Intensive specialised multi-family therapy for multi-stressed families: Therapeutic alliance as predictor for effectiveness

The effectiveness of intense specialised multi-family therapy (ISMFT) for 111 multi-stressed families, and the therapeutic alliance as a possible predictor of outcome, were examined. A repeated measures design was used, where changes in all ISMFT phases (preparation, multi-family therapy and follow-up) were assessed and compared for both mothers and fathers. Evidence was found for improved family functioning after the therapy period, which was maintained at 3 months follow-up, although the multi-stressed families still functioned in the problematic range. The therapy did however not decrease parenting stress, or did so only temporarily. Observations of the therapeutic alliance with the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances (SOFTA) scales indicated that high therapist engagement was related to positive therapy outcomes, both at the start of therapy and later. High family engagement also predicted therapy effectiveness, but only at the start of therapy. The present study shows that solution-focused multi-family therapy at least seems to provide the first step in alleviating problems in multi-stressed families.     

Communities as conduits of harm: A social identity analysis of appraisal,coping and justice-seeking in response to historic collective victimization

Social identity approach (SIA) research shows that community members often work together to support survivors of collective victimization and rectify social injustices. However, complexities arise when community members have been involved in perpetrating these injustices. While many communities are unaware of their role in fostering victimization, others actively deny their role and responsibility to restore justice. We explore these processes by investigating experiences of community violence and collective justice-seeking among Albanian survivors of dictatorial crimes. Survivors (N = 27) were interviewed, and data were analysed using theoretical thematic analysis guided by the SIA. The analysis reveals the diverse ways communities can become harmful ‘Social Curses’. First, communities in their various forms became effective perpetrators of fear and control (e.g., exclusion and/or withholding ingroup privileges) during the dictatorship because of the close relationship between communities and their members. Second, communities caused harm by refusing to accept responsibility for the crimes, and by undermining attempts at collective action to address injustices. This lack of collective accountability also fosters survivors' feelings of exclusion and undermines their hope for systematic change. Implications for SIA processes relating to health/wellbeing (both Social Cure and Curse) are discussed. We also discuss implications for understanding collective action and victimhood.     

A tool to act blind? Object-assisted eye-covering as a self-handicapping behavior and social play signal in Balinese long-tailed macaques

Animal Cognition - Self-handicapping behaviors evolved as honest signals that reliably reflect the quality of their performers. In playful activities, self-handicapping is described as...     

Stroke damages attentional maintenance in working memory

Stroke is the main cause of acquired disability in adults, and specific deficits in working memory (WM) are among the most common cognitive consequences. In neuropsychological routine, WM is most of the time investigated in the framework of the multicomponent model (Baddeley & Hitch, 1974, The psychology of learning and motivation, 47). Using a more recent theoretical WM model, the time-based resource-sharing (TBRS) model (Barrouillet et al., 2011, Psychol. Rev., 118, 175), the aim of the present study was to investigate in young post-stroke patients to which extent attentional maintenance is impaired in WM. To address this question, we discarded other factors known to directly influence WM performance, that is processing speed and short-term memory span. We proposed to 53 post-stroke patients and to 63 healthy controls a complex span paradigm in which participants were asked to alternate between the memorization of a series of images and a concurrent parity judgement task of a series of digits. To investigate the attentional maintenance processes, we manipulated the cognitive load (CL) of the concurrent task. CL effect is typically interpreted as the involvement of attentional maintenance processes. The task was adapted to each participant according to their processing speed and memory span. As expected, the results showed higher recall performance in healthy controls compared with post-stroke patients. Consistent with the literature, we also observed higher performance when the CL was low compared with high. However, the improvement in recall at low CL was smaller for post-stroke patients compared with controls, suggesting that post-stroke WM deficit could be in part due to a deficit of the attentional maintenance processes.     

UNESCO, genetics, and human rights

In response to a mandate conferred on the International Bioethics Committee (IBC) of UNESCO in November 1993, the IBC has drafted a "universal declaration on the human genome and human rights," which will be considered by the General Conference of UNESCO in November 1997. This article discusses the development of the document and provides the text of the "revised preliminary draft" of the declaration.     

Propositional attitudes and formal ontology

This paper develops — within an axiomatic theory of properties, relations, and propositions which accords them well-defined existence and identity conditions — a sententialist-functionalist account of belief as a symbolically mediated relation to a special kind of propositional entity, theproxy-encoding abstract proposition. It is then shown how, in terms of this account, the truth conditions of English belief reports may be captured in a formally precise and empirically adequate way that accords genuinely semantic status to familiar opacity data.I am deeply indebted to Edward Zalta for many helpful comments and suggestions.     

Smoking cessation with behaviour therapy or acupuncture—A controlled study

Five hundred and fifty-eight cigarette smokers (mean 31 cigarettes/day) were randomized in four groups: Acupuncture, Behaviour Therapy, Placebo Medication and Waiting-list Control. The life-table analysis of smoking cessation showed, at a 12-month follow-up, no difference between Acupuncture, Behaviour Therapy and Placebo. Differences appeared only in an analysis of the abstinent subjects at each data point. Behaviour Therapy and Acupuncture accounted for significantly more abstinent subjects than Placebo at the end of the 2-week therapeutic phase. However at 9 and 12 months Acupuncture had a statistically-significant greater number of abstinent subjects than Behaviour Therapy, but there was no difference between Acupuncture and Placebo. The percentage decrease in smoking from baseline appeared significantly greater at 12 months in the first three groups than in the Control conditions. However, as in most smoking-cessation studies, the overall effect was small and non-specific. The results reflect the importance of maintenance programmes and of the prevention of addiction.     

Philosophy of medicine in 2021

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics -