Work Self Research Articles

Post Partum Blues I & II: Consanguinidad Virtual/Virtual Consanguinity

I am interested in filtering abstract painting through a gendered and culturally-specific lens, infiltrating the notion of the pure and universal abstract painting from the oblique angle of the periphery. I use the visual codes and conventions of abstraction the assertion of the two-dimensionality of the canvas, the attention to the formal qualities of the painting and yet I redeploy them in an attempt to pull them from their roots and fracture what is signified. Thus the relationship of visual referents to adjectives used by a heterogeneous group of abstract painters to describe their work e.g., sublime, tragic, timeless, relationless, pure, transcendent, religious, spiritual, is severed in my work. I reinscribe abstraction with a set of gendered meanings. The idea of self-expression through abstraction assumes a solipsistic notion of self reiterated with the artist's gesture; in my work self is assumed, in a feminist sense, as relational, and therefore gesture derives from a relational ground. I also engage directly with the notion of universality in abstraction, in order to expose a few underlying assumptions. Modernism's large debt to the notion of the primitive, used as critical ground for what became a marker of cultural development makes it epistemologically problematic, if not impossible, for me to legitimately engage with abstraction in painting, since I am an instance of the primitive in modernism's eyes.

Negative self-regard at work – Frustrating the need for self-enhancement and self-consistency

A positive and consistent sense of self is a key requirement for psychological well-being. Thirteen South African police officers and five police psychologists were interviewed to investigate the prevalence of negative social feedback received by officers and the consequences of such feedback on their sense of self. Negative social feedback and perceived lack of support from police management, courts, and government were widely prevalent and were seen to impact strongly on police officers. Officers had a largely negative view of themselves, their organisation, and the social context in which they operated. They engaged in dysfunctional and self-destructive behaviour and experienced significant discrepancies between their work and non-work selves. Opsomming Aanduidings uit die literatuur is dat navorsing aangaande bevoegdheidsevaluering gebrekkig is aan ’n teoretiese ondertoon. Ondersoek word ingestel na die kognitiewe prosesse wat plaasvind gedurende beoordeling wat aanduidend kan wees van die hoë persentasie variansie tussen evalueerders. Die beginsels van vyf verskillende kognitiewe teorieë word bespreek om moontlike verklarings te ondersoek, naamlik kognitiewe keuse-, kognitiewe evaluering-, sosiaal kognitieweteorieë, meta-kognitiewe- en die nuwe paradigma- benaderings.

Longitudinal qualitative studies and the reflexive self

This paper reviews the utility of the framework offered by Giddens' 1991 work Modernity and Self Identity: Self and Society in a Late Modern Age , for the analysis of longitudinal qualitative studies. Working from two different longitudinal qualitative data sets, the authors explore the extent to which the notion of the 'reflexive project of self' and associated concepts might be operationalized to assist with the analysis and interpretation of empirical data. We first explore the notion of 'fateful moments' in a longitudinal qualitative interview-based study of young people's biographies. We then explore the importance of mechanisms of 'shame' as accompaniment to dramatic life transition, using data taken from a 3-year study of female sex workers in New Zealand. The paper concludes by arguing that although Giddens' work provides us with an interesting starting point and some useful operational tools, in practice the data outgrow the theory.

Leaving the welfare rolls: the health and mental health status of current and former welfare recipients.

This paper summarizes the mail survey findings of 1,634 respondents examining the impact of welfare reform, namely the Work and Gain Economic Self Sufficiency (WAGES) program, in two urban areas of Florida. The health and mental health status, quality of life, and service needs of adults and children who had left WAGES were compared with those of current recipients. Findings indicate that 60% of the respondents had left WAGES during a 14-month period. Compared to former WAGES recipients, current recipients reported significantly poorer health and mental health status. Additionally, the children of current recipients had significantly greater health needs compared to those of former WAGES recipients. Although no group difference existed regarding the children's mental health status, the percentage of children scoring above the criterion suggesting a need for further psychosocial evaluation was twice the rate that would be expected in a general pediatric sample. Transportation was the only service need in which a significant group difference was found, with current recipients reporting significantly greater need compared to former recipients. Compared to former WAGES recipients, current recipients reported significantly lower levels of satisfaction with their leisure opportunities, employment or educational status, financial condition, legal and safety, family's health, and with their overall quality of their lives.

Linkages between Work and Health of Parents and Children in the Florida Wages Program

The State of Florida implemented its welfare reform program entitled Work and Gain Economic Self Sufficiency (WAGES) in October, 1996. Key elements of the program are a two-year limit on cash benefits with a lifetime limit of four years. Within a year, that program's philosophy was emulated at the federal level, and within two years, the State reported that more than 60,000 families had moved off of welfare. This article attempts to discern whether these families are more likely to obtain ‘quality health care’ as a result of these changes.

Home and Work: Negotiating Boundaries through Everyday Life

This text explores the intricacies and implications of how people draw the line between home and work. Arguing that relationships between the two realms range from those that are highly integrating to those that are highly segmenting, it examines the ways people sculpt the boundaries between home and work. With sensitivity to the symbolic value of objects and actions, the author explores the meaning of clothing, wallets, lunches and vacations, and the places and ways in which we engage our family, friends, and co-workers. Commuting habits are also revealing, showing how the transition between home and work selves is made though ritualized behaviour like greetings and farewells, the consumption of food, dress, choices of routes to and from work, and listening, working, and sleeping habits during these journeys.

Self field effects in the critical current measurements of superconducting wires and cables

In the present work self field correction of the critical current measurements of superconducting cables and wires is discussed. It is shown that the so called ‘peak field correction’ is not correct due to the inhomogeneity of the magnetic field at the cable. To correctly handle the measured values of critical current, a general criterion, based on an effective field correction, is proposed. Some experimental results were analysed and the two criteria are compared.