A Longitudinal Study of Forgiveness and Post-Disclosure Experience in Mixed Orientation Couples

Mixed-orientation couples (MOC) are under-represented in the literature. Often when sexual minorities disclose their sexual orientation it is a stressful experience for their spouse who progresses through stages and experiences both negative and supportive responses as they address disclosure-related issues. Participants completed an online survey and then repeated the same process a year later to measure changes in forgiveness and experience. Forgiveness was shown to play a role in how spouses progress through the post-disclosure stages. In addition, forward movement was seen in both forgiveness and stages over the course of one year. Implications for therapy with MOC are discussed.     

Aluminium precipitates in the primary silicon of as-sprayformed hypereutectic aluminium-silicon alloys

Precipitates have been observed in the primary silicon of as-spray-formed hypereutectic aluminium-silicon alloys with and without various alloy additions. The precipitates have been investigated using transmission electron microscopy and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. They are aluminium based and generally adopt a spheroidal morphology, with diameters in the range of approximately 5-10nm, unless located on a stacking fault or grain boundary. Spray forming is a rapid solidification process and precipitation occurs because of the low solid solubility of aluminium in silicon (maximum of 0.016 +/- 0.003at.% at 1190 C). The morphology of the precipitates suggests that they form from aluminium or aluminium-rich liquid. The orientation relationships of several precipitates in one of the primary silicon grains have been determined.     

Enhancing dissemination in selective eating disorders prevention: An investigation of voluntary participation among female university students

Maximising dissemination of efficacious psychological interventions is an important undertaking, particularly in prevention work where the target population may not be seeking help. Consequently, the current study investigated voluntary participation in a selective eating disorder prevention programme by examining predictors of, and evaluating a motivational enhancement approach to, increased participation. Female students studying first-year psychology (N = 124, M_age = 19.30, SD = 1.55) completed baseline measures, were randomised to a motivational or control condition, then presented with a flyer for an eating disorders prevention trial and assessed regarding potential participation. Results showed that interest and likelihood of participation were low overall and lack of time the most commonly endorsed reason. Participants high on weight concerns were more likely to cite the group format of the intervention as a deterrent. A greater belief in the helpfulness of body image programmes and higher personal ineffectiveness were significant predictors of interest in participation. There was no significant difference between those who did and did not undergo the motivational enhancement with respect to interest and likelihood of participation. These findings suggest important avenues for consideration when designing eating disorder prevention efforts relying on voluntary participation, and highlight the importance of evaluating programmes cross-culturally.     

Toward a Better Understanding of Psychological Well‐Being in Dementia Caregivers: The Link Between Marital Communication and Depression

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). Dementia research has frequently documented high rates of caregiver depression and distress in spouses providing care for a partner suffering from dementia. However, the role of marital communication in understanding caregiver distress has not been examined sufficiently. Studies with healthy couples demonstrated an association between marital communication and the partners' psychological well‐being, depressiveness, respectively (e.g., Heene, Buysee, & Van Oost, 2005 ). The current study investigates the relationship between caregiver depression and communication in 37 couples in which the wives care for their partners with dementia. Nonsequential and sequential analyses revealed significant correlations between caregiver depression and marital communication quality. Caregivers whose husbands used more positive communication reported less depression and distress. Additionally, caregiver depression was negatively correlated with rates of positive reciprocal communication indicating dependence between the couples' interaction patterns. This study is one of the first to illustrate the relevance of spousal communication in understanding caregiver distress and depression.     

tolerable differences revisited: crossroads in theory on the social construction of deviance

This paper builds on Stebbins' (1996) concept of tolerable differences, an underused tool for analysis of deviant activities and lifestyles that tend not to elicit the kind of collective condemnation traditionally reserved for serious moral and legal transgressions. Our analysis centers on two case studies of criminal tolerable deviance in Canada, the widespread use of marijuana for recreational purposes and the illegal ticket scalping trade. Whereas the former has inspired a vast body of literature, the latter has been thus far overlooked by sociologists. Consideration of the two together, in terms of Stebbins' framework, betters our understanding of the social construction of these practices, further developing theory and research on deviance more generally.     

Family therapy with adolescent offenders: A collaborative treatment strategy

Abstract

An intervention strategy is presented which can be used with families of adolescents who continue breaking the law despite improvement of family functioning during therapy. The strategy emphasizes collaboration between the therapist and juvenile justice system in stopping the child's law-breaking behavior in the shortest amount of time. The treatment strategy is suggested as a specific intervention to be used only when conventional family therapy strategies have failed to promote the cessation of the adolescent's law-breaking behavior. As such, it is suggested as a strategy to be used in conjunction with family therapy rather than as a comprehensive treatment approach in itself.     

Probability all the Way Up

Richard Jeffrey’s radical probabilism (‘probability all the way down’) is augmented by the claim that probability cannot be turned into certainty, except by data that logically exclude all alternatives. Once we start being uncertain, no amount of updating will free us from the treadmill of uncertainty. This claim is cast first in objectivist and then in subjectivist terms.     

Pretty in Ink: Conformity,Resistance, and Negotiation in Women's Tattooing

Since the early 1990s, Canadian women have participated in tattooing in unprecedented numbers. These women are utilizing tattoo body projects (C. Shilling, 1993) to communicate a wide range of personal and cultural messages, and challenging the long-standing association between tattooing and masculinity. However, and perhaps more consequentially, women's tattoo projects express diverse sensibilities about femininity and the feminine body. For some Canadian women, contesting culturally established (N. Elias & J. Scotson, 1965) constructions of the female body is central in their tattoo body projects, whereas others participate in tattooing as an explicit form of consent to such constructions. In this paper, women's tattooing activities and their subsequent tattoo narratives are critically inspected as deeply gendered practices and discourses. I present participant observation and interview data on tattoo enthusiasm in Canada. The focus is directed toward the ways in which conformity to, resistance against, and the negotiation of established cultural ideas about femininity are equally embedded in women's tattooing. Drawing upon feminist theories about bodies (cf. S. Bordo, 1990; K. Davis, 1994; J. Price & M. Shildrick, 1999; S. Williams & G. Bendelow, 1998) and central tenets of process-sociology (N. Elias, 1991, 1994, 1996; N. Elias & J. Scotson, 1965), emphasis is given to how women employ tattooing as a communicative signifier of established and outsider constructions of femininity.     

Executive functioning as a potential mediator of age-related cognitive decline in normal adults

Critical requirements for the hypothesis that executive functioning is a potential mediator of age-related effects on cognitive functioning are that variables assumed to reflect executive functioning represent a distinct construct and that age-related effects on other types of cognitive functioning are reduced when measures of executive functioning are statistically controlled. These issues were investigated in a study involving 261 adults between 18 and 84 years of age. Although age-related effects on various cognitive abilities were substantially reduced after statistical control of the variance in measures hypothesized to represent executive functioning, there was only weak evidence for the existence of distinct constructs corresponding to executive functioning or to aspects of executive control concerned with inhibition, updating, or time sharing.