Suicidal–Homicidal Ideation in Mass Killers and Transcendence

This article examines the role that suicidal–homicidal ideation plays in influencing mass killers and draws on the author’s concept of transcendent fantasy theory. Although numerous researchers touch on the fact that 50% of mass killers commit suicide, few have traced and compared the suicidal person’s fantasy process with that of the suicidal–homicidal killer’s fantasy process. Suicidal individuals tend to be intropunitive. They internalize the blame for real or imagined failures, and they seek to escape from such failures, or to inflict punishment on him- or herself for the same reasons. Mass killers externalize the blame for their real or imagined losses. Due to their mordant bitterness toward self and others, these suicidal–homicidal individuals often fantasize not only about escaping, but transcending their feelings of inadequacy, self-doubt, and worthlessness by having society see them as powerful, clever, and superior for pulling off a massacre and making (in their view) oppressive people pay.     

A first grade student’s exploration of variable and variable notation / Una alumna de primer grado explora las variables y su notación

Abstract

This paper presents a case study of a first grade student to illustrate the diversity of her understandings related to variables and variable notation. While prior research has documented secondary school students’ difficulties with variables and variable notation, we identify many productive understandings in this much younger student, leading us to question the prevailing argument that students might have difficulties with variables due mostly to their own limitations. We draw our data from a teaching experiment that explored functional relationships. Individual interviews were carried out with a subset of the students in the experiment prior to, as well as mid-way through and at the end of the experiment. This paper focuses on a set of three interviews with one of the first grade students. We illustrate the shifts that occurred in the student’s understandings about variables and variable notation across as well as within each of the three interviews.     

Counseling Multiple‐Heritage Couples

Multiple‐heritage couples are one of the fastest growing client populations in the United States. These partnerships are defined by intersecting ethnic, racial, linguistic, and religious differences. They are challenged by societal perceptions, stereotypes, and other pressures associated with being in a multiple‐heritage pairing. This article discusses strengths in the multiple‐heritage union brought about by the understanding of diverse viewpoints. Finally, the article identifies specific strategies, such as couples relationship education, to resolve and confront inherent differences. Las parejas multiculturales son uno de los grupos demográficos de clientes de mayor crecimiento en los Estados Unidos. Este tipo de parejas se define por la intersección de diferencias étnicas, raciales, lingüísticas y religiosas. Sus miembros enfrentan desafíos a causa de las percepciones sociales, los esterotipos y otras presiones asociadas con tener una pareja multicultural. Este artículo discute los puntos fuertes en una unión multicultural, facilitados por la comprensión de puntos de vista diversos. Finalmente, el artículo identifica estrategias específicas, como por ejemplo la educación en relaciones de pareja, para resolver y afrontar las diferencias intrínsecas.     

Developmental effects of economic and educational change: Cognitive representation in three generations across 43 years in a Maya community

We studied the implications of social change for cognitive development in a Maya community in Chiapas, Mexico, over 43 years. The same procedures were used to collect data in 1969–1970, 1991, and 2012—once in each generation. The goal was to understand the implications of weaving, schooling and participation in a commercial economy for the development of visual pattern representation. In 2012, our participants consisted of 133 boys and girls descended from participants in the prior two generations. Procedures consisted of placing colored sticks in a wooden frame to make striped patterns, some familiar (Zinacantec woven patterns) and some novel (created by the investigators). Following Greenfield (2009), we hypothesised that the development of commerce and the expansion of formal schooling would influence children's representations. Her theory postulates that these factors move human development towards cognitive abstraction and skill in dealing with novelty. Furthermore, the theory posits that whatever sociodemographic variable is changing most rapidly functions as the primary motor for developmental change. From 1969 to 1991, the rapid development of a commercial economy drove visual representation in the hypothesised directions. From 1991 to 2012, the rapid expansion of schooling drove visual representation in the hypothesised directions.     

When symptom is symbol: some comments on Rosemary Gordon's, ‘Masochism: the shadow side of the archetypal need to venerate and worship’

This paper is a commentary on Rosemary Gordon's paper, ‘Masochism: the shadow side of the archetypal need to venerate and worship’, with a suggestion for an alternative interpretation of masochism as a part of a sado‐masochistic couple. Gordon postulates an archetypal need to venerate and worship that can be hidden in the shadow and distorted in such practices as sexual masochism. Her paper also offers several avenues of exploration for further studies in connection with the phenomenon of masochism, including sexual perversion (‘paraphilia’), chronic psychological victimhood, PTSD and traumatology, religious extremist behaviour such as self‐flagellation, transformation in the individuation process and numinous experience. An extension of her hypothesis to include religious problems of modernity is suggested.     

A cognitive behavioral workshop for subclinical obsessions and compulsions

The present study investigates the effectiveness of a 3-h cognitive behavioral workshop for individuals, ages 18-22, with subclinical obsessions and compulsions. It was hypothesized that, compared to individuals in an assessment-only waitlist group (n = 42), individuals assigned to the workshop group (n = 43) would experience a significant decrease in obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptomatology, comorbidity, and thought action fusion endorsement at 1-month and 5-month follow-up assessments. An additional outcome of interest was the number of incident cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) over the course of the study. The results indicated that the workshop group reported a significantly fewer number of OC symptoms at 5-month follow-up and endorsed significantly less thought action fusion at both follow-up points. However, there were no differences between groups in severity of OC symptoms and number of comorbid diagnoses endorsed. Only one incident case of OCD was observed during the study, from a participant in the waitlist group. These results are discussed in reference to treatment of subclinical anxiety symptoms.