Direct Versus Indirect Questioning: An Application to the Well-Being of Farm Animals

Recent events suggest people are increasingly concerned not just with their own well-being but that of animals as well. However, there is little systematic evidence on people’s willingness-to-trade their own well-being and quality of life for improvements in the well-being of farm animals. In this paper, we utilize a straightforward and unobtrusive technique to mitigate socially desirability effects and gage the publics’ opinion about farm animal welfare: indirect questioning. In survey of United States households, we find sharp differences between direct and indirect questions related to farm animal welfare. For example, whereas only 15.6% of the public said they think low meat prices are more important than the well-being of farm animals, 67.5% said the average American thinks low meat prices are more important than the well-being of farm animals. This finding, coupled with the extant literature on indirect questioning, suggests that people’s concerns for farm animal welfare are actually much lower than what they say they are.     

Operationalizing Intersectionality: an Approach to Uncovering the Complexity of the Migrant Job Search in Australia

This paper explores the complexities surrounding the lived experiences of skilled migrant women and men from non‐English speaking backgrounds (NESBs) who arrive in Australia and attempt to seek work. The paper will analyze the migrants' experiences using intersectionality theory as a framework. Drawing on Anthias's social relations framework, this research will contribute to the field by demonstrating how intersectionality theory can be operationalized to understand the complex lived experiences of disadvantaged groups. The research will reveal how being a new migrant in Australia, unfamiliar with local job search processes, complicates jobseeking. The paper will show how gender and family roles impact this process, especially when young families are involved. Both genders suffer downward occupational mobility, with men seeking any type of work to get by, and women gravitating towards insecure forms of employment, or exiting the labour force, in order to manage the family unit.     

The Social‐psychological Aspects of Team Formation: New Avenues for Research

The ubiquity of teams in the modern workplace cannot be denied, as Curseu, Kenis, and Raab (2009, p. 30) note, “team formation is a challenge in modern organizations as most of them use teams to perform a variety of organizational tasks.” How teams form is, therefore, a question of much practical interest. Research illustrates that stratified social systems influence the choice and decision‐making behaviors that shape group and team formation (Hechter, 1978). From a structural social psychological perspective (Sell & Kuipers, 2009; Lawler, Ridgeway, and Markovsky, 1993), teams are like microcosmic societies. They represent a process of social cohesion through interaction. Additionally, they can be organic, mechanical, homogeneous, and heterogeneous. In other words, teams are structural and cultural artifacts of societies. Members of society through interaction create these “social artifacts,” which may consist of hierarchically organizing sets of individuals into a group, or multiple groups, relative to power and status dimensions. In this paper, we aim to show how contributions from social psychology have informed research on team formation. Thus, two research questions guide this paper: What are the mechanisms of team formation via partner selection for self‐organizing teams? In what ways, can these studies advance scholarship focusing on the social psychology of inequality? To establish a foundation for understanding the various studies on team formation, we begin with a general overview on how team and team formation has been conceptualized. Next, we examine the social psychological research on team formation via partner selection. In doing so, we note the importance given to the 4 major mechanisms of team formation emerging from the literature: competence, homophily, familiarity, and affect. Lastly, we conclude the paper with a discussion addressing the research questions guiding this paper and suggest opportunities for social psychologists to consider for future team formation studies.     

A content analysis of research in family therapy journals

In order to assess trends in family therapy research, empirical articles (N = 195) from three family therapy journals over a 5-year period were coded for several variables: authorship, external funding, methodology, sample, purpose, cost effectiveness, use of therapeutic model, and topic. Results indicated that a large pecentage of research in these journals focused on nonclinical issues and used nonclinical samples. Authors were affiliated with a wide variety of disciplines and reported low levels of external funding for their research. While a majority of the studies used quantitative methods, there appeared to be a growing number of studies using qualitative methods. Implications of these findings are discussed in light of research reviews over the past two decades.     

“I want my social worker”. One child's struggles to find an available maternal figure: reflections from a peer supervision group

In this paper, I analyse a piece of social work practice using the reflections provided by a peer supervision (work discussion) group. I describe my work with an eight year child looked after, who telephoned me stating that he wanted to kill himself. I discuss the powerful unconscious processes that contributed to his risk-taking behaviour and my emotional experience of it. I reflect on how my knowledge of psychoanalytic theory enabled me to contain the powerful feelings being projected and to safely manage the situation. I highlight how reflective peer supervision groups are a helpful way to understand the complexities of the lives of children looked after and can help inform decision making.     

“Feeling Warmth and Close to Her”: Communication and Resilience Reflected in Turning Points in Positive Adult Stepchild–Stepparent Relationships

With the goal of understanding the development of positive stepchild–stepparent relationships, the researchers focused on turning points characterizing the interaction of adult stepchildren who have a positive bond with a stepparent. Engaging a relational turning points perspective, 38 stepchildren (males and females, ages 25 to 52 years old) who reported a positive stepparent relationship were interviewed, generating 269 turning points which were categorized into 15 turning point types and coded by valence. Turning points occurring most frequently were: prosocial actions, quality time, conflict/disagreement, changes in household/family composition, and rituals. Findings are discussed, including implications for developing and enacting resilient and positive stepchild–stepparent relationships and future directions for researchers wanting to focus on positive family interaction.     

Natives and migrants in the London labour market, 1929–1931

Migrants are sometimes regarded as marginal workers in metropolitan labour markets. London has long been a major destination for migrants from elsewhere in Britain and abroad. In this paper we examine the earnings and unemployment experience in 1929–1931 of male workers who migrated to London, or within London. We use data from the New Survey of London Life and Labour, a large survey of working class households, the records from which have recently been computerised. Our findings indicate that migrants were not marginal, in fact they enjoyed slightly higher earnings and lower unemployment incidence than native Londoners. Much of the advantage can be explained by differences in average skill levels and personal characteristics. Received: 2 November 1999/Accepted: 3 August 2000