Using a real case scenario in teaching social work with children and families in different practice settings

Transforming classroom knowledge into practice competency is particularly challenging in social work with children and families. It involves complex, competitive practice approaches and different service settings with procedures and norms influencing a child’s wellbeing. The paper presents the content, application, and evaluation of a module based on a case scenario which considers the limitations and achievements of social work with children and families in different settings. A mixed-method approach was applied to this review process. Students were given an evaluative questionnaire based on the theoretical framework of experiential learning whereupon they wrote reflective essays describing their learning experience. Case method contributes to the acquisition of reflective, integrative, and stimulating knowledge. The participation level contributes to the students’ satisfaction during such learning. Students have learned that families with multiple and complex needs require a holistic approach that separate systems and services cannot provide. This way of learning, with certain limitations, allows activation and an intensive learning experience for large groups of students relevant for a number of social work schools.     

Difficult differences pave the creative road from diversity to performance

In this article, we argue that engagement with differences is important for the relationship between diversity and organizational performance. This importance is explained by the increased potential for creativity and innovation coming out of working in diverse teams. We recognize that difference and diversity can act as a double-edged sword for creativity and also contend that such differences are a fundamental condition for novelty and value to emerge. It is because of differences and not despite them that we create at individual, group, and organizational levels and a European approach to this topic – given Europe's history and philosophical traditions – recognizes the major role played of creative tensions and even conflict in innovation and in society more broadly. In this paper, we review literature that relates creativity and business performance, creativity, and diversity and examine the role of disagreement and tension, both conceptually and based on empirical evidence. We conclude by stressing the point that creativity often comes out of difficult differences, a European lesson that is easily forgotten, in Europe as well as globally.     

Introduction

The present study investigates whether hypothesized cognitive mechanisms of change mediate the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) delivered online for treating depression and anxiety disorders. Articles were included by searching MEDLINE, PsychInfo and PsychArticles databases from January 1980 to March 2011. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (a) randomized clinical trials investigating the role of CBT delivered online, (b) patient sample had clinical or subclinical intensity emotional problems, (c) at least one measure of cognitions was included, (d) the inclusion of a control group, and (e) sufficient data provided to allow calculation of effect sizes. Eleven articles were selected. Results revealed a moderate overall effect size of CBT (d = .67, P < .05) on the combined cognitive and emotional outcomes. A positive impact of online CBT on cognitive factors (d = .69, P < .05) and emotional outcomes (d = .63, P < .05) was independently demonstrated. In conclusion, cognitive-behavioral therapy delivered online can be used as an efficacious treatment for patients with emotional disorders. Assuming causal effects, the data indicate that cognitive factors are an important mechanism of change in online CBT. Future online CBT focusing on changing cognitions are likely to be efficacious.     

On units of Analysis and Creativity Theory: Towards a “Molecular” Perspective

This article addresses the issue of units of analysis and atomistic models in psychology taking creativity research as a case study. A classic typology in this area, initially proposed by Rhodes (1961), distinguishes between the four P's of creativity: person, process, product, and press (environment). Continuing an effort to rewrite this basic language of the discipline from a cultural psychological perspective in the form of five A's (actor, audience, action, artefact, affordances), the discussion here focuses on bringing relationships to the fore within this framework and problematising strict distinctions between each of the five elements. A closer look at the five A's of creativity, drawing on theoretical considerations and illustrated by interviews with creators working in different domains, reveals the permeable borders surrounding these units and challenges clear divisions between actors and audiences, action and artefacts, actors and artefacts. In the end, it is argued that creative phenomena cannot be properly understood and studied outside of their integrated and dynamic totality defined as a creativity complex. Implications of adopting this “molecular” perspective for theory and methodology are discussed.     

Polycentric structure and informal norms: competition and coordination within the scientific community

The success of the scientific community challenges in many ways our theories of social cooperation and public goods production. It is a very large-scale, decentralized, international organization lacking any central management or a formalized legislative or rule-enforcement body. Even the entry/exclusion rules are lax and unclear. By many standards it should not work. But, instead, it is one of the most successful human endeavors of all time. This paper provides an updated institutionalist theory of how this community works, with an extended discussion of its informal norms, prestige mechanisms, decentralized resource allocation, and interactions with states and civil society. Second, the paper discusses the ways in which the scientific community can fail at its truth-seeking task as a result of distortions created by outside political pressure and interactions with self-interested funding sources arguing that, as long as the polycentric structure is kept in place and the informal norms are preserved, the distortions are likely to be minor.     

Being other: Intersubjectivity,allocentrism and the possible

This paper engages with the issues of intersubjectivity by raising three main questions about it: What is the status of the other and of the perspective of the other? How would a social ontology that starts from the other look like? and What is the relation between intersubjectivity and the possible? In addressing these questions, I propose four main approaches to self–other relations, each one focused on a different set of theories of intersubjectivity: cognitive (being self), pragmatist (becoming other), dialogical (becoming self), and allocentric (being other). Their main premises, processes, theories and proponents, as well as implications for ethics and the emergence of novelty, are reflected on in turn. Allocentrism emerges as a useful way to shift the focus from self to other in discussions of intersubjectivity, as an ontological condition of the possible, but also as a difficult position to adopt in practice, particularly in polarized societies.     

Finely Resolved On‐Road PM2.5 and Estimated Premature Mortality in Central North Carolina

To quantify the on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality at a national scale, previous approaches to estimate concentrations at a 12‐km × 12‐km or larger grid cell resolution may not fully characterize concentration hotspots that occur near roadways and thus the areas of highest risk. Spatially resolved concentration estimates from on‐road emissions to capture these hotspots may improve characterization of the associated risk, but are rarely used for estimating premature mortality. In this study, we compared the on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality in central North Carolina with two different concentration estimation approaches—(i) using the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model to model concentration at a coarser resolution of a 36‐km × 36‐km grid resolution, and (ii) using a hybrid of a Gaussian dispersion model, CMAQ, and a space–time interpolation technique to provide annual average PM_2.5 concentrations at a Census‐block level (～105,000 Census blocks). The hybrid modeling approach estimated 24% more on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality than CMAQ. The major difference is from the primary on‐road PM_2.5 where the hybrid approach estimated 2.5 times more primary on‐road PM_2.5‐related premature mortality than CMAQ due to predicted exposure hotspots near roadways that coincide with high population areas. The results show that 72% of primary on‐road PM_2.5 premature mortality occurs within 1,000 m from roadways where 50% of the total population resides, highlighting the importance to characterize near‐road primary PM_2.5 and suggesting that previous studies may have underestimated premature mortality due to PM_2.5 from traffic‐related emissions.