Tools for social policy management: the SiSo Scale for measuring situations of social difficulty

The design and evaluation of social policies requires information systems that enable social intervention with the people targeted by the programmes and services and that also offer indicators for the follow-up and monitoring of the policies adopted. The article presents the process of validation of a tool for diagnosing situations of social difficulty arising from social exclusion. The scale has been implemented in one of Spain’s seventeen Autonomous Communities and has been selected on the basis of Good Practice under the European Social Fund. Expert judges were consulted for content validity; the metric properties of the scores obtained by the scale were examined and an exploratory factorial analysis (EFA) was performed to study the internal structure. The results show that the scale has adequate levels of content validity, construct validity and internal consistency. The SiSo Scale supplies a synthetic index of Social Position, providing professionals with the technical tools needed to carry out social diagnoses and simultaneously giving valid and reliable information on the social condition of people in a situation of social exclusion, which can guide social policy decision-making.

Modulation of Trust in Borderline Personality Disorder by Script-Based Imaginal Exposure to Betrayal

Interpersonal and trust-related difficulties are central features of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). In this study, we applied script-driven betrayal imagery to evoke mistrustful behavior in a social reinforcement learning task. We compared this approach to the standard confederate paradigm in twenty-one BPD and twenty healthy control (HC) participants. The script-driven imagery evoked transient negative affect and decreased trusting behavior in both groups. Across conditions, we also replicated previously reported between-group differences in affect and task behavior, results that support the validity of script-driven imagery as an alternative social task stimulus. This approach is appealing for eliminating deception, scaling easily, and evoking disorder-specific states of social difficulty.

Students' Speaking Anxiety: Ready or Not

Language is the main common field for communication. For that reason, communication skills must take part in learning a language. Speaking is being a part of English lessons in schools today. However, making students speak English is not always easy, and there can be several different reasons it happens. One possible reason is speaking anxiety and its influence on second language acquisition. The study aims to analyze the students' speaking anxiety when they are in the speaking session. The study is based on literature and contains an interview with the teacher. It is stated that speaking anxiety inhibits students from speaking, which hurts their skills. The research shows that speaking is not the main issue at schools. A reason is that speaking anxiety is not seen as a problem concerning language teaching since it can be considered a social difficulty. In order to enrich speaking in a classroom, it is essential to strive for a joyful atmosphere where every student can feel relaxed and motivated to communicate orally.

Characteristics and needs of people living homeless in León (Nicaragua): Similarities and differences with other groups in severe social exclusion

The study examines various aspects (e.g. socio-demographic characteristics, access to economic resources, social support, chronicity and access to new technologies) in a sample of homeless people living in León (Nicaragua; n = 68). A questionnaire was used to collect the data. The results showed that people experiencing homelessness in León (Nicaragua) have enormous social difficulty, with high levels of chronification. Despite the major cultural and developmental differences between Spain and Nicaragua, there are considerable similarities between people living homeless in the two countries, while there are significant differences compared with waste pickers in León (Nicaragua) regarding the same aspects.

Pet Lamb and Clothed Hyena: Law as an Oppressive Force in Jane Eyre

Writing in 1864, the literary critic Justin M’Carthy stated that ‘the greatest social difficulty in England today is the relationship between men and women.’ This came at a time of unprecedented social and legal change of the status of women in the 19th Century. A prominent novel of the time concerning such social difficulty is Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre: An Autobiography which attempts to reflect these social difficulties as often resulting from law. As such, the novel may be used as a reflection of the condition of nineteenth century English law as an oppressive force against women. This force is one that enacts morality through legality, and has particular resonance in literature concerning social issues. Jane Eyre will be discussed as a novel that provides insights into women’s experiences in the mid-nineteenth century. Law is represented within the novel as an oppressive force that directly subjugates women, and as such the novel may be regarded as an early liberal feminist work that challenges the condition of law. This article will explore the link between good moral behaviour, and moral madness, the latter being perceived as a threat to the domestic and the law’s response to this threat. It will pick upon certain themes presented by Brontë, such as injustice towards women, wrongful confinement, insanity and adulterous immoral behaviour, to come to the conclusion that the novelist presented law as a method of constructing immorality and injustice, representing inequality and repression.

Giving Permission to Play in Higher Education

Playing in public, including within education, is a political act, one that is loaded with potential disapproval by others, and hence becomes difficult for potential players to do. Even so, play has many potential benefits within Higher Education. This paper describes some of the benefits to play and describes the social difficulty of playing through the lens of Goffman’s frames. It goes onto describe some ways in which playful learning can be introduced to increase the social acceptability and impact of play within Higher Education. These are steps towards constructing a playful frame in which students and staff can view Higher Education. No absolute guidelines could be produced, as both play and acceptability of it are socially constructed and are so completely contextual, but an overall approach is suggest to increase the understanding, acceptability, and effectiveness of play.