Competence

Summary

Competence in mental health is explored in many roles, including that of researcher, author, teacher, supervisor, therapist, evaluator, consultant, forensic specialist, case manager, and administrator. It is viewed not only as a construct but also as an ongoing process within the individual. Five fundamental areas are examined: (1) Maintaining high standards of competence, (2) keeping within one's boundaries of competence and limitations of one's expertise, (3) maintaining competence in human diversity in practice and research, (4) engaging in continuing education in scientific and professional areas, and (5) protecting the welfare of others when standards are lacking. Guidance is also received from ethics codes, published standards of practice, federal and state laws, and institutional policies and regulations.     

Damage Compounded: Disparities,Distrust, and Disparate Impact in End-of-Life Conflict Resolution Policies

For a little more than a decade, professional organizations and healthcare institutions have attempted to develop guidelines and policies to deal with seemingly intractable conflicts that arise between clinicians and patients (or their proxies) over appropriate use of aggressive life-sustaining therapies in the face of low expectations of medical benefit. This article suggests that, although such efforts at conflict resolution are commendable on many levels, inadequate attention has been given to their potential negative effects upon particular groups of patients/proxies. Based on the well-documented tendency among many African Americans to prefer more aggressive end-of-life medical interventions, it is proposed that the use of institutional policy to break decision making impasse in cases for which aggressive treatment is deemed “medically inappropriate” will fall disproportionately on that group. Finally, it is suggested that the development and application of institutional conflict-resolution policies should be evaluated in the context of historical and current experiences of marginalization and disempowerment, lest such policies exacerbate that experience.     

A proposal for a new system of credit allocation in science

This essay discusses some of the problems with current authorship practices and puts forward a proposal for a new system of credit allocation: in published works, scientists should more clearly define the responsibilities and contributions of members of research teams and should distinguish between different roles, such as author, statistican, technician, grant writer, data collector, and so forth. Dr. Resnik is an Associate Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Center for the Advancement of Ethics, University of Wyoming. Information is available on website: http://www.uwyo.edu/bu/acct/cae.htm     

Just How Correct is Political Correctness? A Critique of the Opposition's Arguments

I begin by examining three factors which enable the term political correctness (hereafter PC) itself to feed into the hands of its opponents: namely, the trivialization of the actual issues which are attributed to PC, the villainization of those involved in the PC movement, and the conferring of a sense of legitimacy on the opposition movement.The bulk of the paper provides a detailed summary and critique of every single articulated Canadian position I encountered against such PC measures as fair language policies. I have distinguished between arguments directed at the ideological content and the methodology of PC. Arguments directed at the ideological content are divided into the threat to freedom of expression argument, the threat to academic freedom argument, and the degeneration into triviality argument; arguments directed at the methdology are divided into the argument that PC commits the very evils that it addresses and the argument that PC uses unjust means to get its way.The paper ends by claiming that if PC means minimizing sexual and racial harrassment, discourgaing homophobic, racist, and sexist discourse within educational settings, and curtailing policies which victimize oppressed groups, then political correctness is not merely correct, but morally obligatory as well.     

Not so far from home: How family characteristics predict child care quality

This study examined the relationship between family background and child care quality for 636 children enrolled in 120 day care centres in three states in the US with widely varying regulations for child care centre quality. Family characteristics accounted for a substantial portion of the variance in day care quality. Mother' attitudes towards child-rearing and parent' education were the most potent family-level predictors of quality. State child care policy variables were also strong predictors of quality. Findings also suggest that the influence of environment on children's development cannot be partitioned simply into family and out-of-home child care effects; rather, the child care environment is an extension of the family environment, with parents determining characteristics of both.     

Religiosity and Soviet ‘modernisation’ in Central Asia: locating religious traditions and rituals in recollections of antireligious policies in Uzbekistan

The main argument of this article is that religious policies implemented during the Soviet era and adaptations of the public to them produced a new understanding of religiosity and religious life among the population in Uzbekistan. The Soviet administration promoted the rejection of religion as an official policy and utilised a vast range of opportunities to criticise religion and promote secular education. However, there were other policies the public remembers as initially shocking to indigenous society but eventually accepted as positive because they assisted in the process of modernisation. These policies are exemplified by the hujum (unveiling) campaign to institutionalise safeguards against under-age and forced marriage, introduce conventional education and promote the wider integration of non-religious Soviet men and women into public life. An analysis of the manner in which people have come to terms with their past and their recollections of antireligious campaigns helps us understand how life under the Soviet government not only resulted in changes in lifestyles but also redrew the ‘boundaries’ of ‘proper’/‘modernised’ religious life and of what are now considered to be the religious remnants of the past.     

Examining the Potential Exploitation of UNOS Policies

The United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) waiting list was designed as a just and equitable system through which the limited number of organs is allocated to the millions of Americans in need of a transplant. People have trusted the system because of the belief that everyone on the list has an equal opportunity to receive an organ and also that allocation is blind to matters of financial standing, celebrity or political power. Recent events have revealed that certain practices and policies have the potential to be exploited. The policies addressed in this paper enable those on the list with the proper resources to gain an advantage over other less fortunate members, creating a system that benefits not the individual most in medical need, but the one with the best resources. These policies are not only unethical but threaten the balance and success of the entire UNOS system. This paper proposes one possible solution, which seeks to balance the concepts of justice and utility.

     

Evolutionary policy contexts and policies in preparation for the twenty‐first century

The importance of preparing now for the next century is emphasized. The author's field and Kondratiev theories as a basis for long‐range policymaking over periods of dynamic, recon‐figurational change are briefly reviewed, and a number of assumptions relevant to this kind of policymaking are provided.. Equilibrium and nonequilibrium structures and thinking are contrasted. Limitations to control associated with limits to knowledge and knowability are discussed. The possibility is considered that continuation of present policies and practices may accelerate movement along a trajectory to nowhere. Problem solutions are considered within the context of what is meant by a civilized society, and some 15 characteristics of a civilized society are proposed. The theoretical basis for preparation for the Twenty‐First Century is advanced. Deficiencies in the present dominant politicoeconomic theories of Western Capitalistic Democracy and Marxism are discussed, and the need for a new set of “founding fathers” is proposed. The importance of developing and implementing a replacement theory of similar magnitude to present theories is emphasized, and the nature of this theory is briefly sketched. Some recommendations for guided paradigm change are offered.     

Quality of maternal thinking and mother-child interaction in at-risk contexts

This study investigates how the maternal level of perspectivistic reasoning and the level of socialization goals in the representation of their actions are related to the quality of mother-child behaviors as well as to the expert ratings on maternal practices in at-risk contexts. It also investigated whether there is any direct link between mother and child behaviors and expert ratings. A sample of 75 mothers of children between 8 and 12 years old reported on their level of perspectivistic reasoning and were characterized by the social workers of municipal services as being coercive, neglectful or meeting their child's needs. Interactions during a collaborative task were observed to obtain information on level of socialization goals and mother-child behaviors. Structural equation models showed that mothers' higher levels of perspectivism and higher levels of socialization goals positively predicted the mother's and child's sensitivity and active involvement in the task and negatively predicted avoidance and passivity. Higher levels of perspectivism consistently predicted experts' views on maternal practices. However, only mother's avoidance predicted negatively expert ratings on coercion practice, indicating that expert views were mostly derived from the mothers' perspective on their child. The implications of these results for parental assessment and intervention programs are discussed.     

Welfare policies and adolescents: exploring the roles of sibling care, maternal work schedules, and economic resources

This study uses data from three longitudinal experimental evaluations of US state welfare reform programs to examine whether program‐induced changes in families' reliance on sibling care are linked with the effects of welfare programs on selected schooling outcomes of high risk, low‐income adolescents. The findings from two of the welfare programs indicate that increased reliance on sibling care was concomitant with unfavorable effects of the programs on adolescent schooling outcomes. In the third welfare program examined, the program did not yield any increases in the use of sibling care or unfavorable effects on adolescent schooling outcomes, suggesting that sibling care is one likely contributor to the negative effects of welfare programs on adolescent schooling outcomes. These findings are discussed in terms of the pattern of the programs’ effects on families' income, as well as maternal work on nonstandard schedules, aside from the programs’ effects on maternal employment, which play contributory roles in shaping the extent to which welfare programs led to less favorable effects on the schooling outcomes of adolescents with younger siblings.