Counseling Battered Women from Fundamentalist Christian Backgrounds

The author examines biblical issues that are of concern to battered women from fundamentalist Christian backgrounds and offers counselors suggestions on how to address them.     

Undermining Reasonableness: Expert Testimony in a Case Involving a Battered Woman Who Kills

Student participants  ( N = 316)  viewed a videotaped simulated case involving a woman who had entered a self-defense plea in the shooting death of her abusive husband. As successful claims of self-defense rest on the portrayal of a defendant who has responded reasonably to his/her situation, the implications of various forms of expert testimony in constructing this narrative were examined. Jurors were presented with either expert testimony regarding the battered woman syndrome (BWS), the BWS framed within post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) nomenclature, or a no-expert control condition. As the BWS classification may support a stereotypical victim, the degree to which the defendant fit the stereotype in terms of her access to a social support network (family, friends, employment outside of the home) was varied within the expert testimony conditions to reflect either a high or low degree of stereotype fit. Although jury verdicts failed to differ across expert testimony and stereotype fit conditions, perceptions of her credibility and mental stability did. Although affording jurors a framework from which the defendant's experiences as a battered woman may be acknowledged, this portrayal, as advanced within PTSD nomenclature, endorsed a pathological characterization of the defendant. Implications of this discourse for battered women within the context of self-defense are discussed.     

基督教“爱”的伦理及其现代价值

经济全球化导致的无情的竞争给原本就非常复杂的人和社会带来了诸如“道德滑坡”、精神空虚、信仰危机、人情淡薄、诚信危机等的一系列问题和矛盾。因此对宗教的诉求、对爱的渴望也就为现今试图使理想与现实的差距、信仰与理性的冲突在现实的社会中得到整合提供了一种可能性与现实性。     

The Contemporary Woman:

The life situation of the contemporary woman is examined in historical context in relation to her roles as loved one, as wcoonrtkaecrt wanitdh apsa rmenottsh oerr . otShheer afdreu9 tu se nantldy t auo sw lasc kups rwolieth m iondaedlesq. uSahtee is hurried by peer pressures into adult sexuality and into jobs in the fast track. Social workers, with their intimate knowledge of women, are in a position to work as change agents. Implications for therapy are discussed around such concepts as: ethical issues, life history concepts, role models teachings, and loneliness and transference.     

A Spectrum Pedagogy for Christian Ethics: Respecting Difference without Resorting to Relativism

This paper presents an overview of a newly developed spectrum pedagogy of Christian ethics that emerged from the authors' experience of teaching a contemporary Christian ethics course for seven years. A spectrum pedagogy is a comprehensive approach to teaching Christian ethics that combines the modeling of key dispositions using specific tools (issue‐specific spectrums and ethical theories) and learning experiences (engaging multiple positions and responding to concrete situations). The pedagogy gains its name from the issue‐specific spectrums used by instructors to orient students to contemporary debate on a given issue and by students in their ethical reflection. The goal of this pedagogy is to empower students to construct their own responses while respecting differing viewpoints without resorting to relativism. This article surveys the essential elements of a “spectrum pedagogy,” describes its implementation into a semester‐long course, and identifies multiple benefits of using this pedagogy.     

Value Tensions Between Evangelical Christians and Christian Counseling

The evangelical wing of the American Protestant church has maintained an uneasy and uncertain relationship with the recently emerged Christian counseling movement. Whereas many evangelical Christian groups have been able to assimilate Christian counseling into their panoply of ministry tools, significant sections of this faith group remain very suspicious and doubtful that Christian counseling can be trusted. Most of the stated reasons given by these objectors revolve around theological reservations. This article, however, suggests that an even more powerful barrier between the two groups stems from significantly different values held by each. The article enumerates several of these value differences.     

Value Hierarchies of French Catholics Committed to the Fight Against AIDS

Summary

An attempt was made to create the social satiation effect via vicarious learning. Second-grade boys and girls from middle class homes in a Jerusalem school observed other children being administered a short treatment in which the stimulus word Yafeh (“Good”) was presented by E twice (low-satiation) or 20 times (high-satiation). Immediately thereafter, E administered to the observers a 75-trial binary discrimination task, to test the efficacy of the word Yafeh as a reinforcer. The control groups consisted of Ss treated and tested by the same E. A typical satiation effect (i.e., decreased performance of the group presented with 20 stimuli) was observed for the control groups, but no difference was found between groups of Ss observing the high- and low-satiation treatments. It was thus concluded that social satiation had not been learned vicariously. The post-treatment inquiry on the Ss who were observed by the experimental Ss revealed that these children were aware of the frequency of stimuli presented in the treatment. However, the cognitive mechanism hypothesized to mediate the social satiation effect—perceived lack of contingency—was not confirmed by their verbal reports.     

Suffering and sanctification: The religious context of Battered Women's Syndrome

Women who are physically and mentally abused by their partners have been described as suffering from Battered Women's Syndrome. An element of Battered Women's Syndrome is repeatedly returning to the abusive relationship, putting oneself at risk for further harm. Clinical case studies suggest that women who are strongly religious may believe it their duty to remain in abusive relationships to honor their marriage vows or to demonstrate their faith. This paper explores the basis of those beliefs and advocates a counseling perspective that frees abuse sufferers from a sense of obligation to their victimizers.     

The Woman Veterinarian

This study was undertaken to determine the professional practice patterns of Michigan State University graduates in Veterinary Medicine and the factors that influenced their choice of profession and satisfaction with the field, so that similarities and differences of men and women practitioners could be compared. None of the 21 accredited schools of veterinary medicine has conducted a study of this kind. The career patterns of women were characterized by interruptions, lower salaries, and participation in only a few of the specialties within the profession, the latter interpreted as an attempt to reduce professional role-sex role conflict. In spite of the limitations and conflicts encountered by women, they are deeply committed to the profession and claim a great deal of satisfaction from their work.     

幼儿约束性顺从研究的兴起与进展

20世纪90年代中期,人们对幼儿顺从的认识发生了深刻的变化,提出了约束性顺从的概念。所谓约束性顺从指的是幼儿全心全意地、心甘情愿地遵从成人的要求而约束和调节自己的行为。它是幼儿由外部控制逐渐过渡到自我控制的中间环节,对探讨外界价值的内化和幼儿自我控制能力的形成有重要意义。该文综述了近年来国外对幼儿约束性顺从的研究,并对未来的研究提出了一些建议。     

Globalizing Justice: The Contribution of Christian Spirituality

This article looks at the role of Christian spirituality in fostering right relationships. It looks first at the integral relationship between spirituality and justice, particularly as it takes shape within the terrain of the human heart. Secondly, it examines the role of social context in a transformative spirituality by looking at one faith community of undocumented immigrants in the United States. And thirdly it looks at migration as a metaphor for a spirituality of transformation, one that orients a pilgrim people towards a homeward journey and awakens in us a social conscience. The central argument is that spiritual transformation is about the movement towards authenticity, where the gift of peace grows from the rebuilding of our relationships with God, ourselves and others.     

Christian Mysticism and Science: The Phenomenological Dimension

Abstract

In this second of three papers, I identify three fundamental phenomenological themes that have informed Christian mystical theology and then explore how these themes might be given further understanding via natural science. The first theme, detachment, minimizes any association with the secular world in favor of humility and openness to God. Detachment is chosen in consciousness using a resonant global workspace linked through the hippocampus to reconstructions of both declarative and emotional memory. The second theme, infused contemplation, is concerned with God's top-down revelation to the recollected mind of the mystic. The resulting top-down resonance creates an appropriate theory of mind for infused contemplation, as the human mind is now more perfectly linked with the mind of God. The third theme is mystical union, which both theology and science claim occurs within consciousness. Starting in intentional consciousness, the mystic undergoes an unmediated surrender beyond cognition to non-intentional consciousness. Because God fills the center of our being, a resonating luminosity can thus occur arising from the union of God and self within pure consciousness.     

Battered Women: A Developmental Life-Career Counseling Perspective

The authors describe a career counseling strategy based on specific psychosocial characteristics of battered women. The approach is developmental in nature, focusing on the client's self-concept. A group format based on a pilot intervention is proposed to assist battered women in developing appropriate life and career decision-making skills.