The interactive effects of political skill and future time perspective on career and community networking behavior

Scholars have suggested that skill (Ferris et al., 2007) and motivation (Forret and Dougherty, 2001) need to be considered in predicting the direction and intensity of networking behaviors. Congruently, the present study argues that skill and motivation operate interactively and assesses the interactive impact of political skill (i.e., the ability to interact effectively with others) and future time perspective on differentially predicting community-based and career-based networking behavior. Results from a sample of managers from a national retail chain (n = 291) indicated that politically skilled individuals who possessed a deep future time perspective were more involved in career-related networking than politically skilled individuals who perceived a shallow future time perspective. Additionally, politically skilled respondents with shallow organizational time perspectives engaged in higher levels of community-based networking than did their counterparts with deeper organizational time perspectives. The implications of these findings are discussed in terms of political skill, social networks, and socioemotional selectivity theory.     

Positive Outcomes in Families Following Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI)

In an earlier paper, the relationship between spirituality, science and therapy was explored. In this paper spirituality is discussed in a more clinical context. Family response to trauma is outlined, concentrating on the area of Acquired Brain Injury (ABI), and several models of adaptation are reviewed. There appear to he commonalities in response to different types of trauma. However in the area of ABI, positive outcomes have been under-reported in the literature which has focussed for various reasons on maladaptation. In viewing response to trauma as involving both the potential for positive transformation as well as suffering and burden, concepts of Frankl and Jung, spiritual belief and ‘near death experience’ are discussed. Examples of how families find meaning and positively appraise their experience of ABI are given.     

Challenging the colonisation of birth: Koori women’s birthing knowledge and practice

Background

The 2007 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples states that Indigenous peoples have the right to self-determination for social and cultural development. This fundamental right has been impeded worldwide through colonisation where many Indigenous peoples have had to adapt to ensure continuation of cultural knowledge and practice. In South East Australia colonisation was particularly brutal interrupting a 65,000 year-old oral culture and archives have increasing importance for cultural revival.

Navigating the Tavern: Digitally Mediated Connections and Relationship Persistence in Bar Settings

The widespread adoption of digital communications technologies has provided new avenues for social interaction to occur. We build on the sociological literature of fleeting encounters in bar settings to show how patrons' use of these technologies augments the bar experience and shapes the social networks that may develop through interaction. Using seven gay, lesbian, and heterosexual bars located in Southern California as research sites, we describe how patrons invoke digital technologies as props to aid the impression management strategies used to facilitate new connections. Second, we demonstrate how these encounters are subject to greater relationship persistence as a result of the way these technologies are used to quickly create a shared history. We conclude by arguing that fleeting encounters are no longer connections that either persist or completely fade away after face‐to‐face interaction. Rather, they often persist through technology‐mediated communications in ways that result in, at minimum, the development of weak ties. This greater relationship persistence can permit more opportunity to get to know a potential partner in digitally mediated settings like Facebook or via texting, but it could also require new strategies to evade interested others given this new lack of ephemerality and the influx of weak ties.     

Sharing personal information in the child protection context: Impediments in the Australian legal framework

Professionals, including social workers, in the child protection context are frequently required to make decisions on whether to share sensitive personal information about children, their families, and others with colleagues and across institutional and jurisdictional boundaries. Sharing information across agencies and organisations is essential to allow joined‐up service provision and to effectively protect and support children and their families. A legal framework that supports this decision making is a necessary, although not sufficient, condition for effective information sharing. This article examines the complex legal framework that governs information sharing across the Australian states and territories. It identifies a number of structural and regulatory elements that unnecessarily limit information sharing or have a tendency to create a culture that is risk averse, rather than proactive, in sharing information. The article suggests structural and regulatory reforms that would improve the legal framework for sharing information, while at the same time giving due recognition to the human rights that come into tension in this policy context: the right to privacy and the rights of the child.     

Conceptualization and measurement of the spiritual and psychological dimensions of wellness in a college population

Wellness is commonly conceptualized as having many dimensions, but little effort has been made to evaluate how spiritual and psychological dimensions are related to overall wellness. To explore the relationship between measures of spiritual and psychological wellness and perceived wellness in a college student population, the authors administered a series of survey instruments to 112 undergraduate students under quiet classroom conditions. They used the Life Attitude Profile to measure spiritual wellness, the Life Orientation Test and the Sense of Coherence Scale to measure psychological wellness, and the Perceived Wellness Survey to measure overall wellness. Path analysis performed with a proposed theoretical model revealed that the effect of life purpose on perceived wellness was mediated by optimism and sense of coherence, which had independent effects on perceived wellness beyond that of life purpose. The findings suggested that an optimistic outlook and sense of coherence must be present for life purpose to enhance a sense of overall well-being.     

The Law of the Sea treaty and the regulation of nodule exploitation

The production of nonferrous metals from manganese nodules from the ocean floor has potential impact on prices of cobalt, copper, nickel, and manganese and on the earnings of land-based producers. These effects must be considered in the Law of the Sea negotiations. This article uses econometric models to evaluate the impact of nodule production on the LDC producers. We find that the price impact is greater for cobalt whose nodule production is very large relative to conventional output, but that the impact on LDC earnings is greater for copper and nickel.     

Effects of group therapy on female adolescent survivors of sexual abuse: a pilot study

Treatment interventions for female sexual abuse survivors was explored through a pilot study examining the relationship between group treatment and adolescent self-image. Self-image was defined as body image, self-reliance, self-control, and impulse-control. An experimental pre-post design was utilized. Participants were 13 female adolescent high school drop-outs with a history of sexual abuse who participated in the National Guard Youth Challenge Program at Camp Shelby in Mississippi. Participants completed the Offer Self- Image Questionnaire for Adolescents. The hypothesis that group therapy was an effective intervention for sexual abuse survivors was not supported; however, this is likely due to the small sample size. Because this was a pilot study, mean trends were observed to see directional changes that may assist future researchers. Observation of mean trends revealed that participants who received group therapy increased in levels of impulse control while the group that did not receive group therapy remained the same. Mean trends also revealed that the experimental group had a decrease in self-reliance whereas the control group maintained their levels of self-reliance.