bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Tiredness as Determinant of Subsequent Use of Health and Social Services among Nondisabled Elderly People
Authors: Avlund Kirsten , Damsgaard Mogens Trab , Schroll Marianne
Published: March 2007

Objective: To examine whether self-reported tiredness in daily activities at age 75 is an independent determinant of incident hospitalization and use of home services 5 years later. Methods:In all, 275 people participated in a prospective study in Glostrup, Denmark, when they were 75 and 80 years old. Four subgroups were created according to whether participants had been hospitalized or used home care in the year before the baseline study and whether or not they were disabled at the time. The key predictor variables were measured by two scales about tiredness in daily activities. Results:Nondisabled individuals who felt tired in their daily activities had about twice the risk of being hospitalized and of being users of home help 5 years later. Conclusions:Because tiredness in daily activities is related to subsequent hospitalization and use of home help, it should be taken seriously in preventive services among elderly people.
Health Status, Retirement Plans, and Retirement
Authors: Midanik Lorraine T. , Soghikian Krikor , Ransom Laura J. , Polen Michael R.
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this study was to assess the stability of short-term plans to retire and to evaluate the role of self-reported health status in predicting both plans to retire and actual retirement from a sample of 1,165 older members of a prepayment, group practice model, health maintenance organization. The study sample was derived from a random sample of members 60 to 66 years of age. Mailed questionnaires were completed that obtained data on the following variables: self-reported health status, work status, demographic variables, and plans to retire in the next year. Telephone interviews were conducted throughout the study period to determine dates of retirement from both those who planned to retire and those who had not. Results indicated that retirement plans were relatively stable for this population. Logistic regression analyses revealed that poorer health status was related to both retirement plans and actual retirement for women but not for men.
Patterns of Stability and Change in Health Service Use among Elderly People
Authors: Thomas Cynthia , Kelman Howard R.
Published: March 2007

Stability and change in patterns of health service use over a 3-year period were determined for a sample of elderly people in an urban area who claimed one of five types of health service provider as a primary source of health care—a hospital, a private physician, a network model health maintenance organization (HMO), a hospital-based group practice program (G-HMO), or a preferred provider organization (PPO). Despite certain differences in use rates for individual services, the total volume of ambulatory service use was equivalent for all five groups as was the relative rank order of use of specific ambulatory services for four of the five groups. People who claimed a hospital as their primary care source had the most unique use patterns over a full range of health care services, characterized by extremely low rates of physician visits and the highest rates of visits to hospital outpatient clinics across three time periods. G-HMO members used health-related services more frequently than did all others. PPO members, at baseline, had lower rates of total and mean hospital days than other source group members except hospital users. People who changed principal source of care during the study period were most likely to report a hospital as their care source initially. Although there is much consistency in hospital and ambulatory use across groups, the persistence of certain use patterns for members of some groups suggests that health care systems can leave an imprint on the health service use of people for whom they provide regular care.
Prospects for the Compression of Morbidity
Authors: Guralnik Jack M.
Published: March 2007

Although an upper limit to life expectancy has been proposed, most projections are for a continued decline in mortality rates and an increase in life expectancy for the next 50 years. Compression of morbidity can still occur during a period of increasing life expectancy if disability-free life expectancy increases more rapidly than life expectancy. This article considers the prospects for future increases in disability-free life expectancy as the proportion of the population dying at the oldest ages increases. The distribution of age at death is projected to change substantially during the first half of the next century, with many more deaths taking place at the oldest ages. Using current age-specific estimates of disability in the years prior to death, projections are presented that indicate that the shift in the distribution of age at death will lead to an increased number of years spent disabled prior to death for the total population aged 65 and older. It is proposed that a compression of morbidity may not be possible unless there is a reduction in the high rate of disability prior to death in the large segment of the future older population who will die at the oldest ages.
Implications of Health Status in Analysis of Risk in Older Persons
Authors: Harris Tamara B. , Feldman Jacob J.
Published: March 2007

This article explores the hypothesis that health status in old age acts as a summary measure of health exposures over time and, as such, plays a central role as a determinant of survival and morbidity trajectories in old age. Evidence is presented for the utility of health status as a modifier of risk in other areas of gerontologic research, and an example of modification pertinent to the cholesterol-heart disease controversy in old age is presented. The potential of differential health status in old age to affect both risk factors and risk estimates in epidemiologic analyses may be an important principle as epidemiologists continue to develop research to preserve and augment the quality of life in old age.
Length of Stay in VA Nursing Homes
Authors: Williams Brent C. , Fries Brant E. , Mehr David R.
Published: March 2007

To examine the patterns and determinants of length of stay among residents of nursing homes of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the authors conducted a retrospective follow-up study of all persons ( n = 4,918) admitted to VA nursing homes between October 1986, and April 1987, using computerized records of the VA. Brief-stay (< 1 month; n = 1,139) residents had most often had previous admissions to VA nursing homes and were usually discharged alive from the nursing home. Medium-stay (1-6 months; n = 1,947) residents were the least functionally impaired and most likely to receive rehabilitative services. Long-stay residents (> 6 months; n = 1,832) were older and more functionally impaired than other residents. Medium- and long-stay residents of VA nursing homes most resembled "short-" and "long-stay" residents among non-VA nursing home residents, respectively. Brief-stay residents may be persons admitted for "respite" services or may be serial users of both VA and non-VA health services. Further study of this population may identify opportunities to decrease "revolving-door" use of nursing home services.
Fear of Falling among the Community-Dwelling Elderly
Authors: Howland Jonathan , Peterson Elizabeth Walker , Levin William C. , Fried Lise , Pordon Dorothy , Bak Sharon
Published: March 2007

To assess the incidence of falls and the prevalence, intensity, and covariates of fear of falling among community-dwelling elderly, the authors surveyed a random sample of 196 residents (≥ 58 years of age) of housing developments for the elderly in Brookline and Plymouth, Massachusetts. Forty-three percent reported having fallen in recent years, 28% in the last year. Of those who had fallen within the year prior to the interview, 65% reported injury, 44% sought medical attention, and 15% required hospitalization as a consequence of their fall(s). Fear of falling ranked first when compared to other common fears (i.e., fear of robbery, financial fears). Self-rated health status and experience of previous falls were significantly associated with fear of falling. Further analysis suggests that fear of falling may affect social interaction, independent of risks for falling.
Predictors of Perceived Health Status in Elderly Men and Women
Authors: Schulz Richard , Mittelmark Maurice , Kronmal Richard , Polak Joseph F. , Hirsch Calvin H. , German Pearl , Bookwala Jamila
Published: March 2007

Baseline data on the perceived health status of participants (N = 5,201) in the Cardiovascular Health Study of the Elderly (CHS) are reported. The authors examined the predictive utility of health-related factors representing eight different domains, assessed gender differences in the prediction of perceived health, and tested a hypothesis regarding the role of known clinical conditions versus subclinical disease in predicting perceived health. Multivariate analyses showed that the majority of the explained variance in self-assessed health is accounted for by variables that fall into four general categories. Although gender differences were small, the analysis showed that the relative importance of several predictor variables did vary by gender.
Mental and Physical Health of Male Caregivers of a Spouse with Alzheimer's Disease
Authors: Fuller-Jonap Freida , Haley William E.
Published: March 2007

Fifty-two male spouse caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease and 53 demographically equated controls completed multidimensional assessments of mental and physical health. Results indicate that compared with noncaregiving men, male spouse caregivers have poorer mental and physical health, but only within limited domains of health outcomes. In particular, caregiving men showed higher levels of depression, respiratory system symptoms, and poorer levels of health habits, but did not differ from noncaregiving men on other indexes of physical and mental health. The importance of focusing on understudied specific subgroups of caregivers, such as male spouses, as well as using multidimensional instead of summary measures of mental and physical health are emphasized
Reactions to Stigmas
Authors: Menec Verena H. , Perry Raymond P.
Published: March 2007

Reactions toward older adults have been widely researched, but the question of whether such reactions are due to age per se or due to the presence of other stigmas (e.g., physical disabilities) has received little attention. This study was designed to investigate emotional reactions and willingness to help older versus younger adults who exhibited a wide range of stigmas, including AIDS, leg amputation, depression, and so on. Guided by attribution theory, the cause of the stigmas was further ascribed to either uncontrollable or controllable factors. Older adults evoked less anger than younger individuals, particularly in the case of blindness, depression, leg amputation, lung cancer, and unemployment. Subjects were also more willing to help an older than a younger amputee. Moreover, stigmas ascribed to uncontrollable factors generally produced less anger, more pity, and greater willingness to help than stigmas described as due to controllable causes. These results provide little support for the notion of ageism, at least within an age range of up to 65 years, but suggest that responses to older adults with stigmas may be subject to positive stereotyping.
Predicting Health Care Utilization in the Very Old
Authors: Linden Michael , Horgas Ann L. , Gilberg Reiner , Steinhagen-Thiessen Elisabeth
Published: March 2007

The purpose of this paper is to predict health care utilization in the very old from a combination of individual-based factors such as physical and mental health, health attitudes and beliefs, sociodemographic characteristics, and life circumstances. This study was conducted within the context of the Berlin Aging Study (BASE). Higher use of medications was most strongly predicted by more medical diagnoses, better cognitive status, and health attitudes. Physician contact was only weakly predicted by physical health variables, hypochondriasis, and living alone. In contrast, living alone was the greatest predictor of the utilization of increased levels of caregiving services, while having children nearby served as a protective factor against the need for more formal caregiving services. These results show that utilization of health care depends on interaction between physical and mental health, attitudinal, and social factors.
Do Proxy Evaluations of Health Status Predict Mortality?
Authors: Lawrence Rene H. , Assmann Susan F.
Published: March 2007

The ability of self-evaluations of health to predict mortality remains despite efforts to explain their contribution. To further the understanding of global evaluations, this study investigated whether proxy evaluations of health status also predict mortality. Data from the Longitudinal Study of Aging were used. For men and women, the unadjusted odds ratios for proxy evaluations exhibited a monotone relationship to 3-year and 7-year mortality rates and were predictive of 7-year mortality. This monotone relationship remained even after controlling for other factors when predicting 7-year mortality rates. However, only the fair and poor evaluations were significant, and only for men. The adjusted relationship when predicting 3-year mortality was not completely monotone, although good and poor proxy evaluations were significant. This suggests that proxy evaluations are useful, and that there are aspects of health status that are currently unmeasured but that should lend themselves to being quantified.
Older Adults and Assistive Devices
Authors: Hartke Robert J. , Prohaska Thomas R. , Furner Sylvia E.
Published: March 2007

Responses of older adults (> 65 years) from the 1990 National Health Interview Survey and Assistive Device Supplement are analyzed to determine if selected demographic and health variables are associated with the use of assistive devices, multiple-device use, and the expressed need for such devices. Bivariate and multi-variate analyses show that, in general, poorer health is consistently associated with the use of assistive devices, multiple-device use, and expressed need. Demographic characteristics, however, vary in their relationships to assistive device use and need. Findings support the importance of considering multiple-device use and expressed need in studying assistive devices and older adults.
The Governance of NGOs in China since 1978: How Much Autonomy?
Authors: Ma Qiusha
Published: March 2007

Does the surge of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in China indicate a shift in power away from the party-state and the emergence of a civil society? In an attempt to shed light on the relationship between the state and the NGOs, this article examines the aims of official NGO policy and its influence on the growth patterns of NGOs. The discussion is divided into three sections. The first section analyzes the NGO concept in China and the features of official policy. The second and third sections address two models of Chinese NGOs. The study concludes that even as the Chinese government remains the most decisive component in the development of NGOs, the state is withdrawing from responsibilities toward society. The interactive and mutually dependent relations between the government and NGOs indicate the continuing power of the party-state as well as the decline in its capacity to control the growth of organizations.
A Study of Factors Influencing the Growth of Nonprofits in Social Services
Authors: Corbin John J.
Published: March 2007

This exploratory study identifies and assesses the significance of factors that contribute to the growth of the nonprofit sector in the field of social services across 285 major metropolitan areas in the United States. Measures derived from social cohesion, demand heterogeneity, market failure, resource dependence, and philanthropic culture theories are introduced to correlation and multiple regression analyses. All but the philanthropic culture measures are positively associated with the growth of the nonprofit sector in social services. Particularly noteworthy are the positive influences that religious cohesion and interdenominational diversity have on numbers of nonprofit social service providers—a finding that reaffirms the historical linkage between religion and voluntary associations. Summary U.S. economic and sociodemographic census data, as well as data from a unique religious census, are analyzed. If a unifying theory of the nonprofit sector is attainable, studies such as this should contribute to laying the empirical building blocks for such a theory.
Moral Expression in 6- to 7-year-old Children's Stories in Sweden, Hungary and China
Authors: PRAMLING NIKLAS , NORLANDER TORSTEN , ARCHER TREVOR
Published: March 2007

The present study examines ethical concepts in children's stories. The subject group of 94 children was derived from three different cultures: Swedish (44 children), Hungarian (18 children) and Chinese (32 children), who were all 6-7 years old. The assembled material consisted of transcribed stories (interviews). The task given to each child was that he or she should make up their own story about a dog. Karlsson's EPP method was used for the analysis of the material. The results consisted of 12 qualitative categories of ethical meaning which gave a vision of the good life formulated briefly as: home: safe and good but also boring, whereas out-in-the world: exciting and enticing but also threatening and dangerous, then home again, to security. Deeper, underlying psychological consequences are discussed from the standpoint of prevailing notions.
Reconquering Urban Spots and Spaces?
Authors: HENGST HEINZ
Published: March 2007

Children's publicness ( Kinderöffentlichkeit) develops and occurs in local urban areas. It is obviously threatened today by the lower density of the child population, the institutionalization of childhood and changes in the urban landscape. That does not mean that it is disappearing. Rather, it is undergoing a substantial change. `Scripts' created by the media and involving intensive consumption influence when, where and how children's publicness actually occurs. In dealing with these `scripts', children develop new forms of temporary publicness. Of considerable importance are attempts to develop a new way of integrating medial, sensual-active, body-, space-and group-related actions. The article reconstructs these interrelationships from a cultural analysis perspective. The analysis itself is based on many years of empirical research.
Institutions, Path Dependence, and Democratic Consolidation
Authors: Alexander Gerard
Published: March 2007

Formal political institutions have been assigned two roles in democratization theorizing: as contingent effects of strategic interaction and as predictable bases for democratic consolidation. These roles might be reconciled if we assume that institutions become persistent once in place. But patterns of behavior surrounding these institutions do not appear to conform to the expectations of path dependency or comparable frameworks: while unchallenged in some cases, these institutions are repeatedly contested and often enough revised in others. This is true even of ‘low stakes’ institutional designs. Consequently, groups often perceive institutional designs not as ‘locked in’ and instead as malleable over even a few years. Codified political institutions therefore appear unable to generate the reduced risks - in effect, the credible commitments - which Adam Przeworski’s argument about democratic consolidation requires. This conclusion suggests that consolidation may result from reductions in political risks caused by non-institutional factors. It also has implications for diverse arguments which assume stability or predictability in formal institutions.
An Institutional Approach to the Theory of Policy-Making: The Role of Guidance Mechanisms in Policy Formulation
Authors: Linder Stephen H. , Peters B. Guy
Published: March 2007

The premise of this paper is that the revision of the stages metaphor for the public policy-making process is best undertaken from an institutional rather than individualist approach to analysis. The theoretical linkage between policy formulation and information - including feedback about performance at other stages as well as the results of social research - is mediated at the level of the policy formulating institution by complex learning and adaptation processes. Together these processes constitute a guidance mechanism for managing error and making course corrections. Different types of mechanisms, however, will admit different kinds of information which, in turn, will condition how the institution adapts to changing circumstances. The analytical features of guidance mechanisms are related to knowledge utilization, normative theories of policy-making and implementation, and to policy design.
A Utility Function Analysis of Competing Models of Party Support
Authors: Clarke Harold D. , Elliott Euel , Seldon Barry J.
Published: March 2007

V. O. Key's reward-punishment model has long dominated scholarly thinking about the political economy of party support. The model's popularity persists despite anomalous empirical evidence and challenges by issue-priority theorists who criticize the model for ignoring differences in the policy choices offered by competing parties. This paper argues that the reward-punishment and issue-priority perspectives are encompassed by utility function models of voter decision-making. Such models account for party support dynamics that are perverse according to reward-punishment assumptions. They also provide a theoretical rationale for specifying lagged economic effects in party support functions, while suggesting difficulties in doing so. The performance of utility function models is illustrated under varying assumptions about economic conditions and a voter's knowledge of them.
When Supervision Fails to Induce Compliance
Authors: Brehm John , Gates Scott
Published: March 2007

Supervision and compliance play a central role across a wide variety of human activities. To understand the nature of interactions between supervisors and subordinates, the interests and capabilities of both need to be examined. The problems with most studies of supervision stem from overemphasizing the supervisor and paying too little attention to the subordinate. In this paper we present a model which focuses on both the supervisor's and the subordinate's motives and capabilities. This enhanced model extends the principal-agent approach to reflect the political nature of public agencies and the factors that constrain supervision. We examine the broad conditions where supervision does not work. We conclude that subordinates' compliance depends more on the subordinates' preexisting dispositions than on the severity and frequency of `punishment' by a supervisor.
A Revisionist View of the Separation of Powers
Authors: Brennan Geoffrey , Hamlin Alan
Published: March 2007

The doctrine of the separation of powers attracts almost universal support as a central element of the liberal constitution designed to protect citizens against governmental power. However, there is little agreement on, or analysis of, the precise institutional requirements of the doctrine or the method by which the claimed benefit is achieved. We set out a simple model of the interaction between citizen-voters, the legislature and the executive to illustrate that the functional division of powers can operate systematically against the interests of citizen-voters. This case provides the basis both for a taxonomy of distinct senses of the separation of powers, and for the revisionist claim that there is a general liberal presumption against the functional separation of powers.
The Responsive Public
Authors: Franklin Mark N. , Wlezien Christopher
Published: March 2007

One little-noted requirement for the proper functioning of democratic institutions is public responsiveness to policy. A responsive public would adjust its preference for `more' or `less' policy in reaction to what policy-makers do. In this article we set out a theoretical model of how the salience of the issue domain conditions the feedback of policy outputs on public preferences, and we then show how this model can be applied in the European case. In assessing the model we employ data from all Eurobarometer surveys conducted in the 24-year period between 1971 and 1994 together with policy data from the Official Journal of the EC/EU. Our findings suggest that public preferences regarding European unification do reflect policy, though only as the salience of the domain has increased over time.
The Inclusiveness of European Decision Rules
Authors: König Thomas , Bräuninger Thomas
Published: March 2007

European Union Member States increasingly draw attention to the choice between and within various decision rules. Two prominent approaches, relative voting power studies and spatial models, assess the choice within the standard, cooperation, and co-decision procedures. However, they cannot sufficiently explain the Member States' choice of these rules. In this article, we present our model on absolute inclusiveness and relative decisiveness referring to two aspects of Member States' choice: their absolute chances to be incorporated in collective decision-making and their relative chances to be decisive actors thereby. We argue that the combination of both power aspects gives insight into the choice of rules, and we apply both indices to the actual power distributions in the Council of Members.
Political Timing
Authors: Gibson John
Published: March 2007

This paper develops a theory of political timing. It argues that the timing of those political `events' over which politicians have some discretion is non-random and that politicians attempt to influence the timing of events in such a way as to maximize the political benefits or minimize the political costs for themselves. In relation to `good news', it is argued that politicians will attempt to increase the public attention given to it or the positive impact felt by electors and to reduce public attention, or the impact on welfare, of `bad news'. Consideration of memory research, prospect theory and structural factors in the media suggests ways in which politicians can use their discretion over the timing of events to further these ends. Four specific behavioural hypotheses are advanced, regarding the way discretion will be exercised by politicians, according to whether the `news' is, or is likely to be, good or bad, and the resulting patterns in the timing of events. The behaviours are labelled respectively as packaging, splitting, highlighting, and phasing. Data on the timing of three very different types of phenomenon - British parliamentary by-elections; the timing of announcements of increases in medical prescription charges in the British National Health Service; and the timing and nature of changes in official lending rates in the United Kingdom and the United States - are chosen to illustrate the hypotheses.
Contract or coincidence: George Herbert Mead and Adam Smith on self and society
Authors: Costelloe Timothy M.
Published: March 2007

Although a number of commentators have remarked upon the simi larities between aspects of George Herbert Mead's social psychology and Adam Smith's Theory of Moral Sentiments, there has been no sys tematic attempt to document the connection. This article attempts to do precisely that. First, the legitimacy of the connection is established by showing the likelihood that Mead knew this particular work by Smith, and by bringing together the various treatments of the matter made by commentators. Since Mead himself does not reference Smith's theory, however, the continuity can be demonstrated only on the level of ideas. Second, then, the movement of Mead's thought is recon structed through the terms 'individual' and 'social epistemology'. An account based upon the former posits self-consciousness as the pre condition for knowledge about others, while the latter makes the development of self dependent on a concept of community. Mead's div ision of the self into the 'I' and the 'me' is central in forcing the shift from the one to the other. Smith's account of moral action, it is then argued, rests upon the same logic. His ideas of 'changing roles in the fancy', the 'impartial spectator', and division of the self, parallel Mead's 'taking the role of the other' and discussion of the self. The 'ideal' spec tator corresponds to Mead's 'generalized other'. The article concludes by drawing a parallel between Mead and Smith on the universal facts of human nature and the moral community.
Marginal settlements in surabaya, Indonesia: problem or potential?
Authors: Silas Johan
Published: March 2007

Marginal settlements in Surabaya, Indonesia: problem or potential? looks at those settlements designated as 'marginal' which house among the poorest people and whose problems have not been addressed by recent government initiatives. The problems and lives of their residents are described and both individuals and community life examined. Solutions to improving conditio ns are discussed in a final section.
Mexico's urban popular movements
Authors: Moctezuma Pedro
Published: March 2007

Mexico's Urban Popular Movements: A Conversation with Pedro Moctezuma describes the work of the National Coordinating Body of Mexico's Urban Popular Movements (CONAMUP). CONAMUP is a large, innovative umbrella organization for dozens of community organizations throughout Mexico and claims to represent the interests of around one million of Mexico's poorest urban inhabitants. Mr Moctezuma describes how CONAMUP developed, its structure and the areas in which it works.
Sustainable development in Argentina
Authors:   IIED-AL,   CEA,   GASE
Published: March 2007

Sustainable development in Argentina analyzes why, despite having an impressive endowment of renewable and non-renewable resources, Argentina has failed to maintain its relative global position in economic, social and environmental development in recent decades. The authors summarize the main environmental problems in the country and conclude that the current trend is not unsustainable development but unsustainable underdevelopment, with increasing damage to natural resources and ecosystems and a growing incidence of poverty.
The search for sustainable funding systems for community initiatives
Authors: McLeod Ruth , Mitlin Diana , Cuba Pablo , Kariuki Wagaiyu , Kumar Prem , Patel Sheela , Rivera Alberto
Published: March 2007

The search for sustainable funding systems for community initiatives reports on the discussions and conclusions of a workshop on loan finance for community level initiatives in land acquisition, housing construction or improvement and infrastructure and service provision. The paper also discusses the most appropriate terms and conditions for loan finance and the broader financial and institutional issues involved in its provision; and how NGOs' work in this area fits within a broader context of mobilizing social change.
The reporting of psychiatric symptoms in history: the memorandum book of Samuel Coates, 1785-1825
Authors: Persaud Rajendra
Published: March 2007

Information on patients left by a nurse in a large British asylum in 1823 has suggested that the occurrence of schizophrenic symptoms in asylums was not uncommon at that time. This paper presents another nurse's report, this time an unpublished notebook from North America in the 1790s, indicating that schizophrenic symptomatology was rare during this period. The two nurses' accounts differ significantly, the one before 1800 reporting little schizophrenic symptomatology, and the one after reporting much. Nurses' accounts of phenomenology of this period adds evidence to the notion that schizophrenic symptoms were rare before 1800 and common afterwards.
Use of physical restraints in a nineteenth-century state hospital
Authors: Esther Robert J.
Published: March 2007

Archival records of physical restraint usage at the St. Louis Insane Asylum (now the St. Louis State Hospital) were examined from January through June 1885. The demographics of restrained patients were determined from archival admission records. In the 6-month (181-day) sample period, 53 patients accounted for the total of 2,537 incidents of night restraint. Sixty percent of the restrained patients were women and 53% were immigrants. By far most (98.5%) of the incidents of restraint were brought on by violent behaviour (fighting, destroying property, injury to self) while most incidents in modern hospitals result from verbal threats or shouting. When these records were combined with day restraint records from the same 6-month period in 1889, an overall incidence rate of 9.7% per month was estimated. This is similar to rates reported from modern psychiatric hospitals. Possible reasons for the discrepancies and similarities in the types of patients restrained and the activities which brought on restraint in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are discussed.
Media Representation of the Discrimination against the Roma in Eastern Europe: The Case of Slovenia
Authors: ERJAVEC KARMEN
Published: March 2007

The aim of this article is to show how the thematic and form structures of the news report work to legitimate and naturalize discrimination against the Roma. The syntactic structure of discriminatory discourse offered the readers categories which differed very little: the headline and the lead constructed a closed interpretation of the situation and the rest of the news report strengthened, legitimated and naturalized this interpretation especially with its use of evaluation. In order to create a coherent meaning of the news text, journalists first reduced the definition of the situation to only one event, which presented the majority population in a positive light. To construct only one, natural dominant interpretation of the ethnic discrimination they selectively (mis)used information, used discourse of difference with colonization of common-sense language, and the strategies of denial of discriminatory discourse. The majority population was the dominant group, responsible for the process of doing and saying as actors and sayers. The study of the Slovenia media adheres to the analytic paradigm of critical discourse analysis (CDA).
Not Just `Doctors' Orders': Directive-Response Sequences in Patients' Visits to Women and Men Physicians
Authors: West Candace
Published: March 2007

In this paper, I draw on Goodwin's (1980, 1988, in press) research on directive-response speech sequences to examine how physicians formulate their directives to patients and how patients respond to those directives. My analysis of encounters between patients and family physicians indicates that women and men physicians issue their directives in dramatically different ways, and that their alternative formulations have consequences for patients' responses. Some directives are more likely than others to elicit compliant responses, and women physicians employ these more often than men do. In discussing these results, I consider their relationship to the issue of patient adherence more generally and to the quality of patients' relationships with women and men physicians.
Intifada Coverage in the Israeli Press: Popular and Quality Papers Assume a Rhetoric of Conformity
Authors: Nir Raphael , Roeh Itzhak
Published: March 2007

Since its eruption in December 1987, the Intifada has been accorded considerable press attention. In the study reported here we show that in this crisis journalism tends to articulate mainstream ideology, rather than energize public awareness about the importance of its events. Two Israeli daily newspapers are studied, one `quality' paper, catering to a highly educated audience, and the other, a `popular' paper, with the largest readership in the country. Contrary to expectations, the differences in the Intifada coverage of the two Hebrew dailies seem to be rather meagre. It is argued that consensus and widely shared national ideology override professional norms and practices, so that differences in narrative structure and rhetorical strategies are minimized. The major crisis, threatening the coexistence of Israelis and Palestinians, is similarly presented in the otherwise distinctively different papers, in what amounts to a general tone of `playing it down'. A `rhetoric of conformity' in both papers suggests a clear preference to `our' point of view, expressing a perceived consensus, and at the same time contributing to its maintenance.
Read it and Weep: How Metaphor Limits Views of Literacy
Authors: Novek Eleanor M.
Published: March 2007

In the United States, as in most societies, the concept of literacy has as much to do with status and power relations as with the text-based skills of reading and writing. Because social relationships are constructed through language, the metaphors we use to talk about literacy help construct our views of it, but the conceptual shorthand they provide is problematic. This paper argues that metaphors found in public and scholarly discourse about literacy exaggerate the importance of certain concepts (notably the perceived powerlessness or deficiency of the non-reader) and ignore significant others, particularly the socioeconomic and political factors which dictate literacy `standards' and influence achieved levels of textual fluency. This work explores the implications of common literacy metaphors, tracing their entailments in the promotional materials of literacy programs, the popular press, scholarly articles and in the words of adult learners. It concludes that such metaphors may have significant negative effects on the ways we look at literacy, by obscuring the economic, social and political factors that constrain people from learning how to read and write, and by identifying literacy (or the perceived lack of it) as a personal attribute rather than as a social construction.
Managing Customer `Objections' during Real-Life Sales Negotiations
Authors: Clark Colin , Drew Paul , Pinch Trevor
Published: March 2007

In this paper we invesigate a common locus of consumer decision-making in buyer-seller interactions—customer non-acceptances to a proposed sale and the verbal negotiations that often ensue. The research is based on a study of recordings of real-life telephone-selling calls. In this study the prospective customers often raised their nonacceptances implicitly, and salespeople and prospective customers tended, at first, to negotiate these non-acceptances in veiled, indirect and delicate ways. Explicit objections and rejections appeared to be less important and consequential than is usually appreciated. This type of sales negotiation is contrasted with the way difficulties are raised and resolved within conversational interaction. Also we briefly compare our findings with the advice given by sales trainers and address the implications of this type of research for our understanding of the role and influence of communicative skill on selling activity.
Woman Battering and Father-Daughter Incest Disclosure: Discourses of Denial and Acknowledgement
Authors: Hydén Margareta , McCarthy Imelda Colgan
Published: March 2007

This article explores the all too common processes of denial of abuse by those who perpetrate it and often by those who experience it. It is proposed by the authors that the denial of abuse does not reflect characterological pathology but is a behaviour which re-presents the ambiguity towards violence and sexual abuse in western legal and social discourses. A professional interviewer who is not sensitive to this representation is in danger of perpetrating further violence. The article introduces some methods for the avoidance of this threat.
The Discourse of Western Marketing Professionals in Central and Eastern Europe: Their Role in the Creation of a Context for Marketing and Advertising Messages
Authors: Kelly-Holmes Helen
Published: March 2007

It is principally through western media and marketing professionals that new, `capitalist' and market discourses have been brought to the former centrally planned economies of central and eastern Europe. Such discourses have not only come to play a ubiquitous role in these countries, but have also acted as media of social and economic change. The producers of such market discourses teach citizens the language of the market, its processes and rituals, how to interpret its advertising, the symbolism of consumption and how to participate in the process of consumption. A major feature of this process has been the proselytizing attitude of many media companies, who see their role as that of bringing the new ideology of consumption to the countries of the former eastern bloc. The objective of the study is to examine what these marketers and advertisers are saying about the necessity for an ideologically compatible context and intertextual sphere within which their texts can be received; what their discourse tells us implicitly and what they themselves tell us explicitly about the operation of a dominating, hegemonic discourse on an everyday basis.
R.G. Collingwood and the Idea of a Historical Psychology
Authors: Connelly James , Costall Alan
Published: March 2007

R.G. Collingwood's antagonism to scientific psychology is notorious. As a philosopher, especially an Oxford philosopher, such antagonism was hardly exceptional. Yet, in fact, Collingwood's attitude to the new science of psychology was remarkably ambivalent. He showed a keen interest in developments in the new science, regarded Freud as one of the greatest living scientists, and indeed himself pursued a full course of analysis. Nevertheless, Collingwood's criticisms of scientific psychology were searching, and involved a variety of distinct (though largely complementary) arguments. In relation to particular theorists, he objected to self-contradictions, pursuit of `red herrings' arising from prevarication in the use of established terms, and `plagiarism'. More fundamentally, he rejected the `covert scepticism' of psychology in its adoption of a purely empirical, `non-criteriological', approach to the study of thinking, an approach he regarded as appropriate solely to a science of `feeling'. Closely linked to this was his other main criticism of psychology, its presumption that the objects of study are transhistorical universals. In The Idea of History, however, Collingwood raised, though hardly elaborated, an alternative conception for a scientific psychology, as an essentially historical study, whose aim `would be to detect types or patterns of activity, repeated over and over again in history itself' (Collingwood, 1946, p. 224). Collingwood's historical conception of psychology is explored in the light of his objections to scientific psychology.
Ascriptions and Pseudoascriptions of Mental States
Authors: Poulsen Arne
Published: March 2007

The ascription of normative mental states is an integral part of the psychology of development and personality. Pragmatic rules for the ascription of mental states are outlined and a distinction is made between direct and counterdefined mental states. According to these rules, counterdefined mental states can only be ascribed to persons in a meaningful way when certain conditions hold. Violations of the rules are called pseudoascriptions. Six counterdefined groups of mental states are discussed: secure, self-confident, authentic, free, intentional and identity. It is argued that certain psycho-social conditions create the need for ascriptions of these mental states, and that pseudoascriptions give rise to Cartesian narratives of the self. The rules for the ascription of counterdefined states has implications for the universality claims of normative descriptions of developmental psychology.
Psychological Symbiosis
Authors: Tissaw Michael A.
Published: March 2007

This article reviews the literature on psychological symbiosis in order to sharpen the concept's meaning and establish descriptive criteria for its application to a broad range of care-giver/infant interactions. Supplemental examples of symbiotic interactions are provided from the diaries of Clara and William Stem, specifically from the first 18 months of their first-born daughter, Hilde. A stage approach leads to the distinction between physical and psychological symbiosis, expanded portrayal of the break-up of symbiosis, a call for new terminology to fully account for the intersubjective and cooperative relationship between care-givers and infants, and application of foundationalist principles to emphasize non-rational aspects of care-giver/infant interactions. Some ways in which the symbiosis metaphor is relevant to ongoing debates between social constructionists and critical personalists are discussed.
The Concept of Social Construction
Authors: Liebrucks Alexander
Published: March 2007

The present paper attempts to clarify the social constructionist position by way of an analysis of its central concept, namely `social construction'. (1) Three central theses connected with this concept as used in epistemological debates are identified: (a) The production of knowledge is a creative interpretation process and cannot be adequately framed within a logicistic theory of knowledge. (b) In their experiments scientists actively aspire to produce results that accord with their theories. (c) Knowledge is always grounded in a background of contingent assumptions and local investigative practices. It is argued that none of these theses is incompatible with realism. (2) Thereafter, three central theses connected with the concept of social construction as used in debates concerning the subject matter of psychology are discussed: (a) The subject of psychology is not a natural kind but an artefact. (b) There is a reflexive relationship between psychological discourses and the subject of these discourses. (c) The subject of psychology cannot be adequately analysed in natural scientific terms. It is argued that these insights have important consequences for psychological research, and yet are unintelligible against the background of anti-realist presuppositions.
Unravelling Social Constructionism
Authors: Edley Nigel
Published: March 2007

Social constructionist research is an area of rapidly expanding influence that has brought together theorists from a range of different disciplines. At the same time, however, it has fuelled the development of a new set of divisions. There would appear to be an increasing uneasiness about the implications of a thoroughgoing constructionism, with some regarding it as both theoretically parasitic and politically paralysing. In this paper I review these debates and clarify some of the issues involved. My main argument is that social constructionism is not best understood as a unitary paradigm and that one very important difference is between what Edwards (1997) calls its ontological and epistemic forms. I argue that an appreciation of this distinction not only exhausts many of the disputes that currently divide the constructionist community, but also takes away from the apparent radicalism of much of this work.
Theory and Research on `Race' as a Natural Kind Variable in Psychology
Authors: Tate Chuck , Audette Diego
Published: March 2007

This article examines a portion of the theory about and research on `race' in the field of psychology. Specifically, we examine whether the construct of `race' can be used efficaciously as a natural kind variable that explains data in psychological inquiry. The foregoing consideration involves an exploration of the so-called `biological/genetic' bases of `race' from the conceptual paradigms of (a) mutual exclusivity and inalterablity and (b) gradations on a continuum of genetic data. Our critique of these positions suggests an abdication of `race' as a natural kind variable because both of the above arguments for the concept are ultimately incoherent given the genetic data that they seek to explain. Consequently, `race' as a natural kind variable cannot explain psychological data. However, because the idea of `race' has become diffused into societies, `race' should be studied as a purely cognitive concept that influences social perception.