Messianic hopes and the crisis of relativism: A common process in pastoral counseling

This essay explores the dynamics underlying the search for a Messiah in psychotherapy. It argues that the disenchantment with one's Messiah emerges primarily from the confrontation with multiple messiahs, and hence, the personal crisis of relativism. The nature of this personal crisis is investigated through the developmental scheme of William Perry. Suggestions are made as to how pastoral counselors can help those struggling with the problem of relativism.The Southeastern Illinois Center for Pastoral Counseling is located at 100 South Church Street, Carmi, Illinois, 62821.     

The recognition of and empathic response to “personal legends”

The ability to recognize and analyze a personal legend in the conversation of an older person is a useful tool for the skilled, compassionate conversation partner. Having isolated the legend, the empathic listener can offer the teller of the legend the gift of an understanding, clarifying interpretation of its significance.Carolyn K. Dennis, M. Th., is assistant chaplain and program coordinator of the health care lay ministry training program at Gaston Episcopal Hospital, in Dallas, Texas.     

Subclmical depression and role fulfillment in domestic settings: Spurious relationships,imagined problems,or real effects?

Considerable evidence has accumulated in support of the hypothesis that subclinical depression may inhibit role performance in important ways. However, interpersonal stress and marital discord often precede the development of depressive symptomatology and may independently predict deficits in family role functioning. In addition, cognitive theories suggest that persons with subclinical depression may report poor role functioning even in the absence of any real performance deficits. The current research examines the possibility (1) that the effect of depression on the fulfillment of important family roles is attributable to previously unmeasured contextual variables of ongoing interpersonal stress and/or relationship dissatisfaction or, alternatively, (2) that this relationship is the result of depressive distortion associated with self-report of symptoms and performance. Multiple regression analyses of interview data collected from 495 community-dwelling adults found, however, that depression is related to role functioning beyond any spurious effects attributable to interpersonal stress, spousal stress, or marital satisfaction. In addition, the effect of depression persists when collateral reports of role functioning utilized. Accordingly, it appears that subclinical depression is related to decrements in role performance, and this effect is not entirely due to contextual elements or shared method variance between self-report measures.The authors acknowledge research support from Research Grants R01-AA-07250 and R01-AA-07218 from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, Research Grant R01-DA-07417 from the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and National Institutes of Mental Health Grant A-41487-07.     

Using self-evaluation to improve difficult-to-read handwriting of secondary students

We used delayed multiple-baseline and multiple-probe techniques to assess the effects of self-evaluation training on the legibility of cursive handwriting. Five secondary special education students with difficult-to-read handwriting served as participants. All participants improved the legibility of their handwriting during self-evaluation training. A systematic withdrawal of the training package demonstrated maintenance of treatment effects. For the most part, the students' handwriting remained at least 90% legible to judges following the systematic withdrawal of the self-evaluation training.     

Parent and Teacher Ratings in the Assessment and Prediction of Antisocial and Delinquent Behaviors

ABSTRACT Subjects consisted of a sample of two cohorts of approximately 100 boys each whose behaviors were rated by their parents and teachers. Criterion variables included antisocial behavior, based on parent, child, teacher, and interviewer reports, and delinquency, based on parent and child reports in addition to cumulative arrest data taken from juvenile court records. The data suggest that mothers are focused on the daily, irritating behaviors of their sons. Teachers, on the other hand, appear to focus on a relatively small number of items (e.g., child physically attacks others, associates with deviant peers), and thereby provide ratings that are better predictors of delinquency and arrest. When the mothers' ratings were constrained to include only items that were salient for teachers, their predictive validity coefficients approached the magnitude of the teacher coefficients.     

Sex differences in visual-spatial ability: The role of performance factors

Two studies were designed to explore the role of performance factors as sources of the frequently noted higher male scores on visual-spatial ability tests. In the first study, the mental rotations test (MRT) was administered to male and female college students of equally high quantitative ability (based on SAT math scores). Although males had significantly more correct responses on the test than did females, their advantage was eliminated when the ratio of correct responses to items attempted was used as the dependent measure. In the second study, the same test was administered to new groups of male and female college students. In this sample, the males had significantly higher SAT math scores. The MRT was administered under standard, timed conditions and under untimed conditions. Both raw and ratio scores were calculated. With SAT math score as the covariate, analyses of covariance indicated that males demonstrated higher performance in the timed, raw-score condition but not in the untimed or in the ratio-score conditions. The theoretical and social policy implications of these studies are discussed.     

Tempo discrimination in infants

An habituation/dishabituation paradigm demonstrates that 2- and 4-month-old infants are able to discriminate auditory sequences that vary slightly in tempo. Discriminations were only observed for intermediate tempi (600 ms but not 100, 300, 1500 ms IOI), suggesting that infants have the same optimal tempo range as adults.     

Termination of Mental Health Services for Children

In this paper, we examine the termination of children's mental health services. Analyses were based on the 901 families in the Fort Bragg Evaluation Project who participated at Wave 1 and Wave 2 six months later. The project compared a full continuum of care provided at a demonstration site with traditional care at two comparison sites. The results showed that in most cases families and providers were partners in decisions to terminate treatment. About half of the clients self-terminated or were terminated solely at the discretion of the provider. Providers tended to play a more dominant role in terminating restrictive services; families played a more central role in terminating outpatient care. Regardless of initial psychopathology, children in single-headed households, whose parents were dissatisfied with services, did not expect their child to cooperate with treatment and did not expect treatment to help their child, were more likely to terminate care than others. While the Demonstration site had significantly fewer terminations, the sites did not differ with regard to the reasons for termination, who participated in termination decisions, or the factors that affected the likelihood to terminate care. Of most interest, mental health outcomes among children who had terminated all care did not vary by reasons for termination or by who participated in the termination decision.