Democratizing Creativity: How Arts/Philosophy Can Contribute to the Question of Arts Bias

This article critically deconstructs the 21st-century economization and massification of creativity. It extends the discussion of arts bias and the associated ideas that artistic creativity is institutionalized, elitist, and an obstruction to more profitable applications of creativity. A tension is thus highlighted between the historically prevalent domain of art, and newer domains which focus on everyday, functional, organizational and the dark sides of creativity. The aim is to open up a genuine debate about the place of art in modern creativity discourse, and to examine the problematic theme of democratization in creativity as it relates to cultural, economic and industrial issues. A new framework for conceiving creativity in hermeneutics is also suggested, with a view to cohesively and logically balancing the artistic with other domains, and eliminating some of the current problems that render creativity less than it has been regarded in generations past.     

Job demands,coping, and impacts of occupational stress among journalists: a systematic review

This paper systematically reviews empirical research published from 2002 to July 2015 investigating journalists’ occupational stressors, coping strategies, and the impacts of these variables on the health and well-being of such professionals, whether on their daily work or as special envoys to critical scenarios. A meta-analytic approach was displayed to analyse the association between exposure to traumatic events during work and journalists’ symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Twenty eight articles met the inclusion criteria and revealed that very few studies distinguish (and none compare) the distress of journalists in their daily work from the distress of reporting major disasters, not a single study addressed positive emotional responses and only one research study focused on an in-depth analysis of the most commonly used coping strategies by journalists. The impacts of occupational stress among these professionals were sorely negative (e.g., burnout, PTSD), and no study was found to address the design and assessment of preventive interventions for these impacts on the health and well-being of journalists. Thirteen studies were included in a random-effects model meta-analysis and a small to moderate effect size (r = 0.272) between exposure to traumatic events during assignments and PTSD was found. The article closes with directions for future studies.     

Advanced training in child psychology: Key elements in offering a Doctor of Psychology (DPsych) programme in South Africa

The aim of this article is to propose some benchmarks for a Doctor of Psychology (DPsych) in advanced training in Child Psychology in South Africa, and to highlight key elements in offering such a programme. In doing so, we use as case illustration an existing DPsych programme currently being offered at the University of the Free State, South Africa. We consider advanced child psychology training to registered psychologists in the clinical, counselling and educational categories. The DPsych option encompasses clinical practice, research, training, selection, and student outcomes in the context of theory as well as evidence-based practices. A wider adoption of a DPsych, focusing on child psychology, would add value to the integration of the best available research and clinical expertise in child mental health care in South Africa.     

Case–contrast study about parent–infant interaction in a Brazilian sample of siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders

Siblings of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) present greater susceptibility to developmental problems, in comparison with siblings of typically developing children. The greater prevalence of mental health disorders among parents of children with ASD increases younger siblings’ vulnerability to emotional problems. The aim of this study is to compare the interaction between carers and babies aged 2 to 26 months (M = 11.7, SD = 6.9) who are siblings of children with ASD (ASD dyads) with the interaction of dyads of siblings of typically developing children (TD dyads). The protocol of Clinical Indicators of Risk for Child Development and the Coding Interactive Behaviour measures were used to evaluate interaction. ASD dyads presented higher scores of constriction in their interaction, P = .024, with babies presenting higher scores of withdrawal behavior, P = .003, and carers presenting higher scores of depressive mood, P = .008, when compared to TD dyads. The ASD dyads have interactive impairments more frequently than do the TD dyads.     

CIT in small municipalities: Officer‐level outcomes

Research on the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) as a method to deal with mental illness in policing encounters has primarily focused on officers from large urban areas. The current study examined officer‐level outcomes in a non‐urban geographical setting using a pre/post‐CIT training design. The sample included 46 police officers from seven departments that would be considered rural and 13 that would be classified as suburban. Officers completed scales to gauge change in mental illness attitudes at the beginning and end of their one‐week CIT training. CIT training resulted in reductions in stigmatic attitudes with seven large effect sizes (ranging from η² = .24 to .59) across the two measures. The findings from this research are a direct response to the call for greater diversity in the size of police settings in the CIT literature and serve to expand the empirical base for CIT in relation to officer‐level outcomes.     

Autobiographical Narratives of Oldest-Old Persons: What Matters at That Age?

This study adopts the Valuation theory and the Self-Confrontation Method to explore the autobiographic narrative in oldest old persons, considering a temporal perspective (past, present, future). The sample comprises three men and two women (84-95 years old). The findings suggest that the narrative of oldest-old persons emerges structured in a way that their narration of the past focus on outside connections (proximity with others; success achieved); their narration of the present centers on attaining a life philosophy and proximity with others and their narration of the future concentrates on self-enhancement (maintaining autonomy vs. experiencing powerlessness and lack of involvement).     

Development of the Parent Emotion Regulation Scale (PERS): Factor Structure and Psychometric Qualities

This study aims to develop a self-report measure based on a multidimensional conceptualization of the regulation of negative emotions in the context of parenting. We examined the factor structure, factorial invariance, internal consistency and construct validity of the newly developed measure, the Parent Emotion Regulation Scale (PERS). The sample was composed of 254 mothers of children aged 3 to 15 years old (M?=?8.54, SD?=?3.53) who participated in an online study. Exploratory factor analysis of the PERS yielded a four-factor structure with the following factors: parents’ orientation to the child’s emotions, parents’ avoidance of the child’s emotions, parents’ lack of emotional control and parents’ acceptance of the child’s and their own emotions. Confirmatory factorial analysis supported the four-factor model, showing an adequate fit for this structure. Additionally, the model displayed configural, metric, scalar and residual invariance across the children’s sex groups. Cronbach’s alpha values and mean inter-item correlations indicated an adequate internal consistency. Correlations between the PERS scale and the Coping with Children’s Negative Emotions Scale (CCNES) indicated that the different dimensions of parents’ emotion regulation were significantly associated with both positive and negative reactions to the children’s negative emotions. Furthermore, the emotion regulation dimensions showed incremental validity in the prediction of the child’s adjustment. This study provides preliminary support for the adequacy of this newly developed measure, although further studies are needed to establish its psychometric qualities in more diverse populations.     

A simple intervention for stereotypical engagement with an augmentative alternative communicative device

Although electronic devices may enhance the effectiveness of some behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders, such devices may also give rise to problem behavior such as repetitious button pressing (i.e., object stereotypy). Results of this study showed that a child with autism spectrum disorder only displayed high levels of object stereotypy on an iPad? when presses generated auditory output. Subsequently, results showed that when the participant used the iPad? without auditory output, his stereotypical behavior decreased and his manding for various items simultaneously increased.     

The Primacy of Discourse in the Study of Gender in Family Therapy

Family therapists and scholars increasingly adopt poststructural and postmodern conceptions of social reality, challenging the notion of stable, universal dynamics within family members and families and favoring a view of reality as produced through social interaction. In the study of gender and diversity, many envision differences as social constructed rather than as “residing” in people or groups. There is a growing interest in discourse or people's everyday use of language and how it may reflect and advance interests of dominant groups in a society. Despite this shift from structures to discourse, therapists struggle to locate the dynamics of power in concrete actions and interactions. By leaving undisturbed the social processes through which gendered and other subjectivities and relations of power are produced, therapists may inadvertently become complicit in the very dynamics of power they seek to undermine. In this article, we argue that discourse analysis can help family therapy scholars and practitioners clarify the link between language and power. We present published examples of discourse analytic studies of gender and sexism and examine the relevance of these ideas for family therapy practice and research.