This book discusses the role of American police chiefs in contemporary urban settings, using institutional theory as a framework for analysis. From this perspective, the authors review long-term tendencies toward the rationalist modernization of American police agencies. Ongoing `professionalization', unionization and bureaucratization of police work are major themes in the transformations occurring in the modern role of a police chief. The internal and external conflicts and power struggles of police organization are highlighted and the authors argue that the fundamental definition of police work is the root of this conflict. It is necessary for policing paradigms to move away from rule-based, law-enforcement models towards service alternatives that emphasize the situational imperatives and discretionary essence of police work.
The findings of a large qualitative research project which studied the experiences of the chronically ill within the health care system are presented here. Thorne demonstrates the vast difference between chronic and acute illness in terms of their social and health care consequences. The book is divided into three sections: the first examines how patients handle the onset of diseases and acute episodes; the second explores the relationship with health care providers; and the final part focuses on the 'system' with its sociocultural and organizational agenda. The concluding chapter proposes future directions for health care organization, biomedical technology and social policy.
Why do we have evaluation? Is evaluation a discipline? How much impact does evaluation have on government, education or politics? Can social problems, such as poverty, be solved by the application of resources and intelligence? By exploring how evaluation has evolved as a discipline, science and profession, Ernest R House assesses the impact of evaluation on modern societies and the issues that this impact raises for evaluators. Issues addressed include: pluralism versus managerialism; quantitative versus qualitative methodologies; the purpose of education for knowledge production versus education for professions; and clientism and multicultural concerns.
Self-disclosure is a major factor in the development, maintenance and deterioration of a relationship. This volume explores how individuals negotiate with their relationship partners: what, where, when and how they communicate personal feelings and thoughts. Among the issues examined are: how close relationships and self-disclosure are mutually transformative; how subcultural differences between men and women influence self-disclosure in relationships; how the vulnerability and risk associated with disclosing personal information leads partners to be concerned about privacy regulation; and how stress-reducing disclosure, associated with the willingness to talk about stressful events, provides both a means of coping with unpleasant life events and access to social support.
This book explores a central issue in the study of close relationships: the reevaluation of traditional gender roles to take into account what is both functional and optimal for people in dual-career relationships. The author discusses how many women and men are attempting to negotiate new realities at home and work, with each other and with the larger social structure. The expectations and realities of dual-career family life are examined, benefits of increased gender equity for both same-sex and heterosexual couples explored, and continuing obstacles and sources of stress identified.
This portrait of sexuality in close relationships presents an extensive examination of current theory and research. Contributors pay particular attention to sexual attitudes, behaviour, satisfaction and coercion, and discuss sexual patterns in several types of sexual relationship: dating, cohabiting, marital and homosexual. They show how sexual aspects of these relationships are related to other characteristics such as love and communication. Drawing material from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, sociology, communication and family studies, the volume also explores sexual standards, predictors of sexual attraction, sexual scripts, the initiation of sex and negotiating safe-sex behaviours.
Through the use of careful explanation and examples, Berry demonstrates how to consider whether the assumptions of multiple regression are actually satisfied in a particular research project. Beginning with a brief review of the regression assumptions as they are typically presented in text books, he moves on to explore in detail the substantive meaning of each assumption, for example, lack of measurement error, absence of specification error, linearity, homoscedasticity and lack of autocorrelation.
The contributors identify the increasing differences in income and social status between rich and poor, Anglos and Latinos, men and women, immigrant and native born, and suggest policy options that will reverse the growth of social inequality. National data as well as a series of case studies from important Latino cities such as New York, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Chicago and Miami are presented.
