Grounded Theory in Genetic Counseling Research: An Interpretive Perspective

As qualitative inquiry has gained wider acceptance in genetic counseling research, it has become increasingly important for researchers and those who evaluate their work to recognize the diversity of methods that fall under this broad umbrella. Some of these methods adhere to the traditional conventions of scientific research (e.g., objectivity, reliability, validity, replicability, causality and generalizability). When such studies are evaluated by reviewers who are well versed in scientific methods, the rigor of the study may be readily apparent. However, when researchers are using methods that do not conform to traditional scientific conventions, the distinction between well conducted and poorly conducted studies may become more difficult to discern. This article focuses on grounded theory because it is a widely used qualitative method. We highlight key components of this method in order to contrast conventions that fall within a scientific paradigm to those that fall within an interpretivist paradigm. The intent is to illustrate how the conventions within these two different paradigms yield different types of knowledge claims—both of which can advance genetic counseling theory and practice.     

Reexamining Bases of Power From an Attributional Perspective1

Four replications of Rodrigues' (1995) study on genotypical similarities of Raven's (1965) power taxonomy are reported. Rodrigues found that compliance induced by reward, informational, and referent power is perceived as more internal and controllable than compliant behavior induced by expert, legitimate, and coercive power. The replications included 4 new aspects: (a) subjects are highly ego-involved in the hypothetical situation presented; (b) subjects are actors rather than observers; (c) subjects are from another culture; and (d) subjects are asked to play the role of a supervisor and apply sanctions to the person who complied as a result of the influence attempt, thus affording an empirical testing of Weiner's (1995) thought-affect-action sequence when responsibility judgments are made. The results of all 5 studies, with a total of 570 subjects, support Rodrigues' (1995) findings and confirm Weiner's (1995) hypothesis     

Counseling Ethnic Children and Youth From an Adlerian Perspective

The authors discuss how Adler's Individual Psychology model offers professional counselors, especially school counselors, valuable insights in the counseling of ethnic children and youths. An overview of Adlerian concepts is presented, and the relevance is discussed. Applicable strategies and interventions are presented with pertinent examples.     

A Reconsideration of Altruism From an Evolutionary and Psychodynamic Perspective

Altruistic behavior and motivation has traditionally been regarded as a defense mechanism defined by the vicissitudes of instinctual gratification. In this article, we suggest that there exists a substantial body of evidence from the fields of ethology, infant research, and experimental psychology to support the existence of an independently motivated altruism that is nondefensive in nature. We attempt to show how the view of altruism as a universal motivational system stems from the recent developments in evolutionary theory and contributes to our understanding of intrapsychic factors influencing human behavior in general and the process of psychotherapy in particular. It is not our goal to prove the existence of "pure altruism" that can never be derived from selfish motives. Rather, our thesis is that self-oriented and altruistic motivations are equal and essential partners in human evolution and development. It is the optimal balance of these two forces that is necessary for evolutionary advancement and for psychological health.     

组织社会化研究的整合：交互作用视角

组织社会化是个体由组织的外部成员转化为具有参与性和效益性内部人员的适应过程。当前组织社会化研究零碎、分裂,缺少统一理论做指导,亟须进行有效的整合。在论述整合的必要性的基础上,重点分析符号互动与组织社会化的关系,并建立组织社会化的交互作用模型,最后指出了模型的验证、细化及重视中介和调节变量等问题     

Interpretive neutrality

Published clinical examples are used to show how both contemporary ego psychological approaches and the relational approach are pre-structural, in the sense that they implicitly appeal to Freud's earlier, layering model. In this framework, defense and defended-against are seen as categorically different, with the consequence that both interpretation and the goals of analysis are necessarily normative. Viewed in this perspective, interpretive neutrality represents an unrealistic absence of influence. This perspective can also account for the widespread pessimism regarding exclusive reliance on interpretation and the consequent belief in the need to rely on the impact of the analytic relationship.     

如此的“禁忌”

一天,笔者上班路过蔡正街,偶然遇上一位旧时的友人,他头发深长、胡须满面,衣着也不太整洁,看上去诚然叫人满腹狐疑。这是怎么回事呢?几年前的他,并不是“傻子”、也不是“呆子”、更没有“神经”。如今又为何变成这等模样呢?原来,     

Making Group Brainstorming More Effective: Recommendations From an Associative Memory Perspective

Much literature on group brainstorming has found it to be less effective than individual brainstorming. However, a cognitive perspective suggests that group brainstorming could be an effective technique for generating creative ideas. Computer simulations of an associative memory model of idea generation in groups suggest that groups have the potential to generate ideas that individuals brainstorming alone are less likely to generate. Exchanging ideas by means of writing or computers, alternating solitary and group brainstorming, and using heterogeneous groups appear to be useful approaches for enhancing group brainstorming.     

Marital Relationships: A Social Exchange Theory Perspective

The central thesis of this article is the treatment of the marital relationship within the context of social exchange theory. This article opens with a discussion of marital solidarity and marital power from a social exchange perspective. Next, the article addresses the differences between social exchange and economic exchange in order to provide insight in delineating marital relationships in a social exchange context. The conceptualization of couple therapy in terms of social exchange theory is next discussed. Finally, the article closes with a discussion of the deficiencies of social exchange theory as an attempt to delimit the scope of treating marital relationships as a social exchange system.     

How Category Selection Impacts Inference Reliability: Inheritance Inference From an Ecological Perspective

This article presents results from a simulation-based study of inheritance inference, that is, inference from the typicality of a property among a “base” class to its typicality among a subclass of the class. The study aims to ascertain which kinds of inheritance inferences are reliable, with attention to the dependence of their reliability upon the type of environment in which inferences are made. For example, the study addresses whether inheritance inference is reliable in the case of “exceptional subclasses” (i.e., subclasses that are known to be atypical in some respect) and attends to variations in reliability that result from variations in the entropy level of the environment. A further goal of the study is to show that the reliability of inheritance inference depends crucially on which sorts of base classes are used in making inferences. One approach to inheritance inference treats the extension of any atomic predicate as a suitable base class. A second approach identifies suitable base classes with the cells of a partition (of a preselected size k) of the domain of objects that satisfies the condition of maximizing the similarity of objects that are assigned to the same class. In addition to permitting more inferences, our study shows that the second approach results in inheritance inferences that are far more reliable, particularly in the case of exceptional subclasses.     

Influencing Health and Well-Being Internationally Using an Occupation-Based Perspective: Reflections From Cambodia

This article describes the experience of two occupational therapy educators who have spent time doing disability-related work in Cambodia, a country that is in the process of rebuilding its economic, education, and health infrastructure after years of war and turbulence. The authors describe their experiences, and reflect on important principles of working overseas including: setting aside assumptions and pre-laid plans; letting the reality on the ground guide decision-making and action; respecting local culture; creating strong programs through local participation and capacity-building; attending to systems issues; building bridges through attention to language and communication; and valuing the unique contributions that occupational therapy can make to international development efforts.     

Slippery Slopes and Collapsing Taboos

A slippery slope argument is an argument to this twofold effect. First, that if a policy or practice P is permitted, then we lack the dialectical resources to demonstrate that a similar policy or practice P* is not permissible. Since P* is indeed not permissible, we should not endorse policy or practice P. At the heart of such arguments is the idea of dialectical impotence, the inability to stop the acceptance of apparently small deviations from a heretofore secure policy or practice from leading to apparently large and unacceptable deviations. Using examples of analogical arguments and sorites arguments I examine this phenomenon in the context of collapsing taboos.     

Religious Diversity From a Jewish Perspective

The exploration of spiritual and religious diversity may receive less attention in counselor education than is warranted, resulting in counselors who are unprepared to deal with spiritual and religious issues in counseling. This trend could have a negative impact on Jewish clients, as well as on other religious clients, who feel that issues related to their identity are ignored. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (2001) has recognized that religious diversity is an integral component of the multicultural counseling movement, but counselor education and training programs, as a whole, still need to embrace this standard.     

Biographical Transitions From a Midlife Perspective

Recent advances in life-span developmental psychology suggest that individual lives can be characterized as a series of interrelated transitions. The question of when and how past transitions have been experienced and how they affect subsequent ageing may be critical to understanding midlife adjustment. The aim of this study is (a) to investigate timing and emotional valence of experienced normative and silent transitions of middle-aged persons, and (b) to discover the impact of past transitions on current well-being and on anticipation of old age. Analysis of interview data from 268 persons suggest a considerable stability in the basic structure of human biography, but also evidence for age group, gender, and personality differences in the subjective perception of the life-course, adjustment and future anticipation in middle age. Emotional valence of puberty and that of personality variables were found to be important predictors of actual psychological well-being and anticipation of old age.     

Beloved Women: Nurturing the Sacred Fire of Leadership From an American Indian Perspective

Counseling professionals are taught to rely heavily on theories and interventions steeped in a Western, masculinized worldview. This article explores a paradigm shift by providing a contrasting cultural view of leadership among women. The “crosswalk” between the American Indian perspective of nurturing leadership in women and the theoretical basis of relational‐cultural theory is explored as a way of adding critical, ancient knowledge about leadership to the counseling profession. Implications for mentoring female leaders are presented.     

Interpretive biases in chronic insomnia: an investigation using a priming paradigm

Disorder-congruent interpretations of ambiguous stimuli characterize several psychological disorders and have been implicated in their maintenance. Models of insomnia have highlighted the importance of cognitive processes, but the possibility that biased interpretations are important has been minimally investigated. Hence, a priming methodology was employed to investigate the presence of an interpretive bias in insomnia. A sample of 78 participants, differing in the presence of a diagnosis of insomnia, severity of sleep disturbance, and sleepiness, was required to read ambiguous sentences and make a lexical decision about target words that followed. Sleepiness at the time of the experiment was associated with the likelihood with which participants made insomnia and threat consistent interpretations of ambiguous sentences. The results suggest that there is a general bias towards threatening interpretations when individuals are sleepy and suggests that cognitive accounts of insomnia require revision to include a role for interpretative bias when people are sleepy. Future research is required to investigate whether this interpretive bias plays a causal role in the maintenance of insomnia.