Functioning Well in a Dysfunctional System: Recommendations for Clinical Psychologists in Workers’ Compensation Settings

Clinical psychologists working in workers’ compensation (WC) settings face unique and complex professional and ethical challenges. The present paper provides recommendations to clinical psychologists for avoiding the largely unintentional harm to clients and unethical practices that can occur within the realm of WC. Although the psychologists working in WC settings more often than not act in ethical ways grounded in years of academic and professional training, the unique tasks required of psychologists in WC settings (e.g., rating injuries; determinations of causality) and the pressures inherent in the system can potentially lead even the most well-intentioned mental health professionals into unsavory ethical and professional scenarios. The authors examine the (un)witting contributions of psychologists to the current dysfunction in the WC system and provide recommendations for traversing the oft-serpentine terrain of mental health evaluations and treatment in WC settings. Specifically, the authors discuss, among the many possible potential pitfalls, (1) bringing personal bias into the evaluative setting, (2) engaging in unsavory advertising practices, (3) cherry-picking and other missteps in record review, (4) engaging in cursory consenting, (5) failure to engage in evidence-based assessment and report writing, and (6) role challenges.     

Spillover Effects: Immigrant Policing and Government Skepticism in Matters of Health for Latinos

To what extent do people become less trusting of the government under threatening policy contexts? The authors find evidence that Secure Communities, a bureaucratic program that enhances immigrant policing through collaboration between local law and immigration enforcement agencies, spurs mistrust among Latinos but not non‐Latinos. This article focuses on the politics of immigration and health, two issue areas marked by large‐scale bureaucratic developments over the last 50 years. The authors argue that a major consequence of expanding immigrant policing is its trickle‐down effect on how individuals view public institutions charged with the provision of public goods, such as health information. The results indicate that Latinos in locales where immigrant policing is most intense express lower levels of trust in government as a source of health information. Through a policy feedback lens, the findings suggest that the state's deployment of immigrant policing conveys more widespread lessons about the trustworthiness of government .     

A model of cross-cultural training in the transfer of technology

During the past few decades, many aspects of the transfer of technology from developed to less-developed countries have been examined in detail. Although much of the transfer has been done by transnational corporations (TNCs), one area that has received scant attention in the literature is the cross-cultural training of workers in the host country. A model is developed to show how critical training the worker is to the success of the TNC in the host country. This model emphasizes the need for workers to be trained to understand and use the new (foreign) technology and to understand the culture of the foreign corporation. Thomas S. Barker is a Ph.D. student in higher education with a concentration in management and economics at the University of North Texas.     

Reviews

Beyond Apartheid: Human Resources for a New South Africa. James Currey Ltd., Islington, London, David Philip Publisher (Pty) Ltd., Claremont (South Africa), and Heinemann Educational Books Inc., Portsmouth (USA), 1991. x plus 132pp. including tables, notes and appendices. £7,95. Paperback.

Occasional Papers on the Irish in South Africa by Donald H. Akenson. Institute of Social and Economic Research, Rhodes University, Grahamstown 1991.96pp.

The Organisation of African Unity: An Analysis of its Role by Gino J. Naldi. Mansell: London and New York, 1989. ix plus 228pp. including appendices. £40,00.

Place, Migration and Development in the Third World. An Alternative View by Lawrence A. Brown. Routledge, London and New York, 1991. xx plus 252pp. including figures, tables, appendices, notes, references and index. Hardback.

Urban and Regional Change in Southern Africa edited by David Drakakis‐Smith. Routledge (London), 1992. xviii plus 227 pp. including figures, tables, notes, bibliography and index.

The Making of the Colonial Order: White Supremacy and Black Resistance in the Eastern Cape, 1770–1865 by Clifton C. Crais. Witwatersrand University Press, Johannesburg, 1992. 284pp. R60,00. Paperback.

Bounds of Possibility by B. Pityana, M. Ramphele, M. Mpumlwana and L Wilson. David Philip, Cape Town, 1991. R35,50. Paperback.

All, Here, and Now: Black Politics in the 1980s by Tom Lodge, Bill Nasson, Steven Mufson, Khehla Shubane and Nokwanda Sithole. David Philip, Cape Town, 1991. x plus 414 pp. including figures, appendices, bibliography and index. R44,95. Paperback.

Spirit of Africa: The Healing Ministry of Archbishop Milingo of Zambia by Gerrie ter Haar. Hurst & Company, London, 1992. x plus 286 pp. including map illustrations, notes, bibliography and index. £9,95. Paperback.

Striking Back: A History of COSATU by Jeremy Baskin. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1991. xv plus 488pp. R32.95.

Economic Development That Lasts: Labour‐intensive Irrigation Projects in Nepal and the United Republic of Tanzania by Bertin Martens. International Labour Office, Geneva, 1989. xvii plus 191pp. including maps, figures, tables, appendices and bibliography. Swiss francs 27,50. Paperback.

South African Review 6: From “Red Friday” to CODESA edited by Glenn Moss and Ingrid Obery. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1992. xxi plus 508pp. including figures, tables and notes. Paperback.

Black Youth in Crisis: Facing the Future edited for CASE by David Everatt and Elinor Sisulu. Ravan Press, Johannesburg, 1992. xii plus 89pp. including figures, tables and notes.     

Lone motherhood past and present: The life stories of Finnish lone mothers

The aim of this study is to examine how Finnish lone mothers of two age cohorts construct their lone motherhood and also to show how the meanings ascribed to social phenomena are socially and historically embedded. Finland presents an interesting case for studying the links between the social and the individual because the country has experienced rapid social shifts since World War II. It is shown how specific social contexts to some degree set the parameters for how social phenomena are understood and interpreted, as shown by the differences in how two cohorts of life-story writers construct lone motherhood.