Settling on what we are: The central place of the sense‐of‐self in education,and the implication of the concepts of the teleon and telentropy for the development of the sense‐of‐self

The purpose of this article is to illustrate the centrality of the development of a person's sense‐of‐self in his or her personal growth, and so to justify why educators should deliberately focus the attention of learners on the development of their own senses‐of‐self.

We describe the sense‐of‐self as a person's working hypothesis of what he or she is, as a functioning being. (This is in contrast to the notion of self‐concept, which is composed of the beliefs and evaluations that one has about oneself as a person in a social context.)

To illustrate the centrality of the sense‐of‐self we introduce two associated concepts—the teleon and telentropy. Teleons are “purposeful action patterns,” which may be regarded as the defining characteristic of any living system, including human beings.

Telentropy is similar to entropy (encountered in physics and chemistry), but instead of dealing with the level of disorder in externally described systems, it represents the level of informational confusion existing within an organism regarding its own true nature.

We discuss the implications of the concepts “teleon” and “telentropy” for a person's educability, using examples from daily life and educational institutions.

We provide a number of suggestions for the revising of educational practice to foster the development of the sense‐of‐self in learners. This we demonstrate to have potentially beneficial effects of the general stress levels of society.     

The Journal of Couples Therapy Entelechy Institute CEU Quiz

SUMMARY

The majority of gay male couples are not monogamous. Relationship clinicians can help gay male couples to have a healthy sexually open relationship by working from a family systems perspective. This approach requires the therapist to have an understanding of family systems theory, the Enneagram (a personality topology), gay male sexual culture, as well as being clear of negative countertransference. Assessment of functionality of sexually open gay male relationships is described.     

Systemic-motivational therapy for substance abuse disorders: an integrative model

Although recent reviews of the literature on families and substance misuse offer compelling evidence that inclusion of families significantly improves treatment engagement, retention and outcome, family therapy remains peripheral in most substance abuse treatment programmes. Furthermore, many of the treatment approaches that have been included under the term 'family therapy' continue to focus on the substance abuser as the sole target of treatment. Still conspicuously absent are treatment models based on family systems approaches, with outcomes targeted at non-abusing family members as well. This article presents an overview of one such family-focused substance abuse treatment model – systemic-motivational therapy – that combines a family systems approach with techniques derived from motivational interviewing, but this time is applied to work with the family as a unit. The background for the development of the model will be described, as well as the assessment/consultation, family-level action plan, and aftercare/relapse prevention phases of the treatment approach.     

Social interactional processes within the family: The study of the moment-by-moment family transactions in which human social development is imbedded

A strategy for the study of social interaction in the family is reviewed that places particular emphasis on those variables that have proven useful or hold promise for the identification and understanding of factors that affect human social development. First, the heavy reliance on observational data and other main features of the approach are described. Second, an attempt is made to summarize some of the more significant findings from this type of research that have added significantly to our understanding of social development within the family. Third, the major research methods used in this approach are described, as well as the research that needs to be done in order to improve the methodology. Finally, a number of major gaps in our substantive knowledge about social interaction within the family are indicated.     

Modeling duration of overtaking in two lane highways

The paper attempts to reveal which factors may influence the duration of overtaking in two lane highways. Questions such as what is the duration of young male and female drivers’ overtaking activities and, given that a driver conducts an overtaking maneuver, how long will it take, are addressed using classical survival analysis. Data are collected using a driving simulator. Different models are developed for describing the total overtaking duration, as well as the duration of the acceleration and back-to-lane phases. Results show that the duration of each of the phases of overtaking considered, as well as the total overtaking duration may be best described by a Log–logistic distribution. Analyses point out that, apart from the acceleration phase, the gender is a critical factor to the duration modeling. Other influential factors are the speed difference from the lead vehicle, the speed of opposing traffic, the spacing from the lead and opposing traffic, as well as whether the driver is engaged in multiple overtakes. Finally, the modeling implications to driving assistance systems are discussed.     

Posttraumatic Growth in Combat Veterans

Combat veterans and their families face significant challenges not only to their abilities to cope, but often to their fundamental belief systems. Traumatic events represent assaults on core beliefs, yet at times, produce cognitive processing that can ultimately result in personal transformations called posttraumatic growth (PTG). Clinicians can utilize a systematic therapeutic approach to facilitate PTG as they carry out a relationship of expert companionship. PTG in service members is described in this article, as well as the approach to facilitation of PTG.     

An integrated model for intervention with infants,preschool children,and their maltreating parents

Service delivery systems for maltreating parents need to be comprehensive, integrated, and coordinated in order to address the ecological, developmental, and psychotherapeutic needs of maltreating families. This article presents a center-based, intensive model of intervention for multiproblem, maltreating families. The program described addresses the needs of the entire family; incorporates the evaluation and treatment of the child's, as well as the parent's, development; and provides services in a multifamily group milieu. The following interventions are integrated in the treatment approach: (1) family milieu approach, (2) assistance with functioning of the “parental ego,” (3) traditional therapies, and (4) developmental-structuralist approach to parent-child interaction. Challenges encountered and solutions employed in working with maltreating families are discussed. A detailed case study is presented to illustrate the types of interventions used.     

Existential Trauma Therapy with Men After a Heart Attack

An existential trauma therapy treatment approach with men who are recovering from a heart attack is described as well as the treatment elements within the approach. Single-subject design case material is provided to evaluate and illustrate the described treatment approach.     

Temperament and personality: origins and outcomes

This article reviews how a temperament approach emphasizing biological and developmental processes can integrate constructs from subdisciplines of psychology to further the study of personality. Basic measurement strategies and findings in the investigation of temperament in infancy and childhood are reviewed. These include linkage of temperament dimensions with basic affective-motivational and attentional systems, including positive affect/approach, fear, frustration/anger, and effortful control. Contributions of biological models that may support these processes are then reviewed. Research indicating how a temperament approach can lead researchers of social and personality development to investigate important person-environment interactions is also discussed. Lastly, adult research suggesting links between temperament dispositions and the Big Five personality factors is described.     

An Interactive Model of Career Decision Making

The decision-making model described in this article highlights the interaction between contextual factors, decision triggers, establishing a perspective (frame) of the problem, reframing, and action planning. The interactive perspective is based on process and change and seems particularly relevant in the current social and economic situation. Career counseling with an interactive decision-making approach requires an acknowledgement of external influences as well as of individual variables.     

Work-related stress, the blind men and the elephant

Progress in understanding and developing effective responses to work-related stress has been elusive, patchy, and inconsistent. The reasons for this are reviewed, and the inadequacy of traditional stress management techniques and organisational interventions to tackle it are examined. Although necessary, clinical responses to distressed individuals and organisations in isolation can never deal effectively with the overall increasing levels of stress found. Neither can attempts to 'fit' individuals to cope with ever more demanding work patterns and practices. The reviewed evidence suggests that an integrated approach that acknowledges how social, economic, political, and organisational factors impact on individual needs and values is needed. This integrated approach is described, with its required input from communities and politicians, as well as occupational health specialists. The article concludes that work-related stress is the result of complex psychosocial interactions that simply cannot be effectively understood or treated by any one professional group or theoretical approach.     

An Ecosystemic Approach to Improving Mother-Infant Attachment in a Caribbean Matrifocal Society

Within an ecosystemic framework integrating a cultural-family approach and Bowlby's attachment theory, this paper describes a mother-infant therapeutic program focusing on a high-risk population of infants from dysfunctional extended matrifocal families in the French Caribbean island of Martinique. Some of the factors involved in the disturbed mother-child attachment relationships were identified, and a multisystemic approach for remodeling both internal family processes and interactions between the family and the larger social system were described. The authors stress the importance of using a combination of specialized and non-specialized services which draw upon, and remain embedded in, the family's ecological context and argue for a conceptualization of extended matrifocal family organizations as being resourceful and resilient systems.     

PSYKOANALYSE I DAG

The original psychoanalytic research situation is the two-person dialogue. However, clinical practice in itself is still not an application of systematic case study methodology. In order to approach the question of why we need systematic psychoanalytic research, three types of dialectical tensions are described. Psychoanalysis, like other scientific disciplines, is involved in a dialectics of (1) rationalism versus empiricism, i.e., theory construction and observation; (2) the perspective from within and from without, i.e., subjective self-knowledge versus expert knowledge; (3) continuity or discontinuity between psychoanalysis and adjacent fields of knowledge, as well as realism versus essentialism. The tension between the scientific and the clinical attitudes is discussed. Finally, the question of scientific and private theories is approached. Some of the methodological and epistemological pitfalls in psychoanalysis are seen as a consequence of the close affinity between private explanatory systems and psychoanalytical theories. Rules of evidence are necessary as a control for the unavoidable uncertainty.     

Current Developments in Computer-Assisted Careers Guidance in the USA

Four factors associated with the design and use of computer-assisted careers guidance (CACG) systems in the USA are reviewed, and likely future developments in the field are described. The four major factors include trends in CACG system development, problems related to system development, trends in system use, and problems related to system use. International collaboration in the design and use of CACG systems is identified as one possible strategy for dealing with problems in this area.     

Ecological Neuropsychology: An Alternative to the Deficit Model for Conceptualizing and Serving Students with Learning Disabilities

The present paper contends that children with learning disabilities are better served when assessment and intervention are conceptualized within an ecological neuropsychology perspective than within the traditional deficit model perspective, which is the predominant approach to intervention in medical and educational settings. The deficit method conceptualizes problems as within the child, and the major consequence of this approach is that little time is spent analyzing the learning environment or other systems that might impact the child's ability to be successful in an academic setting. Therefore, rehabilitation efforts have had limited success. In contrast, ecological neuropsychology is a strength-based approach that considers the child, as well as the systems within which he/she interacts, when assessing, diagnosing, and intervening with students who are experiencing learning difficulties.     

Factors Impacting on Career Choices of Technikon Students From Previously Disadvantaged High Schools

Career development is a socially constructed process involving complex interactions among different structures, forces, and systems all constituting spheres of influence. The purpose of this study was to investigate factors that influence career decisions. Eighty respondents (40 males and 40 females with mean age of 22 years) participated in the study. Results revealed that family variables of parental high expectations of children and appropriate communications within the family, as well as factors such as prestige statuses of some occupations, school curricular subjects, academic performance, teacher influences, and peer pressure had strong positive influences on career choices. Barriers to career choices identified included finance, lack of appropriate information, poor academic performance, and unsatisfactory career counseling services. Results suggest need for a better approach to career education in schools and counseling services that are adaptive to social, economic, and cultural contexts.     

Using system dynamics modeling to understand the impact of social change initiatives

Community psychologists have a long history of interest in understanding social systems and how to bring about enduring positive change in these systems. However, the methods that community psychologists use to anticipate and evaluate the changes that result from system change efforts are less well developed. In the current paper, we introduce readers to system dynamics modeling, an action research approach to studying complex systems and the consequences of system change. We illustrate this approach by describing a system dynamics model of educational reform. We provide readers with an introduction to system dynamics modeling, as well as describe the strengths and limitations of the approach for application to community psychology.     

2005 Shneidman Award Address. Integratively assessing risk and protective factors for adolescent suicide

This article briefly reviews key issues in adolescent suicide risk assessment and proposes that assessing risk and protective factors in combination has the best probability of informing the field's understanding of this complex problem. Several newer measures are described along with summaries of their psychometric properties. A recommended protocol utilizing 4 developmentally appropriate, valid, and reliable self-report measures is suggested as a parsimonious way of gathering information on the range of risk and protective factors. Finally, a novel approach of employing short-term longitudinal studies to test models of adolescent suicide attempts is described along with a rationale for not focusing research efforts on completed suicide. Implications of this approach for prevention efforts conclude the article.     

The Fate of the Moros: A Cross-cultural Exploration of Strategies in Complex and Dynamic Decision Making

The ways in which people deal with complex and dynamic problems are shaped by their learning experiences within their culture as well as the functional constraints within which they have to operate. An experiment is described that explores the interaction of culture and ways of problem solving. University students from India and Germany had to work on one of two different versions of a computer-simulated interactive complex problem. The anaylsis focuses on the strategic aspects of problem solving. Indian and German problem solvers clearly differed in their approach: German students used a more active and control-oriented strategy and committed fewer strategic and tactical errors. The results form the basis of a discussion on the factors important in the development of problem-solving expertise.