Is This Relevant? Physician Perceptions,Clinical Relevance,and Religious Content in Clinical Interactions

Despite wide support among physicians for practicing patient‐centered care, clinical interactions are primarily driven by physicians’ perception of relevance. While some will perceive a connection between religion and patient health, this relevance will be less apparent for others. I argue that physician responses when religious/spiritual topics come up during clinical interactions will depend on their own religious/spiritual background. The more central religion is for the physician, the greater his or her perception of religion's impact on health outcomes and his or her inclusion of religion/spirituality within clinical interactions. Using a nationally representative sample of physicians in the United States and mediated path models, I estimate models for five different physician actions to evaluate these relationships. I find that a physician's religious background is strongly associated with whether or not he or she thinks religion impacts health outcomes, which is strongly predictive of inclusion. I also find that not all of the association between inclusion and physicians’ religious background is mediated by thinking religion impacts health outcomes. Issues of religion's relevance for medicine are important to the degree that religious beliefs are an important dimension of patients’ lives.     

Edelson's contributions to group psychology: a contemporary perspective

If you are already familiar with Marshall Edelson's writings, you may be expecting this article to be difficult and challenging or outmoded. Since his work with groups began in the 1950s, so much has changed in how we treat the mentally ill, how we train mental health professionals, how hospitals are managed, and how treatments for patients are designed and delivered. This article was written in the belief that nothing is of more lasting relevance than a story of courage and commitment in the search for knowledge to relieve human suffering. Edelson's career is such a story. Intent upon advancing our understanding of groups and organizations, Edelson embodied a distinctive concern with values and boundaries. This article was begun when his physical health was in rapid decline and completed while he was still able to review it. He died January 17, 2005.     

Effects of (un)employment on young couples’ health and life satisfaction

This study investigated effects of employed and unemployed job status on health outcomes with questionnaires in 50 young couples. Analysis of variance revealed higher pessimism, higher stress levels, and lower life satisfaction in couples in which one partner was unemployed. These couples also exhibited more health risk behaviours compared to couples in which both partners were working. The dyadic analysis of data, using an actor–partner interdependence model, demonstrated strong actor and partner effects for male partner's job status. Being unemployed was significantly associated not only with male partner's life satisfaction but also with the life satisfaction of his female partner. In addition, male partner's pessimism was identified as a significant variable which mediates between male partner's job status and female partner's life satisfaction. The study highlights the relevance of the accomplishment of tasks in the domains of work and partnership during young adulthood and it emphasises the gender specific importance.     

Community‐oriented primary care: a multidisciplinary community‐oriented approach to primary care?

Developing more of a local public health focus, and involving local communities in Great Britain in health care decision‐making, are key aspects of the radically changing face of primary care. Community‐oriented primary care (COPC) is an international model for innovative primary health care delivery historically applied in developing or deprived communities, but increasingly seen as having broader relevance for a wider range of primary care settings. COPC has a long history of development in deprived communities, it is still however seen as innovative. It fits the current requirements of clinical governance and the ‘Modern and Dependable NHS’, but does its long history also provide information about it's pitfalls? COPC is promoted as an approach that is applicable to community mental health problems, community psychologists can provide the expertise to facilitate addressing community mental health in COPC programmes. This paper describes the COPC model and highlights the relevance of the COPC philosophy and the problems of its implementation for community psychologists in primary care. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Work attitudes,career success and health: Evidence from China

Research on the determinants and implications of career success, and in particular on how they are related to health among Chinese workers is scarce. This research explores the impact and relevance of individual attitudes of trust and organizational citizenship behavior on objective and subjective career success, and their relevance to physical and mental health. Further, we explore the moderating role of a career system on the relationships between work attitudes and career success. Using a random sample of 10,372 people in China we used multi-level linear regression methodology to explore a mediation–moderation model based on organizational theories. We found support for the impact of organizational citizenship behaviors and trust, for both objective and subjective career success as mediators of mental and physical health, and for a career system as a moderator, with significant differences emerging between workers employed in the public and private sectors. The results are important as they shed light on the relationship between work and life attitudes on outcomes of high relevance at national level. The original contribution would be of interest to policy makers at both organizational and national level.     

The Models of Picasso's Rose Period: The Family of Saltimbanques

The word “model” in this context has a variety of meanings. The concept of “model” encompasses the external person who is represented by the artist, as well as the internal, conscious and unconscious, past and present mental representations of other individuals and the work of other artists. In all of these meanings, the relationships of artist and model have been quite specific to the artist under consideration and the historical–cultural period. For Picasso, the relationship of artist and model was particularly intense, reflecting myriad aspects of his personality and artistic development. The theme of artist and model was the subject of many of his paintings and graphic works. We focus particularly on his use of harlequins, saltimbanques, and circus performers during his blue and rose periods. The change in predominant models and moods between periods is noted. Among the issues considered is the relevance of these models in this particular period. Why were they especially salient objects for identification and for his artistic identity? Identification with the model may represent or be linked to earlier identifications of adolescence and childhood. We discuss the implications of these portrayals for his object relationships and the magical power, possession, and control in the development of his art. The painting “The Family of Saltimbanques,” his most ambitious work to date, the integration and culmination of this theme during this period, is of particular interest.     

RETURNING BARTH TO ANSELM

This article focuses on Barth's explication of Anselm's Proslogion 2-4 in his book on Anselm and attempts to show how Anselm helped clarify for Barth the ontological nature of his own early theology, in particular what he meant by the "is" in his affirmation "God is God." Our contention is that Barth's continual pointing to Anselm's Fides Quaerens Intellectum as a vital key to his own theology should not be overlooked. In fact, we argue that only by returning Barth to Anselm in this way can we begin to understand more thoroughly one of the key contributions of Barth's theology generally and its potential relevance to contemporary onto-theological debates.     

Our element: Flesh and democracy in Merleau-Ponty

Although Merleau-Ponty??s early phenomenology of perception and his essays on art, politics, and language already showed an affinity between the aesthetic phenomena of expression and style and the political and cultural dynamics of society at large, this paper specifically focuses on his late theorizing of the notion of flesh and its relevance to his late understanding of politics and democracy. The emergence of flesh as a concept was contemporary to Merleau-Ponty??s break with Marxism as a philosophical model and with revolutionary dialectics as a political project. It is by showing that such a break was consistently grounded on his theorizing of the being flesh of both the body and of society that this paper shows Merleau-Ponty??s unique contribution to democratic theory and to contemporary political philosophy. In the course of this analysis, it will become clear that in philosophically breaking with the position of a ??no that is a yes????i.e. the model of the revolution, which implies a total negation of the given that becomes a total affirmation of the new order (dictatorship) once in power??he would politically embrace the Weberian ??heroic liberalism????or his ??non-communist left????of parliamentary democracy.     

Daniel Stern: Microanalysis and the Empirical Infant Research Foundations

ABSTRACT

Daniel Stern changed the face of psychoanalysis, as well as that of infant research. He was a brilliant, innovative, and playful thinker. Psychoanalysis particularly values his contributions on the relevance of infant research to adult clinical practice and theory, for which he is best known. But this work has its foundation in his early empirical infant research, which is less well known. I believe that a better appreciation of the original empirical basis of his work using microanalysis will deepen our appreciation of his later thinking.

In this article I return to the beginning of his work, using frame-by-frame microanalysis of film and, particularly, his first paper published in 1971. I sketch out some of the important findings and ideas emerging from this paper that continued to influence his thinking throughout his career. This research was conducted in the 1970s, the period in which I worked with him directly.     

Innovations in the Identification and Referral of Mothers at Risk for Depression: Development of a Peer-to-Peer Model

This paper describes a feasibility study of a peer-delivered prevention intervention to identify mothers at high risk for depression and facilitate engagement in mental health services for their emotional health. Sixteen family peer advocates and their supervisors partnered with academic researchers over a period of 6 months to develop a four-session intervention that focused on identifying symptoms of depression, providing education about depression and treatment, actively linking caregivers to treatment for their own emotional health, and assisting caregivers in becoming active participants in their mental health care. Collaborating with peers to develop the model enhanced its perceived relevance and utility, and resulted in an intervention that was complimentary to their roles and the mission of peer-delivered support services. Peer/professional partnerships may be beneficial for enhancing the feasibility and acceptability of research efforts; the impact of peers’ participation in the current project and the need for future research to develop and study peer-delivered models is discussed.     

Shakespeare and Catholicism

Abstract

This paper gives an overview of current research into the relevance of Catholic sources—and Catholic culture generally—in the age of Shakespeare. It outlines some Catholic features of his works, focusing particularly on evidence that Shakespeare was familiar with, and influenced by, the writings of the Jesuit, Robert Southwell. The purpose is not to speculate on what Shakespeare's own religious convictions may have been, but simply to draw attention to the continuing relevance of continuing Catholic culture, Catholic tradition and Catholic literary sources for the study of Shakespeare in particular and the period in which he lived in general.     

Don Quixote as Moral Narcissist: Implications for Mid-Career Male Ministers

This essay uses the figure of Don Quixote to explore the mid-career crisis experienced by many male ministers. It proposes that Don Quixote is less problematic than Don Juan for ethical reasons, but employs psychoanalytic interpretations to reveal the complexity of his self-structure, focusing especially on his moral narcissism, proneness to paranoia and melancholia, and his fictive personality. While evidence of his disordered mind, these diagnoses also testify to his nobility under trying circumstances. Heinz Kohut's concept of the transformation of narcissism is introduced and implications for the future destiny of Don Quixote are drawn. These implications have relevance to the issue of survival in ministry after the effects of the mid-career crisis have been absorbed. Pastoral Theology at     

Peirce Snatching: Towards a More Pragmatic View of Evidence

The running debate between Peter Achinstein and his critics concerning the nature of scientific evidence is misguided as each side attempts to explicate a distinct notion of evidence. Achinstein's approach, however, is valuable in helping to point out a problem with Carnap's statistical relevance model. By claiming an increase in probability to be necessary for evidence, the received view is incapable of accounting for evidence which is statistically irrelevant but explanatorily relevant. A broader view of evidence which can account for pragmatic concerns such as explanation is thereby required. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reseña de libros

Abstract

This article examines the paradoxical place occupied by Kurt Lewin in the history of social psychology. By analysing an exhaustive corpus of all French-language social psychology textbooks published between 1946 and 2000, we attempt to bring to light both the frequency of references to the author and the rhetoric employed to present his scientific contribution. Our results reveal a paradox underlying the way in which this eminent social psychologist is referred to. While the importance of his role in the formation of this discipline is emphatically reinforced, the full extent of his relevance is not accounted for. This paradox thus takes the form of a marginalisation, which is manifested in a tendency to concentrate on only a portion of his publications, in the stereotyped presentation of his experiments, and in the insufficient context provided for his studies.     

An evaluation of a hospital-based trainee counselling psychology practitioner's service

Counselling psychology is in its infancy in the National Health Service. There is a professional need to evaluate what its practitioners do and with what outcomes. This study is of the work of a trainee counselling psychologist, in a clinical psychology department, and covers his work over 30 months from first appointment. Numerical data were accessed from historical records relating to the author's three working areas: a psychiatric hospital's outpatient department; a university's student health service; and a short-contact primary care counselling clinic. A sample of closed-case clients from the hospital outpatients and the student health service was contacted, and sent questionnaires to elicit their views on the service received. Primary care clients were excluded from this part of the study because of service dissimilarity to the other working domains and access problems. Case loads, case types, frequencies and distributions of client attendances and non-attendances were examined, compared and contrasted using tables, graphs and statistical methods. Clients’ questionnaire responses were tabulated and commented on. It was apparent that although the same general pattern of anxiety-clustered cases predominated in each working area, in other respects the service demands were different. The data have relevance for service design, staffing and management.     

One nation under God? Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s changing Fiqh of citizenship in the light of the Islamic legal tradition

In the wake of the Arab Revolutions of 2011, countries in the Middle East are grappling with how Islamists might be included within a regime of democratic political pluralism and how their aspirations for an “Islamic state” could affect the citizenship status of non-Muslims. While Islamic jurisprudence on this issue has traditionally classified non-Muslims in Islamic society as protected peoples or dhimma, endowed with what the authors term “minority citizenship”, this article will examine how the transnational intellectual Wasa?iyya or Centrist movement, of which Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is the figurehead, have sought to develop a new fiqh of citizenship in which Muslims and non-Muslims have equal civil and political rights. This article will focus on Yusuf al-Qaradawi on the basis that his very recent shift in 2010 on the issue is yet to be studied in depth, as well as in view of the fact that the dilemma faced by reformist Islamic scholars—how to integrate modern concepts into a legal tradition while simultaneously arguing for that tradition’s continuing relevance and authority—is for him rendered particularly acute, given that this tradition is itself the very source of his own authority and relevance. It will therefore be argued that the legacy of the Islamic legal tradition structures his discourse in a very specific way, thereby having the potential to render it more persuasive to his audience, and worthy of a more detailed examination.     

Recovering Bartlett's social psychology of cultural dynamics

Despite the current treatment of Frederic C. Bartlett as a cognitive psychologist, his psychology was fundamentally socio‐cultural. More than half a century after the publication of Psychology and Primitive Culture (1923) and Remembering: A Study in Experimental and Social Psychology (1932), his theoretical contribution has contemporary implications for a social psychology that takes culture seriously. This paper seeks to recover and appraise Bartlett's social psychology in light of the recent literature on culture and psychology, and discusses his relevance for a social psychology of cultural dynamics. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Marital Functioning and Physical Health: Implications for Social and Personality Psychology

Marriage – the most important adult relationship in most people’s lives – has been theorized to affect biological processes, physical health, and mortality. This article highlights key findings in marriage and health research, focusing on the interpersonal processes through which marriage has been proposed to affect health. A model of marriage and health is presented that incorporates both main and stress-moderating effects of negative marital experiences –marital strain– and positive marital experiences –marital strength. Although many more studies have investigated marital strain than marital strength, current evidence suggests that both have potent effects on biology and health. The article concludes with a discussion of implications of this research for social and personality psychology, focusing on insights that may be gained from basic relationship science. Examples of three areas of relationship research – intimacy processes, commitment processes, and dyadic analysis – and their potential relevance for marriage and health research are presented.