‘Somebody Watching You’: Impact of Reflecting Teams on Hope in Couple Relationships

Reflecting teams (RTs) represent both an epistemological stance and a therapeutic technique. Most commonly associated with narrative and systemic approaches to therapy, RTs offer an outsider perspective that can bring hope and alternative narratives and perspectives for therapists and clients to explore. Relational hope is a little researched concept in the field of couple therapy research. This study explores the experience of RTs in couple relationships and the aspects of the experience that couples describe as connected to a sense of hope for their relationship. The study also considers whether difference in attachment style shows any relationship with hope in couple relationships before and after the clients’ session with a reflecting team. Couples completed questionnaires about their attachment style, demographics, and relational hope and were given the option to complete an interview about their experience with the reflecting team within 1 month of their therapy session. Our findings suggest that RTs contribute positively to hope in couple relationships particularly for clients who present with an anxious attachment style. This direction for research is important because there is very little research about hope in couple relationships despite its importance (Merolla, 2014; Snyder, 2002) and there is no research about what aspects of a reflecting team contribute to hope in couple relationships. Analysis of interviews indicates a number of features of the reflecting team feedback that were valued by clients.     

Practical Implications of Preference‐Based Conference Scheduling

Conference scheduling involves organizing presentations into sessions which are assigned to time periods and rooms. This includes assuring a feasible utilization of time periods and rooms, and avoiding individual schedule conflicts. The problem increases in complexity by considering the preferences of presenters: for time periods, for rooms, etc. A greater level of complexity comes from considering the preferences of conference attendees, which we define as preference‐based conference scheduling (PBCS). This article provides a structure on which PBCS problems are founded, including empirical demonstration of solution techniques. In addition, real‐world strategic planning issues of flexibility and preference detail are explored.     

Ramifications of Monitoring Service Quality Through Passively Solicited Customer Feedback*

It is common for service providers to collect data from customers as part of efforts to monitor quality. Often, this data is passively collected, meaning (a) any solicitation of feedback is done without direct customer interaction, and (b) the customer initiates any response given. Examples include customer comment cards, toll-free telephone numbers, and comment links on World Wide Web pages. This article compares passive data collection with active methods (e.g., interviews and mail surveys). Passive methods generally have lower response rates and are inherently biased, but have cost and sample frame advantages when used to monitor quality on a continuous basis. Despite the biased nature of passive methods, this article describes the successful validation of a common customer-response model with passively collected empirical data. The model is expanded to consider the impact of complaint and compliment solicitation on customers' evaluation of the service provider. Results show that this impact is negative, and that customers who spontaneously register complaints generally record higher ratings of the service provider than customers who complain in response to a complaint solicitation. Discussion and conclusions are given.     

Modern and Postmodern Career Theories: The Unnecessary Divorce

Postmodern approaches to career counseling are becoming increasingly popular. Part of the impetus for the postmodern view has involved perceived problems in the assumptions and application of the modern approach. Two points of view have emerged: (a) the modern and postmodern approaches are incompatible, and the postmodern approach is superior to the modern approach and (b) the modern and postmodern approaches are compatible, each with specific benefits and limitations, and individual needs and cost‐effectiveness should govern the decision of which approach to use. Key issues to examine in this discussion are standardized career assessment, aggregate career information, matching, and cost‐effectiveness.     

Bay! Bar charts

Allan Reese has often asserted that authors and editors appear less able to proofread graphs than text. It is hard to prove such a claim except by parading examples that, had they been expressed in text, would fall into the category that Private Eye calls "Colemanballs"—things you would never say with brain fully engaged. Here, he provides a few such examples.     

The Potential of Worker Co-operatives in Queensland

Australia's response to problems of unemployment, low productivity, industrial peace and individual and societal wellbeing, currently emphasises macro economic policy and the Accord. However, a small minority continue to call for the democratisation of business enterprises. The worker co-operative is one such mechanism. Following the location of several small groups attempting to work co-operatively and a survey of the attitudes of critical sectors of the community, this sympathetic and we hope, realistic analysis was undertaken of the potential of worker co- operatives in Queensland. Major issues of concern were economic viability, ideology, attitudes of unions and the involvement of the ‘disadvantaged’. We argue that worker co-operatives can be viable; can tap a broad central band of the political spectrum; can co-operate with unions; and can play a role in meeting the needs of disadvantaged groups, given a supportive environment While there are strong moral arguments for supporting such alternative approaches to economic organisation, the environment in Queensland is not sympathetic and the task is immense. Those wishing to take up this challenge should focus on education, research, lobbying, dialogue and enterprise development strategies and on the movement phase of co-operative development.     

THE DISSOCIATION OF OCCUPATION AND RESIDENCE: A STUDY OF MULTIPLE JOB-HOLDING AMONG CANADIAN FARM OPERATORS

Le haut degré d'articulation des intérêts des communatés rurales canadiennes et des intérêts agricoles ont diminuéà cause d'un taux de mobilité et de ‘va et vient’ de la main-d'ôeuvre agricole, et plus spécialernent à cause d'une très grande fréquence d'emplois multiples pani les producteurs agricoles recensés. Une mise en rapport des dossiers du recensement de la population de 1971 et du recensement agricole de la même année nous a été rendue disponible pour la première fois, ce qui nous permet d'analyser les relations entre les caractéristiques socio-économiques des producteurs et de leurs opérations agricoles. L'étude indique que 27 pour cent de tous les producteurs agricoles recensés détenaient au moment du recensement plusieurs emplois en même temps; un autre 19 pour cent détenait plusieurs emplois de façon consécutive. Seulement 34 pour cent du revenu total des producteurs recensés provenait de leurs activités agricoles. Cette étude montre comment de tels resultats sont reliés aux tendances d'organisation de la main-d'ôeuvre, de la mobilité occupationelle, et du processus d'urbanisation. This paper suggests that the traditionally high degree of integration of interest between Canadian rural farm communities and agricultural interests has become disrupted by the high rate of occupational turnover and mobility in agriculture and particularly by the continued high incidence of multiple job-holding among census farm operators. The study reports the results of linking the 1971 census of Population and the Census of Agriculture records enabling, for the first time an analysis of the relations between the socio-economic characteristics of farm operators and their farm operations. The study reports that 27 per cent of all Canadian census farm operators were concurrent multiple job-holders at the time of the 1971 census and another 19 per cent of all operators could be considered consecutive multiple job-holders. All census farmers derived only 34 per cent of their total incomes from agriculture. The implications of these findings are discussed with respect to patterns of labour-force organization, occupational mobility, and urbanization.