Getting out of the way: on the road to aboriginal self-government

“Now, the government wants to give us self government. With what will we govern? They have taken our land! They have taken our timber! They have taken our fish! What will we do?” Saik'uz elder Sophie Thomas on the 1992 Charlottetown Accord. “Recognition and respect for First Nations as self-determining and distinct nations with their own spiritual values, histories, languages, territories, political institutions and ways of life must be the hallmark of this new relationship.” BC Task Group Report - June 1991     

Young adults' scores on the defining issues test as a function of a “self” versus “other” presentation mode

One hundred college students were randomly divided into four groups and were administered the standard version (i.e., other-orientation) of the Defining Issues Test (DIT) and/or a Modified version (i.e., self-orientation) of the same instrument on two separate occasions. Subjects displayed greater amounts of principled moral reasoning when responding to the standard (other-orientation) rather than the modified (self-orientation) version of the DIT. Also, significant test-retest reliability was obtained for the standard, but not the modified, version of the DIT. The role of affective factors in the evaluation of moral problems involving the self versus hypothetical others was discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meetings of the Midwestern Psychological Association, St. Louis, Missouri, May 1980.Received M.A. from the State University of New York at Oswego. Current research interests are moral development, social cognition across the life-span.Received Ph.D. from Purdue University. Current research interests are children's cognitive development, eidetic imagery, and moral thinking.Received Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Current research interests are logical concept development and moral and political development.     

Fantasies about the fetus in wanted and unwanted pregnancies

Clinical experience suggests that women seeking abortion inhibit, either partially or completely, the normal process of fantasy about the fetus. To study this phenomenon more systematically, we compared five categories of fantasies in women (N=28)who wanted to carry their pregnancies to term with similar data in women (N=18)who did not want to carry their pregnancies to term and were seeking therapeutic abortion. All women desiring term pregnancies reported fantasies in multiple categories, and none denied having any fantasies concerning their unborn child. Sixteen of eighteen women seeking therapeutic abortion denied fantasy in any of the five categories tested: sex of the child-to-be, personal qualities and achievement, name of child, eye color, and imagining holding and/or nurturing the child. The remaining two women reported only fantasies about the sex of the child. The data obtained in this study tentatively support the hypothesis that women seeking abortion inhibit the process of fantasy formation about the fetus within them.Received M.D. from Yale Medical School in 1956. Presently Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Chicago Hospitals and Clinics, and Director of the Illinois Drug Abuse Program. Research interests lie in drug abuse, psychosomatics, and depression in addition to the psychology of abortion.Received B.A. in Psychology from the University of Michigan in 1970. Has done diagnostic research with mentally retarded children at Wyler Children's Hospital.     

An institutional assessment of the public interest and accountability committee (PIAC) in Ghana’s oil and gas sector

ABSTRACT

Ghana’s Petroleum Revenue Management Act 815 (amended to Act 893 in 2015) established the Public Interest and Accountability Committee (PIAC) in 2011 with the mandate to ensure accountability and transparency in the management and usage of oil and gas revenue. This paper critically examines the activities and operations of the PIAC from 2011 vis-à-vis its legally reposed mandate. It points to severe deficit in accountability but improvements in transparency in the management of oil and gas revenues in spite of the existence and operations of the PIAC. After eight years of operation, the PIAC continues to suffer monumental challenges that undermine its effectiveness in serving as an accountability and transparency initiative in Ghana’s oil and gas sector. The paper makes some recommendation based on the empirical challenges of the PIAC identified to strengthen the PIAC to deliver effectively on its mandate.     

Weekly community interviews with high-risk participants: operational issues

To address several key questions in social science research, repeated interviews of individuals drawn from difficult populations are required. This article describes an approach for addressing the challenges associated with longitudinal interview studies, including locating research participants, obtaining reliable and valid interview data over time, and retaining participants across the course of the study. We applied this approach to conduct a study designed to identify changeable risk factors for violence among high-risk people with mental illness. To successfully conduct weekly interviews of these individuals in the community across a 6-month period, we developed a flexible and personalized interview format; carefully selected, trained, and supervised staff; and developed incentives to maximize participant retention. Each of these three steps is discussed as a guide for future longitudinal studies that involve interviewing difficult populations.     

Gender and Risk Assessment Accuracy: Underestimating Women’s Violence Potential

Understanding factors that contribute to mental health professionals (MHPs) accuracy in assessing patients risk of violence can inform efforts to improve accuracy and to integrate risk assessment technology with practice. Based on a sample of 147 clinicians who assessed 680 patients in a psychiatric emergency room, this study investigates the influence of patient gender, MHP gender, and their potential interaction on MHPS risk assessment accuracy. The results indicate that MHPs of both genders are particularly limited in their ability to assess female patients risk of future violence. This finding was not limited to a particular professional group and was not attributable to gender-related differences in violence. Implications for future research on the judgment processes that may underlie MHPs limited accuracy with women and for training programs in violence risk assessment are discussed.     

American social work, corrections and restorative justice: an appraisal

Social work played an active role in American corrections until the 1980s when the ethic of rehabilitation began to give way to a more conservative doctrine of retribution. Changes in the field of social work, characterized by preference of social workers to work only with certain populations, contributed to social work's diminishment in corrections. Although efforts at rehabilitation continue in corrections, the concept of restorative justice that emphasizes assisting victims, communities, and offenders in dealing with the consequences of crime is gaining acceptance in the field of corrections in the United States and in other countries. This study explored social work's presence in corrections, the decline of that presence, and how the concept of restorative justice can invigorate social work within the field of corrections. Several examples of social work's contemporary efforts to use the concept of restorative justice in the United Kingdom are presented.     

Battered women's perceptions of risk versus risk factors and instruments in predicting repeat reassault

This study partially replicates and expands on a previous study that showed women's perceptions of risk to be a strong predictor of reassault among batterers. The current study employed a larger and multisite sample, a longer follow-up period of 15 months, and multiple outcomes including "repeated reassault" (n = 499). According to the multinomial logistic regressions, women's perceptions of risk improved prediction with risk factors (ROC area under the curve improved by.04 and sensitivity of repeated reassault increased 12 percentage points). In comparison to simulated risk instruments, women's perceptions by themselves were better predictors than the K-SID, similar in predictive ability to the SARA, and almost as strong as the DAS. The best prediction of repeated reassault was obtained using risk markers, including women's perceptions (ROC AUC =.83; 70% sensitivity) or by using the DAS and women's perceptions together (ROC AUC =.73; 64% sensitivity).     

Cognitive and Normative Determinants of State Policymaking Behavior: Lessons from the Sociological Institutionalism

Although comparative state policy frameworks consider the roleof societal norms, few account for cognitive and normative imperativesthat originate outside a state's boundaries and are specificto promoting or impeding the adoption of particular policies.One approach that does so is the new institutionalism in sociology,which emphasizes legitimacy-seeking actors who face pressuresto conform to cultural rules, norms, and expectations, regardlessof outcomes. This article introduces comparative state policyresearchers to the sociological institutionalism, emphasizingbasic concepts and arguments and suggesting how reliance onthis framework can enable researchers to better integrate rational-actorand cultural-based views for understanding why states chooseparticular public policies. Interviews with national and stateexperts in Medicaid nursing-facility reimbursement illustratethe utility of the sociological institutionalism for comparativestate policy research.