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PubMed2002

Apology in the criminal justice setting: evidence for including apology as an additional component in the legal system.

The criminal justice system has reached unprecedented scope in the United States, with over 6.4 million people under some type of supervision. Remedies that have the potential to reduce this number are continually being sought. This article analyzes an innovative strategy currently being reconsidered in criminal justice: the apology. Despite a legal system that only sporadically acknowledges it, evidence for the use of apology is supported by social science research, current criminal justice theories, case law, and empirical studies. Social psychological, sociological and socio-legal studies pinpoint the elements and function of apology, what makes apologies effective, and concerns about apology if it were implemented in the criminal justice system. Theoretical evidence is examined (including restorative justice, therapeutic jurisprudence, crime, shame, and reintegration) to explore the process of apology in the criminal justice context. Attribution theory and social conduct theory are used to explain the apology process specifically for victims and offenders. A brief examination of case law reveals that though apology has no formal place in criminal law, it has surfaced recently under the federal sentencing guidelines. Finally, empirical evidence in criminal justice settings reveals that offenders want to apologize and victims desire an apology. Moreover, by directly addressing the harmful act, apology may be the link to reduced recidivism for offenders, as well as empowerment for victims. This evidence combined suggests that apology is worthy of further study as a potentially valuable addition to the criminal justice process.

Crime↗
PubMed1987

The Australian Family Project.

"The Australian Family Project was established by the Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University in 1985 to investigate the social, demographic and economic forces that have been changing the shape and nature of the Australian family over the last generation. To create its data base, the project conducted a national sample survey in 1986 in which detailed personal histories were obtained from men and women. This paper documents the background and planning for the survey, its content and the organization, execution and outcome of the fieldwork."

Australia↗
PubMed1982

Current status of milieu psychiatry.

Appreciation of the role of milieu in psychiatry has waxed and waned in response to various scientific, ideologic, and social pressures. In this review, historical trends in the use of environment in treatment of mental illness are integrated with social science and empirical research studies of milieu. While the insights of social scientists of the prepsychotropic drug era helped sensitize psychiatry to deleterious effects of hospitalization, the 1960s saw development of a schism between an antipsychiatry movement and a defensive medical reaction, now critical of the excesses and claims of proponents of milieu treatment methods. Recent research studies, however, have begun to document significant effects of milieu upon treatment outcomes, suggesting an opportunity for renewed collaboration between social scientists and hospital psychiatrists. The importance of directing future research efforts toward more specific parameters of milieu in interaction with different diagnoses or patient populations is discussed.

Hospital Units↗
PubMed1993

Social research in health and the American sociopolitical context: the changing fortunes of medical sociology.

The fortunes of medical sociology, like other public policy-relevant disciplines, are shaped by political dynamics and prevailing values and attitudes. In the 1980s the field, which views disease and disability as consequences to a substantial degree of material conditions, social stratification, and inequalities among varying strata, lost ground to economics as societal attention focused on cost containment issues. Sociological concern with social structures clashed with dominant conservative and individualistic perspectives and the increased focus on personal responsibility and market strategies. There was decreasing tolerance in policy circles for the view that health, and the problems affecting disenfranchised groups such as the poor, the homeless, the uninsured and people with disabilities, were more due to our politics and social arrangements than the personal characteristics of those affected. Thus, little attention has been given in public health discourse to how life imperatives and social opportunities and constraints shape behavior. The paper documents the important role of the social sciences in health services research with special attention to examining the social context of the RAND Health Insurance Experiment. Although many of the questions medical sociology address sit on the periphery of policy-makers' concerns, a strong case is made for the revitalization of a critical scholarly role in medical sociology. I conclude, given the short and longterm problems we face in medicine and health, that we would have to invent a vigorous critical medical sociological enterprise if we did not already have one.

Forecasting↗
PubMed2003

[Objective evaluation of clinical pharmacy lectures and experience in a master program using visual analog scale method].

We conducted an investigation to determine whether the visual analogue scale (VAS) method could be utilized in evaluating the lectures and pharmacy experience of the Division of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kanazawa University. Graduate students who had finished the 1-year pharmacy experience at the Kanazawa University Hospital were asked to make a self-evaluation of the understanding/attainment of lectures and experience in the course. Since the experience was carried out as a one-student-to-one-pharmacist system, the preceptors (pharmacists) were also asked to evaluate their corresponding students. When evaluating the necessity of the lectures, students tended to feel that the medical science- or pharmacotherapy-related subjects were important and those of social sciences were less important. These results suggest the need to review the contents of the lectures to enhance the interests of the students in the latter. By comparing the extent of understanding of each lecture before and after pharmacy experience, it was found that students had a better understanding of the lectures through their experience. In most results from the answers in pharmacy experience, students also scored themselves higher than their preceptors. Therefore comparisons of evaluation may provide more objective results in pharmacy experience. It was demonstrated that utilization of the VAS method and comparing the data are very useful in evaluating not only students' understanding/attainment but also the importance and usefulness of lectures and pharmacy experience in an objective way.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

What will the new genetic information do for us?

The usefulness of new genetic information is frequently assumed, but depends crucially on asking the right research questions. Successful applications of the new knowledge will require effective integration with the ideas, concerns and expectations not only of patients and their families, but also health professionals in primary care. The answers to some of the most exciting questions, concerning new taxonomies of health and disease, are to be found not in teaching hospitals or academic centres, but in the population at large. New types of partnership are required between colleagues in biomedicine, epidemiology, social science and primary care. The greatest challenge, however, is to our social imagination. Can we develop the sustained relationships with families and communities, based on goodwill, mutuality and trust, on which the whole enterprise depends?

Genetic Research↗
PubMed1997

[Analysis of the work process in health research laboratories: a proposal for investigation]

This article presents a proposal for analyzing the work process involved in building technoscientific knowledge in the health field, focusing on the work developed by research laboratory technicians in the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation. Beginning with an in-depth description of the technicians' laboratory activities, we discuss the relationship between the various stages of work and the different actors, the technicians' value as actors in the process of building knowledge, and various actors' perceptions of how essential this work is. We attempt to outline the context in which the work processes in health sciences laboratories were incorporated into an analysis of the work process in health. By establishing a dialogue with the sociology of science, we present our proposal as an attempt to introduce new social sciences approaches for analyzing the work process, specifically as applicable to an analysis of work in the health field.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1992

Social psychiatry and sociology of mental health: a view on their past and future relevance.

The origins of social psychiatry can be traced to the age of enlightenment and to the effects of the industrial revolution. Social psychiatry deals with social factors associated with psychiatric morbidity, social effects of mental illness, psycho-social disorders and social approaches to psychiatric care. Since the end of World War II up to the early seventies it has been claimed that social psychiatry should concentrate on the fight against war, poverty, racial discrimination, urban decay and all other social ills affecting people's mental health, and that the psychiatrist should be responsible for the mental health of the society. In contrast, sociology of mental health questioned the expertise of the psychiatrist and the very existence of mental illness, claiming that it covers deviant behaviour rejected by the society. The paper refutes this approach indicating that not the existence but the perception and presentation of psychiatric illness are socially determined. Acknowledging the contribution of sociology and social sciences to psychiatry, it is suggested that the heroic period of social psychiatry and the iconoclastic approach of sociology of mental health are over. However, social psychiatry, enriched by the use of epidemiological methods, has still much to offer to the daily practice of psychiatry.

Community Mental Health Services↗
PubMedDate not supplied

[Hygeia and Panacea in health and society. Health systems: a product of social evolution].

Biomedical and social sciences are getting closer, thus reducing the existing chasm between the social determinants of health and health policy. The determinants such as income, education, health production at home, environment, employment, dietary habits, social support networks, gender, and migration, among others, have a strong and definitive influence on the health state of the population. This paper gains an insight into the influence on the population's health covered by the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS) of some of these determinants, such as demographic changes (birth rate decrease, ageing, and increase of temporary migration), economic changes (progressive incorporation of women to the labour market), and lifestyle aspects. These determinants pose economic and ethical dilemmas, among others, that IMSS must solve through its policymaking process. The concept of effective health policy is proposed. This concept includes a comprehensive health policy capable of considering social determinants and epidemiological changes within its inception, and at the same time, it is able to respond to the population's health needs. It is deduced that it is necessary for the health system to implement and evaluate plans and interventions that are structured and consistent with the population's health needs, thus contributing to reduce social inequities.

Delivery of Health Care↗
PubMedDate not supplied

The impact of demographic, economic and social trends on oral health care.

Concurrent with the new technologies in oral disease prevention, diagnosis, and treatment are the changing global perspectives on health which impact significantly on who will actually receive the new technologies and services. Issues of access to care, the rapidly changing social, political, and economic environments and the growing recognition of the disparities and barriers to oral health are stimulating new strategies for positive change and enhancement. Governments, in partnership with professional associations, private sector concerns and consumer interests in Canada and the United States, have recently reviewed current oral health status and identified needs and inequities. A few bold new multisectoral initiatives have evolved but not enough to address all the trends. The challenges not adequately addressed by current policies and practices have been identified. Goals for oral health have been established both nationally and internationally to address the trends and the challenges. Critical areas for taking action have been also been identified and include research in epidemiology, behavioural and social sciences, health services, and evaluation. This type of research considers the social and environmental context of where and how oral services are provided. Ultimately this is the kind of research that can radically change the role of the dental hygienist in the delivery of oral health care.

Dental Care↗
PubMed1975

[Health and sickness as sociological concepts].

Health and illness, as widely used terms in scientific literature, leave a wide scope as to their definition and conceptual interpretation. The medicotechnical perspective refers to health and illness as objective changes in the structure and/or functioning of the human body and mind, as a result of which the bodily and mental integrity of the human organism is affected detrimentally. On the contrary, the social sciences, and especially medical sociology, define health and illness essentially in terms of the social system within which they occur. The main task of medical sociology is to pay attention to those social systemic and sociocultural aspects of health and illness which are sometimes grossly neglected or insufficiently understood by the medical sciences, thereby to contribute to a comprehensive approach to these phenomena.

Attitude to Health↗
PubMed2005

A generative response to palliative service capacity in Canada.

PURPOSE: This paper situates a large-scale learning and service development capacity-building initiative for hospice palliative care services within the current Canadian policy context for use by international readers. DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: In 2000 a national initiative using action research as its design was crafted to support continuing professional development and knowledge management in primary-health care environments. FINDINGS: The Canadian health policy context is complex and requires innovative solutions to achieve desired changes in response to emerging population health demands for quality end-of-life care. Employment of educational and social science constructs, including complexity theory, communities of practice, transformative learning theory, and workplace learning methods, has proven helpful in supporting the creation of national capacity for hospice palliative care. RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS: There is a significant contribution for social scientists to make in aiding a better understanding of the complexity in health systems. At the same time, an aging population in industrial countries demands more active engagement of legal and bioethical scholars in a range of emerging policy and legislative questions about quality end-of-life care. Educational research is also required to understand better and reform curricula to prepare an emerging generation of health science practitioners for the demands of an aging population. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Changing health service delivery environments demand rethinking of the knowledge and skills leaders require to influence desired change. A broader understanding of where and how learning takes place is essential for enhancing the quality of patient care. ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The Pallium Project represents a generative response to facilitating learning and building longer-term system capacity. The journey of project development to date illustrates some important lessons that can be adopted from hospice palliative care to inform other primary-health care initiatives, including, potentially, mental health, cardiology, diabetes, geriatrics, where productive change can result from productively linking specialists and primary-care colleagues.

Canada↗
PubMed2003

Predicting young children's quality of life.

This paper represents an investigation into the determinants of young children's quality of life (QOL) in Thailand. The empirical work is based upon a sample of 498 children (aged 5-8); 220 were urban children and 278 children of construction workers in Bangkok. Their QOL was assessed using a new self-report QOL measure for children. Multiple regression analyses indicated that the father's income and education, type of school, mode of transportation to school, and the amount of time that the child spent on extra study courses were significant explanatory variables. It was found that these factors had different influences on the QOL of urban children and those of construction workers. Extra sport-related activities and extra work (other than housework) improved the QOL of urban children, while the QOL of construction workers' children was directly linked to father's education and income. This result is consistent with income having a diminishing marginal effect on the QOL of children. There is also evidence that amongst construction workers' children, boys have a lower QOL than girls. The different causal explanations for the QOL of urban and construction workers' children suggests that it is context specific, and what impacts one group of children's QOL within a particular context may not impact another group in a different situation. This has important policy implications. Throughout the study we could find no significant impact of health on QOL-neither chronic, acute nor severe illness has any significant impact on QOL. This is consistent with the hypothesis that QOL is influenced by expectations (Social Science and Medicine 41 (10) (1995) 1403). Findings of the effects of social and environmental factors on children's QOL are new in this field and should be further investigated.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Complex systems model of dietary choice with implications for improving diets and promoting vegetarianism.

An important step toward improving nutrition and promoting vegetarianism in the general population is to understand how consumers make dietary choices. Researchers from many clinical and social sciences are interested in dietary choice but have not combined their research into a comprehensive model to explain consumer actions. No one model has offered a good explanation for the fact that, although many people successfully change their diet significantly (often toward health-improving, plant-based diets) and are happy with the change, the public and health professionals often perceive dietary change as being difficult and unlikely to succeed. I have termed these observations "the paradox of dietary change." The present computer model uses the emerging science of complex systems analysis, which offers an intuitive method for studying evidence about dietary choice from many fields, including public health, clinical science, economics, sociology, marketing, and genetics, and for combining individual choice with social interaction. The results suggest an explanation for the paradox and methods for helping society shift toward healthier and more plant-based diets. In particular, they suggest how and why major changes might be easier to make than incremental ones, and why this makes dietary change seem more difficult to consumers than it actually is.

Choice Behavior↗
PubMed1995

Comparison of medical and non-medical student attitudes to social issues in medicine.

A 63-item questionnaire on attitudes to psychosocial issues in medicine was administered to final-year students in the Faculties of Medicine (n = 104), Pharmacy (n = 57) and Arts and Social Sciences (n = 75) of the University of Benin. The responses given were analysed by the summation and Cornell scalogram techniques for content and intensity. On aggregate, the pharmacy students scored significantly higher than their medical and arts/social science counterparts (P < 0.001). The advantage over medical students was on only one subscale: paramedical cooperation. The scores of the pharmacy and arts/social science groups were significantly lowe than those of medical students on the social factors subscale. On issues that threaten to diminish the traditional role and status of the medical profession (e.g. paramedical cooperation and government intervention), the attitude of medical students was either unenthusiastic or clearly resentful. However, they shared the same orientation as the other groups towards matters which did not challenge the prerogatives of medical doctors (e.g. preventive medicine and doctor-patient relationship). It is suggested that measures be adopted to raise the level of awareness of non-health professionals vis--vis the non-biological antecedents of disease and also to bridge the gap in attitudes among groups in the health care team.

Attitude↗
PubMed1984

[Sociology and schizophrenia].

From the spectrum of research contributed by the social sciences, the present article highlights some recent studies concerning the role of social factors and the interaction of social and biological factors in the etiology of schizophrenia. Open questions prevail over the settled questions.

Family↗