Ethical Challenges in the Treatment of Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities

The effective provision of psychotherapy services to individuals with intellectual disability requires consideration of ethical issues related to clinical competence, access to services, obligations to multiple parties, guardianship, and appropriate assessment practices. This article provides an overview of major ethical considerations with guidance for clarifying and resolving common ethical concerns. Psychologists are encouraged to expand access to psychotherapy services for this population while maintaining awareness of potential modifications, training needs, and boundaries of professional competence. The authors provide recommendations and resources for effective and ethical treatment of psychotherapy clients with intellectual disabilities.     

The logic of conditionals 1

The standard use of the propositional calculus ('P.C.’) in analyzing the validity of inferences involving conditionals leads to fallacies, and the problem is to determine where P.C. may be ‘safely’ used. An alternative analysis of criteria of reasonableness of inferences in terms of conditions of justification rather than truth of statements is proposed. It is argued, under certain restrictions, that P. C. may be safely used, except in inferences whose conclusions are conditionals whose antecedents are incompatible with the premises in the sense that if the antecedent became known, some of the previously asserted premises would have to be withdrawn.     

Cleaning Up the Dirty Work: Professionalization and the Management of Stigma in the Cosmetic Surgery and Tattoo Industries

This article considers the similarities between the cosmetic surgery and tattoo industries, focusing on how each has transitioned from a disreputable and deviant industry to achieve varying degrees of mainstream acceptance and success. Specifically, each industry is conceptualized as engaging in “dirty work” requiring practitioners to actively reframe and legitimate their respective industry. Using Event Structure Analysis, I model and compare the development of each industry based on linear historical narratives. The resulting models illustrate the importance of events within each narrative along with their relationship to each other. Findings suggest that the creation of industry-wide professional organizations is integral to changing public perception of a given industry. Furthermore, findings show that the more hierarchical structure of the cosmetic surgery industry, as well as its integration into the medical industry, have helped it to thrive in a manner that contrasts sharply with the more disorganized structure of the tattoo industry.     

Grateful individuals are not suicidal: Buffering risks associated with hopelessness and depressive symptoms

With suicidal behavior serving as a leading cause of injury and death around the world, researchers must expand ongoing efforts to uncover protective factors. In this study, we examined if gratitude mitigated existing risk factors for suicide. Specifically, we predicted that gratitude moderates the relationship between suicidal ideation and (a) hopelessness and (b) depressive symptoms in a sample of 369 diverse undergraduate students. Results indicate that for people who are highly grateful, both hopelessness and depressive symptoms are less likely to be associated with thoughts and intentions to kill oneself. The findings demonstrate the value of integrating protective factors against suicidality, including character strengths such as gratitude, into existing theories that tend to be limited to vulnerability factors. We offer tentative ideas for enhancing the impact of suicide prevention and intervention programs by directly addressing gratitude, which has been shown to be highly modifiable.     

Energy,Complexity, and Strategies of Evolution: As Illustrated by Maya Indians of Guatemala

Using free energy rate density (Φ_m) I differentiate two evolutionary strategies common to cosmic, biological, and cultural systems: the horizontal when energy increases proportional to mass, with no increase in complexity; and the vertical when it increases disproportionately to the mass and complexity increases. The vertical process is a continuing increase in complexity such that the system becomes vulnerable to collapse when energy sources fail. This is illustrated by a comparison of four Mayan Indian groups in Guatemala.     

It Only Looks the Same From a Distance: How U.S., Finnish,and Irish Schools Support Struggling Readers

This study examined how U.S., Finnish, and Irish educators identified and supported struggling readers. Using Johnston's (2011) framework for evaluating reading interventions and activity theory (Engeström, 1999), we interviewed educators in four U.S., three Irish, and three Finnish schools. In the United States, the adoption of three beliefs—reductionist reading philosophy, difficulties as cognitive and remediated through instruction, and reading problems as unexpected phenomena—reinforced a skills-driven approach. Irish and Finnish educators adopted a more holistic view of reading, and teachers used formative assessment to support struggling students over extended periods while working collaboratively with other staff. Discussion focuses on how these beliefs influenced divisions of labor, roles and responsibilities, and the urgency with which difficulties were addressed.     

Book Reviews

Humanistic psychology as empirical science

Poarallio, H. R. Behavior and Existence: An Introduction to Empirical Humanisitc Psychology. Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co., 1982. 444 pp.

Experience revisited

Laing, R.D. The Voice of Experience. New York: Pantheon Books, 1982, 179 pp., $3.95 paperback.     

Stress-Induced Drinking in Parents of Boys with Attention-Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder: Heterogeneous Groups in an Experimental Study of Adult-Child Interactions

Research on whether parents of children with externalizing disorders are at elevated risk for alcohol problems is equivocal. To reduce this ambiguity, we examined how individual differences in stress reactivity might moderate the drinking behavior of such parents. Parents (119 mothers, 44 fathers) of ADHD sons interacted with different child confederates during each of two counter-balanced sessions. In one, the confederate portrayed a friendly, cooperative, “normal” boy; in the other, the confederate portrayed a “deviant” boy who exhibited behavior characteristic of externalizing disorders. Following each interaction, parents were given an opportunity for ad lib consumption of alcohol while anticipating a second interaction. Latent class analysis identified three subgroups of parents using distress scores and alcohol consumption: minimal stress reactivity; reacts to child deviance with increased distress, but not increased drinking; marked stress-induced drinking. Decisions about the nature and proper treatment of parents raising children with ADHD may be compromised by failure to attend to individual differences in stress reactivity and inclinations to use drinking to cope.     

Marked Difference: Tattooing and its Association with Deviance in the United States

Despite historical associations with deviance and marginality, tattooing is practiced by a diverse population in the United States today, leading some to argue that it has grown beyond its negative associations. Drawing on a nationally representative data set (n = 500) comprised of both tattooed and non-tattooed respondents, this analysis examines the social characteristics of those who are tattooed and the associations of tattooing with deviant behavior. Findings indicate that while tattooing has developed a broad demographic appeal, there remain some strong associations with deviance, particularly criminality. Specifically, highly visible placement of tattoos appears to be most strongly associated with deviant behaviors.     

Preliminary Psychometric Evidence for Distinct Affective and Cognitive Mechanisms Mediating Contamination Aversion

Contamination aversion is implicated in a range of psychological disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder and health anxiety. Despite broad implications, the core mechanisms mediating contamination aversion are mixed and have not clearly been elucidated. The present studies are psychometric investigations of the components of contamination aversion and tests of the different mechanisms that mediate the severity of these components. In Study 1, items from existing measures of contamination aversion were compiled into one measure and administered to a large sample of nonclinical participants (N?=?1,286). Exploratory factor analyses demonstrated a two-factor structure, with one factor comprised of items related to intrinsically (direct) contaminated objects and the other factor comprised of items related to extrinsically (indirect) contaminated objects. In Study 2, items were added and confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor model in another large nonclinical sample (N?=?612). In Study 3 (N?=?471), structural modeling demonstrated distinct relations between the two factors and affective and cognitive constructs. Affective constructs related more to aversions toward more directly contaminated objects and situations while cognitive constructs related more to aversions toward more indirectly contaminated objects and situations. The present studies help clarify and articulate the unique roles of cognition and affect in specific contamination aversions, and, as such, have important implications for conceptual modeling of contamination-related psychopathology.