Sigmund Freud: Four Centenary Addresses by Ernest Jones

Group psychotherapists, primarily members of the American Group Psychotherapy Association, were surveyed to determine their practice and attitude toward inclusion of patients receiving psychotropic medication in their “typical” outpatient psychotherapy groups. One hundred forty-three questionnaire responses were received from 258 contacted practitioners (55.4% return rate). More than two-thirds of the physicians, social workers, and psychologists reported including medicated members, and the professions did not significantly differ. Mood disordered patients were most frequently and schizophrenic and manic patients were least frequently reported to receive medication.

Overall, clinicians' attitudes favored including medicated patients in the group. Indeed, therapists did not view inclusion of drugs as a detriment to the treatment process. Clinicians having only one medicated patient in their group felt more strongly that such individuals did not interfere with the treatment process when compared with those having none or more than one medicated patient. The one difference by discipline was that social workers and psychologists did not endorse the idea that medicated patients needed to be in groups led by psychiatrists.     

Predictors of Diabetes Self‐care,Metabolic Control,and Mental Health in Youth with Type 1 Diabetes

The purpose of this study was to explore the psychosocial predictors of diabetes self‐care (adherence to care regimes), metabolic control (glycated haemoglobin), and mental health among rural‐ and urban‐dwelling youth with type 1 diabetes. One hundred and twenty three adolescents/young adults (aged 13?25 years, mean = 16 years, standard deviation = 3.8 years) with type 1 diabetes, 50 males and 73 females, completed questionnaires reporting on diabetes self‐care, metabolic control, mental health (negative affect, quality of life), risk‐taking behaviours and attitudes, diabetes self‐efficacy, community engagement, and perceived social support. No rural/urban differences were detected on key predictors or outcome variables. Structural equation modelling revealed that high diabetes self‐efficacy, lower risk behaviour, and more conservative attitudes to risk taking predicted better diabetes self‐care, which in turn predicted better metabolic control and mental health. Social support and engagement in community activities did not influence diabetes self‐care. The study has significance because both diabetes self‐efficacy and propensity towards risk behaviour are potential targets for educational and counselling interventions designed to improve diabetes self‐care regimes and resultant metabolic and mental health outcomes.     

Jonathan Edwards on the Atonement

Evidence suggests Jonathan Edwards' adherence to a version of the penal substitution theory of atonement. Evidence also suggests that Edwards' version of the penal substitution theory requires certain metaphysical commitments about the nature of Christ's relationship to the elect, echoing those issued in his Original Sin 4.3, and elsewhere, regarding the relationship of Adam to his posterity. In what follows, I argue that such evidence points to Edwards' adherence to what has more recently been described in the literature of contemporary philosophical theology as an account of realist penal substitution.     

Shaping reality vs. hiding from reality: Reconsidering the effects of trait need for closure on information search

For tentative and final decisions on real and artificial issues, three studies revealed a positive relation between trait need for closure and selective approach to supportive (vs. unsupportive) information. Specifically, individuals with high (vs. low) trait need for closure selected more decision-supportive information and less decision-challenging information for viewing. Furthermore, Study 1 showed that the effect of trait need for closure functioned independently of authoritarianism and dogmatism, and Study 3 showed that the effect of trait need for closure on selective approach to decision-supportive information was mediated by a current concern to get closure on the experimental issue. These findings provide a new understanding of how trait need for closure shapes post-decisional information search and decision making.