Public Attitudes Toward Siting a High-Level Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada

This paper examines the sources of public opposition to a high-level nuclear waste repository among samples of 1001 residents of Nevada and a national sample of 1201 residents. Two models of choice are contrasted: A benefit-cost model and a risk-perception model of individual choice. The data suggest that the willingness of Nevada residents to accept a repository at Yucca Mountain depends upon subjective risk factors, especially the perceived seriousness of risk to future generations. Perceived risk depends in part on level of trust placed in the Department of Energy to manage a repository safely. Opposition to a local repository did not decrease significantly if compensation in the form of annual rebates, either ($1000, $3000, or $5000 per year for 20 years) were offered to residents. The public needs to be convinced before compensation is considered, that the repository will possess minimal risks to themselves as well as to future generations, and that the site currently targeted is suitable. One way to do this is through adoption of mitigation and control procedures such as strict federal standards and local control over the operation of the repository. The federal government should also consider returning to the fair procedure for selection between candidate sites specified in the initial Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982.     

Family Therapy Training and Supervision Literature: A Comparative Review*

The family therapy field is more sophisticated developmentally in its therapeutic methodologies than in the areas of training and supervision. Publications and research efforts on these latter topics have not kept pace with the progress of the clinical aspects of the field. Family therapy training and supervision literature were reviewed and found to be fragmented and disorganized. There is a need for a comprehensive source which would synthesize this literature and compare the existing viewpoints. This paper works toward this end by reviewing, contrasting, and categorizing the available publications according to a series of content areas frequently appearing in the literature. These topic areas are: (1) Goals of Training and Supervision and Skills of the Supervisor; (2) Training and Supervision Techniques; (3) Supervisor-Supervisee Relationship; (4) Personal Therapy for Trainees; (5) Politics of Family Therapy Training; and (6) Evaluation of Training. A comprehensive table is provided to quickly access references in the content area. Recommendations are offered for future efforts in this area.     

An inquiry into fee setting and its determinants

The professional and psychosocial dynamics of fee setting are discussed from both rational and nonrational points of view. The author notes the current status of social work in relation to that of other health disciplines and comments upon the uncertainty generated by the assignment of a dollar value to an altruistic professional activity. The semantic and social meanings implicit in the fee-setting process are explored with particular reference to the personal and professional power of money within our culture. A three-step framework for the fee-setting process is offered. The author encourages a proactive approach to the currently somewhat passive process of assessing the monetary value of specific work in which the outcomes are themselves value judgements.     

Effect of individual differences in nonverbal expressiveness on transmission of emotion

This study tested the possibility that individual differences in nonverbal expressiveness may function as a mediating factor in the transmission of emotion through social comparison. In a quasi-experimental design, small groups consisting of one expressive person and two unexpressive people were created in which the participants sat facing each other without talking for two minutes. Self-report measures of mood indicated that the feelings of the unexpressive people were influenced by the expressive people but the expressive people were relatively unlikely to be influenced by the unexpressive people. The findings have implications for the role of nonverbal communication in the emotional side of group interaction.This research was supported by NIMH Grant #R03MH31453 and by an Intramural Research Grant from UC Riverside to Howard Friedman. We would like to thank Louise M. Prince and Dan Segall for their assistance and Eliot Smith, Joe Schwartz and Keith Widaman for suggestions.     

The effect of postural lean and body congruence on the judgment of psychotherapeutic rapport

Naturalistic studies have implicated both forward postural lean and interpersonally congruent limb configurations as nonverbal indices of social rapport, although both variables have been confounded with verbal and other nonverbal concomitants. In the present study direction of postural lean and congruence of body positions were systematically manipulated in each of six 40-second videotaped segments of simulated client-therapist interactions. Participating in the study were 30 male and 30 female undergraduate students, each of whom viewed one of six orders of the segments and rated the level of rapport in each interaction. A 2 × 3 × 2 × 6 analysis of variance on factors of Congruence, Lean, Sex, and Order revealed main effects of the Lean and Congruence variables (p<.001 andp<.05, respectively), and no significant main effects of Sex or Order. Both congruent limbs and forward-leaning postures on the part of the therapist and client were significant contributors to attributions of rapport.The authors wish to thank Philip Lawlis, Louis Gamino, Edward Wike, B. Kent Houston, and Dennis Karpowitz for their assistance with the study.     

A review of analytical models in strategic planning

Strategic management is a process that deals with the entrepreneurial work of the organisation, with organisational renewal and growth, and more particularly, with developing and utilising the strategy which is to guide the organisation's operations. Strategic management approaches emphasise the processes of strategic decision-making and adaptation to change. The paper reviews the literature to date and the modern strategic management paradigm and examines strategy formulation from an analytic perspective.     

A Science-Based Framework for Responsible Gambling: The Reno Model

As social observers increasingly identify gambling-related problems as a public health issue, key stakeholders need to join together to reduce both the incidence and prevalence of gambling-related harm in the community. This position paper describes a strategic framework that sets out principles to guide industry operators, health service and other welfare providers, interested community groups, consumers and governments and their related agencies in the adoption and implementation of responsible gambling and harm minimization initiatives.     

Strengthening adoption practice, listening to adoptive families

In-depth interviews with 500 adoptive families who received postadoption services through Virginia's Adoptive Family Preservation (AFP) program paint a richly detailed picture of the challenges adoptive families face and what they need to sustain adoption for many years after finalization. Findings document the need for support in a variety of forms, including respite, counseling, and information. Numerous implications for strengthening adoption practice through effective training and technical assistance are discussed.     

Self-referent constructs and medical sociology: in search of an integrative framework

A theoretical framework centering on four classes of self-referent constructs is offered as a device for integrating the diverse areas constituting medical sociology. Guidance by this framework sensitizes the researcher to the occurrence of parallel processes in adjacent disciplines, facilitates recognition of the etiological significance of findings from other disciplines for explaining medical sociological phenomena, and encourages transactions between sociology and medical sociology whereby each informs and is informed by the other.