A New Approach to Social Assistance: Latin America's Experience with Conditional Cash Transfer Programmes

Conditional cash transfers are a departure from more traditional approaches to social assistance that represents an innovative and increasingly popular channel for the delivery of social services. Conditional cash transfers provide money to poor families contingent upon certain behaviour, usually investments in human capital such as sending children to school or bringing them to health centres on a regular basis. They seek both to address traditional short-term income support objectives and promote the longer-term accumulation of human capital by serving as a demand-side complement to the supply of health and education services. Evaluation results reveal that this innovative design has been quite successful in addressing many of the failures in delivering social assistance such as poor poverty targeting, disincentive effects and limited welfare impacts. There is clear evidence of success from the first generation of programmes in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico and Nicaragua in increasing enrolment rates, improving preventive healthcare and raising household consumption. Despite this promising evidence, many questions remain unanswered about conditional cash transfer programmes, including the replicability of their success under different     

It takes two to tango: the integration of people with disabilities into society

The concept of integration is not well defined. It not known how people with disabilities experience integration. In this study qualitative methods were used. The aim of the article is to define a model of successful integration based on the perspectives of people with disabilities and people within their social environment. Integration consists of five elements: functioning ordinarily without receiving special attention, mixing with others that are not disabled, taking part in society, trying to realize one’s potential and directing one’s own life. Integration is obtained through a process of interaction between a person with a disability and society. This process is influenced by personal, societal and support factors. The individual with a disability and society have a mutual responsibility with respect to integration.     

价值观的形成规律与当代青年价值观现状

价值观的形成有其自身的规律 ,并受到社会因素和个体内在因素的影响。当代青年正处在我国改革开放进一步深化和社会主义市场经济体制逐步确立及自我意识发展和自我需要扩大的时期 ,因此 ,他们的价值观必然打着当今时代的烙印 ,具有开放性、先锋化、情绪性等特点 ,他们追求高效、公正、互利 ,追求求职与成才相结合 ,但同时 ,其自身的身心失范问题也日趋严重。     

马寅初的人口质量观及其现实意义——纪念马寅初诞辰120周年

注重人口质量是马寅初人口思想对马尔萨斯人口论的实质性超越.马寅初关于人口质量的观点主要体现于:人口质量与人口数量是对立的统一;在新时代,人不在乎多,而在乎精;人口质量的提高是德、智、体全面的提高和全民的提高;提高人口质量不能离开本国国情.在现代化进程中我们重温马寅初关于提高人口质量方面的有关观点和主张,有助于我们处理好提高人口质量与稳定低生育水平、保护资源环境、提高农民收入等方面的关系.     

Stress at work and psychological and immunological parameters in a group of Norwegian female bank employees

This study concerned the immunological correlates of stress and work. Self reported stress, emotional state, ego-strength, and defensiveness were examined in relation to measures of cellular immunity (T-cell response to Con A and number of T4 and T8 cells) and humoral immunity (concentrations of immunoglobulins and complement components in plasma) in a group of 96 Norwegian female bank employees. The analyses showed that workload, the stress factor with the highest group mean, was associated with number of T-cells, while strain due to body posture during work was related to concentrations of IgM and C3. Further, depression was significantly correlated with IgM concentration and T-cell number, and anxiety with C3 concentration. T-cell activity was the immunological parameter most consistently associated with psychological well-being, showing positive correlations with defensiveness and ego-strength and negative correlations with anxiety and depression. In conclusion, T-cell number and concentrations of IgM and C3 were sensitive to both work-related stress experience and emotional distress. Coping abilities, indicated by the MMPI Ego-strength scale and emotional distress, were reflected in T-cell activity; insufficient coping was associated with low T-cell activity.     

Trends in online media relations: Web-based corporate press rooms in leading international companies

An analysis of 120 corporate websites from Denmark, France, Germany, Norway, Singapore, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States reveals, for the first time, international results about the implementation and use of virtual press rooms. This article shows the importance that large international companies attribute to Web-based media centers to achieve organizational objectives and to meet journalists’ demands for information and audiovisual resources. The study also shows, however, that most press rooms are far from being complete, efficient, easy-to-use, reliable and updated on a daily basis. In fact, there is not a single country from those analyzed that consistently stands out from the rest. In most of them, good results in certain areas coexist with significant shortcomings in others, resulting in some cases in poor press rooms that may not achieve the desired public relations objectives.     

The Transformation of Psychology in a Post-Apartheid South Africa: An Overview

Certain issues that are being debated in psychology in a post-apartheid South Africa are discussed, namely the development of professional organizations, indigenous healing and psychology, the psychometric movement, and forms of methodological inquiry. It is argued that South African psychology is striving to become more appropriate to the majority of its peoples, whether it be on the professional or research fronts. There is a desire to develop indigenous epistemologies and not to become excessively reliant on Euro-American epistemological traditions. Psychology is struggling to make mental health resources available to all South Africans.