A Case for an Expanded Framework of Ethics in Practice

Using a case vignette as an illustration, an expanded framework for examining ethical issues in human service practice is proposed. The article argues that the helping relationship is multiply constructed through discursive fields, rather than being a given, and that the lens of ethics must be widened to understand both the highly contradictory nature of practice, with its accompanying paradoxes, and the broader structures that constrain and influence practitioners. The article draws on the centrality of the concept of ethical trespass to recognize the inevitability of some level of harm in the application of human service work, despite intention or skill. At the same time, investigating workers' uses of resistance to the dominant discourses is suggested as a means to edge toward the reduction of trespass.     

An Evolutionary Life History Framework for Psychopathology

In this article, I outline a general framework for the evolutionary analysis of mental disorders based on the concepts of life history theory. I synthesize and extend a large body of work showing that individual differences in life history strategy set the stage for the development of psychopathology. My analysis centers on the novel distinction between fast spectrum and slow spectrum disorders. I describe four main causal pathways from life history strategies to psychopathology, argue that psychopathology can arise at both ends of the fast–slow continuum of life history variation, and provide heuristic criteria for classifying disorders as fast or slow spectrum pathologies. I then apply the fast–slow distinction to a diverse sample of common mental disorders: externalizing disorders, schizophrenia and autism spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, and depression. The framework integrates previously disconnected models of psychopathology within a common frame of reference and has far-reaching implications for the classification of mental disorders.     

Professional Women's Midcareer Satisfaction: Toward an Explanatory Framework

For the last two decades, professional women have entered the workforce at an unprecedented pace. Despite their labor force participation rates, numerous studies reveal that professional women face stereotyping, struggle with bias in performance appraisal, promotion, and salary, and are confronted with serious work/life tradeoffs as they climb the corporate ladder. Yet, relatively little is known about how satisfied professional women are with their careers, particularly as they move beyond entry level into midcareer. What are the critical factors that explain women's midcareer satisfaction? What factors explain differences among women in their midcareer satisfaction? Drawing on streams of research in gender and organizations, careers, sociology, and psychology, this paper begins to map out key demographic, career history, organizational, job, and stress factors proposed to explain professional women's midcareer satisfaction. Directions for future research are highlighted.

     

Amplifying and Attenuating Inequity in Collaborative Learning: Toward an Analytical Framework

Abstract

Research on collaborative learning has focused on its potential to foster successful problem solving. Less attention, though, has been given to issues of equity. In this article, we investigate how inequity can become amplified and attenuated within collaborative learning through small interactional moves that accumulate to produce broader patterns of equity or inequity. Our theoretical perspective utilizes Boaler’s notion of relational equity and introduces what we term participatory equity. Research was conducted in a computer science course co-taught by the authors and taken by upper-elementary students. Data sources include audio recordings of students’ collaborative interactions, ethnographic field notes, student work, and student surveys. This article focuses on a single student, Jason, and his dyadic interactions, and builds upon our previous analyses of his interactions with four higher-performing partners. Findings reveal how the interplay between classroom structures and student enactments shaped two types of inequity during collaborative learning. We conclude by discussing implications for theorizing and analyzing equity and inequity, as well as pedagogical considerations for structuring collaborative learning to attenuate inequity.     

Parent vs. Self-Report: Contributions Toward Diagnosis of Adolescent Psychopathology

Assessment of psychopathology in adolescents can be complicated due to uncertainties about who should be considered the primary informant. While a multimethod, multiinformant approach to assessment allows for a thorough assessment, it can also result in contradictory findings. The purpose of this study was to use a sample of 121 adolescents to investigate issues of parent-adolescent agreement on behavior rating scales and a structured diagnostic interview. Additionally, this study evaluated whether adolescent report offers unique information to the assessment beyond the parent's report. The sample included both normal controls and adolescents who met criteria for diagnosis of an Internalizing or Externalizing disorder based on the DSM-IV criteria. Agreement between parents and adolescents on the Diagnostic Interview for Children and Adolescents—Revised (DICA-R) was low for ADHD (39.4%) and Externalizing Disorders (41.1%) and moderate for Internalizing Disorders (56.6%). A significant difference was found between the number of ADHD symptoms reported, with parents reporting more symptoms (M = 9.42) than adolescents (M = 8.34). Regression analysis indicated that the adolescent completed Youth Self-report (YSR) contributed unique information beyond the parent completed measures in predicting both the adolescent and the parent interviews for Internalizing Disorders. This finding emphasizes the need to continue to collect self-report information, especially when assessing Internalizing disorders, which inherently contain symptoms indicating high-risk behaviors such as suicide ideation.     

Competencies of Process: Toward a Relational Framework for Integrated Care

As integrated care (IC) has gained more traction within both the psychosocial and medical fields, the need to train medical family therapy students and established professionals in this care typology has increased in tandem. To address this stated need, there is a large body of literature pertaining to models of care, typologies of intervention, clinical and financial effectiveness, and now a burgeoning discussion related to the academic and practice-based competencies necessary for IC practice. While the ability of the medical family therapist as behavioral health provider (MedFT/BHP) to practice in integrated settings may rely on an understanding of population-based medicine, disease etiology, medication and psychopharmacology, as well as augmentations to patient conceptualization and practice, all of the specifics related to that care are ultimately leveraged on the relationships formed by the MedFT/BHP with their healthcare colleagues. What this means is while we have attempted to distill the gestalt of integrated care into its major practice-based parts (e.g., model development and implementation, competencies, financial viability, efficacy/effectiveness, mechanisms of activation, and marketing), we have not adequately described the competencies necessary to set the stage for these types of close working relationships: relationships that make integration, of any kind, a possibility. The following paper was written to discuss three competencies related to the relational process of integration: (a) conceptual flexibility, (b) understanding and acceptance, and (c) acknowledgment and appreciation, as well as how these competencies provide the backdrop against which integrated care, as a practice, can emerge.     

Toward a Life Course Framework for Studying Vulnerability

Interest in the study of vulnerability has experienced impressive growth across various disciplines. To contribute to this major but scattered development in the study of vulnerability, this article argues for a multidisciplinary life-course framework. This framework promotes a systemic and dynamic perspective focused on three complementary research directions: multidimensional, multilevel, and multidirectional. On the basis of this life course perspective, the authors also propose a definition of vulnerability as a dynamic process of stress and resources across various domains of life (i.e., work, family, health, migration, etc.), levels (i.e., person, group, collective), and time (i.e., long-term processes).     

Toward an Anatomy of Mourning: Discipline,Devotion and Liberation in a Freudian-Buddhist Framework

In this essay I first articulate what I take to be an influential and for the most part persuasive model in the western psychoanalytic tradition that is a response to tragic loss, namely, the one that we find in Freud’s little essay entitled ‘Mourning and Melancholia’ (1917). I then use a well-known Buddhist folk tale about the plight of a young woman named Kisagotami to underscore central elements from Buddhist psychology on the subject of suffering that is a consequence of the loss of a young mother’s only child. Fortified by both traditions, I gather together the ingredients for a cross-cultural mental model that serves to explain and to justify as healthy a specific kind of response to a specific form of suffering, namely, the loss of ones’ loved one. I arrive at this model by asking a number of specific questions of both traditions. For instance, what constitutes a non-pathological response to this kind of suffering? What state of mind represents the cessation of such suffering? Is preoccupation with the dead beloved a way of escaping the fact that the person is dead? Is this a form of ignorance that needs to be removed? Is it a form of moral deficiency? Might certain forms and contexts of ignorance, in effect, put one on a path to enlightenment?     

Human Germline CRISPR-Cas Modification: Toward a Regulatory Framework

CRISPR germline editing therapies (CGETs) hold unprecedented potential to eradicate hereditary disorders. However, the prospect of altering the human germline has sparked a debate over the safety, efficacy, and morality of CGETs, triggering a funding moratorium by the NIH. There is an urgent need for practical paths for the evaluation of these capabilities. We propose a model regulatory framework for CGET research, clinical development, and distribution. Our model takes advantage of existing legal and regulatory institutions but adds elevated scrutiny at each stage of CGET development to accommodate the unique technical and ethical challenges posed by germline editing.     

Dissociation vs Repression: A New Neuropsychoanalytic Model for Psychopathology

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis - Recent research on trauma, attachment and neuroscience point at a clear divide in psychopathology between disorders based on repression, (as in Freud's...     

Defining Wellness in Older Adulthood: Toward a Comprehensive Framework

Despite the counseling profession’s widespread interest in wellness, little research has been conducted on wellness in older adulthood. The author reviews the literature to identify current trends in research on wellness among older adults. Out of 273 articles, only 40 (14.63%) used a multidimensional, holistic framework. Further analysis revealed a lack of multidimensional models that were normed on older adults or tailored to their needs. The author concludes with an 8‐dimensional wellness framework to guide future research.     

Toward a Framework for Islamic Psychology and Psychotherapy: An Islamic Model of the Soul

A uniquely Islamic theoretical framework for an Islamic psychology has yet to be established. To do so requires that we understand how human beings are conceptualized within the cosmology that characterizes the Islamic tradition. This paper presents a model of the soul from within an Islamic paradigm, generated through a grounded theory analysis of interviews with 18 key informants with relevant academic or religious expertise. The model elaborates aspects of a mechanism for the development of the soul that constitutes a potential foundation for an Islamic theory of human psychology and has particular relevance for Islamic approaches to psychotherapy.     

Discrimination and Eating Disorder Psychopathology: A Meta-Analysis

Eating disorders occur in diverse populations, and discrimination may be a specific factor that is related to higher eating disorder psychopathology among marginalized individuals. To evaluate the current evidence on this topic, a meta-analysis was used to quantitatively synthesize the literature on discrimination and eating disorder psychopathology across a heterogeneous range of studies. Searches were conducted in peer-reviewed journals and accessible unpublished dissertations of all years through January 2020. Studies were coded by two authors using a tailored coding form, and zero-order bivariate correlations were used as effect size measures. There were 55 cross-sectional studies extracted for inclusion in the meta-analysis. Results showed a small-to-medium association between discrimination and eating disorder psychopathology that was consistent across domains. Effect sizes were typically higher for weight discrimination. For binge eating and general eating disorder pathology, effects were smaller in studies that had larger proportions of women, and for binge eating only, effects were higher in college samples. These findings could suggest that discrimination represents a contributory factor related to eating disorder psychopathology across types of discrimination and eating disorder psychopathology. Implications are discussed for future research on discrimination and psychopathology including possible mechanisms.     

The Relationship Between Parental Alcoholism and Adolescent Psychopathology: A Systematic Examination of Parental Comorbid Psychopathology

The relationship between parental alcohol dependence (with and without comorbid psychopathology) and adolescent psychopathology was examined in a sample of 665 13-17 year-old adolescents and their parents. Results indicated that adolescents who had parents diagnosed with alcohol dependence only did not significantly differ from adolescents who had parents with no psychopathology in regard to any of the measures of psychological symptomatology (substance use, conduct disorder, and depression) or clinical diagnoses (alcohol dependence, marijuana dependence, conduct disorder, or depression) assessed. In contrast, adolescents who had parents diagnosed with alcohol dependence and either comorbid drug dependence or depression were more likely to exhibit higher levels of psychological symptomatology. In addition, adolescents who had parents diagnosed with alcohol dependence, depression, and drug dependence were most likely to exhibit psychological problems. These findings underscore the importance of considering parental comorbid psychopathology when examining the relationship between parental alcoholism and offspring adjustment.     

Responses: Toward an Antiracist Pedagogy

The authors respond here to each other's essays published in this issue of the journal. In “Holding Us Accountable,” Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko respond to Karen Teel's essay, “Getting Out of the Left Lane.” In “Challenges and Convergences,” Karen Teel responds to the essay “Teaching Race” by Anna Floerke Scheid and Elisabeth T. Vasko.