The Life Course Perspective: a Guide for Genetic Counselors

This is the first article in a two part series about utilizing the life course perspective (LCP) in genetic counseling. LCP can be a useful tool for genetic counselors when counseling people with a known genetic mutation. Previous theories such as Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) and Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation (CSMSR) examine current reactions to a positive genetic test result. LCP extends beyond the current time to explore temporal and contextual elements of the experience. A review of research revealed, LCP has been used to study the perspective of caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease, referral for a family history of breast cancer, Mexican American caregivers of older adult, social class and cancer incidence and cancer and the sense of mastery. Incorporating LCP into a study explaining the experiences of people living with a positive test result for a genetic mutation such as the BRCA mutation provides a comprehensive exploration of this experience.     

Gendered Career Paths: A Life Course Perspective on Returning to School

We applied a life course perspective to an examination of work-to-school transitions, and highlighted the individual and family-level factors that differentially shape the career pathways of men and women. We employed data from a sample of employed middle-class men and women in dual-earner couples (N?=?1,408 couples) to examine the relationship between returning to school and prior educational attainment, individual biographic pacing (age, timing of marriage), job history, current job conditions, psychological resources, and family demands. Results support several hypothesized gender differences in the return to school pathway. Women with the heaviest combination of work and family demands were the most likely to return, an unexpected finding that we discuss with reference to both personal and structural resources.     

Life as a Pregnant Genetic Counselor: Take Two

Pregnancy is not always an expected or happy event. When a woman is facing an unplanned pregnancy, it can be a very difficult emotional experience. As with any pregnancy, working in a prenatal setting can impact how a woman feels about and handles her pregnancy. Once again, one genetic counselor discusses her experiences, this time during a second, unplanned pregnancy.     

Androgyny and Adjustment in Later Life: Living in a Veterans' Home

This study builds on literature that suggests that interaction with friends in later life is important to the well-being of older adults and other research that argues that androgynous individuals may have a greater range of social skills with which to further their adjustment. We apply these arguments to later life through interviews from a pilot sample of 27 residents in a state-operated veterans' home. Findings suggest that women, who often hold high expectations for the interpersonal domain, are more likely to experience adjustment problems than are men. Men, who may have lower expectations for friendship and intimacy, seem less likely to report dissatisfaction, regardless of gender characteristics. A typology of adjustment and androgyny in later life is developed.     

The Early Wittgenstein on Living a Good Ethical Life

Philosophia - This paper offers a novel interpretation of Wittgenstein’s early conception of ethics and the good ethical life. Initially, it critically examines the widespread view according...     

Life as a Pregnant Genetic Counselor

Pregnancy is a life-changing experience that many, if not most, women will experience during their lives. Though exciting, it can present challenges, both physical and psychological. Those challenges may be amplified when working in a prenatal setting. Here, one genetic counselor discusses her experiences, and the lessons she learned, as a new counselor trying to learn the ropes while simultaneously navigating the unfamiliar territory of her pregnancy.     

Living Politically: An Irigarayan Notion of Agency as a Way of Life

This paper formulates Luce Irigaray's notion of agency as a political way of life. I argue that agency, within an Irigarayan framework, is both the outcome and the condition of a political life, aimed at creating political transformations. As Irigaray hardly addresses the topic of agency per se, I suggest understanding Irigaray's textual style as implying specific “technologies of self” in the Foucauldian sense, that is, as self‐applied social practices that reshape social reality, one's relations to oneself, and enhance one's freedom and pleasures in these relations. This interpretation aims to extract concrete transformative practices, which, by shaping one's sense of self in relation to others, create oneself as a free and active subject.     

Nature and Eros: an Educational Process for Engaging With a Living Universe

Nature and Eros is an integral educational process offered to graduate students at the California Institute of Integral Studies. This course was developed in response to the illusion, operative throughout Western industrialized culture, that we are separate selves living upon the earth. Across many disciplines we are awakening to the knowledge that we are living organisms intricately woven into the ever-evolving vibrant web of life. The central aim of Nature and Eros is to support a shift in our perception of this larger web and activate the lived recognition of our deepest identity as an inextricable part of cosmic evolution.     

基于农民视角的集中居住政策选择——以扬州市为例

以2009年对扬州市24个行政村的实地调查为基础,本文对社会主义新农村建设背景下农民集中居住的需求进行了考察。研究结果表明,有一定比例的农民具有明确的集中居住的需求,且文化程度较高、家庭收入主要来源于非农业、收入水平较高的农户集中居住的需求相对较强。但对大多数的经济欠发达地区而言,农民的文化程度相对较低,农业收入是主要的家庭收入来源,且农户的收入水平不足以支撑居住集中化过程中房屋搬迁和重建的相关费用时,比较适合农民生产和生活的居住形式还是村庄。     

Constructivism Contested: Implications of a Genetic Perspective in Psychology

Constructivism is an approach to knowledge and learning that focuses on the active role of knowers. Sanchez and Loredo (Integrative Psychological & Behavioral Science 43:332–349, 2009) propose a classification of constructivist thinkers and address what they perceive to be internal problems of present-day constructivism. The remedy they propose is a return to the genetic constructivism of James Mark Baldwin, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky. In this article we first raise the question of whether thinkers like Baldwin, Vygotsky, Maturana and Varela are adequately depicted as constructivists, and subsequently argue that constructivism is caught in an overly epistemic version of the subject/object dichotomy. We then introduce a genetic logic that is not based on the Hegelian dialectics of negation and mediation, but rather on the idea of the recursive consensual coordination of actions that give rise to stylized cultural practices. We argue that a genuinely genetic and generative psychology should be concerned with the multifarious and ever-changing nature of human ‘life’ and not merely with the construction of knowledge about life.     

Living With the AIDS Virus: A Representative Case

A human sciences, multilevel, hermeneutic approach was employed to study intensively the relevant life experiences of a 21-year-old male expert consultant who had tested positive for the AIDS virus but who was asymptomatic. The study is presented both as a methodological example of this type of research and as a contribution to understanding an important personal and social issue. Under supervision, the initiating investigator collected anamnestic, behavioral, and projective data, as well as dream reports and spontaneously produced artistic material from the expert consultant. A narrative was produced to describe the study, and the data were integrated in terms of five themes: feeling infected and infectious; facing death and dying; ambivalence; uncertainty; and secrecy. Special features of this method of research are discussed, as is its relevance to the needs and interests of professionals who work with this population.     

Genetic Counseling: A Transnational Perspective

Although the basic goal and components of genetic counseling appears to be the same across the globe, judged by my experiences there are significant differences in the provision of genetic counseling services in Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) and India. There is poor recognition of the professional status of a genetic counselor in India at present. This may be partly because genetic counseling itself is a relatively new discipline within the medical field in India, although some types of genetic services and research have been conducted since 1960s. In this paper, I aim to provide insight from my personal transnational experiences.     

To Be or Never to Have Been: Anti-Natalism and a Life Worth Living

David Benatar argues that being brought into existence is always a net harm and never a benefit. I disagree. I argue that if you bring someone into existence who lives a life worth living (LWL), then you have not all things considered wronged her. Lives are worth living if they are high in various objective goods and low in objective bads. These lives constitute a net benefit. In contrast, lives worth avoiding (LWA) constitute a net harm. Lives worth avoiding are net high in objective bads and low in objective goods. It is the prospect of a LWA that gives us good reason to not bring someone into existence. Happily, many lives are not worth avoiding. Contra Benatar, many are indeed worth living. Even if we grant Benatar his controversial asymmetry thesis, we have no reason to think that coming into existence is always a net harm.     

Character Strengths and Life Satisfaction in Later Life: an Analysis of Different Living Conditions

The aim of this study was to explore the role of character strengths and their associations to life satisfaction in older people. We were interested in studying several transitions that are specific for older people: aging, retirement, living alone, and being widowed. We examined the relationships of these demographic characteristics and living conditions with character strengths and studied their effects on the association of character strengths with life satisfaction. In a cross-sectional analysis, 15,598 older adults (aged 46–93 years) who had completed measures on character strengths, life satisfaction, and demographic characteristics and living conditions were selected from an existing database. Overall, analyses revealed positive associations of most character strengths with age, and higher scores in most character strengths for the employed (vs. the retired) and those living with a partner (vs. those living alone), while only few relationships with being widowed (vs. being married) were observed. Further, the contribution of character strengths to life satisfaction generally decreased slightly with age, but increased for certain character strengths, such as modesty or prudence. Also, stronger relationships between several character strengths and life satisfaction were found for retired people and those living alone, while being widowed did not affect these relationships. The results demonstrate how character strengths might contribute to the life satisfaction of older adults in various living conditions and thereby offer a starting point for strengths-based programs in later life.