This article cites a natural tension between citizen participation in public agencies and the drive for organizational stability. The power stability hypothesis, based on exchange theory, suggests that weaker organizations are more likely to offer citizens stronger roles in their planning processes. The article analyzes a survey of 394 citizen units in 193 planning and development agencies in Georgia. A standardized measure of the citizen-agency contract is developed. A panel of experts provides data on the level of power of host agencies. The central finding of the study is the inverse association between the level of agency power and strong citizen roles.
The authors present a brief review and critique of the empirical status surveyed over 50 published programs, only 13 studies met these of premarital counseling programs in the United States and discuss the two criteria. Two separate aspects of each program were anadevelopment of the Premarital Education and Training Sequence (PETS), lyzed: (a) appropriateness of program contents and (b) adequacy which was designed to correct many of the inadequacies found in most of research methods and designs. contemporary programs. They then present a 3-year experimental study undertaken to investigate the long-term effects of the PETS program.APPROPRIATENESS OF PROGRAM CONTENTS Self-report and behavioral measures of dyadic interaction were used to Bagarozzi and Rauen (1981) expressed the belief that intervenevaluate the program. Significant differences between the experimental tion should be guided by sound theoretical reasoning and that and control groups were found at posttesting for the Irrational Beliefs intervention into interpersonal systems should be guided by a Test (Jones, 1968) and Commitment (Murstein & McDonald, 1977). coherent theory of interpersonal process and relationship de-These differences, however, were not maintained at 3-year follow-up velopment. Such a theory would describe the normal course of evaluations. Significant interactive effects were found for one subscale relationship development and optimal interpersonal functioning of SIDCARB (Bagarozzi, 1983b), a self-report instrument used to eval-as well as explain the etiology of deviant interpersonal processes uate spouses' perceptions of barriers to separation and divorce. and the development of aberrant interaction patterns. Because
Despite the growing popularity of case management in caring for clients' multiple needs, the concept of case management and its relationship to social work are yet to be defined clearly. To help shed light on the subject, this article reports on a survey of 403 case managers in community mental health centers in Georgia that examined how workers' educational level, professional identification, and demographic characteristics influenced their performance of case management tasks.
In this article, the authors present the findings of a study designed to validate the factor structure of the Spousal Inventory of Desired Changes and Relationship Barriers (SIDCARB). Results from this research reveal that the original factor structure remained essentially the same. Scoring and interpretations of the couple profile are discussed and treatment decisions based upon the couple profile are outlined. Although the development of SIDCARB grew out of a social learning-behavioral philosophy of marital and family interaction, this instrument yields information that can be useful to structural marital and family therapists as well.
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