A Tale of Two Scepticisms or Relying on What Comes Naturally or The Problem with Deriving an Epistemology from Literary Theory

Some years ago — never mind how long precisely — three eminent thinkers, having little or no need for more money in their purses, and nothing particular to interest them in the law reviews and philosophy journals, set out to meet and discuss legal philosophy in a literary part of the world. It is a way these three have of driving off ennui and formulating the next publication. Whenever they find themselves growing stale about the pen; whenever it is adamp, drizzly November in London; whenever they find themselves involuntarily churning out conference papers and bringing up the rear of every symposium on offer; and especially whenever they find their critics getting such an upper hand on them, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent them from deliberately sitting down and methodically knocking off a paper excoriating every stranger they have met — then, they account it high time to gettogether as soon as they can.     

Remembering Father Bede Jarrett 50 Years After

This year the English Dominicans are commemorating the 50th anniversary of the death of Father Bede Jarrett (1881—1934). As we noted in last month's editorial, he was—and still is—revered as administrator, author, preacher, friend; above all, as a man who gave a distinct stamp to the English Dominican Province. During his sixteen years as Provincial (1916—32) he founded this magazine, but probably his most important single achievement was to bring the Dominicans back to Oxford after an absence of nearly 400 years. He initiated the building of the new Oxford house of studies, Blackfriars, in 1921—the 700th anniversary of its original founding on the instructions of St. Dominic. On 17 March (exactly fifty years after Father Bede's death) Dominicans from many parts of the English Province met there for a commemorative Mass. Father Conrad Pepler spoke at this, and we print his text here. Born in 1908, from boyhood Father Conrad knew Bede Jarrett; he came to the Order in 1927, when Father Bede was Provincial, and was a student at Blackfriars, Oxford, when he was its Prior (1932—4). Later he was Editor of both "Blackfriars" and "The Life of the Spirit" (now merged in "New Blackfriars"), and then, from 1952 to 1981, Warden of the Dominican conference centre in Staffordshire, Spode House .     

Influence of Child Factors on Health-Care Professionals’ Recognition of Common Childhood Mental-Health Problems

Early recognition of childhood mental-health problems can help minimise long-term negative outcomes. Recognition of mental-health problems, needed for referral and diagnostic evaluation, is largely dependent on health-care professionals’ (HCPs) judgement of symptoms presented by the child. This study aimed to establish whether HCPs recognition of mental-health problems varies as a function of three child-related factors (type of problem, number of symptoms, and demographic characteristics). In an online survey, HCPs (n = 431) evaluated a series of vignettes describing children with symptoms of mental-health problems. Vignettes varied by problem type (Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Conduct Disorder (CD) and Major Depressive Disorder), number of symptoms presented (few and many), and child demographic characteristics (ethnicity, gender, age and socio-economic status (SES)). Results show that recognition of mental-health problems varies by problem type, with ADHD best recognised and GAD worst. Furthermore, recognition varies by the number of symptoms presented. Unexpectedly, a child’s gender, ethnicity and family SES did not influence likelihood of problem recognition. These results are the first to reveal differences in HCPs’ recognition of various common childhood mental-health problems. HCPs in practice should be advised about poor recognition of GAD, and superior recognition of ADHD, if recognition of all childhood mental-health problems is to be equal.     

A mental-health locus of control scale

The purpose of this study was to develop and seek initial validation of a mental- health locus of control scale. Twenty-six mental-health professionals rated each of the 14 statements of a previously-designed mental-health service request form along a 5-point locus of control scale. Six of the 14 items met the study's criteria for inclusion in the mental-health locus of control scale. Discriminant validity of the scale was provided by a study demonstrating that psychotic patients were more external in their perceived locus of control than were a nonpsychotic patient comparison group. Other validation studies and research are suggested.     

Church: An Overlooked Mental-Health Resource

In a multi-perspective survey of mental-health consumer needs, 50% of the stakeholders in the Alaska mental-health system identified participation in church or religious activities as important. However, the publicly supported mental-health service system has a tradition of rarely using church-based resources for its clients. In today's climate of diminishing government, this may be the time for publicly supported mental-health and other social-service providers to rethink their traditional avoidance of church and religious activities. For many consumers, church and religious activities may be a considerable potential resource within the continuum of resources needed for psychiatric rehabilitation.     

Relationship amongst mood,propensity to forgive,and mental-health problems in female Italian adolescents

Adolescence is a time of rapid physical, neurological, and cognitive transformations, as well as shifts in relationships through the development of new roles across social domains. As an outcome of such transformations, adolescents may become vulnerable to mental-health problems during this period. Therefore, it is important to focus on predictors of mental-health problems to identify effective prevention strategies. This study examined the mediating role of propensity to forgive in the relationship amongst mood and mental health in a sample of female Italian students who consisted of 342 nonreferred adolescents. Participants completed the Positive Affect-Negative Affect Schedule-Short Form, the Heartland Forgiveness Scale, and the General Health Questionnaire. The mediation analysis results suggest that mood has a direct effect on mental-health problems and an indirect effect through propensity to forgive. The results suggest the importance of considering implementing education programmes and forgiveness interventions within clinical practice as a means of reducing mental-health problems.     

Physical activity levels in young adult Hispanics and Whites: Social cognitive theory determinants

The psychosocial determinants of health-impairing physical inactivity among Hispanic populations have not been well explored nor have systematic comparisons been made with White populations using Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) measures. Three exercise-relevant efficacy measures (task, scheduling, and response efficacy), three exercise-relevant expectancy measures (physical health, psychological health, and self-evaluative), and self reports of activity levels were obtained from 20-year-old male and female Hispanics (n?=?94) and Whites (n?=?94). Activity levels for the two groups were analyzed in separate regression analyses that included the six SCT measures and gender as predictors. The set of seven predictors accounted for 51% of the variance in self-reported activity levels in each analysis. For young adult Hispanics, task efficacy, response efficacy, mental-health expectancies, and self-evaluative expectancies predicted activity level. For young adult Whites, scheduling efficacy and self-evaluative expectancies predicted activity level. Gender was not a significant predictor of activity level for either group. A multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the only SCT predictor on which Hispanics and Whites significantly differed was mental-health expectancies. The results of this study indicate that the psychosocial determinants of exercise are qualitatively different for the two groups and that the determinants of physical activity levels for young adult Hispanics may not be as effective as those of young adult Whites in sustaining lifelong exercise habits. Thus the present study offers a promising strategy for detecting inactivity-related physical- and mental-health risks at an age when lifelong habits of physical activity are still being formed.     

GENETIC AND SOCIAL CAUSES OF AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR IN MICE

L agerspetz , K irsti . Genetic and social causes of aggressive behaviour in mice. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1961, 2 , 167—-173.—Significant differences in the aggressiveness of mice selected for aggressiveness and non-aggressiveness have been found to occur in the 2nd and 3rd generation of selective breeding. In S _a, motor activity scores were significantly higher in mice of the aggressive than of the non-aggressive strain. Defecation and ambulation scores obtained both in a standardized open-field test and in connection with the aggression measurements showed that the S₃ descendants of the aggressive mice were emotionally less reactive than the members of the 3rd non-aggressive generation. Defeats tend to decrease, victories to increase the level of aggressiveness in mice, but the aggression scores tend to return to the original level after the termination of the experiments.     

Moore Inferences

André Gallois (in The World Without, the Mind Within , Cambridge UP, 1996) maintains that the following schema expresses a warranted form of inference:
p
——————
I believe that p .
I argue that these 'Moore inferences' are not warranted.     

PERCEPTION AND GENERATION OF MIRROR-INVERTED LETTERS

R einvang I. R. Perception and generation of mirror-inverted letters. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972, 13 , 285–291.—-The ability to write and read mirror-inverted text was studied in two experiments. Exp. I showed no transfer of training from reading to writing, or vice versa, suggesting that separate systems with similar properties determine spatial reversals. In Exp. 2 subjects made more errors when trying to mirror-invert letters classified as left-orienting, rather than right-orienting. An explanation relating this finding to the left-to-right progression of text in English is offered.     

Evaluation of a continuing computer conference on simulation

A 20-day computer conference was held in preparation for a face-to-face meeting to produce a computer simulation. The conferencing resulted in the generation of seven different models and was excellent preparation for the subsequent meeting. Computer conferencing appears to hold great value for faculty development in a period of reduced faculty mobility.     

Being a person in psychoanalytic culture

The author argues that schools of care are really cultures whose practices and teachings are only minimally based in science. Although the early link of mental-health care to medicine was historically fortuitous, bestowing a debatable authority on the field, these schools' consuming preoccupation with scientific legitimacy has severely limited mental-health care professionals' own ability to understand and think wisely about these schools of care. Students of these schools become enculturated into the ideology of a particular school, its notions of what is normal and what is ill, of how life works, and of what patients need to do to become well. The listening tradition of psychoanalysts is admirable, but its discounting of external factors, like an individual's upbringing, race, or even friendships, constitutes a major flaw.Dr. Fancher is author of the forthcoming bookCultures of Healing: Correcting the Image of American Mental Health Care (W.H. Freeman and Co., 1995), from which this article is excerpted with permission.     

The Parent's Nazi Past and the Dialogue Between the Generations

This paper considers the impact of the Nazi past on the succeeding generation in Germany and on the dialogue between the two generations, using the theoretical framework of the dynamics of delegation — missions entrusted to parents by their children. Those issues became manifest in the course of conjoint family interviews with adolescents and young adults whose parents had been identified with the Nazi past.     

Mental health among Asian and African migrant working mothers: new vulnerabilities,old religious coping resources

A qualitative research is presented to explore sources of psychosocial distress, expressive idioms, coping strategies, resilience resources, and experiences of mental-health services in Filipino, Sao Tomean and Indo-Mozambican migrant working mothers settled in Portugal. Findings suggest that shared gender roles and working conditions do not lead to similar modes of expressing mental distress. Particular manifestations take on cultural meanings in relation to specific vulnerabilities and stressors. Despite their higher level of psychosocial distress, these migrant mothers make little use of mental-health services. Comparative analysis has brought to light how religious participation provides them with a variety of expressive and coping resources that support and guarantee the fulfilment of their gender and mothering responsibilities, thus triggering desired changes that affect the lives of their children and families in both the short and long term.     

The Small and the Ordinary: The Daily Practice of a Postmodern Narrative Therapy

In this article, I contrast assumptions of a modernist worldview and a postmodern worldview as they relate to clinical practice. Two exercises are described that help therapists develop insight into and practice with the kind of thinking that is consistent with a postmodern narrative clinical practice. Particular attention is paid to the ways that even the small and the ordinary — single words, single gestures, minor asides, trivial actions — can provide opportunities for generating new meanings. Five concepts that I routinely use in my professional and personal life and that are consistent with a postmodern narrative practice — discourse, externalizing the internalized discourse, exceptions, power as the means to produce a consensus, and characteristics of narrative — are illustrated.     

Self‐Directing Religious Coping: A Deistic God,Abandoning God,or No God at All?

Self-directing religious coping has been correlated with both positive and negative outcome variables in previous research. The purpose of this study was to explore the potential meaning behind these mixed findings by clarifying the nature of the self-directing religious coping construct. A new set of subscales was constructed that operationalized different aspects of the construct. This scale, the original Religious Problem Solving Scale, and mental-health measures were given to 262 undergraduate students at a moderate-sized midwestern university. Two factors were identified with the revised self-directing measure: a deistic and supportive but nonintervening God factor and an abandoning God factor. The Abandoning God Subscale was more highly correlated with the original Self-Directing Scale than was the deistic God measure. The Deistic and Supportive God Subscale was correlated with both positive and negative mental-health outcomes, whereas the abandoning God measure consistently related to poorer outcomes.     

Women and the Social Movements of the 1960s: Activists, Engaged Observers, and Nonparticipants

Many women in the generation that attended college during the 1960s have reported that they were influenced by the social movements of that era, even women who did not participate in them. In addition to political activists, social movements also appear to include "engaged observers"—individuals who are attentive to movement writings and activities, and express moral and even financial support for them, but who take no other action. Although activism in a movement may be the best predictor of future political action, engaged observation may be related to other indicators of political socialization, such as a powerful felt impact of the movement and well-developed political attitudes. Evidence to support this notion is drawn from studies of three samples of college-educated white and black women.     

The Union of Religion and Health in Ancient Asklepieia

This study of the cult of Asklepios reveals that happiness, well-being, and health were inseparable from and unified with devotion and religion in the healing arts practiced in the Asklepieia of antiquity. Religion, the tie that binds together a community, was the ultimate means to attain health for the suppliants of the Asklepieia scattered across the ancient Mediterranean world. A brief review of the cult of Asklepios and its health centers and practices, with some insights from the work of Kerényi, Meier, the Edelsteins, and others, will illuminate the mental-health aspects of the cult and foreshadow some additional insights into this intriguing union of religion and health.     

PROMPTS TO INCREASE ATTENDANCE IN A COMMUNITY MENTAL-HEALTH CENTER1

The effect of a brief appointment reminder for mental-health center applicants is reported. A standardized phone message was delivered by an administrative staff member one to three days before the appointment and a sequential experimental design alternating baseline and phone message conditions was used to assess the effects of the procedure. The no-show rate averages were 32%, 11%, 25%, and 14% respectively. The cost of the procedure was $162.00, which was totally recovered when only six appointments were kept. Since over 1000 patients were involved in the study, the return on the investment of $162.00 is considerable. Implications for this procedure are discussed for other community mental-health centers and for other community care-giving agencies.