alcoholic husband. Family Relations ,     

On the influence of market structure in modelling the US copper industry

Many of the contemporary models used to describe the behavior of the mineral industries assume a competitive market i.e. one in which market price is equal to marginal production cost. One such recent model of the worldwide copper industry is the MIDAS-II model developed for the Bureau of Mines [3, 4]. This model is used to project production and prices up through the year 2000. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of the assumed market structure in the construction of these forecasts. If the market structure of the US copper industry is assumed to be comprised of a few large firms (an oligopoly), then forecasts based upon exactly the same data base differ significantly from the competitive market assumption.     

TERRITORY, VILLAGE IDENTITY, AND THE MODERN ESKIMO REINDEER MANAGER

Depuis le dCbut du xx sikcle, les Esquimaux de 1'Alaska occidental font Yelevage du renne domestiqu6. En d6pit de cette tradition bien ktablie, Ctre propriktaire d'un troupeau n'est pas encore c o n p comme une categorie professionnelle spCcialiske. L'origine territoriale des habitants, en tant que facteurtraditionnel orientant les relations sociales, continue d'Ctre le facteur pripondkrant. De la mCme manikre, la gkrance de l'entreprise d'ilevage du renne asuivi une ligne d'kvolution propre. Les produits du renne sont souvent transform& et distribuks B partir de critkres qui sont dict6s au propriktaire par ses
responsabilites communautaires.
Les planificateurs de l'Etat de l'Alaska veulent promouvoir l'industrie de 1'Clevage du renne. L'ensemble de ces facteurs converge pour placer le gCrant esquimau B l'avant-plan, car il doit reconcilier les exigences conflictuelles deson milieu culture1 en voie de transition.
Since the turn of this century, domesticated reindeer have been raised and marketed by western Alaskan Eskimo. In spite of its rather long history, native reindeer ownership has not become a specialized occupational category. The traditional criteria defining social relations - territorial origins - continues to enter these relations as a determinant force. Similarly, reindeer enterprise management has evolved uniquely. Reindeer products are often processed and distributed according to criteria imposed upon the owner by his village responsibilities.
State of Alaska planners are now hoping to develop domesticated reindeer as a local resource. These forces combine to place the Eskimo manager in the spotlight, as he seeks to reconcile conflicting demands from his changing cultural environment.     

Mortality in late nineteenth-century Montreal: geographic pathways of contagion

In the City of Montreal, 1881, the presence of three cultural communities with different profiles of economic status makes it possible to observe the way social settings affected survival over a lifetime. Regression models show culturally determined maternal factors dominant for infants, and persistent throughout childhood. For post-neonates, children aged 1-4, and adults aged 15-59 household poverty has a comparable effect. Among adults, a gender penalty differs among the three communities. Models are improved when differentiated by cause of death. Locating households using a GIS reveals high levels of residential segregation by ethnicity and income, spatial correlation of environmental hazards, and constraints on exit from zones of risk, which together produce neighbourhood effects as large as household effects. Attention to groups excluded (foundlings and inmates of institutions) confirms that models limited to full household-level information significantly underestimate the impacts of poverty and exclusion.     

Are we keeping the people who used to stay? Changes in correlates of panel survey attrition over time

As survey response rates decline, correlates of survey participation may also be changing. Panel studies provide an opportunity to study a rich set of correlates of panel attrition over time. We look at changes in attrition rates in the American National Election Studies from 1964 to 2004, a repeated panel survey with a two-wave pre-post election design implemented over multiple decades. We examine changes in attrition rates by three groups of variables: sociodemographic and ecological characteristics of the respondent and household, party affiliation and political and social attitudes recorded at the first interview, and paradata about the first wave interview. We find relatively little overall change in the pre-post election panel attrition rates, but important changes in demographic correlates of panel attrition over time. We also examine contact and cooperation rates from 1988 to 2004.     

Effects of Religiosity,Forgiveness, and Spousal Empathy on Marital Adjustment

This study focused on married couples in a region of the United States that previous research has identified as having high rates of both religiosity and divorce. As a result, this study was designed to examine the effects of religiosity, forgiveness, and spousal empathy on marital adjustment. To investigate these constructs, married couples in this region were recruited (n?=?829) to participate in a cross-sectional, self-report telephone survey. Results indicate that religious service attendance and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married men; while religious service attendance, forgiveness, and spousal empathy have direct positive effects on marital adjustment in European American married women. Among African-American participants, only spousal empathy had a direct effect on marital adjustment for both men and women. Finally, spousal empathy moderated the association between previous marriage and current marital adjustment among European American married women.     

Review of Empirical Studies in Multiobjective Mathematical Programming: Subject Reflection of Nonlinear Utility and Learning

Multiple objective programming provides a means of aiding decision makers facing complex decisions where trade-offs among conflicting objectives must be reconciled. Interactive multiobjective programming provides a means for decision makers to learn what these trade-offs involve, while the mathematical program generates solutions that seek improvement of the implied utility of the decision maker. A variety of multiobjective programming techniques have been presented in the multicriteria decision-making literature. This study reviews published studies with human subjects where some of these techniques were applied. While all of the techniques have the ability to support decision makers under conditions of multiple objectives, a number of features in applying these systems have been tested by these studies. A general evolution of techniques is traced, starting with methods relying upon linear combinations of value, to more recent methods capable of reflecting nonlinear trade-offs of value. Support of nonlinear utility and enhancing decision-maker learning are considered.     

Consistency and Accuracy in Decision Aids: Experiments with Four Multiattribute Systems*

There have been a number of multiattribute decision aids developed to aid selection problems. Multiattribute value theory and the analytic hierarchy process are two commonly used techniques. Different systems can result in radically different conclusions if they inaccurately and inconsistently reflect the preference structure of decision makers, or if they are based on inappropriate theoretical models. This study examines the impact of the underlying theoretical model, the method in which preference information is elicited, and the structure of alternatives as influences on the results from using various decision aids. It was found that two systems based on the multiattribute value theory model were just as diverse in their conclusions as were results between AHP and the multiattribute value theory models. Therefore, accuracy of information reflecting decision maker preference is an important consideration. Feedback capable of assuring the decision maker that information provided is consistent is a necessary feature required of decision aids applied to selection problems. The study also found that the way in which information is elicited influenced the result more than did the underlying model. Exact numerical data for complex concepts such as attribute importance and alternative performance on attributes is not necessary, and elicitation procedures that are more natural for the user are likely to be more accurate.     

FIVE TYPES OF AFRICAN-AMERICAN MARRIAGES

This study developed a marital typology based on a nonrandom, national sample of 415 African-American couples who took the Enriching Relationship Issues, Communication and Happiness (ENRICH) marital assessment inventory. Five types of African-American marriages were identified through cluster analysis using the positive couple agreement (PCA) scores in 10 relationship domains. Relationships between marital satisfaction, marital stability, and the five marital types were then analyzed. The five types (from highest marital satisfaction to lowest) were labeled as vitalized, harmonious, traditional, conflicted, and devitalized. The results were similar to findings in studies of ethnically mixed (predominantly European-American) marital samples including the number and characteristics of marital types.