Balancing Socio-Theoretic Traditions in Understanding Trauma and Mental Health: Evidence on the 3-D Theory of Polyvictimization

The Hong Kong Jockey Club University of Chicago Academic Complex | The University of Chicago Francis and Rose Yuen Campus in Hong Kong
168 Victoria Road
Mount Davis, Hong Kong Island
Hong Kong SAR

Parsons’ (1937/1967) principles for what constitutes adequate social theory have long been abandoned and forgotten by mainstream social science. Yet, his warnings about empirical reductionism and the importance of balancing positivistic and idealistic theoretical traditions remain important guidelines. The 3-D theory of polyvictimization (Emery et al., 2023; Emery, 2024) responds to widespread empiricism in understanding the relationship between violent victimization and mental health by articulating both broad guidelines and specific claims.

In this talk, Professor Clifton Emery (UChicago PhD’07 Social Service Administration) introduces the theory’s concepts of invasiveness, exploitativeness, and severity and presents converging empirical evidence on its claims, with particular attention to the multiplicative hypothesis. Findings are summarized from a nationally representative study of mothers and adolescent children in Nepal, a random sample of ethnic minority Salar women in Qinghai province, China, a non-random sample of Turkish adolescents,  a non-random sample of Chinese secondary students, and pilot data from a national study of India.

Nexus Asia is a program initiated by the UChicago Hong Kong Campus dedicated to collaborating with UChicago PhD alumni and their institutions throughout the Asia Pacific region. In addition to facilitating research, Nexus Asia plans to engage its alumni on its UChicago Hong Kong campus with workshops, lectures and events for academics and the general public.

Speaker:
Clifton R Emery (UChicago PhD’07 Social Service Administration)
Professor in Social Work
School of Social Work and Arts
Charles Sturt University

Program
6:15 – 6:30 pm                Registration
6:30 – 7:10 pm                Talk by Professor Clifton Emery
7:10 – 7:40 pm                Q&A session moderated by Mark Barnekow
7:40 pm                          Event ends

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Webinar  
7:30 pm                        Japan | South Korea  
6:30 pm                        Hong Kong | Beijing | Singapore  
4:00 pm                       Delhi  
12:30 pm                      Paris  
11:30 nn                        London 
5:30 am                      Chicago  

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