Who volunteers?

Summary The 1990 NHS and Community Care Act outlined an extended rolefor volunteers and voluntary organizations in the provisionof services for disabled adults and older people. In broad terms,the Act assumed an untapped pool of volunteers, ready to contributeat little additional cost to the provision of care. More recentpolicy developments, including Millennium Volunteers (ScottishOffice 1997) have made similar assumptions. For organizationswhich involve volunteers, the expectations of their increaseduse in service provision present considerable challenges, notleast in attracting new recruits and retaining existing volunteers.The research presented in this paper builds on previous workto explore the current practice and organization of volunteeringand to examine critically how far the reality matches the politicalrhetoric about the role of volunteers in the mixed economy ofcare. The paper begins with a critical review of recent policyand practice in volunteering to set the context which providedour key questions. The research methodology is briefly describedand the findings from a survey of 117 active volunteers workingwith adults with learning difficulties, mental health problemsand physical disabilities, and with older people in the Northof Scotland are presented. The research examines the demographyand personality profiles of the volunteers. It examines theirperceptions of volunteering as these relate to motivation, recruitment,selection, training, support, rewards and reasons for leaving.Finally, it examines volunteers' perceptions of the organizationof volunteering. The results are reviewed in relation to thepolicy assumptions about volunteering in the mixed economy ofcare.     

Controversy and Ideological Hegemony in Sociological Theory*

Sociological theory has been characterized by the recurrence of several controversies since its inception. The relationship between the individual and society represents one of these. Cooley's notion of the individual and society being twin-born has been labeled one of the major breakthroughs in this controversy. According to Tiryakian, Cooley's work signaled the end of that controversy, but still it reappears. Drawing heavily from Mannheim, Berger and Pullberg, and Therborn, we examine the recurrence of the individual versus society controversy. Sociology, we contend, occupies an alienated position within capitalist society where positivist epistemology serves as an ideological veil, concealing the existence of ontological presuppositions, distorting social reality, and preventing any meaningful attempt to understand the development of sociology, or the recurrence of the individual-society controversy. As an ideological veil, positivism contributes to the recurring bifurcation of social reality. The dominance of positivism within sociology, moreover, gives it a hegemonic status, further negating any recognition that the individual and society are interdependent.     

Fun Seeking and Reward Responsiveness Moderate the Effect of the Behavioural Inhibition System on Coping-Motivated Problem Gambling

Gray’s Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory (RST) predicts that the Behavioral Inhibition System (BIS) may relate to coping-motivated problem gambling, given its central role in anxiety. Studies examining the BIS-problem gambling association, however, are mixed. The revised RST posits that the Behavioral Approach System (BAS) may moderate the effect of the BIS on coping-motivated problem gambling. A concurrently strong BAS may highlight the negatively reinforcing effects of gambling, which may strengthen coping motives and increase gambling-related harms. We examined these interactive effects to clarify the moderators and mediators of the negative reinforcement pathway to problem gambling. Data came from a larger investigation of problem gambling among individuals with mood disorders. All participants (N = 275) met criteria for a lifetime depressive or bipolar disorder. During a two-day assessment, participants completed a diagnostic assessment and self-reports. Mediated moderation path analysis showed positive indirect effects from the BIS to problem gambling via coping motives at high, but not at low, levels of BAS-Reward Responsiveness and BAS-Fun Seeking. Enhancement motives were also found to mediate the associations of BAS-Fun Seeking and BAS-Drive with problem gambling. Reward Responsiveness and Fun Seeking facets of the BAS may strengthen coping gambling motives within the mood disorders.     

Some aspects of prostitution

This study was based on data collected from 87 men during and immediately following participation in a counseling program aimed at assisting them to reduce sexual behaviors associated with high HIV risk. All the men reported having engaged in same‐gender anal or oral sex without condoms during the year prior to enrollment. Three‐month retrospective reports of sexual behavior, solicited just after participation, were compared with reports collected weekly during the same three‐month period. Accuracy of recall over an ensemble of 10 behavior items was quite low, with amount of error positively associated with behavior frequency. In general, exaggerated reports were associated with low‐frequency behavior and underreports with high‐frequency behavior. Because of observed differences in the average frequency of occurrence of the various specific types of sexual behavior, adjustment for event frequency was required to provide adequate analysis of between‐behavior differences in memory error. Estimated functional relationships between behavior frequency and average memory error illustrated that for sexual activity occurring between 1 and 20 times in the three‐month period, there was a significant association between the HTV‐risk level of a behavior and the average extent to which the behavior was forgotten (i.e., underreported). After event‐frequency adjustment, anal activity without condoms—the behavior believed to entail the highest level of risk for HIV transmission, and the behavior about which the counseling program provided the least ambiguous cues regarding risk—was associated with the greatest underreporting error, and the ensemble of unprotected behaviors (i.e., those unaccompanied by condom usage) involved significantly greater underreporting than did protected behaviors. Error rates over the ensemble of behaviors were strikingly low for zero‐frequency events, suggesting the utility of dichotomous ever/never measures in research evaluating activity levels and behavior change. Other analysis techniques for reducing potential recall bias, allowing finer evaluations of behavior frequency and change, were also discussed.     

G. H. MEAD'S SOCIAL BEHAVIORISM VS. THE ASTRUCTURAL BIAS OF SYMBOLIC INTERACTIONISM*

Symbolic inleractionism has been criticized for having an astructural bias. This paper presents a response to that criticism by examining the ontological stance contained in Mead's social behaviorism and contrasting it with the ontological stance of symbolic interactionism's chief architect, Herbert Blumer. Mead's social behaviorism is shown to be a nondualist philosophy of conduct based solidly on conceptions of the human community and of individual conduct as organized on the basis of social acts–a view not shared by Blumer.     

The Control of Sociological Theory: In Praise of the Interregnum*

The argument advanced here contends that integrative efforts within sociology exacerbate, rather than mitigate, theoretical and organizational fragmentation. Viewing epistemologically driven movements towards theoretical control as counter- productive, this study contains a proposal for a greater analytical focus on ontology as a better way to promote and preserve the sociological enterprise. Such a move would reflect a return to the ethos of sociology's classical project and encourage embracing theoretical diversity as a desirable condition.     

Investigating the mediational role of negative urgency in the anxiety sensitivity pathway to cannabis problems and dependence symptoms among postsecondary students

Objectives: Anxiety sensitivity (AS) is associated with cannabis use. People high in AS may use cannabis to cope with elevated anxiety. This association is consistently supported in the literature. However, we have much to learn about the mechanisms of the AS pathway to cannabis use. We aimed to examine negative urgency—the tendency to act impulsively when distressed—as a mediator of the association of AS with cannabis problems and cannabis dependence symptoms. We hypothesized that negative urgency would uniquely mediate the association of AS with cannabis outcomes after controlling for other facets of impulsivity. Participants and Methods: Postsecondary students (N = 91; Fall 2012) completed online self-reports. To participate, students needed to be ≥18 years old, enrolled in postsecondary studies, and needed to report current cannabis use. Results: Negative urgency uniquely mediated associations between AS and cannabis problems and dependence symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings suggest a mechanistic role of negative urgency in the AS pathway to cannabis misuse.