Implications of an Africentric Worldview in Reducing Stress for African American Women

Despite the extensive research on stress in recent decades, including the emphasis on stress mediation and reduction, epidemiological studies indicate that African American women continue to experience high rates of morbidity and mortality because of stress and stress-related diseases. With growth in the conceptualization and articulation of an Africentric perspective for defining the functioning of African American people, in this article the authors explore the idea of an Africentric worldview as a means for reducing stress among African American women. Considering that cognitive appraisals define the situations that individuals experience and considering that worldview is the lens through which experience is viewed, restructuring worldview can alter the cognitive appraisals of potential stressful situations. Africentric worldview provides a framework for affirming African American and women's beliefs and behaviors. The authors propose that the framework has the potential to counter the negative images that often result in stressful appraisals of an oppressive and hostile environment.     

Establishing the constructs of childhood behavioral disturbances in a Chinese population: A questionnaire study

The behavioral problems of Chinese children were examined in a questionnaire study of a representative sample of 3,069 seven-year-old Chinese schoolboys in Hong Kong using Rutter's questionnaires for completion by parents and teachers. Separate robust dimensions of hyperactivity, antisocial, and neurotic behaviors were evident. The correlations among different dimensions were similar to those reported in the West. Short-term longitudinal analysis suggested that these dimensions were stable over time and that antisocial behaviors might develop in hyperactive children. The finding highlights the necessity of differentiating the hyperactive domain from the antisocial one. A significant source effect was found in all three dimensions. Chinese schoolboys had nearly two times the level of questionnaire-rated hyperactivity compared with school boys in the West; but it is premature to conclude that hyperactivity is more common in Chinese schoolboys in Hong Kong. Cross-cultural differences in adults' expectations and tolerance remain a plausible explanation.This study was supported by the Croucher Foundation. We would like to thank the Education Department of Hong Kong for assistance in sampling. We are particularly grateful to the children, teachers, and parents who participated in this study.     

Culture change: A training program for recent immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union

The article describes a training program in structural/integrative family therapy for immigrant professionals from the former Soviet Union at the Training Center of the Shiluv Institute for Family and Couple Therapy in Jerusalem. The program was instituted to meet the pressing needs of a mass immigration of half a million people that came to Israel between 1990 and 1992. This is a retrospective look at the journey of the initial group of psychiatrists and psychologists who changed country, culture, language, and professional orientation in just two years. The authors state their conclusions as to the most expedient way to organize therapy for families from the former Soviet Union — a population in need of help but lacking an awareness of therapy and suspicious of the outsider.     

Towards a theory of the organism

A tentative theory of the organism is derived from McClare’s (1971) notion ofstored energy and Denbigh’s (1951) thermodynamics of the steady state, as a dynamically closed, energetically self-sufficient domain of cyclic non-dissipative processes coupled to irreversible dissipative processes. This effectively frees the organism from thermodynamic constraints so that it is poised for rapid, specific intercommunication, enabling it to function as a coherent whole. In the ideal, the organism is a quantum superposition of coherent activities over all space-time domains, with instantaneous (nonlocal) noiseless intercommunication throughout the system. Evidence for quantum coherence is considered and reviewed.     

Retention and treatment failure in Classwide Peer Tutoring: Implications for further research

Knowledge of basic arithmetic facts aids in the acquisition and speed of performance of arithmetic operations. A peer mediated instructional procedure, Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT), has been shown to increase the rates and accuracy of students responses to academic tasks and to improve student performance on a variety of academic tasks. The present investigation evaluated the retention of 100 subtraction items by primary grade-age children with mild disabilities using CWPT for 10 weeks. Short- and long-term retention of items, and rate of correct responding were assessed. Results indicated that the students' average pretest score was 58.0% correct, and their average weekly posttest score was 87.12 correct, a 27% improvement in accuracy. Short- and longer-term retention measured on posttests was 88.7 % and 85.0% correct, respectively. Improvement in students rate of accurate responding to subtraction items practiced during CWPT was obtained. Student failure to learn particular items was not attributable to fewer opportunities to practice these items, less accurate practice, or item difficulty. Students reported positive evaluation of CWPT and perceived positive social and self esteem outcomes. Directions for future research focusing on retention and analysis of treatment failure are suggested.