<p> The role of grievances in drawing public concern and activist support is a surprisingly understudied topic in modern social movement literature. This research is the first to parse grievances into core components to understand whether some grievances are more successful than others in evoking mobilizing, affective and cognitive reactions that can ultimately benefit social movements. I find that not all grievances are created equal when it comes to concern, support and interest in activism, and that the content of grievances can be studied in systematic ways to identify the types of grievances likely to be more powerful injustice events. </p><p> This dissertation bridges social psychology and social movements by applying concepts from Affect Control Theory (such as evaluation ratings and deflection) to grievance evaluations. To understand the differential effects of grievances, I break grievances into three basic building blocks&mdash;a Perpetrator (Actor), the act itself (Behavior), and the victim (Object). I then use measures of cultural perceptions of the goodness or badness of behaviors and identities to investigate how people react to different configurations of good or bad perpetrators, behavior and victims in injustice events. I posit that two mechanisms&mdash;concern about the wellbeing of others and desire for consistency in meanings about the world&mdash;drive reactions to the goodness or badness of elements in a grievance. I test hypotheses using an experimental design, specifically a vignette study. </p><p> I find strong support, across outcomes, that bad behavior, particularly when directed toward good victims, constitutes a form of grievance that promotes strong mobilizing, affective and cognitive reactions. I also find that the perpetrator matters for many outcomes, but that the effect of perpetrator is weaker than the effect of behavior and its target, tends to be insignificant for measures specific to behavioral activism, and largely disappears in cases of bad behavior toward good victims. In general, bad perpetrators produce higher levels of concern and emotion than do good perpetrators. The results also show that while concerns about the wellbeing of others dominate grievance evaluations, expectations about how the world should be (and deflection from those expectations) are useful for understanding reactions to perpetrators and to injustice events involving good behavior. </p><p> The conclusions from this dissertation contribute to a number of social movement arenas, including participation, movement outcomes, framing and emotions. Further, it has the real world implications of suggesting how well particular social issues might fare in attracting public concern and activist attention. This provides insights into both the types of movements more likely to be successful as well as the types of social problems less likely to draw public attention, increasing the chances that such problems persist.</p>

<p><!-- Fragment document type declaration subset: ArborText, Inc., 1988-1999, v.4002 --> <formattedtext>The Experience of Sacred Breathwork&trade;: Healing Through Non-Ordinary States of Consciousness</formattedtext>

In this dissertation I examine how the family, market and state affect poverty outcomes among mothers and single mothers. In so doing, I enrich the gender and state literature with methodological approaches from the international literature on poverty. I examine the extent to which predictions from these theories are supported by evidence of mothers' and single mothers' poverty and labor market outcomes across nine Western nations. In a more applied vein, many of my questions concern how the U.S. could ameliorate its high poverty rates among mothers and single mothers. My findings challenge several of the gender and the state theories and suggest that more complex questions could lead to better measures of mothers' economic outcomes. I conclude by discussing what kinds of social policies could improve mothers' economic well-being, in the U.S. and across other Western nations.

A descriptive design was used to study the subjective sleep characteristics of permanent night shift workers, examine the validity and reliability of the Visual Analog Sleep (VAS) Scales, and to compare the scores to a previously tested non night shift working sample. The VAS Scales, which employ a visual analog format to measure subjective perceptions of sleeps were reworded slightly to apply to this population, giving rise to the VAS/NS (Night Shift) Scales. A sample of 40 night shift workers completed the VAS/NS Scales on two separate days. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to evaluate this data. The VAS/NS Scales evidence good internal reliability. The factors remained essentially the same with some changes for this sample. The subjective experience of sleep was significantly different from the non night shift working sample for five of the 13 characteristics tested.

The purpose of this study was to identify reporting of child sexual abuse among professionals. Forty out of one hundred questionnaires were completed and returned. The population for this study consisted of men and women in the following professions: Pediatricians, nurses, preschool workers, teachers, religious workers, and counselors in a southwestern community. A questionnaire was used to obtain demographic data and general information. Included in the questionnaire were eight hypothetical case vignettes of child sexual abuse. The professionals were asked to answer ten questions pertaining to the cases. Results showed that although professionals are aware of reporting laws, they still are not reporting all the cases of child sexual abuse when they suspect abuse. In certain cases, professionals are reluctant to report following a retraction by the child, or when the parents deny the allegation. Religious workers have the least knowledge of reporting laws of the professionals sampled. Overall, pediatricians report more often when they suspect child sexual abuse than the other professionals in the sample.

With the rise of the welfare state, democratic, common law governments undertook a new proactive role as social welfare manager; allocating limited health, education, and social services benefits among competing public priorities. In spite of the important impact of this role on the lives of citizens, the various political, managerial, and legal mechanisms designed to hold executive social policy-makers accountable to the legislature have largely broken down. In this dissertation, I argue that our constitutional democracy permits courts to fill this accountability gap by acting as an accountability mechanism of last resort. I propose a new doctrine of administrative review for social policy and programs in which deference is based on evidence of accountability achieved within the policy-making process. Administrative review for accountability would allow courts to evaluate the legitimacy of the process by which social policy is created rather than interfering in the substance of social policy. My dissertation seeks to develop this administrative review doctrine within existing constitutional constraints including the separation of powers.

<p> This policy analysis examined the purpose, goals, implementation, and impacts of mandatory minimum sentences as outlined in the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986. After reviewing government documents and scholarly literature that address the policy, a modified version of David Gil's 1992 framework was used to conduct the analysis. </p><p> Significant findings include the misalignment between the policy's objectives and the factual American condition regarding drugs and drug-related crime. Since implementation, people and communities of color have been disproportionately disadvantaged by this policy. New social problems, such as prison overcrowding, have resulted from lengthy prison sentences. </p><p> From this analysis, social workers can learn the importance of educating the public about drug use and related systemic issues. Social workers can use this information to advocate for relevant and effective policies to respond to problematic drug use in America from a public health, rather than criminal justice, perspective.</p>

<p> The purpose of this grant proposal was to develop and seek funding for implementation of an art therapy program for adults with developmental disabilities in Orange County, California. The clients of Westview Services' adult day programs located in Orange County will have an opportunity to participate in the proposed art therapy program.</p><p> Through a review of the literature on the needs and challenges as well as current services and interventions in place for individuals with developmental disabilities, the grant writer proposed and designed an art therapy program. This grant writer explored potential public and private funding sources, which yielded the Field Initiated Projects through the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research as the funding source with the most potential fitting the goals and objectives of this project.</p><p> The actual submission and/or funding of this grant were not required for the successful completion of this academic project.</p>

<p> The amending of the Volstead Act and repeal of national prohibition did not answer the "liquor question" but passed the issue to the states. This thesis examines New York's reaction to the change in national alcohol policy and the states decision to legalize and regulate the beverage with the establishment of the New York State Liquor Authority. It traces the activities of Jean Sheppard who led the state division of the Women's Organization for National Prohibition Reform (WONPR) and became one of the key architects of New York's modern alcohol control system. As an expert in alcohol control policies Sheppard developed a plan she believed would be respected by the public while also mitigating the problems associated with alcohol. Sheppard proposed an elaborate system of control which made temperance the objective. Through her position as Chairman of the New York State WONPR Sheppard gained the attention of Governor Herbert H. Lehman who nominated her to the New York State (Conway) Commission on Alcoholic Beverage Control Legislation. As a member of the Commission and then the New York State Alcohol Beverage Control Board, Sheppard was given the opportunity to propose her theories on control. The final legislation creating the New York State Liquor Authority embodied Sheppard's plan in regards to administrative structure but fell well short of her dream of a system that used the full power of the state to put temperance ahead of revenue.</p>

The main task of this analysis was to examine social welfare needs satisfaction of elderly in Petrašiūnai community. To assess elderly community’s in Petrašiūnai social needs and possibility to satisfy their needs, also to analyse the influence of those needs satisfaction into elderly life subjective estimation. In the survey was employed quantitative analysis method, semi-structural interview mode, information analysis was done by SPSS 10.0 software. While the survey were interviewed 75 elderly of Petrašiūnai community, 50 whereof women and 25 men. 25 elderly women of all those people are actively participating in Petrašiūnai community’s center schemes, others 25 elderly women and 25 elderly men are not participating in schemes. The average age of all interviewed – 66.17. Results showed, that elderly women ,who were actively participating in Petrašiūnai community center’s schemes, statisticaly better satisfy their social needs if to compare with other two people groups, those who are not participating in this activity. The survey showed, that people who satisfy their participation, association/intercourse, information receiving/self-education needs, they statistically better assess their life if to compare with those, who satisfy above mentioned needs only partly. The hypothesis, that for Petrašiūnai elderly community participating in Petrašiūnai center’s activity has determinative interest for their life self assessment, was... [to full text]