On Black Women, “In Defense of Transracialism,” and Imperial Harm

This essay is a response to the events surrounding Hypatia's publication of “In Defense of Transracialism.” It does not take up the question of “transracialism” itself, but rather attempts to shed light both on what some black women may have experienced following from the publication of the article and on how we might understand this experience as harm. It also suggests one way for feminist journals to reduce the likelihood of similar harms occurring in the future. I begin by describing a discussion that occurred in my classroom that bears some resemblance to the much larger debate that emerged around Hypatia. Next, I elaborate a concept of imperial harm. I then address how this concept comes to be relevant to the experience of black women within the discipline of philosophy in general, before briefly describing how academic feminism (including feminist philosophy) has served as a particular site of imperial harm for black women. Finally, touching on the idea of expressive harm, I conclude with an appeal for the adoption of more feminist publication ethics.     

Social Categorization Moderates Social Projection

When categorized into social groups, people view members of in-groups, but not members of out-groups, as being similar to themselves. In three experiments, social categorization moderated the spread of social projection in both minimal and value-tagged laboratory groups and regardless of whether individual perceivers judged both groups or only one. The categorization effect tracked changes in the perceiver's group status so that most perceivers projected only to present but not past in-groups. The lack of out-group projection supported an anchoring hypothesis, according to which self-referent information is engaged only when it is considered applicable to the judgment at hand. The induction hypothesis and the differentiation hypothesis, which predicted positive and negative out-group projection, respectively, were not supported. Implications for theories of intergroup perception and bias are discussed.     

The Effective Use of Secondary Data

In primary data analysis the individuals who collect the data also analyze it; for meta-analysis an investigator quantitatively combines the statistical results from multiple studies of a phenomenon to reach a conclusion; in secondary data analysis individuals who were not involved in the collection of the data analyze the data. Secondary data analysis may be based on the published data or it may be based on the original data. Most studies of animal cognition involve primary data analysis; it was difficult to identify any that were based on meta-analysis; secondary data analysis based on published data has been used effectively, and examples are given from the research of John Gibbon on scalar timing theory. Secondary data analysis can also be based on the original data if the original data are available in an archive. Such an archive in the field of animal cognition is feasible and desirable.     

Research and Theory: Spirituality and Counseling Class: A Teaching Model

The purpose of this article is to introduce the content taught by the second author in a class titled “Spirituality and Counseling” and to evaluate its effectiveness in increasing students' confidence in integrating spirituality in counseling. Specific interventions taught included the focusing method, a forgiveness model, the prayer wheel, and meditation. Results of the pilot study are reported, and implications for future classes are discussed.     

Establishing an Alcohol and Other Drug Assessment and Intervention Program Within an On‐Site Counselor Education Research and Training Clinic

The authors describe the Substance Information Program, a university alcohol and other drug (AOD) assessment and intervention program. The Substance Information Program is housed in a counseling department's on‐site training and research clinic and gives counselors‐in‐training an opportunity to gain practical addictions training.     

Developmental coordination disorder: associated problems in attention,learning, and psychosocial adjustment

This study investigated the problems of attention, learning and psychosocial adjustment evidenced by children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Forty-five children identified with DCD, 51 children identified as being suspect for DCD and 78 comparison children without motor problems on standardized tests of motor function participated in this study. Results revealed that both children with DCD and children suspect for DCD obtained significantly poorer scores on measures of attention and learning (reading, writing and spelling) than comparison children. Children with DCD and those suspect for DCD were also found to evidence a relatively high level of social problems and display a relatively high level of somatic complaints based on parent report. These findings indicate that all children with movement problems are at risk for problems in attention, learning and psychosocial adjustment. Assessment of children with movement problems, regardless of the degree or severity of these problems should examine a wide range of functions in addition to motor functioning. Such an approach, would assist in determining the types of intervention that would provide the most benefit to these children.     

Does Receiving Genetic Counseling Impact Genetic Counselor Practice?

This study was an investigation of whether genetic counselors have received genetic counseling and if so, how they believe it affects their practice. One thousand genetic counselors were mailed surveys about the nature of genetic counseling services received, impact on their clinical practice, frequency and reasons for disclosing about their receipt of counseling to their clients, and demographics. Ninety-three of the 510 respondents reported receiving genetic counseling. Of these, almost three-fourths were practicing genetic counselors while receiving services. Reasons for services include prenatal concerns, family history of cancer, and history/risk of other genetic conditions. Frequently endorsed effects on practice include increased empathy and understanding of client decisions, feeling more connected with clients, greater emphasis on psychosocial support, and sympathy. Forty-six respondents disclosed to clients about their receipt of genetic counseling. Prevalent reasons include client asked, help clients feel they are not alone, demonstrate counselor understanding, decrease client anxiety, build rapport, and normalize client feelings. Practice and research recommendations are given.     

Memory enhancement of classical fear conditioning by post-training injections of corticosterone in rats

There is extensive evidence that post-training administration of the adrenocortical hormone corticosterone facilitates memory consolidation processes in a variety of contextual and spatial-dependent learning situations. The present experiments examine whether corticosterone can modulate memory of auditory-cue classical fear conditioning, a learning task that is not contingent on contextual or spatial representations. Male Sprague-Dawley rats received three pairings of a single-frequency auditory stimulus and footshock, followed immediately by a post-training subcutaneous injection of either corticosterone (1.0 or 3.0mg/kg) or vehicle. Retention was tested 24h later in a novel test chamber and suppression of ongoing motor behavior served as the measure of conditioned fear. Corticosterone dose-dependently facilitated suppression of motor activity during the 10-s presentation of the auditory cue. As corticosterone administration did not alter responding after unpaired presentations of tone and shock, tone alone, shock alone or absence of tone/shock, the findings indicated that corticosterone selectively facilitated memory of the tone-shock association. Furthermore, injections of corticosterone given 3h after training did not alter motor activity during retention testing, demonstrating that corticosterone enhanced time-dependent memory consolidation processes. These findings provide evidence that corticosterone modulates the consolidation of memory for auditory-cue classical fear conditioning and are consistent with a wealth of data indicating that glucocorticoids can modulate a wide variety of emotionally influenced memories.