Adolescent Precursors of Intensity of Marijuana and Other Illicit Drug Use Among Adult Initiators

This study examined (a) adolescent psychosocial risk factors for frequency (intensity) of marijuana use and for other illicit drug use among those who started using these drugs in early adulthood (adult initiators) and (b) the protective role of parent-adolescent relations in reducing or preventing drug use when adolescents enter early adulthood. The study's participants were male and female youth from a longitudinal prospective study. The participants' mean ages were 17 and 22 years at late adolescence and early adulthood, respectively. Independent measures assessed personality, parental, peer, and self-drug-use factors during late adolescence; dependent measures assessed frequency of marijuana use and other illicit drug use during early adulthood for initiators of the respective drug categories. The authors found that intensity of marijuana use was directly associated with the personality, parental, and self-drug-use domains and indirectly associated with the peer domain. Intensity of other illicit drug use was directly associated with personality and self-drug use. Analyses also revealed that some parent-adolescent relations factors buffered the effects of risk factors for both marijuana and other illicit drug-use intensity, whereas others enhanced the effects of protective factors against other illicit drug-use intensity. The results indicate that there are both commonalities and differences in precursors of marijuana and other illicit drug-use intensity among initiators of these drugs during early adulthood.     

Empathy as dialectic imagination

Abstract

The importance of relationship processes for humanistic and psychodynamic therapists makes empathy a critical concept in psychotherapy. Experimental work suggests that learning occurs only when the subject is actively and cooperatively engaged in the learning process. Similarly, psychotherapy is only effective when the client is willingly active in the therapeutic process. A crucial aspect of the therapist's activity is empathic imagination, defined here as the use of “dialectic” thinking capacities‐the recognition of conceptual alternatives in a given situation. These processes are at the heart of a humanistic view of agency. The therapist's use of this capacity allows imaginative projection into aspects of the client's experience, helping the client to feel understood in the relationship and emboldened to consider new possibilities in life.     

Henze on logic,creativity and art

Book Information The Indispensability of Mathematics. By Mark Colyvan. Oxford University Press. New York. 2001. Pp. 172. Hardback, £30.00.     

Parental Responses to School-aged Children’s Sibling Conflict

The goals of this study were: (1) to describe and compare parental responses to school-aged siblings’ conflicts; (2) to explore the sibling relationship structural correlates of the parental responses; and (3) to assess the links between type of parental response and sibling relationship quality and children’s psychosocial and physical well being. One parent from eighty-two families (mothers = 68; fathers = 13; 1 missing) of firstborn (Mage = 9.84 years old) and secondborn (Mage = 7.16 years old) children completed an anonymous survey. Parents employed a child-centered strategy most often and sanctioned sibling aggression least often in response to siblings’ conflicts. Closer age spacing among siblings was related to parents’ sanction of physical aggression. Parental response type was associated with sibling relationship quality and children’s psychosocial and physical well being. The differential associations between parental response type, sibling experiences and children’s mental and physical well being are discussed.     

Treatment approaches for sleep difficulties in college students

College students face many challenges and live experiences that may lead to sleep difficulties, including: varied and changing schedules, repeated deadlines, increased freedom and self-responsibility, and group living arrangements, to name but a few. A high frequency of sleep difficulties is commonly reported among college student and others who encounter similar life experiences. The prevalence of sleep difficulties is explored and a rationale provided for treatment. It is suggested that interventionists need to consider the impact of sleep difficulties on their clients' immediate and long-term functioning. To help psychologists, counsellors, and therapists better ameliorate sleep problems a number of proven techniques are reviewed which are applicable to individuals in both clinical and non-clinical settings.     

Therapist responses to requests for disclosure of therapeutic records: An introductory study

This paper describes a questionnaire survey of therapists in the UK who have been subject to requests for disclosure of client records as part of a legal process. Therapist responses are outlined in terms of the perceived effect of such disclosure on the client, therapist and the therapeutic relationship. Negative effects included the experience of exposure of sensitive client material in an adversarial legal system, of powerful emotional responses by therapists, and a sense of feeling professionally de‐skilled in an unfamiliar and often challenging legal environment. Positive effects for the client included the achievement of valued outcomes such as compensation, and, for the therapist, the facilitation of support for the client in this process. These findings are discussed in terms of a contrast between therapist perceptions of consensual and contested disclosure. In the former, therapist and client are in agreement about the restorative value and outcome of disclosure. In contested disclosure, the process is experienced as disrupting therapeutic privacy, undermining professional self‐confidence and introducing an unwelcome element of critical re‐evaluation of client motives for undertaking therapy.