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.     

Keeping ‘True’: A Case Study in Conceptual Ethics

Suppose our ordinary notion of truth is ‘inconsistent’ in the sense that its meaning is partly given by principles that classically entail a logical contradiction. Should we replace the notion with a consistent surrogate? This paper begins by defusing various arguments in favor of this revisionary proposal, including Kevin Scharp’s contention that we need to replace truth for the purposes of semantic theorizing (and thus, in particular, to formulate the inconsistency theory of truth itself). Borrowing a certain conservative metasemantic principle from Matti Eklund, the article goes on to build a positive case for the opposite policy: retaining truth as-is. The thought is basically that bivalence for the bulk of what we say in the course of ordinary, scientific, and philosophical inquiry should suffice to justify keeping ‘true’. Two versions of the story are told: one more philosophical, drawing on an analogy to Lewis’ response to Putnam’s paradox; the other more technical, invoking a deviant strand of mathematical work on the semantic paradoxes.     

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.     

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.     

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.     

Adolescents’ Temperament and Character: A Longitudinal Study on Happiness

Personality is considered a major determinant of adults and adolescents Subjective Well-Being (SWB); mainly due to its relation to emotional reactivity, emotional intensity, and to the duration of emotional reactions. However, personality as presented above involves almost only differences in automatic emotional reactions and habits (i.e., temperament). Nevertheless, temperament together with learning experiences from different life events is responsible for what people make of themselves intentionally (i.e., character). The present study examines the relation between temperament and character to SWB at two points in time over a year in an adolescent sample (N?=?109). Adolescents reported personality (The Temperament and Character Inventory; TCI) and SWB at the beginning of the school year (T1). Subjective Well-Being was then again measured at the end of the school year (T2). Temperament (Harm Avoidance and Novelty Seeking) and character (Self-Directedness) predicted SWB at T1. However, only Self-Directedness predicted SWB at T2 and also small but significant changes in SWB at the end of the school year. The inclusion of character in SWB research is discussed.     

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.)     

Toward the Formation of a “Cultural Mosaic”: A Case Study

This study describes an intervention designed to promote integration between Ethiopian and Israeli students (N = 93) in Grades 2 to 5 and adaptation of these immigrants to school norms of behavior and to discipline. The metaphor of cultural mosaic was used for describing the goal state. To achieve a comprehensive school reform, the curriculum was enacted on four levels: individual student, school and classroom, staff, and community (parents and local council). The intervention effects were evaluated in three domains via questionnaires, interviews, and observations – the domains being the academic, behavioral, and personal-social realms. Four stages were identified in the process: an opening stage, the euphoria stage, the setback stage, and the final stage of a new equilibrium. Results suggest that both the natives' and the immigrants' needs and difficulties have to be attended to in each of the stages. The social domain was found to be the most salient in the integration process, although integration within it may take less time and be more feasible than academic accommodation.     

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.     

Effects of Self-Control Training on Tinnitus in a Deaf Patient — A Case Study

Abstract

The treatment of a deaf woman with severe tinnitus using a behavioural approach including relaxation and various forms of behavioural and cognitive coping strategies is described. The patient received therapy in five one-hour sessions during which specially adapted methods like the use of sign interpretation, visual prompts and written instructions were used. Positive results in various self-reports made both after treatment and at a five-month follow-up are discussed.     

Personality Changes in the Old–Old: A Longitudinal Study

Although many studies have examined the issue of personality stability in early and middle adulthood, few have explored the limits of personality stability in the very old, who are often confronted with major changes in their health and life circumstances which can severely impact adaptive behavior. We conducted a longitudinal study of 74 elderly women with a mean age of 80. They were assessed on the personality traits of Neuroticism, Extroversion, and Openness. Although multiple regression analyses revealed moderate stability on all 3 traits, their stability was found to be influenced by negative changes in life circumstances. For example, decreased social support and increased unmet needs were associated with more Neuroticism. Less Extroversion was associated with poorer health and greater psychosocial needs. The trait of Openness was very stable and was the least affected by life events. These contradictory findings are reconciled by considering personality development within an interaction framework.     

A Case Study of Negative Affixes in Sadegh Hedayat’s Letters: The Effect of Bipolar Mood Disorder

This research studies the morphological features found in Sadegh Hedayat’s letters, who, based on linguistic and psychological studies, may have had bipolar disorder. It aims to assess the impact of various types of moods on the frequency of negative affixes through qualitative analysis of the letters’ text. The letters are written in Persian, and include six negative derivational affixes. As bipolar disorder includes four episodes, all letters are analyzed on the basis of six negative affixes concerning the episodes using SPSS. The results indicate that each episode shows totally different characteristics in using negative affixes. In fact, Hedayat mostly used negative affixes in depression, confirming psychological studies, and it is revealed that he mostly used negative affixes in hypomania when he experienced an irritated mood. Moreover, the frequency of negative affixes in mixed episode shows a combination of hypomania and depression, which is in agreement with previous studies. Additionally, euthymia shows few negative affixes.     

Reciprocal Influences Between Parents’ Perceptions of Mother-Child and Father-Child Relationships: A Short-Term Longitudinal Study in Chinese Preschoolers

The authors examined whether the finding of a correspondence between specific behavioral patterns of attachment in infancy and childhood and specific representational patterns in childhood could be replicated using children's responses to a story depicting an imagined parent-child separation experience. The participants were 33 German mothers and their children (16 girls, 17 boys). Attachment quality was assessed via standard and exploratory attachment observations at ages 12 months, 18 months, and 6 years. Chi-square analyses indicated that there was a good level of concordance between the behavioral and representation attachment patterns in infancy and childhood.     

Evolution of Students’ Varied Conceptualizations About Socially Responsible Engineering: A Four Year Longitudinal Study

Science and Engineering Ethics - Engineers should learn how to act on their responsibility to society during their education. At present, however, it is unknown what students think about the...     

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.’     

Prospero Moisè Loria: A Case Study of Jewish Secularism in Liberal Italy

In his will, Prospero Moisè Loria (1814–92) requested an autopsy and cremation and left his large inheritance to the municipality of Milan to establish a secular philanthropic institution, the Società umanitaria, “to enable all the disenfranchised poor, without distinction.” Loria and other Italian Jews were at the heart of secularist activity in Italy’s culture wars, as demonstrated by their engagement with secular philanthropy, battles for cremation, and Freemason activity. By exploring Loria as the most generous nineteenth-century Italian Jewish philanthropist, along with his affiliation with the Alliance israélite universelle as a secular Jewish institution in the Mediterranean, this essay shows how forms of secularism and Jewishness could coexist for Italian Jews and how secularism in Italy could include a commitment to a Jewish collective, and thus seeks to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the composite mixture of secular Italians and to a discussion of Jewish secularism in an international context.     

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.     

Cognitive Development in Young-old Type-2 Diabetes Patients: A Longitudinal Analysis From The “Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Aging”

In the present study, we investigated cognitive status and cognitive development in young-old Type-2 diabetes patients. Extending previous research, using the sample of the ILSE study (“Interdisciplinary Longitudinal Study of Aging”), we applied a comprehensive cognitive test battery to 38 Type-2 diabetes patients (mean age at T1: 63 years) and 421 control participants and tested both cognitive status and longitudinal changes after four years in several cognitive domains (crystallized intelligence, verbal memory, visual memory, executive functioning, psychomotor speed, and fluid intelligence). Results revealed no cross-sectional group differences in any cognitive domain at T1 nor at T2. However, testing group differences in intraindividual change over time, reliable group differences in the change of crystallized intelligence and fluid intelligence were revealed. While controls improved in crystallized intelligence as well as in fluid intelligence over time, diabetes patients’ performance decreased. The results demonstrate that in young-old adults the effects of diabetes on cognition may only be detected by analyzing within-person changes instead of mean level differences.