Disability and the Notion of Human Development: questions of rights and capabilities

From a rights perspective disability has come increasingly to be seen as less a matter of personal misfortune than of societal neglect and obstruction, and as much warranting claims on the state to ensure inclusion and equality as to prosecute a duty of care. This shift resonates with other transitions within international discourse, most notably the increasing prominence of the notion of human development, which emphasises the importance of equity, freedom, and full realisation of human rights and capabilities as central to societal developmental objectives. After briefly examining apparent parallels in discourses relating to disability and to human development, the capabilities approach, upon which the concept of human development is grounded, is examined more closely and its implications for disability considered. It is argued that a capabilities approach may serve alternatively to keep disability partially hidden from view or become a powerful means for identifying the responsibilities of governments and external agencies in genuinely equalising opportunities.     

Adolescents' and Mothers' Understanding of Children's Rights in the Home

Adolescents' and mothers' understanding of children's self‐determination and nurturance rights was examined in the context of the home. In individual interviews, 141 sixth, eighth, and tenth graders and their mothers responded to hypothetical vignettes in which a child story character wished to exercise a right that conflicted with parental practices. For each vignette, participants were asked to judge whether the story character should have the right in question and to provide a justification for their decision. Generally, eighth and tenth graders were more likely than their mothers to endorse requests for self‐determination and less likely than their mothers to support requests for nurturance. Mothers of tenth graders were more likely to support requests for self‐determination and less likely to favor adolescents' request for nurturance in the home than were mothers of sixth and eighth graders. In terms of reasoning, adolescents and mothers were more likely to consider the individuals' rights when discussing self‐determination situations, whereas nurturance situations elicited responses pertaining to participants' understanding of familial roles and relationships. Furthermore, mothers' reasoning about childrenà s rights reflected sensitivity to the developmental level of their children. The findings are discussed in terms of previous research on the development of children's understanding of rights and adolescent autonomy.     

Changing times in pharmaceutical statistics: 2000‐2020

In a previous paper we considered how pharmaceutical statistics had changed between 1980 and 2000. In this paper we go on to consider some of the likely influences and changes in the world of pharmaceutical statistics over the next twenty years. Statistical research by pharmaceutical companies is supported, although its direct value in boosting company profits is challenged. The duality between fraud and conflict of interest is explored, particularly with regard to data and safety monitoring boards. Political correctness within clinical trials and (allegedly) better patient‐oriented outcomes is questioned and the whole notion of intention‐to‐treat and per‐protocol analyses is rejected in favour of pragmatic trials and explanatory trials. The dominance of SAS software within the industry is explored and the possibility for change considered. Finally, whilst the future of pharmaceutical companies is not addressed, the impact of future mergers, collaborations and take‐overs between clinical research organizations is considered. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dementia Problem Behavior and the Production of Informal Caregiving Services

Informal caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease spend a considerable amount of time providing care. In this paper, we use Grossman's health production and Becker's time allocation models to develop a model of informal care provision to elderly dementia patients. In our model, time inputs produce caregiving services, which provides utility to the caregiver, but reduces leisure. We assume that time is less productive of services on the margin as the disease progresses. In this framework, an increase in patients' disease severity does not necessarily increase informal caregiver time input. The cost of formal care establishes a reservation price for informal caregiving. When the costs of informal caregiving rise above this reservation level, the patient is institutionalized. We test empirically the effect of deterioration in the patients' condition, proxied by both disease severity and dementia problem behavior, on informal caregiving time. We find that dementia-related problem behaviors and functional limitations significantly increase inputs of informal caregiving time. Patients' problem behavior exerts a modifying effect on functional limitations, and patients' comorbidities have no effect on informal caregiving time.     

Naturally occurring play patterns in groups of latency aged children

This study examines the influence of the socialization of aggression among different gender and social class groupings and the influence of psychosocial stage on cognitive developmental play preferences among groups of school aged children. Observations of 143 play groups were coded for play preference (symbolic play, practice play, games with rules) and play performance (cooperative or competitive). Findings of the log-linear data analysis suggest a middle class and masculine bias in Piaget's cognitive model (i.e., that as age increases children prefer more games with rules). This model held only for middle class and affluent boys. Girls (both latency and prepubertal) and lower socioeconomic groups tended to prefer practice play. Girls were more likely to play cooperatively; boys more likely to play competitively. Implications for theory development and clinical practice are explored.     

Narrating Significant Experience: Reflective Accounts and the Production of (Self) Knowledge

Notwithstanding the rise of evidence-based practice, other tendencieswithin social work scholarship are also discernible. One ofthese is the study of the everyday, routine accomplishment ofpractice, drawing on microsociological methods and techniques.In this article, I apply techniques drawn from narrative anddiscourse analysis to the study of reflective practice accounts,which hold an important place in social work education. In particular,it is relevant to examine the form that reflective accountstake and the rhetorical and narrative devices deployed withinthem to accomplish a competent professional identity. My argumentis not that such accounts of practice are untruthful, ratherI propose that we would do well to move beyond taking texts(and talk) for granted and treating language as merely the mediumfor expressing inner thoughts and feelings. Social work shouldtake seriously the need to explore its modes of representationand to cultivate a more self-conscious approach to the way professionaland client identities are produced in practice.     

Getting Through to Them: Reaching Students Who Need Career Counseling

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a persuasive message, designed using the theory of planned behavior (TOPB; I. Ajzen, 1985) and written in the form of a student newspaper column, on undecided students' intent to seek career counseling from an informed source, such as a career counseling workshop. An experiment was conducted to test TOPB's applicability, and it was found that a message using positive reinforcement of salient beliefs and creating positive links between outcomes and workshop attendance caused a change in behavioral intention toward a greater reported likelihood of workshop attendance.