People with a borderline personality disorder diagnosis describe discriminatory experiences

The psychiatric diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD) attracts considerable stigma. People given this diagnosis may be characterised as manipulative, difficult, attention-seeking or untreatable. This paper describes a New Zealand study where eight people with a BPD diagnosis who self-identified as encountering discriminatory experiences from healthcare professionals were interviewed. Themes found included that discriminatory experiences contributed to participants' negative self-image and negative messages about the BPD label were communicated. A self-harm history appeared to be related to an increased number of discriminatory experiences. Connecting with the person and ‘seeing more’ (beyond an individual's diagnosis and/or behaviour) epitomised helpful experiences. Additionally, a relationship between stigma and the complaints process was noted. This study privileges the voice of those interviewed and may stimulate thought and discussion for services and health professionals working with this group.     

The Influence of Undergraduate Students' Engagement Practices and Their Institutional Environment on Academic Achievement

This study examines relationships between students' demographic characteristics, campus engagement practices, institutional support, and grade point average (GPA) utilizing a social-ecological analytic framework. The study sample consisted of 355 freshmen and 315 seniors attending a historically Black institution (HBI). Engagement practices and institutional support were assessed using the National Survey of Student Engagement. Findings revealed significant associations between class status, mother's education, and GPA, but demographic factors, institutional support, and engagement practices did not predict academic achievement at the selected HBI. Parents' education was positively associated with students' extracurricular involvement. Practice and policy implications are discussed for social work professionals working in college settings.     

Demanding hosts and ungrateful guests – the everyday drama of public transportation in three acts and academic prose

In their own view, public transportation companies make a very hospitable offer to commuters: if you are ready to travel with us, we will take you for a reasonable price nearly anywhere, every day and almost at any time of the day, under good conditions of comfort and safety. Please, step onboard. But commuters resist being reduced to the thankful guests of their commuting service providers. Commuting is an experience whose rhythm structures daily lives. It is not an innocuous in-between-doors passage, but a social practice intertwined with the routines bound to the home, workplace, and places of leisure which they commute to and from. Commuting routines are a constitutive part of commuters’ lives. Correspondingly, commuters own their commuting space. They do not own it in terms of legal ownership, although they possess a valid ticket; they own it via the degree to which they are at home in their routines and intuitively know through the senses and feelings produced through the normal flow of daily practices, that they are on their own home turf. Home is more than the physical space of the house; it is an embodied perception of a familiar cultural space which is organized in such a way that one has some control and responsibility over. Because commuters grant transportation companies daily access to the intimacy of their homes, they are hosting the companies, not the opposite. Public transportation hospitality is thus a tension-filled drama, co-produced by transportation companies and commuters. In this drama managerial routines meet routines of daily life, legal definitions of ownership meet practice-based ones, and organizational hospitality stands against individual hospitality. Our claim is that the fact that each party considers itself to be the host of the other, the prevailing situation consequently frames the provision and experience of public transportation services as a drama: the drama of hospitality.     

Risk for a Price: Sexual Activity Solicitations in Online Male Sex Worker Profiles

ABSTRACT

The use of social- and sexual networking-based Web sites designed to provide easy and more anonymous access to sexual partners is rising. The popularity of the use of Web sites by male sex workers to promote their services and find clients is also rising. To date, very little inquiry has been devoted to studying the sexual behaviors solicited within online advertisement profiles of male sex workers and men who have sex with men. This study utilized a widely used popular Internet site designed to advertise to clients and gathered demographic, advertised sexual and nonsexual behaviors, pricing, and safety risk category data from profiles within the state of Florida (n = 163). Pearson chi-square analyses indicated that location and several sexual behaviors were significantly related to how often the men reported the degree to which they had safer sex with clients. These findings suggest some male sex workers do not consistently maintain safer-sex behaviors and that some of these men are engaging in sexual activity while under the influence of drugs. Future recommendations support the need for effective public health outreach that emphasizes the importance of safer sexual decision making.     

Homophobia as a barrier to comprehensive media coverage of the Ugandan anti-homosexual bill

The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of October 2009 caused an international outcry and sparked intense debate in the local media. This article explores to what degree a discriminatory social environment manifests itself in the Ugandan print media and discusses the potential implications for media's coverage of contentious policy options such as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. A content analysis of 115 items from two daily newspapers (the government-owned New Vision and the privately owned the Daily Monitor, between October and December 2009) indicates the existence of two separate house styles; this is in spite of the fact that both newspapers reproduce the surrounding society's homophobia, albeit with different frequency. Unlike the New Vision, the Daily Monitor includes coverage on homophobia and discrimination, as well as provides space for criticism of the Bill. By acknowledging discrimination and its negative impact, the newspaper de-legitimizes homophobia and problematizes the proposed Anti-homosexuality Bill for their readers.     

教育教学评价研究的发展与问题

2 0世纪以来 ,科学技术已占据了优先发展的地位 ,但这同时也给教育教学评价的发展带来了许多问题。教育教学评价的发展大致经历了四个不同的时期 :测量时代、描述时代、判断时代和心理建构时代。对教育教学评价研究的发展和问题的综述 ,目的在于提出切实可行的措施 ,以促进教育教学评价工作的更加科学化。     

农业高校社会实践课程化活动要面向“三农”

农业高校社会实践课程化活动要面向农业、农村和农民全面展开,其战略思想至少包括三个方面一是社会实践课程化活动面向"三农"是中国特色社会主义高等农业教育的重要组成部分;二是农业高校在深化教学改革过程中培养人才的重要环节;三是农业高校加强专业思想教育的有效途径.     

中国语言测试之源与流

我国语言测试始于20世纪70年代后期的英语水平考试，桂诗春先生对中国语言测试做出了具有开创性的学术贡献。我国语言测试学者探索了一系列新理论、新技术与新方法，从测试内部问题入手，稳步提升语言测试的科学性。语言测试在理论层面的研究呈现出明显的跨学科特征，认知科学、教育测量学、心理学及隶属于应用语言学范畴的二语习得均为测试的研究与实践提供了思路。进入21世纪，学界开始转向对语言测试外部因素的关注。在深度融合教学与评价的过程中，未来学界需要继续探究如何提升语言测试的科学性、如何有效应用《中国英语能力等级量表》以及如何对考试的社会性予以关切。     

Human Resource Management Best Practices and Globalization: The Universality of Common Sense

Popular strategies for reform have come directly from the private sector in what is perhaps the most profound redefinition of public administration since the field first emerged as an identifiable specialty. The purpose of this paper is to examine the context out of which these reforms have grown, the challenges that have arisen as a result, and cases where private sector reform strategies have been successfully (and sometimes unsuccessfully) applied in human resource management (HRM). We discuss the benefits and hazards of many of the reforms and conclude that restoring a measure of confidence in the legitimate role of the civil service is essential for nations dealing with the challenges of globalization.     

Administrative Practices in American Unions: A Longitudinal Study

Using data collected from surveys conducted in 1990 and 2000, we examine changes in the administrative practices of US-based national and international unions. We examine the hiring, human resource, financial, strategic planning, and organizational practices and how they have changed over time. We find that unions are changing their staff hiring practices in ways that contribute to workforce professionalization and that unions are moving toward more formal human resource policies and more systematic financial and strategic planning practices. These developments appear to be a reaction to the unions’ changing operating environment and reflect the pressure on union leaders to make effective use of their declining resources.