The Relationship of Purpose in Life to Coping Strategies and Time Since the Death of a Significant Other

The authors investigated the relationship of experienced purpose in life to strategies used to cope with a loss resulting from death and the amount of time since the loss. Forty undergraduates who had suffered the death of a significant other completed an information sheet, the Purpose in Life Test, and the revised Ways of Coping Checklist. People who experienced low purpose in life reported using more emotion-focused coping strategies than did individuals with high purpose. These results are linked to the literature on emotion-focused coping and depression and are discussed in terms of the assessment and preventive treatment of bereaved clients.     

Families with Physically Handicapped Children: Social Ecology and Family Systems

This paper reviews research on families with physically handicapped children, and integrates this work within a social ecological perspective. Methodological difficulties in past research that contribute to a lack of consensus in the area are discussed. Research on stresses experienced by various subsystems within families with handicapped children is presented, with recommendations for future family-oriented research and intervention. The interactions of families with handicapped children with their social support networks are reviewed, underscoring the importance of these processes for coping and adaptation.     

The effect of social influence on cognitive development and school performance

Three months before school entrance a sample of 29 children and their mothers was tested for degree of decentred child educability and degree of decentred maternal teaching. Mother and child were tested in two different situations, thus preventing interdependency between the measures of mother and child. Four months after school entrance, teacher judgements of school performance were obtained. A strong correspondence between degree of decentred child educability and degree of decentred maternal teaching was demonstrated. Degree of decentred maternal teaching and degree of decentred child educability were found to be good predictors of school performance, accounting for respectively 45 and 33% of the variance in school performance. In contrast a test of school readiness only accounted for 2% of the variance. A test of intelligence given after the teacher judgement accounted for 31% of the variance. The fact that the mother seems to be a better predictor of her child's school performance than the child himself, supports the assumption that parents, particularly mothers, are important mediators between the child and the outer world.     

The Moral Significance of Birth

Does birth make a difference to the moral rights of the fetus /infant? Should it make a difference to its legal rights? Most contemporary philosophers believe that birth cannot make a difference to moral rights. If this is true, then it becomes difficult to justify either a moral or a legal distinction between late abortion and infanticide. I argue that the view that birth is irrelevant to moral rights rests upon two highly questionable assumptions about the theoretical foundations of moral rights. If we reject these assumptions, then we are free to take account of the contrasting biological and social relationships that make even relatively late abortion morally different from infanticide.     

The Growing Feminist Debate over the New Reproductive Technologies

A critical review of four recent works that reflect current conflicts and tensions among feminists regarding new reproductive technologies: In Search of Parenthood by Judith Lasker and Susan Borg; Ethics and Human Reproduction by Christine Overall; Made to Order, Patricia Spallone and Deborah Steinberg, eds. and Reproductive Technologies: Gender, Motherhood and Medicine, Michelle Stanworth, ed. Their positions are evaluated against the background of growing feminist dialogue about the future of reproduction and the bearing of reproductive innovations on such related issues as racism, sexuality, motherhood and abortion.     

Developmental pathways of behavior problems in the young child: factors associated with continuity and change

The continuity and discontinuity of behavioral problems from age 4 through age 7 until 10 were examined in 120 children. The mothers rated childhood behavior problems at the three age points. Problems were defined as above 80th percentile. Individual transition classification of problematic and non-problematic children showed that 7% had stable behavior problems, 60% stable non-problematic behavior and the rest displayed transitions related to either onset or offset of problems. The mechanisms involved in onset were different from those involved in offset. Children showing onset of problems had fewer friends, participated less often in organized leisure activities and were more passive in class than the well-functioning children. Maternal characteristics such as continued education, current employment and high educational ambitions for the child were associated with having children changing their pathway from risk to an adaptive one.     

Competency-Based Employment-Counseling Model: Local Office Implementation

This article describes the early stages in the implementation of the competency-based employment-counseling model in a local employment office in Kentucky. Preliminary steps taken at both the state and local levels are discussed. The actual application of the model in the Louisville local office is then presented. The conclusions provide several key factors to successful initial implementation.     

Women,Work, and Life Transitions

Work is a positive force in helping women manage the issues and problems caused by separation and loss. The role of the employment counselor can be crucial during the process of transition.     

Reconstructing Judgment: Emotion and Moral Judgment

A traditional association of judgment with “reason” has drawn upon and reinforced an opposition between reason and emotion. This, in turn, has led to a restricted view of the nature of moral judgment and of the subject as moral agent. The alternative, I suggest, is to abandon the traditional categories and to develop a new theory of judgment. I argue that the theory of judgment developed by Justus Buchler constitutes a robust alternative which does not prejudice the case against emotion. Drawing on this theory I then develop how to conceptualize the ways in which feeling and emotion can be (or be components of) moral judgments.