LEISURE-DANCE INSTRUCTION FOR SEVERELY AND PROFOUNDLY RETARDED PERSONS: TEACHING AN INTERMEDIATE COMMUNITY-LIVING SKILL

We evaluated an approach for teaching an intermediate community living skill via a leisure-dance activity to institutionalized severely and profoundly retarded persons. The targeted skill was considered as intermediate in contrast to a community living skill per se because it was based on successful performances of higher functioning, noninstitutionalized retarded persons as opposed to nonhandicapped individuals. Definitions for appropriate dancing were established and then validated through observations of the performance of retarded persons living in the local community. The dance skills were then taught to four participants through serial training in leg movements, arm movements, and coordinated leg and arm movements, plus follow-up trainer supervision. Generalization was also programmed by way of multiple trainers and training settings. Results during structured assessments showed that all four residents acquired the dance skills and that both serial training and follow-up supervision were necessary for skill acquisition. Generalized increases in appropriate dancing at dances attended by the participants and retarded persons from the community were also demonstrated. However, in most cases some active supervision by caregivers was needed to enhance the generalized improvements. Results are discussed in terms of the applicability of this approach for validating goals when training other community-related skills to low-functioning populations.     

An Investigation of Quality of Life of the Elderly in South Africa, with Specific Reference to Mpumalanga Province

This paper is based on a research study that investigated the quality of life of elderly persons (aged 60 years and over) in South Africa in the wake of population aging, HIV/AIDS, the process of modernization which ushered in new challenges and the legacy of apartheid. A combination of all these factors among others has played a major role in lowering the quality of life of senior citizens in South Africa. For effective measurement purposes, a conceptual framework of broad categories of quality of life indicators for this proportion of the population are identified as: household structure, social inclusion, care of older persons and care burden on the elderly. Under these broad categories we investigate such specific indicators as: general health; satisfaction with basic needs of food, clothing and housing; emotional well-being; and their environmental harmony regarding access to amenities of transport, sanitation, safe water and security. The influence of socio-demographic factors on the above indicators is also examined. The long term goal of the study is to provide guidance for more creative policies including strategies of poverty reduction, housing older people in a dignified way and providing a wide range of options that facilitate healthy aging, in so doing, catering for the best interests and needs of senior citizens in South Africa. A representative sample of size 900 randomly selected elderly persons in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa is used. Structured interviews and direct observation are used to collect data, and bivariate statistical analyses performed.     

A Social Psychological Approach to Enduring Rivalries

The recent scholarly work on the concept of enduring rivalries offers a promising way to examine strategic interaction among dyads of states over extended periods of time. A focus on rivalry, and on the mechanisms that provide for such interaction, may offer a way to bridge existing theories of international relations that rely exclusively on structure or process. Unfortunately, the potential for theory-building has not been fully realized because research into rivalry has tended to be inductive. This paper seeks to rectify that problem by situating the rivalry concept within a social psychological approach to international relations. The rivalry concept is appropriately located in a theoretical approach that views the international system as a social system where actors are conditioned by mechanisms of competition and socialization.     

Rescuing Human Embryonic Stem Cell Research: The Blastocyst Transfer Method

Despite the therapeutic potential of human embryonic stem (HES) cells, many people believe that HES cell research should be banned. The reason is that the present method of extracting HES cells involves the destruction of the embryo, which for many is the beginning of a person. This paper examines a number of compromise solutions such as parthenogenesis, the use of defective embryos, genetically creating a “pseudo embryo” that can never form a placenta, and determining embryo death, and argues that none of these proposals are likely to satisfy embryoists, that is, those who regard the embryo as a person. This paper then proposes a method of extracting HES cells, what might be called the Blastocyst Transfer Method, that meets the ethical requirements of embryoists, and it considers some possible concerns regarding this method. It concludes by encouraging future HES cell research to investigate this method.