The ‘Enforcer’ in Elite-Level Sport: A Conceptual Critique

The role of the ‘enforcer’ in elite-level sports contests is a familiar one. Simply, the role involves establishing or restoring a ‘moral balance’ to the sporting encounter when it is absent – usually when match officials are thought to be failing to apply the laws/rules of the game. How the enforcer secures this outcome is more morally contentious as it may involve deliberate violations of the laws/rules of the sport. In this paper we consider the role of the enforcer in rugby union. First we interrogate some of the extant sports ethics literature and explore the notion of ‘fairness’ in the well-played game, including the role of the enforcer. Second, we illustrate conceptually how the ethos of elite sport as a moral discourse creates a theoretical platform from which to assess the intervention of an enforcer. Third, we address the role of match officials as members of the practice community from an institutional sense (what the international governing body for rugby union makes explicit) and from an empirical sense (what actually occurs or might occur) in the circumstances that precipitate the intervention of ‘enforcers’. We conclude that the conceptual tension between the laws and the spirit (ethos) of the game is reflected in the choices facing players when playing the game.     

The ‘Magic Light’: A Discussion on Laser Ethics

Innovations in technology and science form novel fields that, although beneficial, introduce new bio-ethical issues. In their short history, lasers have greatly influenced our everyday lives, especially in medicine. This paper focuses particularly on medical and para-medical laser ethics and their origins, and presents the complex relationships within laser ethics through a three-dimensional matrix model. The term ‘laser’ and the myth of the ‘magic light’ can be identified as landmarks for laser related ethical issues. These ethical issues are divided into five major groups: (1) media, marketing, and advertising; (2) economic outcomes; (3) user training; (4) the user-patient/client relationship; and (5) other issues. In addition, issues arising from two of the most common applications of lasers, laser eye surgery and laser tattoo removal, are discussed. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the use of medical and para-medical lasers has so greatly influenced our lives that the scientific community must initiate an earnest discussion of medical laser ethics.     

Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani: A Study of His Views on Ethics of Disagreement in Islam

This paper is an attempt to provide its readers/listeners the views of Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani on Ethics of Disagreement in Islam. Taha Jabir Al-‘Alwani is one of the renowned scholars and reformists of the contemporary Muslim world. He presented in terms of views on the ethics of disagreement in Islam, an explanation of the etiquette envisioned by Islam for all those engaged in discourse and intellectual dialogue, and he also exposes a higher number of principles and purposes of the Shariah which provide Muslims with perspectives far vaster than those afforded by pedantic debate over points of law and procedure or fine distinctions between conflicting theological arguments. Above all, he analyzes that what today is going in the world is totally a contrast trend to the teachings of Qur’an and Sunnah. After stressing the paramount duty of affirming the oneness of Allah (Tawhid), both the Qur’an and the Sunnah stress on one thing above all: the unity of Muslim Ummah.     

A Microanalytic Case Study of the Utilization of ‘Solution-Focused Problem Talk’ in Solution-Focused Brief Therapy

Abstract

Solution-focused therapy (SFBT) is a popular therapeutic approach among family therapists. However, disputes about SFBT still arise, especially on problems. This study examines the function of problem talk in SFBT by using a microanalytic case study method. As a result, three categories were found: Eliciting, clarifying, and acknowledging problems. The problem talks initiated by the SF therapist showed a pattern associated with the solution talk and served as preliminary steps to be connected to the following solution talks. The results indicate that solution building is constructed not only through solution talk, but also through ‘solution-focused problem talk.’     

An Investigation of Couples’ Help-Seeking: A Multiple Case Study

Research of the effectiveness of couples counseling has demonstrated clear benefits (e.g.; Lebow et al. (Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 38(1):145–168, 2012)). However, relatively few couples initiate counseling and seek help. This exploratory study employed a qualitative multiple case study approach to heterosexual couples (N?=?7) that were currently in the process of seeking conjoint therapy to identify intra and interpersonal factors that influence relational help-seeking. Participants reported that female partners were the first to perceive a problem and suggest seeking professional help. In turn, male partners reported feeling a sense of failure and fear of judgment when considering couples counseling. Patterns of blame, withdrawal, and aggression contributed to increased distress, which eventually led these couples to counseling, some with mixed-agendas for services.     

‘Sacralising’ Sacred Space in Public Institutions: A Case Study of the Prayer Space at the Millennium Dome

Many public institutions in British society provide facilities for worship and contemplation. Historically, chapels were at the heart of many gaols and hospitals, but in recent times, other kinds of institution, such as airports, shopping centres, and more recently, the Millennium Dome, have provided a ‘Prayer Space’, ‘Place of Worship’, ‘Quiet Room’ or ‘Multi-Faith Room’. This article looks at the diverse range of physical activities that take place in such facilities and the various meanings that they appear to have for their users, using the Prayer Space at the Millennium Dome as an example. I suggest that these spaces in many ways reflect a society that is moving away from formal, dogmatic, institutional ‘religion’ towards increasingly self-mediated, informal ‘spirituality’ and that, as a result, sacred space in public institutions becomes ‘sacralised’ in ways that are distinctive, compared to conventional places of worship.     

Pediatric Psychologists’ Collaboration in a National Pediatric Obesity Initiative: A Case Study in Interprofessional Collaboration

Health Care reform calls for collaborative team-based care; psychologists must therefore strengthen their competencies for work in interprofessional clinical care settings. Toward that end, a group of psychologists participated with physicians, dieticians, physical activity specialists, nurses, and others in a national interprofessional workgroup focused on pediatric obesity. The interprofessional group was designed to identify areas in need of national advocacy, key assessment and treatment concerns, and gaps in internal policies and procedures in children’s hospitals. This article provides a case report of psychologists’ roles and experience in this workgroup, and focuses on factors that underlie successful collaboration among diverse health professionals, as well as potential barriers to success. The participating psychologists developed a working model for collaboration with other disciplines. Additionally, they formed a Psychology Subcommittee to identify and address discipline-specific issues regarding collaborative practice in pediatric psychology. Lessons learned in this interprofessional collaborative undertaking have relevance for future collaborative endeavors.     

Knowledge as ‘True Belief Plus Individuation’ in Plato

In Republic V, Plato distinguishes two different cognitive powers, knowledge and belief, which operate differently on different types of object. I argue that in Republic VI Plato modifies this account, and claims that there is a single cognitive power, which under different circumstances behaves either as knowledge or as belief. I show that the circumstances which turn true belief into knowledge are the provision of an individuation account of the object of belief, which reveals the ontological status and the nature of the object. Plato explores many alternative candidates of individuation accounts of objects of true belief, which he discards. I conclude with a Platonic sketch of a teleological account of individuation which would satisfy his requirements of turning true belief into knowledge.     

Couples’ Experiences of Hope When Participating in the Reflecting Team Process: A Case Study

Hope is believed to be influential to therapeutic change. However, no studies have explored couples’ experiences of hope during participation in a reflecting team process. This exploratory case study attends to this gap in the research literature. Three couples reported on their experiences of hope in relation to participating in the reflecting team process as part of their couple therapy. Themes related to hope were identified during three separate stages of the intervention: anticipating, participating in, and debriefing the reflecting team process. Reflecting team experiences related to hope included: seeking new perspectives, maintaining a positive momentum, identifying strengths, normalizing difficulties, presenting inspiring possibilities, providing support, highlighting growth, and strengthening resolve. These findings serve as a foundation for attending to clients’ hope as an active force during the reflecting team process.     

Thinking ethically about the global in ‘Global Ethics’

In what follows, I claim that the ‘global’ in ‘Global Ethics’ needs also to be thought about in a different way, not as the scope or object of ethical judgement but in relation to the worlds reproduced by the practice of ethical judgement itself. In summary, ethical reflection on the meaning of the ‘global’ in the practice of Global Ethics as a field of academic inquiry is what is required if the future of Global Ethics is to be something other than Ethics or Applied Ethics as traditionally conducted.     

Spirituality and ‘Mystical Religion’ in Contemporary Society: A Case Study of British Practitioners of the Iyengar Method of Yoga

This article addresses the under-researched, but very popular activity of yoga in contemporary Britain and attempts a preliminary sociological exploration of the religious and spiritual beliefs of yoga practitioners. A sample of dedicated practitioners of the Iyengar method of yoga was chosen for a case study. It was found that the sample practitioners are engaged in a technique that attracts a significant number of people interested in a type of ‘spiritual exploration’ that can probably be best explained by the concept of ‘mystical religion’, as introduced by Ernst Troeltsch and developed by Colin Campbell. These findings provide new salience to the idea of ‘mystical religion’ and a starting point for considering the role that a physical practice plays in contemporary spirituality and religiosity.     

‘Lecturing’s Work’: A Collaborative Study with Harold Garfinkel

This article discusses some empirical materials from a collaborative study of ??lecturing??s work?? which the author conducted with Harold Garfinkel. The paper shows Garfinkel at work by presenting a history of the collaboration and discussing what we found. The article also considers some larger implications of our research for understanding how ethnomethodological studies can recover and discover the material regularities of everyday life as they are practiced in distinct settings. The paper reports on a program of ethnomethodological inquiry for discovering in situ what the produced orderliness of any setting??s endogenous tasks, competent courses of action and organizational objects could possibly be. The promise is that just what is identifying of social order, action and meaning is to be found massively, as the routine grounds of everyday activities, and in every case, as something worldly and embodied.     

An Analyst’s Experience Working In A Skilled Nursing Facility: A Case Study

With the closing of long-term psychiatric facilities, no alternative social institution has arisen to treat those persons whose chronic mental illness makes self-care impossible. This paper explores the typical paths to placement in a skilled nursing facility or nursing home and the author’s experience in working with this population using the principles and techniques of interpersonal psychoanalysis. She presents several case examples and explicates both the analyst’s and the patient’s transference. The author discusses the difficulties inherent in creating an analytic space in such a setting and working outside of the usual psychoanalytic frame.     

Telephone-Administered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Case Study of Anxiety and Depression in Parkinson’s Disease

Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a chronic medical illness with a high incidence of psychiatric comorbidity, specifically depression and anxiety. Research on treatment of such psychiatric complications is scarce. Non-pharmaceutical treatment options are especially attractive. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic treatment option that has been successful in other chronically medically ill populations with comorbid depression and anxiety. The current research had two aims. The first was to pilot the feasibility of screening and identifying PD patients with symptoms of anxiety and depression in a specialized outpatient clinic. The second aim was to pilot the feasibility of telephone-administered CBT for the treatment of depression and anxiety in persons with PD, which was done through a case series comparing telephone-administered CBT to a Support strategy. A fairly large portion (67.5%) of patients screened in the outpatient clinic were identified as having symptoms of anxiety and/or depression. Results also indicated that CBT delivered via the telephone is a useful approach for targeting psychiatric symptoms in this population. A case example is given to illustrate the clinical considerations associated with delivering therapy via telephone to persons with PD. This study was conducted at the Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Houston, TX. The first author was previously affiliated with the Houston Center for Quality of Care and Utilization Studies.     

The Significance of Fallibilism Within Gettier’s Challenge: A Case Study

Taking his conceptual cue from Ernest Sosa, John Turri has offered a putative conceptual solution to the Gettier problem: Knowledge is cognitively adept belief, and no Gettiered belief is cognitively adept. At the core of such adeptness is a relation of manifestation. Yet to require that relation within knowing is to reach for what amounts to an infallibilist conception of knowledge. And this clashes with the spirit behind the fallibilism articulated by Gettier when stating his challenge. So, Turri??s form of response is irrelevant to that challenge, which was intended to pose a conceptual problem within fallibilist conceptions of knowledge. (And that failure on Turri??s part needs to be highlighted to remind epistemologists of the need to assess Gettier cases by a fallibilist standard. Although that need was described earlier by Robert Almeder, apparently his advice is being overlooked. This paper develops it anew, in a more general form.)     

On ‘the Ethics of Theorizing’ in the Cracked Mirror: Some Comments

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research - This paper examines the question of the ethics of theorizing with respect to the claim made by the authors that one, there is excessive...     

A Longitudinal Study of Nurses’ Work-Life Balance: a Case of a Regional Teaching Hospital in Taiwan

Work-life balance is essential for nurses who are in direct contact with patients in healthcare organizations. This study employs the measurement of nurses’ behaviors rather than the measurement of their perceptions to identify critical demographic variables influencing the work-life balance. A work-life balance dimension measured by a four-point frequency scale from the Chinese version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire is used to assess nurses’ behaviors in practice from a longitudinal viewpoint based on a regional teaching hospital in Taiwan. The results show that experience in organization, respondents reporting events in the past 12 months, and experience in position are three critical factors to impact nurses’ work-life balance. Moreover, “work all day without break,” “change the individual or family plan because of the work,” and “work overtime” are the most critical questions in the work-life balance that can be the targets for hospital management to enhance the balance of nurses’ work-life conditions in the hospital.

     

Free Time Management Makes Better Retirement: A Case Study of Retirees’ Quality of Life in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to identify the relationships between free time management and quality of life for retirees. Data were collected by convenience sampling from the four main districts of Taiwan. Overall, 454 usable questionnaires were received. The data showed a positive relationship between free time management and quality of life (r?=?0.72, p?<?.05). However, contrary to this, the relationships between time allocation and quality of life were not significant or even negative. These results indicate that retirees who effectively manage their free time can enjoy a better quality of life. Suggestions are made based on the observed relationship and some directions for future research are discussed.