Helping adolescents in crisis: a case study

Suicide among adolescents is a major mental health problem in the United States. The most recent data on adolescent suicide indicate that approximately 5,170 of those between the ages of 15 and 20 took their lives. Several researchers asserted that in most cases something could have been done to prevent the actual suicide. The author developed five stages (suicidal signs, establishing rapport, making referral, constructive actions, and self-management) that may be used to help adolescents in distress. The five stages were used in a case study to demonstrate the roles played by teacher, friend, and parents in helping an adolescent through a crisis.     

西方细菌学在中国的传播:1894-1949

西方现代细菌学19世纪中叶到20世纪初首先在法国建立,并在德国进一步发展.这一时期,也被介绍到中国.其进入中国有以下几条线索:传教士和来华医生带来有关知识;去西方留学人员带回有关新知识;西方细菌学研究机构在华设立分支机构;战争因素.     

The reciprocal effects of leisure time activities and intellectual functioning in older people: a longitudinal analysis

By using data from a representative longitudinal survey, the authors provide strong evidence that complex leisure time activities increase intellectual functioning for workers and nonworkers. Although the effects were relatively moderate, both the present article and its predecessor on the effects of paid work (C. Schooler. Mulatu, & Oates. 1999) showed that, even in old age, carrying out complex tasks has a positive effect on intellectual processes. In both cases, initially high levels of intellectual functioning led to high levels of environmental complexity, which in turn raised levels of intellectual functioning, thus providing a pathway contributing to the high correlation of intellectual functioning over a 20-year period in middle and late adulthood. The present findings indicate that even in old age carrying out substantively complex tasks builds the capacity to deal with the intellectual challenges such complex environments provide.     

Forging partnerships for mental health: The case of a prefecture in crisis ravaged Greece

Public health and in particular mental health have been severely affected by the multitude of socioeconomic crises experienced by people in Greece. The severe austerity programmes, have reduced access to health services and increased demand for publically funded health care. This paper presents a case study focusing on the impact of these measures on the lives of mental health providers in one prefecture in Crete. Focus group methodology was applied and the data were analysed using thematic analysis. Analyses revealed three superordinate themes that converge at many levels and appear to be going counter to the circumstances: firstly, ‘forging partnerships for mental health’; secondly, ‘extending our reach’; and thirdly ‘transformations in professional identity through praxis’. These themes are discussed using the words of the participants and the relevant literature.     

The Catholic Church and the crisis: the case of Portugal

This article investigates the role of the Roman Catholic Church in Portugal in the aftermath of the economic and financial crisis. Through a focus on the case of Lisbon, we explore how the crisis resulted in increased collaboration between religious organizations and the public administration. The crisis in fact changed the opportunity structure of the Portuguese Catholic world, which has reacted basically in three different ways. Firstly, the Episcopal Conference has pointed out the relevance of subsidiarity in the welfare field—and, more broadly, as a principle of societal organization—in the attempt to re-negotiate its role and relevance within Portuguese society, drawing on the activity and the reputation of the Catholic organizations. Secondly, Caritas and the National Commission of Justice and Peace have been quite vocal in denouncing the shortcomings of the Government and the effects of the austerity measures, calling for equality and justice and putting pressure on the Episcopal Conference as well as the central government. Thirdly, local organizations—including religious organizations, such as Caritas—have been gaining a new important role in the coordination and provision of welfare services, as the crisis accelerated the trends towards subsidiarity and governance.     

The invention of uncertainty in American psychology: intellectual conflict and rhetorical resolution, 1890-1930

A sharp and personal polemical style characterized psychology as a new human science in American universities at the turn of the 20th century. When the experimental pursuit of truth about the mind produced quarreling rather than clarity, psychologists experienced a crisis of confidence. One solution was rhetorical: the use of a disclaimer that all current knowledge was rudimentary and a call for further research to end contention. The wording established a public tone of modesty and fostered collegiality. Scientific disagreements and underlying personal tensions remained, but conventional phrases promising future resolution of disputes contributed to a language of good manners and thereby facilitated debate. Nonetheless, the verbal formula of deferred hopes also made uncertainty seem normative. Confessions of tentativeness helped lay a historical foundation for routine investigation in psychology, but emphasis on incompleteness as an explanation of discord also made experimentation seem perpetual and truth elusive.     

Early education,intellectual development,and school performance: A reply to Arthur Jensen and J. McVicker Hunt

In this response to the critiques by Arthur Jensen and J. McVicker Hunt, we focus on three issues that clarity the results and conclusions of our original paper. These issues include the meaning of g, the permanence of effects produced by early education, and the educational significance of IQ gains produced by early education programs. In addition, since the nature of longitudinal studies insures the accumulation of new data to test and refine conclusions drawn from earlier data, we begin by briefly summarizing new data from our study pertinent to these three issues.     

The interaction of individual psychological crisis and time phases in basketball

Strain in basketball competition can be structured temporally into three psychologically meaningful phases: a beginning, main, and endphase of each half-time. The relevance of these phases for the diagnosis of an individual psychological crisis during the competition is discussed. Empirical evidence is based on the results of a study conducted on 28 basketball experts, who were asked to assess the components of the Bayesian likelihood ratio (diagnosticity) for each phase, thereby evaluating the crisis-relevance of that phase. Analysis of variance shows the significant influences of the hypothesized crisis-noncrisis character, half-time (first-second) and phase (beginning, main, end) on the (considerable) diagnostic relevance of the time-phases. The authors briefly discuss the meaning of the present results.     

The enduring intellectual legacy of B. F. Skinner: A citation count from 1966-1989

It is frequently claimed that the influence of behaviorism in general and of B. F. Skinner in particular, is declining. Data obtained from the Social Sciences Citation Index for the years 1966-1989 document that in the last twenty-four years the number of citations to the works of Skinner has been reasonably steady. There is no evidence of a decline in the absolute number of such citations, suggesting that claims of the demise of behaviorism may be, once again, premature.     

Family crisis intervention in war contexts: a case study of a traumatised Palestinian family

The aim of this study was to analyse the phases of an innovative in vivo exposure intervention in which all family members were present at the scene of a traumatic incident. Clinical practice has borne out the efficacy of family intervention and its benefits for traumatised individuals and family groups. The intervention discussed here was conducted with a Palestinian family that had suffered trauma in a missile attack during the Israeli–Lebanese war of summer 2006. Narrative and meaning-reconstruction methods were combined with cognitive-behavioural techniques. The study highlights the limitations of the intervention as well as suggesting future directions for integrated models of crisis intervention; development of an evidence-based model is recommended.