Thomas P. Oles

From attitude change to effective practice: Exploring the relationship

This article reports on a study of teaching strategies designed to improve students’ anticipated professional behavior (APB) with gay and lesbian clients. Early in the fall 1995 term, 110 students in social work courses at four schools were asked to respond—on a continuum from preferred to unacceptable responses—to four vignettes concerning gay and lesbian clients. Following different educational interventions, the students again responded to the vignettes. Analysis explored the effects of having gay or lesbian friends, academic major, attitude toward gay men and lesbians, and other factors. The results indicate that students’ APB improved over the semester, though the effects of the four interventions were not significantly different. The authors conclude that the profession should develop standards for practice with gay and lesbian clients, and that educators should focus on changing students’ APB, rather than their attitudes, toward this population.

Accounting for Divorce: Gender and Uncoupling Narratives

Past research about uncoupling processes has focused on the differing narratives people offer to explain the end of their marriages, depending on whether or not they perceive themselves to have initiated the ending. This article extends previous work by adding gender to the analysis, exploring intersections between accounts of divorce and accountability to cultural assumptions related to gender. In this inductive study, we examine qualitative interview data—particularly discrepancies in the narratives of some men and women—and suggest that gender mediates how people talk about the process of uncoupling as well as their motives for divorce.

Managing Conflict After Marriages End: A Qualitative Study of Narratives of Ex-Spouses

This paper addresses the dilemma of how formerly married couples negotiate their ongoing relationships. Drawing on interview data collected from divorced people, we explore various ways in which the stories that people tell about their marriages retrospectively relate to the management of interpersonal conflict. Along with examining intersections between postmarital narratives and experiences of conflict, we describe social obstacles to positive postmarital redefinition that emerge in divorced peoples accounts. The paper concludes with a discussion of implications for clinical work.

Bringing the Family "In":: A Family Systems Perspective on Student Adjustment to College

This paper discusses the changing conception of the role of the college student-parent relationship in psychosocial development and develops how family systems perspectives and techniques can be utilized to help students with adjustment problems. The paper draws upon faculty experience with routine advising problems and draws conclusions helpful and counselors who work with college students.

An Introduction to Using Theory in Social Work Practice and Skills for Using Theory in Social Work by James A. Forte

Social workers routinely call on some combination of theory, research, and experience to explain what causes or continues a problem and to organize interventions. As familiar as this process is, an...

Election 2016 Postscript: Blurred Realities and Why Liberals Lost

ABSTRACT Two professors of social work debate the dynamics of the 2016 presidential election sharing opposing views of President Obama’s message integrity and the electorate’s search for a candidate more “real.”

Book Review: Effective Outpatient Treatment for Alcohol Abusers and Drinking DriversEffective Outpatient Treatment for Alcohol Abusers and Drinking Drivers. By CrandellJohn S., Lexington, Mass.: D.C. Heath, 1987. 322 pp.

to predict alcoholic relapse patterns. Alcoholics who are high in private self-consciousness and who have experienced events indicative of personal failure are likely to relapse. Alcoholics who are highly selfconscious and experience events indicative of personal success are least likely to relapse. And alcoholics who are low in private self-consciousness fall between these two extremes. Steven Berglas contributes a chapter on the selfhandicapping model, which is derived from the premise that one initiates failure in a present situation to protect a positive self-image derived from a previous successful experience. Such a tactic stems from feelings of low self-worth. The alcohol abuser uses alcohol as a fool-proof justification for substandard performances. Treatment centers on assuring the client of competency in a future interaction. Interestingly, women do not use alcohol to preserve a self-image. Berglas attributes this to the negative societal image of women drinkers. The final chapter, by Thomas E. Shipley, Jr., discusses opponent process theory. This theory is primarily concerned with understanding the transition from normal to addictive drinking. Alcohol is assumed to be reinforcing. The critical juncture is the experience of self-dosing to relieve the discomfort of withdrawal symptoms. Shipley discusses the difficulties of using a drug to alleviate withdrawal symptoms, which is the practice in most detoxification programs. He states that prognosis is dependent upon a strong motive to maintain abstinence. Also, he attributes the positive feelings at the beginning of therapy as being important in treatment, due perhaps to the relief of chronic stress and to the transference phenomena occurring in the early stage of therapy. Blane and Leonard, in their conclusion to this important and needed book, point out that “more research is necessary to develop potential intervention techniques, to determine the efficacy of these techniques, and to identify the individuals most appropriate to these techniques.” In Psychological Theories of Drinking and Alcoholism, they have laid the groundwork for such research. The book is informative and well structured, discussing several psychological theories of alcoholism in a way useful for both practitioners and researchers. It serves as a useful reminder that for enhanced treatment, knowledge of theory is necessary; for the researcher, application of theory in the practice setting is essential.