Policy instrument affordances: a framework for analysis

The present study uses the concept of technological efficacy derived from ecological psychology and design studies to offer an alternative way of analyzing how policy instruments affect change. Reasoning from this, the paper outlines a framework for analyzing policy instruments in terms of their affordances. We define affordances as the means through which an instrument exerts influence on its intended target audience. Using this approach, we contend that policy instruments may be analyzed as interfaces that organize social relations and create structures of opportunity and/or restrict possibilities for action. We argue that explicating the pathways through which instruments afford or constrain action is a central task for policy analysis. Our proposed framework of analysis builds on the idea that instruments yield effects by facilitating action and learning. We further contend that the actions that an instrument can facilitate or inhibit are determined by specific affordance modalities of the instrument in conjunction with contingencies of the actor and the policy environment. Examples from research policy are used to illustrate some of these effects.     

The Effect of Failure on Self-Concept

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of failure on an individual's self-concept. A model based on attribution theory, among others, is elaborated to predict how an individual's self-concept will be affected by failure situations. It is argued that where the individual chooses to attribute causality for failure, the situation will determine the effects of that failure on his self-concept unless the individual's belief system modifies the attribution process. This attribution is related to one major individual difference: a person's generalized expectancy for control. It is hypothesized that an individual's predisposition to conceive of causality as deriving from either controllable forces or uncontrollable forces will mediate the attribution process and hence the effect of the failure on his self-esteem. The hypothesized effects of failure on self-concept are tested by analysis of 122 undergraduate students' responses to a series of ten hypothetical failure situations. Responses to the situations were compared across individuals who varied along the internal-external and self-confidence dimensions of personality. Analysis indicated that the respondents' reactions to failure situations seemed to depend on the combined effects of the internal-external and self-confidence dimensions. These reactions seemed to mediate the attribution process resulting from failure and the effects of these attributions on self-concept.     

Discrepancies in Perceived Organizational Control: their Incidence and Importance in Local Churches*

The effects of discrepancies between preferred and perceived control among church members are investigated in terms of amount and distribution of control. For each dimension of control, three categories of respondents are identified: those who preferred a greater amount or wider distribution of control than they perceived to exist within their churches (deficit); those whose preferred and perceived control scores were identical (balance); and those who preferred a lesser amount or more concentrated distribution of control in their churches than they perceived to exist (surplus). For both amount and distribution of control, a perceived deficit is more common than a surplus. Respondents experiencing discrepancies in either direction are more dissatisfied and alienated than those with a balance in desired and perceived organizational control. A deficit is associated with more dissatisfaction (but not necessarily more alienation) than a surplus. Subsample comparisons show these findings hold for both officers and non-officers. Regression analyses show that discrepancies regarding organizational control are important even after other aspects of control have been introduced.     

Alienation: a Discrepancy Approach*

A discrepancy measure of job-related alienation, labeled power discrepancy, is introduced. Power discrepancy was measured by the difference between the amount of job-related power workers feel they are able to exercise on their present jobs and the amount of power they feel they should be able to exercise. Three types were derived: workers whose perceived power was less than the amount they felt that they should have (deficit power); workers with as much perceived power as they felt they should have (balanced power); and workers whose perceived power exceeded what they believed they should have (surplus power). It is found that power deficit increases with the degree of functional specialization at work and that power deficit is the most common experience regardless of the extent of functional specialization. Instrumental work orientation and isolation from organizational goals is the most pronounced among workers with deficit power. Workers with surplus job-related power are on a par with those with a balance between perceived and desired power in terms of consummatory work orientation and commitment to organizational goals. Among workers with less job-related power than they feel they should have, instrumental work orientation and isolation from organizational goals are higher among less affluent, younger, and loss educated workers. Introduction of a measure of the importance of work-related power did not help in explaining this last finding.     

Perceptions of drinking among Hispanic college students: how qualitative research can inform the development of collegiate alcohol abuse prevention programs

Alcohol abuse on college campuses continues to be a significant public health issue and health promotion strategies are being directed at changing the culture of collegiate drinking. From a qualitative research perspective such efforts remain uniformed since this area of research is currently dominated by large-scale surveys that illuminate little regarding undergraduate perceptions of alcohol use. This study describes results conducted on perceptions of drinking among college students, and discusses the implications these results may have for developing collegiate alcohol abuse prevention programs.     

Alienation as a Process: Work as a Case in Point*

A theoretical framework is tested predicting that the lack of perceived status recognition within a status structure promotes social psychological withdrawal from that status structure. Scales of Powerlessness, Meaninglessness, and Normlessness were used as independent variables, representing aspects of the work status structure. Self-Evaluative Involvement in work and Instrumental Work Orientation scales were employed as two indicators of social psychological withdrawal from the work role. Some empirical support for the theoretical framework is presented.     

From Community Organization to Direct Services: The Street Trans Action Revolutionaries to Sylvia Rivera Law Project

ABSTRACT

The literature on transgender social services is limited. Taking a case study approach, this article examines the needs of chronically underserved lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) populations, particularly homeless transgender street youth, and efforts of community-based organizations to address them. To consider their needs, this article considers the legacy of transgender activist Sylvia Rivera along with four organizations that grew out of her work: the Street Trans Action Revolutionaries, Sylvia's Place, Sylvia Rivera Law Project, and New Alternatives for LGBT Youth. These organizations show the promise for using multiple methods, from direct action to direct services, while connecting the lessons of social movements with social services. Future recommendations for improving research and services are highlighted.     

Self-Reported Fears as Indicators of Young Children’s Well-Being in Societal Change: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

Our main interest in this paper is in studying children’s well-being by using children themselves as informants and fear as an indicator of insecurity from cross-cultural and longitudinal perspectives. More specifically our paper documents the changes in the content and prevalence of children’s fears in two neighboring countries, Finland and Estonia, during the last decade. The study was carried out in 1993 and replicated in 2002/2003 in both countries with the random samples of total number of 420 five to six-year-old children (in Estonia 115 in 1993 and 91 in 2002; in Finland 105 and 109, respectively). For both countries the decade in question was a period of social, political and economic transition including post-socialist transformation in Estonia. Especially informationalization and globalization had a profound impact on the everyday life of parents and children. The increase of insecurity among children in both countries was expected. Children’s fears were investigated by means of an individual semi-structured and picture-aided interview. The most important findings are: the prevalence of children’s self-reported fears has generally increased during the ten years, especially among the Estonian children. The most significant increase was observed in both countries in fears of imagination-related things including television-related fears, fears of imagined creatures and of nightmares parallel to children’s increased media-exposure in daily life. Despite the increase of␣general welfare in both countries our results suggest the opposite tendency among young children; decrease of safety and increase of insecurity. The level of children’s insecurity was higher in Estonian than in Finland at both times. It is noteworthy that some fears of young children are ‚universal’ (fear of getting lost, fear of darkness, fear of being alone), while some fears are more context dependent (television-induced fears, fear of strange people). Young children proved to be competent informants of their condition and well able to provide essential and invaluable information about their problems and well-being. An erratum to this article can be found at