This exploratory study presents new information as to how macro policy/procedural processes within the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program influence the micro interactive patterns of AFDC financial workers ("helpers") and dispossessed Black urban AFDC recipients. Ethnographic interviews were completed with 24 dispossessed African American women on AFDC, and seven of their AFDC financial worker "helpers" in an AFDC office located in downtown Minneapolis. In addition, participant-observation methods were utilized to observe interactions between 25 dispossessed recipients and ten financial workers. / Communication theory and a rule-governed application of systems theory were used to foundationally discover the perspectives and patterns of communication between AFDC recipients and their AFDC helpers. A rule-governed perspective is typically utilized to apply an organismic view of the interactive patterns between actors within a system, and focus on how the options of the actors are often constrained by their patterned communications. / The study focused on the patterned process, or explicit and implicit relationship rules, that governed the interactions between dispossessed AFDC recipients and their financial workers. Interactional rules were scrutinized for ways in which they increased or constrained the options of recipients and helpers. Larger constraints within the AFDC system that impinged on these interactional rules were also considered. / The study revealed two explicit/implicit rule pairings: (1) binds and (2) a complementary dominant-submissive role pattern. Binds were identified as two or more simultaneous, incompatible demands being made on helpers or recipients. Dominant-submissive role patterns were identified as reciprocal patterns of "dominant" behaviors in helpers that induced, or were complemented by, "submissive" behaviors in recipients. / In addition, a serendipitous finding was discovered. Twelve of the 24 recipients examined reported feeling "trapped" by the AFDC process, while 12 recipients reported "not feeling trapped." This initial study paves the way for future research to test the possibility of an association between the emerging, antecedent explicit/implicit rules pairings and the consequent emotional state of recipients who reported feeling either "trapped" or "not trapped." / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 54-10, Section: A, page: 3875. / Major Professor: Shimon Gottschalk. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1993.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_77016 |
| Contributors | Gerdes, Karen Elisabeth., Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text |
| Format | 220 p. |
| Rights | On campus use only. |
| Relation | Dissertation Abstracts International |
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