Lesbians,gay men and family therapy: a contradiction in terms?

This paper seeks to review the history of discussions about lesbian and gay male sexuality in family therapy theory and practice. It examines whether homophobic and heterosexist attitudes are present in family therapy thinking. Possible connections are explored between attitudes towards lesbian and gay issues and the professional backgrounds of family therapists, wider debates on homosexuality within society, and conceptualizations of the family life cycle. The question of why relatively little has been written on the issues raised by lesbians, bisexuals and gay men in therapy is discussed. The implications of this oversight on practice are addressed and suggestions made for future work.     

Self‐service – a contradiction in terms or customer‐led choice?

This paper explores the reality of self‐service today from the customer perspective and identifies what organisations need to do to maximise their contribution to improving customer service in the future. It is based on the findings of an extensive study, including original consumer research and analysis, undertaken by the Future Foundation that was sponsored by a consortium of companies consisting of Broadsystem, BT, mmO2, BUPA and GIMRA (General Insurance Market Research Association). It is structured around a series of questions that the research was designed to answer, with clear recommendations for businesses coming out of each section. Copyright © 2003 Henry Stewart Publications.     

What is a philosophical stance? Paradigms,policies and perspectives

Since van Fraassen first put forward the suggestive idea that many philosophical positions should be construed as ‘stances’ rather than factual beliefs, there have been various attempts to spell out precisely what a philosophical stance might be, and on what basis one should be adopted. In this paper I defend a particular account of stances, the view that they are pragmatically justified perspectives or ways of seeing the world, and compare it to some other accounts that have been offered. In Sect. 2 I consider van Fraassen’s argument for construing empiricism as a stance, and look at some responses to it. In Sect. 3 I outline my conception of stances as perspectives or ways of seeing, and explain how stances so understood may be justified. I illustrate this conception by way of a discussion of the model pluralist position with respect to the units of selection debate in biology, and suggest that on the model pluralist view different perspectives on the units of selection, such as the gene’s eye view, are in fact van Fraassian stances. In Sect. 4 I discuss the view put forward by Teller and Chakravartty among others that stances should be understood as epistemic policies, and argue that it is consistent with the conception of stances as perspectives. In the final section I criticise Rowbottom’s attempt to assimilate stances to Kuhnian paradigms. I argue that he has overlooked some important disanalogies between stances and paradigms, so that the comparison obscures more than it reveals.     

Does half a pizza equal half a box of chocolates?: Proportional matching in an analogy task

There is now a considerable literature demonstrating analogical reasoning in children as young as 3 and 4 years of age. Here, we used analogy as a sensitive measure of proportional understanding in young children. In two experiments, we examined whether children's performance in a proportional analogy task would be affected when concrete models evoking different kinds of conceptual referents were used as the basis for the analogies. We chose two different conceptual referents (pizza and chocolates) of the kind typically used in fractions instruction. In both experiments, children were shown a base substance by the experimenter (e.g., a whole pizza) from which a proportion was then removed (e.g., a half pizza). Children were asked to complete the analogy by removing an equivalent proportion of their own target set (e.g., a whole box of chocolates changed to half a box of chocolates). This proportional matching paradigm resulted in analogy problems of the form: 8/8 pizza: 4/8 pizza: 4/4 box of chocolates:2/4 box of chocolates. Results indicated that 3- to 4-year-old children do have an emergent understanding of proportional equivalence, even when the materials to be matched are not isomorphic.     

Recognition of music in long-term memory: Are melodic and temporal patterns equal partners?

The notion that the melody (i.e., pitch structure) of familiar music is more recognizable than its accompanying rhythm (i.e., temporal structure) was examined with the same set of nameable musical excerpts in three experiments. In Experiment 1, the excerpts were modified so as to keep either their original pitch variations, whereas durations were set to isochrony (melodic condition) or their original temporal pattern while played on a single constant pitch (rhythmic condition). The subjects, who were selected without regard to musical training, were found to name more tunes and to rate their feeling of knowing the musical excerpts far higher in the melodic condition than in the rhythmic condition. These results were replicated in Experiment 2, wherein the melodic and rhythmic patterns of the musical excerpts were interchanged to create chimeric mismatched tunes. The difference in saliency of the melodic pattern and the rhythmic pattern also emerged with a music-title-verification task in Experiment 3, hence discarding response selection as the main source of the discrepancy. The lesser effectiveness of rhythmic structure appears to be related to its lesser encoding distinctiveness relative to melodic structure. In general, rhythm was found to be a poor cue for the musical representations that are stored in long-term memory. Nevertheless, in all three experiments, the most effective cue for music identification involved the proper combination of pitches and durations. Therefore, the optimal code of access to long-term memory for music resides in a combination of rhythm and melody, of which the latter would be the most informative.     

Words and hemifields: do the hemispheres enjoy equal opportunity?

A common technique in research into cerebral asymmetry in both normal and clinical populations involves the use of lateralized visual displays. The validity of this approach depends on several generally implicit assumptions about the character of the cognitive processes involved. For example, when words are used as stimuli, cognitive processing is assumed to involve either "whole-word" or "ends-in" analysis. In this way, both hemispheres are assumed to have equal opportunities to recognize the word. These assumptions are critical, because if they are wrong, explanations based on established perceptual principles may provide a sufficient and more parsimonious explanation for hemifield asymmetries than hemispheric specialization theories. This point is developed and illustrated with particular reference to word recognition and classification. From a purely perceptual viewpoint, the right visual field advantage observed in tasks using word stimuli is to be expected given the presence of systematic biases in favor of initial characters or features of words and the relationship between retinal eccentricity and visual acuity. In other words, there is no need nor justification for a hemispheric account of visual field differences in such tasks. Some of the limiting conditions and theoretical implications of this argument are identified and discussed.     

When are workload and workplace learning opportunities related in a curvilinear manner? The moderating role of autonomy

Building on theoretical frameworks like the Job Demands Control model and Action Theory we tested whether the relationship between workload and employees' experiences of opportunities for workplace learning is of an inverted u-shaped nature and whether autonomy moderates this relationship. We predicted that – at moderate levels of autonomy – workload was positively associated with learning opportunities at low levels of workload, but negatively at high levels of workload. Also, we predicted that low autonomy prevents positive effects of moderate workload from materializing whereas high autonomy makes high workload less destructive to the learning process. Furthermore, we examined whether learning opportunities increase particularly as a function of higher matched levels of workload and autonomy and whether mismatch between workload and autonomy is particularly detrimental to the learning process. We found support for these ideas in two large and heterogeneous samples of working adults using moderated and polynomial regression analyses and subsequent response surface methodology. These results integrate conflicting prior findings and extend Karasek's (1979) active learning hypothesis. They also have clear implications for job redesign practices aiming to promote workplace learning opportunities.     

Parent‐infant‐psychotherapy and psychoanalytic treatment: contradiction or mutual inspiration?

Psychoanalysis and parent‐infant‐psychotherapy are compared. Although parent‐infant‐psychotherapy developed from psychoanalysis, it appears at first glance not to be “analytic” with its aim of dealing quickly with the symptoms presented and also with its different setting. The author shows that an analytic approach in understanding the multi‐facetted net of relationships between family members and the infant in its “phantasmic interaction” and a consideration of the implication for analysis of the empirical research carried out in conjunction with parent‐infant‐therapy can lead to a fruitful exchange of ideas. One example of this is research into the correlation between attachment patterns and the processing of conflicts. Furthermore a dialogue between these two disciplines can remind psychoanalysts that a critical discussion of the external circumstances of their methods does not immediately call into question their fundamental approach to therapy: the work in transference on relationship fantasies.     

What’s in a Dao?: Ontology and Semiotics in Laozi and Zhuangzi

The present essay examines the conflicting ontological assumptions that one can find behind the word dao in the texts of the Laozi and Zhuangzi and argues that the relative indifference to these texts toward whether or not dao has an ontic reality should not be considered a flaw of early Daoism. Rather, the historical process by which the term dao collects various possible ontological implications can be thought of as a philosophical stance in its own right. That is, if the terms which one is obliged to use in discussing the immaterial necessarily hide, at least as much as they explain, the nature of Being, then it is a reasonable response to decline to ground one??s ethics in an ontology, and that while the resulting philosophy may not qualify as a fully-adumbrated system, this does not diminish its potential usefulness.     

When does the medium matter? Knowledge-building experiences and opportunities in decision-making teams

The purpose of this investigation was to examine whether temporal scope—the extent to which teams have a past or expect to have a future together—affects face-to-face and computer-mediated teams’ ability to communicate effectively and make high quality decisions. Results indicated that media differences existed for teams lacking a history, with face-to-face teams exhibiting higher openness/trust and information sharing than computer-mediated teams. However, computer-mediated teams with a history were able to eliminate these differences. These findings did not extend to team-member exchange (TMX). Although face-to-face teams exhibited higher TMX compared to computer-mediated teams, the interaction of temporal scope and communication media was not significant. In addition, openness/trust and TMX were positively associated with decision-making effectiveness when task interdependence was high, but were unrelated to decision-making effectiveness when task interdependence was low.     

Alpha and the gay issue: a lesson in homophobia?

The Alpha course is possibly the most widespread and best‐known evangelizing initiative of recent times. Billing itself as an introduction into ‘basic Christianity’, Alpha is a programme that has been adopted worldwide by tens of thousands of churches. This paper overviews Alpha’s attitude towards one of the most controversial debates in the Church today, the so‐called ‘gay issue’. The paper, largely based on literature research and a national survey, will explore the broad controversy in the churches and argue that how it is approached through the Alpha programme provides an insight into contemporary views in Christian constituencies.     

Believing in one’s equal rights: Self-respect as a predictor of assertiveness

In the present research self-respect is defined as a person’s ability to see the self as someone who has the same basic rights and dignity as others. Self-respect fills a gap in previous theorizing on the self because unlike other self-concepts it can be linked to assertiveness and claim making. Self-respect was empirically distinguished from self-competence and self-confidence (Study 1) as well as from psychological entitlement, self-esteem and self-acceptance (Study 2). Self-respect predicted assertive responses above and beyond these other self-scales in two correlational studies (Studies 1 and 3) and one experiment (Study 2). As predicted, self-respect was not related to aggressive responses, but psychological entitlement was (Studies 2 and 3). Implications for future research are discussed.     

Advantage for emotional words in immediate and delayed memory tasks: could it be explained in terms of processing capacity?

Emotional stimuli are better remembered and recognized than neutral ones. This advantage for emotional stimuli has been repeatedly obtained when testing long-term retention. However, there are contradictory results concerning retention of emotional information when short retention intervals are used. The aim of the present study was, on the one hand, to test the effect of retention interval on memory for emotional stimuli (Experiment 1). The results showed that emotional information is better remembered than neutral information in both immediate and delayed memory tests, suggesting that the advantage for emotional information is not limited to long retention intervals. On the other hand, I tried to test the proposals made by Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). These authors suggested that the advantage for emotional stimuli could be explained as emotional stimuli spending more processing capacity during acquisition, thus rendering less capacity available to encode simultaneously presented information (Experiments 2 and 3). Results showed that concurrent presentation of emotional stimuli did not inhibit the recall of neutral stimuli. These findings do not seem to support the proposals of Christianson and Nilsson (1984) and Bower (1992). According to these results, some mechanisms other than a greater spending of processing capacity have to be involved in the advantage for emotional information in memory.     

Love and Justice: a Paradox?

Three claims about love and justice cannot be simultaneously true and therefore entail a paradox: (1) Love is a matter of justice. (2) There cannot be a duty to love. (3) All matters of justice are matters of duty. The first claim is more controversial. To defend it, I show why the extent to which we enjoy the good of love is relevant to distributive justice. To defend (2) I explain the empirical, conceptual and axiological arguments in its favour. Although (3) is the most generally endorsed claim of the three, I conclude we should reject it in order to avoid the paradox.     

Personhood: What's in a name?

Although there are persistent metaphysical challenges to the notion of “natural kinds” of entities that are what they are essentially, all developed and useful taxonomies are based on just such notions. “Persons,” if they are to be distinguished from other kinds of things, must possess unique properties or the potential for acquiring such properties. Reductive strategies, far from locating these properties, ignore them and thus render the concept of “person” either ambiguous or unintelligible. The properties that count, it is argued here, are those associated with moral and civic forms of life.