Linking cause and solution: Predicting support for poverty alleviation proposals

There are multiple alternative proposals for alleviating poverty, but unless these receive public support they are unlikely to be implemented. Drawing on Feagin's work, this research predicted support for different poverty alleviation proposals among Australians based on individual characteristics and attitudes, including explanations for poverty. Overall, participants (N = 526) favoured the minimum income proposal (traditional welfare) significantly more than the guaranteed jobs or equal income proposals. The results indicated differences in predictors of support for each proposal, but structural causes of poverty had the most consistent effect across all three. Other variables included gender, age, having received welfare, self‐reported social class, self‐reported financial situation, egalitarianism, conservatism, and support for individualistic explanations for poverty. The results suggested that Australians prefer traditional welfare‐style measures to alleviate poverty, compared to the other proposals examined here. Support for all proposals, however, was predicated on people's beliefs being consistent with those underlying the proposal. Those interested in implementing more radical solutions to address poverty need to emphasise the relations between the causes of poverty and the solutions to it in order to increase public support.     

Participatory Action Research (PAR) in Middle School: Opportunities, Constraints, and Key Processes

Late childhood and early adolescence represent a critical transition in the developmental and academic trajectory of youth, a time in which there is an upsurge in academic disengagement and psychopathology. PAR projects that can promote youth's sense of meaningful engagement in school and a sense of efficacy and mattering can be particularly powerful given the challenges of this developmental stage. In the present study, we draw on data from our own collaborative implementation of PAR projects in secondary schools to consider two central questions: (1) How do features of middle school settings and the developmental characteristics of the youth promote or inhibit the processes, outcomes, and sustainability of the PAR endeavor? and (2) How can the broad principles and concepts of PAR be effectively translated into specific intervention activities in schools, both within and outside of the classroom? In particular, we discuss a participatory research project conducted with 6th and 7th graders at an urban middle school as a means of highlighting the opportunities, constraints, and lessons learned in our efforts to contribute to the high‐quality implementation and evaluation of PAR in diverse urban public schools.     

Evaluating associations between maternal social support and cognitive development for infants in poverty

Infant cognitive development may be associated with maternal social support, although these relations have not been well-examined for infants living in poverty. We explore whether maternal social support is associated with cognitive development for 113 infants living in poverty. Infant cognition was measured at age 9–12 months using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development 3rd edition. Mothers provided information regarding perceived social support received from fathers, family, friends, and community members. Controls included maternal race and infant sex. Linear regression revealed no significant relationships between maternal social support and infant cognition in this sample.     

Participatory rural appraisal beyond rural settings: A critical assessment from the nongovernmental sector

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is widely used in participatory research. Developed originally for rural communities, its focus has been broadened to include urban populations. This article compares two PRA experiences that have initiated participatory planning and evaluation in a rural and a periruban zone of Senegal. Implemented by a nongovernmental organization (NGO) that is active in both environments, the periurban experience tested the adaptability of PRA beyond its traditional rural settings. PRA was found to provide a set of tools for community assessment, planning, and evaluation that offer tremendous potential if adapted appropriately to specific settings and needs. Although these tools were designed for use in rural settings, most of them can be applied equally well to exploratory or thematic assessments in the periurban setting.     

Opportunities for development via group psychotherapy in the nursing home

This paper illustrates the benefits of group therapy within the nursing home, and considers the enhancing and problematic factors in conducting groups within this setting. Growth which empowers staff and residents is possible and can be achieved despite significant challenges and social change. A lifespan developmental perspective can assist residents to achieve their maximum developmental maturity and group therapy can be effective in accomplishing that goal. This paper discusses the effect of the nursing home environment and staff on the resident, the task of the therapist in the nursing home, the value of group therapy, therapeutic goals in group therapy, what precipitates the need for group therapy in nursing homes, and the issue of group therapy with the cognitively impaired.     

Uncertainty and values: The case of environmental impact assessment

The increasing complexity of policy issues, as well as the centering of environmental issues in the policy arena, has led to an increased dependence on science in public policy. This has, in turn, led to increased attention to, among other things, the science-policy relationship and the way in which scientific uncertainty is treated in the public sphere. This article examines both problems in the field of environmental impact assessment (EIA). Our study reveals that, apart from the epistemic uncertainty concerned with the predictive capability of scientific theories, EIA brings additional components of uncertainty and challenges for the policymaker. We further confirm recent findings with respect to the inadequacy of the traditional rational model to account for extant science-policy relationships. The article also posits an alternative model that allows one to unpack the processual components of the science-policy relationship.     

Humanizing autonomous vehicle driving: Understanding,modeling and impact assessment

The advent of autonomous vehicles brings major changes in the transportation systems influencing the infrastructure design, the network performance, as well as driving functions and habits. The penetration rate of this new technology highly depends on the acceptance of the automated driving services and functions, as well as on their impacts on various traffic, user oriented and environmental aspects. This research aims to present a methodological framework aiming to facilitate the modelling of the behaviour of new AV driving systems and their impacts on traffic, safety and environment. This framework introduces a stepwise approach, which will be leveraged by stakeholders in order to evaluate the new technology and its components at the design or implementation phase in order to increase acceptance and favor the adoption of the new technology. The proposed framework consists of four sequential steps: i. conceptual design, ii. data collection, processing and mining, iii. modelling and iv. autonomous vehicles impact assessment. The connection between these steps is illustrated and various Key Performance Indicators are specified for each impact area. The paper ends with highlighting some conceptual and modeling challenges that may critically affect the study of acceptance of autonomous vehicles in future mobility scenarios.     

Occult participation: its impact on adolescent development

This study investigated the relationship between occult participation, substance abuse, and level of self-esteem in adolescents. Data were collected from 50 adolescents who ranged in age from 12 to 19 years and who spoke English as their primary language. The combined group of adolescents consisted of 25 clinical and 25 nonclinical youth. Participants completed a three-part questionnaire package which included Rosenberg's Self-Esteem Scale, the Adolescent Magic Questionnaire, and the Drug and Alcohol Assessment Scale. Results indicated that adolescent substance abuse and occult participation were significantly related. High and low occult participation groups were determined, and significant differences were found between the high versus low occult groups when compared on the primary variables of self-esteem and substance abuse. Significant differences were also noted when comparing the high versus low occult groups with various psychosocial developmental variables. Included is a discussion of the impact of occult participation on the psychosocial elements of adolescent self-esteem, self-concept, tolerance for deviance, and religious involvement.     

Enactive intersubjectivity: Participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation

Current theories of social cognition are mainly based on a representationalist view. Moreover, they focus on a rather sophisticated and limited aspect of understanding others, i.e. on how we predict and explain others’ behaviours through representing their mental states. Research into the ‘social brain’ has also favoured a third-person paradigm of social cognition as a passive observation of others’ behaviour, attributing it to an inferential, simulative or projective process in the individual brain. In this paper, we present a concept of social understanding as an ongoing, dynamical process of participatory sense-making and mutual incorporation. This process may be described (1) from a dynamical agentive systems point of view as an interaction and coordination of two embodied agents; (2) from a phenomenological approach as a mutual incorporation, i.e. a process in which the lived bodies of both participants extend and form a common intercorporality. Intersubjectivity, it is argued, is not a solitary task of deciphering or simulating the movements of others but means entering a process of embodied interaction and generating common meaning through it. This approach will be further illustrated by an analysis of primary dyadic interaction in early childhood.     

Discovering how urban poverty and violence affect health: development and validation of a Neighborhood Stress Index.

Health problems of the urban poor have been attributed to psychosocial effects of environmental stress. Testing such models requires an ability to measure neighborhood characteristics that make life stressful. The City Stress Inventory (CSI) uses self-report to assess perceived neighborhood disorder and exposure to violence. Data from an interracial sample of urban adolescents show the CSI to be internally consistent, stable, and correlated with census indices of social disadvantage. Validity for stress research is indicated by correlations with trait depression, anger, hostility, self-esteem, and mood changes during a debate with an unfamiliar peer. The CSI can be completed by persons with an 8th-grade education.     

Gender-sensitive participatory impact assessment: Useful lessons from the Caribbean

In this article, the writer draws on her extensive experience working in community development, with women in the Caribbean, and with using participatory methodology in training and research to examine the issues related to assessing the impact of development projects on men and women. She uses the example of training, research, and evaluation activities carried out with, and undertaken by, people in rural communities to illustrate how gender-sensitive impact assessment can be done.     

Biobanks: Importance,Implications and Opportunities for Genetic Counselors

Biobanks are collections of human biological tissue specimens and related health data. Biobank research hopes to provide novel insights into the genetic component of disease, ultimately leading to a more personalized approach to healthcare. However, biobanks have sparked debate due to the ethical, legal, and social implications surrounding utilization of population samples and data. These controversies include issues of consent, privacy and confidentiality, return of results and data-sharing. This paper provides an overview of the different types and scope of biobanks and an examination of the most pertinent ethical, legal and social considerations surrounding such research, as well as how some of these concerns are being addressed. The paper finishes with a discussion of the relevance of biobanks to the genetic counseling field and concludes that genetic counselors are in a position to make a unique, educated and practical contribution to the ongoing dialogue and direction of biobank research.     

Participatory Policy Making: Balancing between Divergence and Convergence

In participatory policy-making processes many different stakeholders have access to the policy-making arena. In order to benefit from the diversity of perspectives the stakeholders carry with them, interaction between these stakeholders should be facilitated. Three modes of facilitation are distinguished which differ in the balance they seek between divergence and convergence: inducement of better understanding, shared perspective, and policy learning. In particular it is examined how the technique of gaming simulation facilitates participatory policy making. From the application of this technique it is derived that a minimum common ground is necessary as a starting point for participatory policy making. Participatory policy making should start with a common challenge as well as agreement between stakeholders on some core concepts and rules of interaction. At any moment, stakeholders should be forced to put the common ground that is evolving up for discussion.     

Family Therapy Training: Academic and Internship Opportunities for Psychologists

Institutions that train psychologists in psychotherapy skills have generally neglected the family approach. This article provides information on both university departments of psychology and psychology internship facilities that include family therapy training in their programs.     

A temperamental and development model for personality assessment: application to self-control in middle childhood

In personality theory and assessment, it is important to distinguish between dispositional and developmental constructs. This important but often neglected distinction is applied to general personality models, and, specifically, to psychological temperament dimensions and ego development. These conjoined domains are used as a framework to study impulsivity and self-control in a sample of middle-childhood boys. Impulsivity is conceptualized as a temperamental dimension and self-control as an ego-developmental dimension. A factor-analytic procedure was used to test the assumption of orthogonality between impulsivity and self-control. Results were consistent with the hypothesis and provide implications for the concept of ‘difficulty’ of temperament constellations and study of ego development in middle childhood.