Reflexivity and Interpretive Sociology: The Case of Analysis and the Problem of Nihilism

This paper addresses the problem of reflexivity in modern social inquiry in general and in sociology in particular. This problem is inherited from Weber's very conception of sociology, is transformed by phenomenology and ethnomethodology, deepened by the linguistic turn of hermeneutics and Wittgenstein's later philosophy, and has been the central concern of the work of Alan Blum and Peter McHugh. The issues and spectres raised by reflexivity are methodological arbitrariness, the need to take responsibility for one's own talk (and the cultural assumptions embedded in talk) and, finally, the deep fear of nihilism – the sense that with regard to inquiry (along with everything else in the world) nothing matters. As such, reflexivity raises the most fundamental issue that can be raised for modern social inquiry. Through an oriented interpretation of the work of Blum and McHugh and other contemporary social theorists (particularly Gadamer and Arendt), this paper works through what a dialectical engagement with these issues look like.     

Family crisis intervention in social services

This article advocates the use of family therapy in crisis intervention. It relies upon the literature on crisis intervention, on family therapy literature, and on ten years experience of working in a social services area office, in which social workers are often required to respond alone to many different kinds of crises. Two typical referrals demanding crisis intervention and the responses to them are described.     

Better Late than Never? The Relationship between Ratings of Attendance,Punctuality, and Overall Job Performance among Nursing Home Employees

This study examined the relationship between lateness, absenteeism, and overall job performance among nursing home employees. We addressed four issues: (a) agreement between subordinate and superior in their ratings, (b) the stability of rated lateness and rated absenteeism over 6 months, (c) the correlation between ratings of lateness and absenteeism assigned by the worker to himself or herself and the corresponding ratings from supervisors, and (d) the relationship of rated lateness and rated absenteeism to impressions of overall job performance. Neither attendance nor punctuality showed inter‐rater agreement between the worker and his/her supervisor on either of the two occasions. Ratings of attendance were not stable across time for either the subordinate (r=.16) or the supervisor (r=.04), but punctuality ratings showed moderate temporal stability over 6 months for both subordinate (r=.59) and supervisor (r=. 41) impressions. On the first administration of the rating form, attendance and punctuality were not significantly correlated to each other in either the workers' self‐ratings (r=.17) nor the supervisors' ratings of the workers (r=.08). On the second administration, however, these two facets were moderately correlated with each other in both workers' (r=.54) and supervisors' (r=. 39) impressions of employee behavior. Compared with attendance, punctuality was somewhat more highly correlated with impressions of overall job performance from the perspective of the worker herself/himself as well as the supervisor.     

Validation of Self-Report Impairment Measures for Section III Obsessive–Compulsive and Avoidant Personality Disorders

This study examined the validity of newly developed disorder-specific impairment scales (IS), modeled on the Level of Personality Functioning Scale, for obsessive–compulsive (OCPD) and avoidant (AvPD) personality disorders. The IS focused on content validity (items directly reflected the disorder-specific impairments listed in DSM-5 Section III) and severity of impairment. A community sample of 313 adults completed personality inventories indexing the DSM-5 Sections II and III diagnostic criteria for OCPD and AvPD, as well as measures of impairment in the domains of self- and interpersonal functioning. Results indicated that both impairment measures (for AvPD in particular) showed promise in their ability to measure disorder-specific impairment, demonstrating convergent validity with their respective Section II counterparts and discriminant validity with their noncorresponding Section II disorder and with each other. The pattern of relationships between scores on the IS and scores on external measures of personality functioning, however, did not indicate that it is useful to maintain a distinction between impairment in the self- and interpersonal domains, at least for AvPD and OCPD.     

Coaching behaviors associated with changes in fear of failure: changes in self-talk and need satisfaction as potential mechanisms

Cognitive-interpersonal and motivational mechanisms may regulate relations between youth perceptions of interpersonal aspects of the social ecology and their fear-of-failure (FF) levels. Youth (N=165) registered for a summer swim league rated their fear of failure at the beginning, middle, and end of the season. Extensive model comparisons indicated that youths' end-of-season ratings of coach behaviors could be reduced to three factors (affiliation, control, blame). Perceived control and blame from coaches predicted residualized change in corresponding aspects of youths' self-talk, but only changes in self-blame positively predicted changes in FF levels during the season. Perceived affiliation from coaches predicted autonomy need satisfaction which, in turn, negatively predicted the rate of change in FF levels during the season. These findings indicate that (a) youth perceptions of coaches were directly and indirectly related to acute socialization of FF and (b) both cognitive-interpersonal and motivational mechanisms contributed to this socialization process. Further research is needed to test for developmental differences in these mechanisms to determine whether findings generalize to more heterogeneous and at-risk populations and to investigate other potential social-ecological influences on socialization.     

Predicting participation in premarital prevention programs: the health belief model and social norms

The development of effective programs to prevent marital dysfunction has been a recent focus for marital researchers, but the effective dissemination of these programs to engaged couples has received relatively little attention. The purpose of this study is to determine which factors predict couples' participation in premarital counseling. Predictive factors were derived from the health prevention literature, with a particular focus on the health belief model (HBM). Couples' beliefs and attitudes about premarital counseling were assessed at least six months before their wedding, and participation was assessed after their wedding. Results indicate that the strongest predictors of couples' participation were couples' perceptions of barriers to counseling and whether they had counseling recommended to them. These variables predicted participation even after controlling for important demographic variables. Recommendations for recruiting engaged couples for premarital counseling are made based on the findings.     

Using Structural Analysis in Natural Settings: A Responsive Functional Assessment Strategy

Since the reauthorization of IDEA (1997), the use of functional assessments to examine factors that are related to students challenging behaviors has gained increasing attention in the literature. Over the past five years, several groups of investigators have conducted systematic analyses of the current status of the use of functional assessment in relation to students with or at risk for emotional/behavioral disorders (EBD). Their findings outline a number of critical, applied research issues for the field to consider. The purpose of this paper is to respond to a number of these issues by highlighting the relevance of structural analysis in addition to and in some cases in lieu of more traditional functional assessments. A brief review of current trends in the functional assessment research is presented as well as a rational for the use of structural analysis to examine the occurrence of appropriate behavior for students with EBD. Finally, illustrations of studies conducting structural analyses in classrooms settings are provided.     

Dispositional and task-specific social-cognitive determinants of physical effort perseverance

The authors performed 3 studies to investigate the effects of social-cognitive variables on physical effort perseverance. Linear hierarchical regressions indicated that task-specific variables and perceived ability or competence accounted for the majority of perseverance variance in all 3 studies. The strongest single predictors in this cluster of variables were perceived competence, confidence, and readiness to invest effort. Physical self-health and ability accounted for a lesser portion of effort perseverance variance, with self-presentation confidence being the major single predictor in this cluster. The goal orientation cluster accounted for the least amount of effort perseverance variance. Together with task-specific confidence and the readiness to invest effort, as well as determination and commitment and competence, the findings support the contention that task-specific efficacious beliefs to a large extent determine persistence and endurance behaviors.