Implementation of a Culture-Specific Intervention for a Native American Community

Psychiatric services provided to Native Americans should be culturally relevant and integrated with the values and beliefs of the culture since Native Americans use Western health care as a last resort. Reduced utilization of services may be the result of cultural beliefs that sickness or illness comes from disharmony with oneself, one's community, and nature. Treatment entails resolving the disharmony and restoring a state of balance and integration. Western psychiatric services have not usually provided active psychiatric treatment, while simultaneously encouraging participation in native ceremonies and traditions of healing. For 3 years, the Wyoming State Hospital has offered Sweat Lodge ceremonies administered by the Wind River Reservation as part of a pattern of working together to improve the care of Native Americans admitted to the facility. Results indicate increased utilization of hospital services as well as increased patient and tribal satisfaction, improved health care outcomes, and reduced length of stay. This report argues that culturally specific and sensitive treatment interventions provide a concrete and specific benefit to the population which is targeted.     

The mechanisms underlying attributive projection1

The experiment investigated the validity of the cognitive dissonance reduction and stimulus generalization explanations of attributive projection. Subjects in a high dissonance condition were informed that they possessed considerable hostility (a negative trait), while those in a low dissonance condition were told that they possessed a great deal of assertiveness (a desirable trait). The dissonance mechanism received support in that (a) subjects' reports of their anxiety indicated that an ego threat was produced only in the high dissonance condition, as expected; and (b) hostility was projected onto others to a significantly greater degree than was assertiveness. The existence of only a weak relationship between degree of ego threat produced by the personality feedback and subsequent amount of projection, however, throws into question the validity of the hypothesized defensive function of projection. No support for the generalization mechanism was obtained since the subjects did not project a greater amount of either trait onto the similar targets (college students) than onto the relatively dissimilar targets (middleaged lawyers); possible reasons for this negative result were discussed, as well as suggestions for future research.     

Goal attainment scaling: An idiosyncratic method to assess treatment effectiveness in agoraphobia

Goal attainment scaling (GAS) is an individually tailored way to measure treatment gains, using a highly standardized procedure. An advantage of the method is that it takes into account individual characteristics of the patients, and at the same time the data are suitable for quantitative analysis and comparable across patients. Despite the wide acceptance and use of the method in the evaluation of psychotherapy, data on its psychometric properties are rather scarce. In the current study, GAS was used as one of several outcome measures in a research project on the effectiveness of various treatments for panic disorder with agoraphobia. Guidelines for GAS are presented as well as data on the reliability and validity of the procedure. Results indicate that the procedure is reliable, valid, and sensitive to the improvement of patients during treatment. Comparison of GAS with standardized measures revealed considerable concordance, although the clinical end status of patients diverged somewhat dependent on the measure considered.     

The value of philosophy: A Canguilhemian perspective

This paper represents a philosophical reflection on the nature and value of philosophy itself. Georges Canguilhem somewhat scandalously argued that the fundamental value of philosophy does not lie in truth. He suggests that truth is a typical value of science because truth is what science says and what is said scientifically. Why would a philosopher depreciate his own discipline? And does he really do so? Or is there a different motivation: to help philosophy to become a much more self-confident voice? And if truth is no longer a value of philosophy, what value fits it better? The article follows Canguilhem in his conception of truth, science, and philosophy. It is against the background of these considerations that the specific revised anthropology of the scientist or philosopher is formed. The main question is what this means for current philosophy and why it could be inspiring for philosophers today.     

Dimensionality of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale and its relationships with the Three-and the Five-factor personality models

We investigated the dimensionality of the French version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES; Rosenberg, 1965) using confirmatory factor analysis. We tested models of 1 or 2 factors. Results suggest the RSES is a 1-dimensional scale with 3 highly correlated items. Comparison with the Revised NEO-Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R; Costa, McCrae, & Rolland, 1998) demonstrated that Neuroticism correlated strongly and Extraversion and Conscientiousness moderately with the RSES. Depression accounted for 47% of the variance of the RSES. Other NEO-PI-R facets were also moderately related with self-esteem.     

Separation-survivability as moral cut-off point for abortion

Abstract

We argue that separation-survivability is a significant developmental fetal milestone beyond which abortion is only rarely and exceptionally morally justifiable. Secondly, we argue that the continuous nature of prenatal development, and simultaneous parallel development and actuation of intrinsic and contingent potentiality that eventually results in the development of a person capable of moral thoughts and deeds, implies continuously incremental moral significance. We propose that the moral justifiability of each instance of non-therapeutic pre-viable termination should be the product of an internal dialectic or “moral enquiry”. Arguments should be of increasing power in order to trump the sliding-scale increase in prenatal moral significance. We agree that sentience is morally significant, but argue that survivability is of predominant importance, since human beings who have the potentiality of separate, relatively independent lives, should, normally, be allowed to continue living. We argue for a moderate position on abortion.     

Concretizing an Ethics of Emptiness: The Succeeding Volumes of Watsuji Tetsurô’s Ethics

Watsuji Tetsurô’s Ethics is one of the most important works in Japanese ethical thought. But scholarly research in English has largely focused on the first of three volumes of Ethics, leaving the latter two oft-neglected. In order to balance out the views of Watsuji’s ethics, this paper focuses on the contributions of the second and third volumes of Ethics. These volumes are essential for any concrete understanding of Watsuji’s ‘ethics of emptiness’. The second volume develops the ideas of the first, particularly how the dual-structure (individuality and communality) is concretely realized through the various stages of ethical organization (family, local community, economy, nation, and state). The third volume develops the notions of space and time from the first volume into a theory of climate (fûdo) and history. By analyzing these, we can understand Watsuji’s system as a whole and clarify Watsuji’s unique contribution to ethical theory.     

The role of expectancies in the size-weight illusion: A review of theoretical and empirical arguments and a new explanation

The size–weight illusion (SWI) refers to the phenomenon that objects that are objectively equal in weight but different in size or volume are perceived to differ in weight, such that smaller objects feel heavier than larger ones. This article reviews studies trying to support three different viewpoints with respect to the role of expectancies in causing the SWI. The first viewpoint argues for a crucial role; the second admits a role, yet without seeing consequences for sensorimotor processes; and the third denies any causal role for expectancies at all. A new explanation of the SWI is proposed that can integrate the different arguments. A distinctive feature of the new explanation is that it recognizes the causal influence of expectancies, yet combines this with certain reactive and direct behavioral consequences of perceiving size differences that are independent of experience-based expectancies, and that normally result in the adaptive application of forces to lift or handle differently sized objects. The new account explains why the illusion is associated with the repeated generation of inappropriate lifting forces (which can, however, be modified through extensive training), as well as why it depends on continuous visual exposure to size cues, appears at an early age, and is cognitively impenetrable.     

Structural analysis of the facets and domains of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire (ZKA-PQ) and the NEO PI-R

Aluja, Kuhlman, and Zuckerman (2010) developed an instrument for American and Spanish populations (Zuckerman-Kuhlman-Aluja Personality Questionnaire [ZKA-PQ]) that includes 4 facets for each 5 basic traits of Zuckerman's psychobiological personality model. This new instrument is intended to improve the previous measure based on the same personality model, the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ), by including the narrower traits (facets) defining the factors. This article explores the convergent and discriminant validity of the new instrument relative to the NEO PI-R in a sample from the Spanish general population. A series of exploratory factor analyses comparing both instruments was conducted. Results showed good convergent and discriminant validity between both instruments, although the ZKA-PQ had a slightly better structure than the NEO PI-R. The results support the validity of the ZKA-PQ factor domains and the facets composing them. The new instrument might be useful in both applied and research settings.