Don't sell social science short.
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Ecology↗
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Social science stereotypes of the Mexican American woman: policy implications for research.
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Americas↗
Epidemiology in the social sciences.
The techniques and principles of epidemiology, so successfully utilized in the study and control of communicable diseases, should be applied to other mass phenomena in the community. The local health officer should apply them in his "diagnosis" of the sicknesses of his organized community. Epidemiological methods have been used to study mental diseases as well as chronic diseases, and an experiment in using epidemiological methods on the county level to study psychosocial disorders has been carried out. The impact of psychosocial episodes on somatic diseases is now generally accepted and well documented. Individual practitioners of medicine are becoming more interested in the significance of social tensions on the health of their patients. Public health physicians, specialists in preventive medicine, are the best equipped by training and experience to take the leadership in the application of epidemiological methods to sociomedical problems and are in a unique position to assist their colleagues in the private practice of medicine in providing modern helpful and meaningful health protection to their patients.Organized medicine might well become more cognizant of the sociological changes taking place in the nation as they relate to health and assume the responsibility for aggressive leadership in the anticipation of and the solution of these problems.
Epidemiologic Methods↗
[Evaluating quality and effectiveness in the promotion of health: approaches and methods of public health and social sciences].
Health promotion and health education have often been limited to evaluation of the effectiveness of actions and programmes. However, since 1996 with the Third European Conference on Health Promotion and Education Effectiveness, many researchers have become interested in "quality assessment" and new ways of thinking have emerged. Quality assurance is a concept and activity developed in industry with the objective of increasing production efficiency. There are two distinct approaches: External Standard Inspection (ESI) and Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI). ESI involves establishing criteria of quality, evaluating them and improving whatever needs improvement. CQI views the activity or service as a process and includes the quality assessment as part of the process. This article attempts to answer the questions of whether these methods are sufficient and suitable for operationalising the concepts of evaluation, effectiveness and quality in health promotion and education, whether it is necessary to complement them with other methods, and whether the ESI approach is appropriate. The first section of the article explains that health promotion is based on various paradigms from epidemiology to psychology and anthropology. Many authors warn against the exclusive use of public health disciplines for understanding, implementing and evaluating health promotion. The author argues that in practice, health promotion: -integrates preventive actions with those aiming to maintain and improve health, a characteristic which widens the actions of health promotion from those of classic public health which include essentially an epidemiological or "risk" focus; -aims to replace vertical approaches to prevention with a global approach based on educational sciences; -involves a community approach which includes the individual in a "central position of power" as much in the definition of needs as in the evaluation of services; -includes the participation and socio-political actions which necessitate the use of varied and specific instruments for action and evaluation. With the choice of health promotion ideology, there exist corresponding theories, concepts of quality, and therefore methods and techniques that differ from those used until now. The educational sciences have led to a widening of the definition of process to include both "throughput and input", which has meant that the methods of needs analysis, objective and priority setting and project development in health promotion have become objects of quality assessment. Also, the modes of action and interaction among actors are included, which has led to evaluation of ethical and ideological aspects of projects. The second section of the article discusses quality assessment versus evaluation of effectiveness. Different paradigms of evaluation such as the public health approach based on the measurement of (epidemiological) effectiveness, social marketing and communication, and the anthropological approach are briefly discussed, pointing out that there are many approaches which can both complement and contradict one another. The author explains the difference between impact (the intermediate effects, direct or indirect, planned or not planned, changes in practical or theoretical knowledge, perceptions, and attitudes) and results (final effects of mid to long term changes such as changes in morbidity, mortality, or access to services or cost of health care). He argues that by being too concerned with results of programmes, we have often ignored the issue of impact. Also, by limiting ourselves to evaluating effectiveness (i.e. that the expected effects were obtained), we ignore other possible unexpected, unplanned and positive and negative secondary effects. There are therefore many reasons to: -evaluate all possible effects rather than only those lined to objectives; -evaluate the entire process rather than only the resources, procedures and costs; -evaluate the impact rather than results; -evalu
Anthropology↗
The impact of social science research on health policy.
The relationship between research and health policy is discussed from a policy process perspective, describing communication problems in the course of policy formulation, implementation and evaluation. Policy process is often expected by researchers to be rational, having logical sequence of steps and the objective evaluation of alternatives based on scientific knowledge. In fact, policies are often formulated without clear problem identification or based on wrong assumption. The timing of research and policy-making differs. Policy-makers need to respond quickly. Evaluations may be regarded by politicians as embarrassing if they point to a need for significant change. It is not satisfactory to consider only research and policy-making: their relationship is influenced by the media, different interest groups and by the general public. Health policy formulation is embedded in the general policy environment of particular societies. Some countries have a long tradition of consensus-building, while in others health reforms have been formulated and introduced in a centralized way. Traditional bio-medical thinking influences health policy-makers. The importance of social and political acceptability tends to be overlooked. The paper emphasizes that we are experiencing an era of scarcity of resources and growing tension concerning allocation decisions. Existing institutions provide insufficient incentives for policy-makers and researchers to promote public dialogue about such issues. The paper concludes that there is a need for new approaches to policy development and implementation, new structures in policy-making, changes in research financing and co-operation between disciplines and new structures for public participation in policy-making. Research should facilitate more open and democratic dialogue about policy options and the consequences of alternative choices.
Communication↗
Use of social science research to improve epidemiologic studies of and interventions for diarrhea and dysentery.
The significance of dysentery has not been recognized in community-based programs for the management of diarrhea. Culturally sensitive methods of classification and algorithms for treatment of these diseases must be developed. Considered in this article is the manner in which ethnographic studies of diarrhea can contribute to descriptive epidemiologic data on diarrhea and dysentery and to procedures of health education and evaluation of interventions for the diseases. Indigenous terms for bloody diarrhea exist in many cultures. Local use of such terms must be carefully examined before they are incorporated in health education efforts and epidemiologic surveillance programs.
Culture↗
Location--allocation models, social science and health service planning: an example from North East England.
This paper reports on a project carried out by the author to assess strategies for hospital location in the Durham Health District, England. This project was set up in the context of a dispute on hospital strategy between the relevant Regional and Area Health Authorities and so the development of the dispute is outlined. This is followed by a summary of the work carried out in which some reservations about the techniques employed are put forward. The subsequent debates between the Regional and Area Health Authorities are also discussed. The paper concludes by raising more general issues concerning the role of the state and the use of knowledge in planning.
Catchment Area, Health↗
[Risk of violence in old age: arguments for a social science perspective].
In the paper presented gerontological and criminological aspects are combined and the necessity of a geronto victimology is claimed. It is argued that threat by violence and criminality is a specific challenge for older adults. Older people are threatened by violence in a different way compared with younger ones, they suffer more from the violence experienced, and they cope differently with this kind of stress. With respect to the so-called "victimization-fear-paradox" the need for an interdisciplinary approach is demonstrated. The discussion of different forms of violence against the elderly in the context of care leads to a plea for an extended conceptualization of violence. In closing, possibilities of intervention and perspectives for further research are discussed.
Adult↗
Periodontal epidemiology: towards social science or molecular biology?
Terms such as 'molecular epidemiology' and 'genetic epidemiology' have been coined to depict the change from 'traditional epidemiology', concerned with disease determinants at the community or society level, over to 'modern epidemiology', which is concerned with determinants operating at the individual level or even below, i.e. at the organ, tissue, cell, or molecular level. In this commentary, we point out to the limitations of this development and suggest that more emphasis is placed on making the presumed causal disease models explicit, when investigating the relationship between putative determinants and disease. Understanding the disease processes at the micro-level is insufficient for understanding disease at the individual level; and disease patterns at the population level cannot be understood unless it is realized that individuals exist in a variety of contexts that cannot be reduced to individual attributes.
Causality↗
When worlds collide. Social science, politics, and the Rind et al. (1998). Child sexual abuse meta-analysis.
A 1998 meta-analysis by B. Rind, P. Tromovitch, and R. Bauserman in Psychological Bulletin indicated that the relations between child sexual abuse and later psychopathology were weak in magnitude. Shortly thereafter, this article was condemned by media personality Dr. Laura Schlessinger and numerous conservative organizations and was denounced by the United States Congress. In addition, the American Psychological Association (APA) distanced itself from the authors' conclusions. This incident raises questions regarding (a) authors' responsibilities concerning the reporting of politically controversial findings, (b) academic and scientific freedom, (c) the role of the APA in disabusing the public and media of logical errors and fallacies, and (d) the substantial gap between popular and academic psychology and the responsibility of the APA to narrow that gap.
Child↗
Psychoanalysis as functionalist social science: the legacy of Freud's 'Project for a scientific psychology'.
The paper links Freud's early work in the 'Project for a scientific psychology' with the psychoanalytic psychology of Kleinian object relations theory now current. Freud is often accused of introducing mechanism into his psychology and installing at its core an irreconcilable dichotomy of two disparate ways of explaining human behaviour. I suggest that Freud's early mechanistic thinking is an attempt at what he only partly achieves, a functional account of the 'mental apparatus'. I consider whether this way of conceptualising the mind in functional terms is methodologically relevant to psychoanalytic investigation or whether it is at best heuristically useful. From a brief consideration of Kleinian object relations theory, illustrated by case material, I conclude that there are grounds for accepting the first of these alternatives.
Adult↗
The concept of health--some comments from a social science perspective.
This paper is based on a chapter in recently published book called "Health care in growth" (Sjukvård i tillväxt), Liber Läromedel, Lund 1978. The aim of the paper is to point at urgent areas for research in the coming interdisciplinary so called Theme-research at the University of Linköping. This work was originally done for the steering-group of the theme Public Health and Health Care in the Society. There is a discussion on the concepts of health and disease from a sociological perspective. Some remarks are made on changes in evaluation of the mentioned concepts. Functions and dysfunctions of the definitions of health and disease are penetrated. Some questions of interest in this part: should the concept of disease be limited or expanded? What are the uses of definitions of health and ill-health? Also health indicators and health indices are discussed. There is also given some examples of more or less neglected fields of research.
Disease↗
Feminist approaches to social science: epistemological and methodological tenets.
This paper is a primer for community psychologists on feminist research. Much like the field of community psychology, feminist scholarship is defined by its values and process. Informed by the political ideologies of the 1970s women's movement (liberal, radical, socialist feminism, and womanism), feminist scholars reinterpreted classic concepts in philosophy of science to create feminist epistemologies and methodologies. Feminist epistemologies, such as feminist empiricism, standpoint theory, and postmodernism, recognize women's lived experiences as legitimate sources of knowledge. Feminist methodologies attempt to eradicate sexist bias in research and find ways to capture women's voices that are consistent with feminist ideals. Practically, the process of feminist research is characterized by four primary features: (1) expanding methodologies to include both quantitative and qualitative methods, (2) connecting women for group-level data collection, (3) reducing the hierarchical relationship between researchers and their participants to facilitate trust and disclosure, and (4) recognizing and reflecting upon the emotionality of women's lives. Recommendations for how community psychologists can integrate feminist scholarship into their practice are discussed.
Community Mental Health Services↗
School desegregation and social science research.
Research on the effects of school desegregation, once quite common in psychology and related fields, has declined considerably since the mid-1980s. Factors contributing to changes in the quantity and focus of such research since the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision are discussed, with an emphasis on those related to the decline of this research in the last 2 decades. These factors include the nation's retreat from the policy of school desegregation and the associated decline in research funding. Changing perspectives regarding desegregation, the outcomes of desegregation that merit study, and the desirable composition of research teams studying desegregation have also played a role. Demographic changes in our society and its schools that have made salient other research topics and the development of effective research paradigms for studying intergroup relations in the laboratory have also contributed to this decline. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)
Black People↗
Specious causal attributions in the social sciences: the reformulated stepping-stone theory of heroin use as exemplar.
The claims based on causal models employing either statistical or experimental controls are examined and found to be excessive when applied to social or behavioral science data. An exemplary case, in which strong causal claims are made on the basis of a weak version of the regularity model of cause, is critiqued. O'Donnell and Clayton claim that in order to establish that marijuana use is a cause of heroin use (their "reformulated stepping-stone" hypothesis), it is necessary and sufficient to demonstrate that marijuana use precedes heroin use and that the statistically significant association between the two does not vanish when the effects of other variables deemed to be prior to both of them are removed. I argue that O'Donnell and Clayton's version of the regularity model is not sufficient to establish cause and that the planning of social interventions both presumes and requires a generative rather than a regularity causal model. Causal modeling using statistical controls is of value when it compels the investigator to make explicit and to justify a causal explanation but not when it is offered as a substitute for a generative analysis of causal connection.
Heroin Dependence↗
Fluoridation: an alternative perspective from the social sciences.
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Ethics↗
Research in the behavioural and social sciences to improve cancer control and care: a strategy for development. A report of an expert group.
The need for a better co-ordinated interdisciplinary approach to cancer is widely recognised. An analysis of strengths and weaknesses has emphasised the importance of a better understanding of the behavioural and social factors which determine the success of preventative and screening programmes and those which will enhance the quality of care and support available to patients and their families. The European Commission provided funds to establish a consultation to formulate a strategy for the development of research in the behavioural, social and related sciences relevant to cancer. The key objectives were to inform research organisations of the steps necessary to enhance research capacity in these areas and identify the most productive directions for research in the forseeable future. The expert group identified 11 areas in which research might be expected to improve cancer control and treatment.
Behavior Therapy↗
The place of elderly people in a changing social and economic environment: perspectives from social science.
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Aged↗