Social workers in schools - the teachers' response

73 teachers who had participated in a school-based social work scheme completed a questionnaire which recorded their attitudes to the programme. All the teachers had been directly involved in consultations about pupil management with six specially trained social workers. The response of the teachers suggest that even with a limited amount of contact, social workers can make a positive contribution to teacher practice. The personal characteristics of the teachers did not appear to affect their responses.     

Social phobia in disabled workers with chronic musculoskeletal pain

The present study assessed the prevalence and impact of social phobia and other anxiety disorders in disabled workers with chronic musculoskeletal pain. Potential participants were 200 disabled workers consecutively referred to an interdisciplinary tertiary care centre. A two stage screening process was used in which: (a) a self-report battery was given during a pre-admission visit, and (b) preplanned selection criteria were applied to the self-report instruments to select patients for a structured diagnostic interview. Fifty-four of the 146 patients who provided complete responses on the self-report battery met criteria for interview. Twenty-six patients (17.8%) met DSM-IV criteria for a current anxiety disorder and, of these, 16 (11.0%) were diagnosed with social phobia. Subjects with social phobia rated themselves as having less social support than subjects with no psychiatric disorder, but the groups did not differ in pain-related life interference, personal control, or health care utilization. The results suggest that social phobia is over-represented in disabled workers with chronic musculoskeletal pain and should be noted as a comorbid condition that may compound both suffering and disability.     

"社会福音"与边地社会改良——中华基督教会边疆服务运动中的妇女事工

1939年冬,中华基督教会全国总会发起了一场旨在服务边疆以巩固抗战后方的社会运动即边疆服务运动.这场运动持续进行了16年,其中涉及有大量与妇女事工和福音传播事业相关的内容.中华基督教会全国总会为开展这一事业,专门成立了边疆服务部,设置了若干服务区,从教育、卫生、生计等各方面推进川西北少数民族地区和西康地区的妇女工作.与此同时,边部非常注重对边地妇女的传教授道,以促进基督教福音事业在边地的发展.边疆服务是一项有价值的社会事业,曾经得到社会的广泛认同和支持,所进行的社会改造及福音传播工作均取得了-定成绩,在边地内外均产生了较大的社会影响.因为篇幅的缘故,本文讨论的时间范围大致限定在1949年之前.     

Getting interested in interests for employee selection: Key concerns and areas for future research

The paper by Wille and De Fruyt suggests that vocational interests should be used throughout the human resources cycle and provides a useful model that can facilitate the application of interests throughout this process. This commentary builds on their review to discuss the unique benefits and challenges of implementing vocational interests in the employee selection process. Using research from the employee selection literature, we also discuss potential solutions for many of the issues raised by Wille and De Fruyt. Therefore, our commentary is meant to supplement the focal article and answer specific questions about why and how vocational interests can be used in this high-stakes setting.     

Children learn words easier when they are interested in the category to which the word belongs

The overall pattern of vocabulary development is relatively similar across children learning different languages. However, there are considerable differences in the words known to individual children. Historically, this variability has been explained in terms of differences in the input. Here, we examine the alternate possibility that children's individual interest in specific natural categories shapes the words they are likely to learn – a child who is more interested in animals will learn a new animal name easier relative to a new vehicle name. Two‐year‐old German‐learning children (N = 39) were exposed to four novel word–object associations for objects from four different categories. Prior to the word learning task, we measured their interest in the categories that the objects belonged to. Our measure was pupillary change following exposure to familiar objects from these four categories, with increased pupillary change interpreted as increased interest in that category. Children showed more robust learning of word–object associations from categories they were more interested in relative to categories they were less interested in. We further found that interest in the novel objects themselves influenced learning, with distinct influences of both category interest and object interest on learning. These results suggest that children's interest in different natural categories shapes their word learning. This provides evidence for the strikingly intuitive possibility that a child who is more interested in animals will learn novel animal names easier than a child who is more interested in vehicles.     

Social network as a moderator in the relation between trauma exposure and trauma reaction: a survey among UN soldiers and relief workers

Social network as a moderator between trauma exposure and post-trauma symptomatology was studied. Two samples--relief workers and UN soldiers--were assessed on trauma exposure, social network and three dependent measures related to post-trauma reactions. Regression analysis and interaction plots were used to determine the presence of interaction effects between trauma exposure and social network. All four network variables moderated the relationship between trauma exposure and post-trauma reactions among relief workers, while among UN soldiers only two such buffer effects were found. Furthermore, among UN soldiers one of these interaction effects was reversed, indicating social support to be important for those low on trauma exposure, while among relief workers support was important in the high-exposure condition. The results indicate a difference with respect to the importance of social network as a moderator between groups exposed to different kinds of war trauma. Differences in motivational systems may also exist. However, further research will have to establish this.     

Job attitudes of black and white workers: Male blue-collar workers in six companies

A 74-item attitude questionnaire was administered in six companies to 101 black and 87 white male blue-collar employees holding similar jobs in the same company. Differences between the two ethnic groups were not marked, both in terms of job satisfaction and in other respects; Where there were differences the black workers were usually slightly more favorable. However, the picture was not uniform across the different companies.     

Work values among Lebanese workers

On the basis of a review of the existing literature, the authors tested 4 hypotheses to determine the applicability of work values in Arab societies to employees in Lebanese organizations. Only 1 hypothesis was supported: Organizational policies that ran counter to the worker's religious values had an adverse effect on job satisfaction. There was no support for the hypotheses (a) that workers' religiosity in inversely related to positive attitudes toward women's involvement at work, (b) that employee satisfaction is related to a mechanistic organizational design, or (c) that workers with an internal locus of control experience higher job satisfaction. The Lebanese workers, thus, did not appear to share some of the attributes claimed to exist in Arab societies.     

Social Psychologists and Social Psychology

Abstract

(Witkin, H. A., Hertzman, M., Machover, K., Meissner, P. B., &; Wapner, S. Personality Through Perception. New York: Harper, 1954. Pp. 571.) Reviewed by Murray H. Sherman.     

社会评价:社会学在项目中的应用

社会评价不是公众评价 ,不是经济评价的剩余 ,也不同于纯粹的社会学学术研究。它是社会学理论与方法在项目实践中的具体应用。其功能为 :(1)给出项目能否成立的基本判断 ;(2 )实现项目的社会发展目标 ;(3 )提高项目的经济效益。社会评价没有超出社会学方法论范畴。它的方法 ,除了常用的文献研究、观察、访谈、问卷、座谈会等方法外 ,也发展出一些有自身特色的如协商、公众参与等方法。社会评价的内容 ,通常包括项目社会影响分析 ,利益相关者分析 ,土地与居民生计调查 ,项目机构设置 ,少数民族发展等。