Vicarious traumatisation: current status and future directions

Theorists and practitioners have long recognised that working with trauma clients can trigger reactions in the therapist similar to those experienced by the client. Nevertheless, research in this area has been lacking. One obstacle has been confusion regarding key terms. Vicarious traumatisation is the most appropriate concept given that it relates specifically to trauma work, incorporates intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and can be located within the framework of the constructivist self-development theory. Although limited, research has identified a range of factors that influence vicarious traumatisation, such as experience, personal trauma history and coping style. Future investigation is required to examine aspects that could enhance counsellor resilience. In addition, vicarious traumatisation needs to be studied in terms of a broad range of clientele and occupations.     

Critical consciousness: current status and future directions

In this chapter, the authors consider Paulo Freire's construct of critical consciousness (CC) and why it deserves more attention in research and discourse on youth political and civic development. His approach to education and similar ideas by other scholars of liberation aims to foster a critical analysis of society--and one's status within it--using egalitarian, empowering, and interactive methods. The aim is social change as well as learning, which makes these ideas especially relevant to the structural injustice faced by marginalized youth. From their review of these ideas, the authors derive three core CC components: critical reflection, political efficacy, and critical action. They highlight promising research related to these constructs and innovative applied work including youth action-research methodology. Their conclusion offers ideas for closing some of the critical gaps in CC theory and research.     

Avoidant personality disorder: current status and future directions

Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD) is the topic of a growing body of research literature. In this article, we review empirical studies of APD with the goals of identifying the themes that underlie this work and pointing to new directions for future research. In particular, we recommend that future studies evaluate several unique factors postulated by personality theorists to be central to this condition.     

Development of orbitofrontal function: current themes and future directions

In recent years, an exciting thrust in the developmental research literature has been the focus on "executive" functions (EF). However, the emphasis has been on the more purely cognitive aspects of EF operative in abstract reasoning and problem solving-aspects associated mainly with dorsolateral frontal regions. Although the literature on adult neuropsychology has seen an emerging and growing interest in the study of processes more related to orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), including emotion and personality, research on the development of EF has lagged behind. This special issue of Brain and Cognition is intended to redress this imbalance by bringing together researchers who are studying the nature and development of orbitofrontal function from a wide variety of perspectives.     

Psychotherapy of depression: current status, future directions

This article reviews recent studies of psychotherapy for treatment of depression. There is evidence that cognitive behavioral and interpersonal therapies are useful treatments for depressed outpatients, roughly comparable to antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy do not, however, necessarily treat the same patients and there is emerging evidence of a neurobiological "boundary" that may delimit therapy response. Psychotherapy plus pharmacotherapy combinations appear particularly useful for outpatients with more severe, recurrent depressions. Depression-focused psychotherapy may also provide an important alternative to an indefinite course of maintenance pharmacotherapy for patients at high risk for recurrence.     

Parenting cognitions and parent-child conflict: current issues and future directions

The chapters in this volume explore a number of important issues in parenting cognitions. It is clear that they have opened up several new areas for consideration. We have suggested yet another new direction for researchers interested in cognitions and conflict having to do with the identification of automatic styles of information processing and their separation from more considered approaches. We have come some way in the study of parenting cognitions since the early 1980s; we have some distance yet to go.     

Geographical contributions to understanding contemporary Islam: current trends and future directions

In recent years, geographers have been giving increasing attention to religion—and Islam in particular—yet such work is rarely referred to within the broader social science literature about Islam and Muslims. This paper seeks to promote interdisciplinary dialogue, discussion and debate by highlighting the contributions that human geographers are making to understandings of contemporary Islam. In particular, I draw upon research within urban, social, cultural and feminist geographies to review current trends within geographical scholarship about Muslims individuals and communities. I then use this paper to suggest ways in which interdisciplinary research—in collaboration with human geographers—might seek to advance contemporary understandings of the social and spatial experiences of Muslim families and communities. I propose that a focus upon households, nations and intersections offer potential avenues for future research, whilst also highlighting the importance of thinking critically about the methodological issues involved in understanding contemporary Islam     

Fostering integrity in research: Definitions, current knowledge, and future directions

Over the last 25 years, a small but growing body of research on research behavior has slowly provided a more complete and critical understanding of research practices, particularly in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. The results of this research suggest that some earlier assumptions about irresponsible conduct are not reliable, leading to the conclusion that there is a need to change the way we think about and regulate research behavior. This paper begins with suggestions for more precise definitions of the terms "responsible conduct of research," "research ethics," and "research integrity." It then summarizes the findings presented in some of the more important studies of research behavior, looking first at levels of occurrence and then impact. Based on this summary, the paper concludes with general observations about priorities and recommendations for steps to improve the effectiveness of efforts to respond to misconduct and foster higher standards for integrity in research.     

Dialectical behavior therapy: current status, recent developments, and future directions

Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) was developed as a treatment for parasuicidal women with borderline personality disorder and has been adapted for several other populations. This article describes standard DBT and several adaptations of it and reviews outcome studies with borderline patients in outpatient, inpatient, and crisis intervention settings, borderline patients with substance use disorders, suicidal adolescents, patients with eating disorders, inmates in correctional settings, depressed elders, and adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This treatment outcome review is followed by discussion of predictors of change in DBT, possible mechanisms of change, and current developments in theory, practice, and research.     

Psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia: Unresolved issues, current trends, and future directions

Psychiatric rehabilitation refers to a treatment philosophy and to a set of assessment and treatment techniques designed to reduce disability and maximize environmental adaptation. The field of psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia is now well developed, and successful interventions exist for teaching many essential community-living skills and for promoting maintenance and generalization of these gains. Recent developments include the creation of new skills-training interventions and cognitive rehabilitation techniques and improvements in the delivery of vocational and substance abuse treatments. As a field, psychiatric rehabilitation is continuing to develop in a manner that is responsive to perceived treatment needs, shortcomings of existing interventions, and developments in related fields (e.g., social psychology, neuroscience of schizophrenia). Some of these developments in theory and research point to areas of conceptual/theoretical weaknesses in existing treatments and assessment measures and suggest directions for further development. This article reviews the current status of a number of areas within the psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia, highlighting future needs.     

Brain stimulation techniques in the treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorder: current and future directions

Recent studies on the epidemiology of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) estimate 50 million patients suffer from OCD worldwide, thus making it a global problem. The treatment of OCD has changed substantially over the last 2 decades following the introduction of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which provide symptom improvement in approximately 60% of patients. However, some patients remain resistant to the standard pharmacologic and behavioral treatments. Although some treatment-resistant patients respond to pharmacologic augmentations, others do not, and there is evidence that some of the most severe cases benefit from treatment with neurosurgical interventions. Besides pharmacologic, behavioral, and neurosurgical approaches, different brain stimulation methods-transcranial magnetic stimulation, deep brain stimulation, and electroconvulsive therapy-have been investigated in treatment-resistant patients with OCD. However, available data about the use of these techniques in OCD treatment are quite limited in terms of sample size and study design, given the difficulty in conducting standard blinded trials for these procedures. In addition, none of the mentioned treatments have received Food and Drug Administration approval for the treatment of OCD. Nevertheless, promising findings regarding efficacy, tolerability, and non-invasiveness and/or reversibility of these techniques have increased interest in investigating their use in treatment-resistant OCD.     

Functional assessment: Contributions and future directions

Functional assessment is at once redefining the standards for clinical interventions and reemphasizing the importance of studying basic behavioral mechanisms. This commentary describes one perception of what we are learning from current research on functional assessment and suggests directions for the future.     

The MCMI-III: present and future directions

Both the original Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-I; Millon, 1977) and the Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-II (MCMI-II; Millon, 1987) were refined and strengthened on a regular basis by both theoretic logic and research data. This aspiration has continued. The new Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory-III (MCMI-III; Millon, 1994) has been further coordinated with the most recent official diagnostic schema, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., [DSM-IV]; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 1994) in an even more explicit way than before. Although the publication of the first version of the MCMI preceded the publication of the DSM-IV, its author played a major role in formulating the official manual's personality disorders, contributing thereby to their conceptual correspondence. The DSM-III-R (APA, 1987) was subsequently published in the same year as the MCMI-II; the inventory was modified in its final stages to make it as consonant as possible with the conceptual changes introduced in the then forthcoming official classification. The present version of the MCMI, the MCMI-III, strengthens these correspondences further by drawing on many of the diagnostic criteria of the DSM-IV to serve as the basis for drafting the inventory's items. This article reports on a select set of theoretical and empirical developments that are being carefully weighed for possible inclusion in future MCMIs, or as a guide in the refinement process of future MCMIs.     

主动性人格:机制与未来走向

主动性人格(proactive personality)作为一种独特的人格特质,指采取积极行动去影响所处环境的一种个体倾向。主动性高的个体善于发现机会,抓住机会,并且不断地坚持目标。研究者梳理了主动性人格的起源和概念、测量方法,阐述了主动性人格的实施效果、中介机制和调节机制,强化了中国本土文化的权变作用。未来研究应继续完善主动性人格的概念、开发符合时代特征的测量工具、拓展其研究层次与实施效果。     

Career self-efficacy: Empirical status and future directions

Bandura's self-efficacy theory, stemming from a social cognitive model of behavior, has been gaining empirical attention in the career literature. This paper reviews emerging findings applying self-efficacy theory to career-relevant behaviors; examines a number of conceptual and methodological issues arising from this work; and offers several directions for future research and theory on the career self-efficacy construct. Self-efficacy appears to offer promise in understanding certain career entry behaviors, such as college major choices and academic performance, though there has been little work relating self-efficacy to career development beyond college or exploring causal connections between self-efficacy and career behaviors. An expanded base for research on career self-efficacy is advocated.