Blessed are the peacemakers: Commentary on making peace in gestational conflicts

The purpose of this commentary on James Nelson's article [1] is to advocate introducing the ethics of care into the arena of gestational conflict. Too often the debate gets stalled in a maternal versus fetal rights headlock. Interventionists stress fetal over maternal rights: they believe education, post-birth prosecution or pre-birth seizure of pregnant women may be permissible. In contrast to interventionists, other philosophers stress that favoring fetal rights treats women like ‘fetal containers’. I question whether we should really consider issues of moral/parental obligations to children in terms of rights. Rather, the language of care should guide moral conduct vis-a-vis children/fetuses. The particularity of each woman's story — the particulars of her human relationships — inform her story. An individual's ability to care is largely a function of whether community cares for her. We must care for others to enable them to care for themselves and their loved ones — born or unborn.     

Some effects of homelessness on the psychological functioning of preschoolers

The developmental consequences of homelessness have only recently begun to be investigated. This study examined the effects of homelessness on the self-concept, behavioral symptoms, and emotional development of preschoolers. Self-concept was examined using the Pictorial Scale of Perceived Competence and Acceptance for Young Children and teachers rated behavioral symptoms using the Child Behavior Checklist. Emotional development was also examined. Results showed that homeless preschoolers have lower self-concepts and display more deviant behaviors on the Child Behavior Checklist than housed preschoolers of the same socioeconomic status. Recognition and understanding of emotion, however, were similar in both groups.Research was supported by a grant from the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families. The authors would like to express great appreciation to teachers Michaelene Blazak and Mary Ellen Ranta, to homeless case aide Elizabeth Davico, and to research assistant Carolyn Boumilla-Agostini for their assistance and dedication.     

Outcomes of inpatient group psychotherapy associated with dispositional and situational affiliativeness

Before and after participating in an intensive three-week program of group psychotherapy, 33 recently rehospitalized male veterans (mean age=42) completed the Symptom Check List-90R and the Profile of Mood States. Prior to this program they also completed a trait affiliativeness measure and later rated their subsequent group therapy sessions for situational affiliativeness. The outcome measures indicated medium to large effect size benefits, which consistently associated positively with both separate and joint measures of trait and situational affiliativeness. The results encourage greater clinical attention to affiliativeness, a construct central to interpersonal theories of personality.This article is based upon a dissertation submitted to the Department of Psychology, Michigan State University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Ph.D. by the senior author.The authors express appreciation for the interest and cooperation of Drs. Bruce Vreeland, Larry Schwartz, Robert Munley, and Hope Conte and the patients of the Veterans Administration Medical Center, Battle Creek, Michigan.     

Attachment,temperament, and ego development in young adulthood

Attachment and temperament have each been thought to contribute to personality development; however, few empirical studies have examined the relations between the two. Thus, the purpose of this study was to investigate, in young adulthood, the relations among attachment, temperament, and two aspects of ego development, namely,overall ego development and ego development with respect tointimacy. One hundred and seven college students served as participants. Sixty one percent classified themselves as securely attached and 39% as insecurely attached. A factor analysis of the Emotionality-Activity-Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey for Adults yielded a primary factor (labeled negative emotionality) that accounted for 41% of the variance. A regression analysis then revealed that both attachment status and temperament predicted overall ego development; however, only attachment status predicted ego development with respect to intimacy. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Menschen, maschinen und g?dels theorem

Mechanism is the thesis that men can be considered as machines, that there is no essential difference between minds and machines.John Lucas has argued that it is a consequence of Gödel's theorem that mechanism is false. Men cannot be considered as machines, because the intellectual capacities of men are superior to that of any machine. Lucas claims that we can do something that no machine can do-namely to produce as true the Gödel-formula of any given machine. But no machine can prove its own Gödel-formula.In order to discuss and evaluate this argument, the author makes a distinction between formal and informal proofs, and between proofs given by men and proofs given by machines. It is argued that the informal proof capacities of machines are possibly greater and the formal proof capacities of men are possibly smaller than the anti-mechanist claims. So the argument from Gödel's theorem against mechanism fails.Though Gödel's theorem does not prove that minds are different from machines, it is not irrelevant to the analysis of thought and to the mind/machine controversy. It points to the importance of informal methods even within formal sciences and to the need for an analysis of the notion of informal thinking in cognitive science.     

The European Early Promotion Project: A new primary health care service to promote children's mental health

The number of children in Europe with significant psychologic and social problems is large and increasing. This article describes an innovative crosscultural method of working with families to promote the psychosocial well being of children and prevent the development of psychologic and social problems. A study designed to evaluate the effects of the service is also presented. Primary health care workers in five European countries have been trained to conduct promotional interviews with all prospective mothers in their area one month before and one month after birth. They have also been taught to work with mothers identified as in need of support as a parent by using a specific counselling model to try to prevent the onset of child mental health difficulties. Effects of the intervention on children's psychologic development and family adaptation are being evaluated at two years in comparison with matched groups not receiving the intervention. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.     

Predicting feelings of cognitive competence in head start preschoolers

Little is known about what predicts the budding sense of self-competence in preschoolers. This is particularly true of cognitive competence, which may have implications for later schooling. Based on previous research with older children, it was expected that feelings of self-competence would be influenced by attitudes of significant others as well as intrapersonal dispositions. Forty-five Head Start preschoolers (M age = 4.36 years) served as participants. As expected, high effortful control and language competence, as well as teachers' ratings of competence, predicted positive feelings about cognitive competence in children. Further analysis revealed that the teachers' ratings were predicted by maternal education and language competence. The findings suggest that the development of cognitive self-concept in preschoolers is predicted by contextual and constitutional factors.