Benefits and Challenges of Service-Learning in Baccalaureate Social Work Programs

Service-learning is a pedagogical approach that integrates students’ classroom instruction with community experience. This article discusses qualitative results from a national survey examining service-learning in Council on Social Work Education–accredited baccalaureate programs. Almost 80% of the 202 program respondents required service-learning. They reported that benefits of incorporating service-learning in the BSW curriculum include assisting students in building community connections, applying theory and skills, socializing to the social work profession, and increasing self-awareness and exposure to diverse populations. Cited challenges include securing agency sites, time, and logistics. Findings support existing research suggesting that service-learning may benefit social work undergraduate education.     

Developmental Dynamics of Emotion and Cognition Processes in Preschoolers

Dynamic relations during the preschool years across processes of control and understanding in the domains of emotion and cognition were examined. Participants were 263 children (42% non‐White) and their mothers who were seen first when the children were 3 years old and again when they were 4. Results indicated dynamic dependence among the processes studied. Specifically, change in cognitive processes of control and understanding were dependent upon initial levels of the other processes. Changes in emotion control and understanding were not predicted by earlier performance in the other processes. Findings are discussed with regard to the constructs of control and understanding and the developmental interrelations among emotion and cognitive processes.     

Social work students＇ attitude toward poverty in the new economy： A multivariate analysis

This study, conducted at a mid-sized university located in central Canada, had two purposes. The first was to simultaneously assess the influence of undergraduate social work education and other variables such as gender, ethnicity, perceived financial security and political affiliation on students＇ attitude toward poverty. The second was to contribute to the fledgling body of international studies which focus on the area of social work education and perceptions of poverty. The participants in this study were students enrolled in one of three selected undergraduate social work courses or an undergraduate business course. In all of the social work classes, the students were exposed to key ideas and concepts pertaining to poverty and poverty policy, including the cyclical nature of market economies and the challenges and barriers faced by the working poor population. The results indicated that social work education and affiliation with a leftist political ideology predicted a more structural attitude toward poverty.     

Journalism

THE AMERICAN JOURNALIST: A PORTRAIT OF U.S. NEWS PEOPLE AND THEIR WORK by David H. Weaver and G. Cleveland Wilhoit (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986—$25.00)

THE “UNCENSORED WAR:” THE MEDIA AND VIETNAM by Daniel C. Hallin (New York: Oxford, 1986—$22.50)

THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION SHOW: CAMPAIGN '84 AND BEYOND ON THE NIGHTLY NEWS by Keith Blume (Bergin & Garvey Publishers, 670 South Amherst Rd., South Hadley, MA 01075—$29.95/12.95)

POLITICAL COMMUNICATION IN AMERICA by Robert E. Denton, Jr. and Gary C. Woodward (New York: Praeger, 1985—$42.95/15.95)

NEWS MEDIA AND PUBLIC POLICY: AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY edited by Joseph P. McKerns (New York: Garland, 1985—$39.00)

COMMITTED JOURNALISM: AN ETHIC FOR THE PROFESSION by Edmund B. Lambeth (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1986—$25.00/8.95)

SUING THE PRESS: LIBEL, THE MEDIA & POWER by Rodney A. Smolla (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986—$18.95)

WORLDLY POWER: THE MAKING OF THE WALL STREET JOURNAL by Edward E. Scharff (Beaufort Books, 9 East 40th St., New York 10016—$18.95)

THE ULTIMATE INSIDERS: U.S. SENATORS IN THE NATIONAL MEDIA by Stephen Hess (Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1986—price not given, cloth and paper)

THE FLACKS OF WASHINGTON: GOVERNMENT INFORMATION AND THE PUBLIC AGENDA by David Morgan (Westport, CN: Greenwood Press, 1986—$29.95)

ISSUES MANAGEMENT: CORPORATE POLICYMAKING IN AN INFORMATION SOCIETY by Robert L. Heath and Richard Alan Nelson (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1986—no price given)

BEHIND THE LINES: CASE STUDIES IN INVESTIGATIVE REPORTING by Margaret Jones Patterson and Robert H. Russell (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986—$28.50)

GOVERNING THE PRESS: MEDIA FREEDOM IN THE U.S. AND GREAT BRITAIN by Deborah Holmes (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986—$16.50, paper)

THE UNTAPPED POWER OF THE PRESS: EXPLAINING GOVERNMENT TO THE PEOPLE by Lewis W. Wolfson (New York: Praeger, 1985—$28.95/9/95)     

Skill Gap: Quantifying Violent Content in Video Game Play Between Variably Skilled Users

This study investigated the effect of individuals’ self-reported skill levels on generated violent content. After playing a violent video game, participants (N = 68) completed a questionnaire determining skill level with measures modified from previous game studies. The resulting 4,023 instances of violence were analyzed using techniques adapted from prior video game content analyses and the National Television Violence Study. Findings indicated a significant difference in the amount and context of violent acts between higher skilled and lower skilled players. Those who reported being higher skilled generated more instances of violence, were more often the perpetrators rather than the targets of violence, experienced greater consequences (graphicness) of violence, and experienced more on-screen and up-close violence.