Toward a Definition of Family Resilience: Integrating Life-Span and Family Perspectives

Family resilience is a relatively new construct that describes how families adapt to stress and bounce back from adversity. Literature pertaining to resilience as a family-level variable is reviewed. An overview of the developmental psychopathology literature dealing with individual resilience is also presented. Implications for extending the study of family resilience drawn from research on individual resilience are discussed and a definition of family resilience is proposed.     

Emerging quality improvement measures in genetic counseling

The need to establish guidelines for total quality management in genetic counseling is now recognized as new genetic technologies are being introduced into genetics services and primary care. Genetic counselors have an important role in developing methods for assuring quality in the genetic counseling process. Emerging quality improvement measures as well as selected examples from the Quality Assurance Program in the Genetics Services Division at the Foundation for Blood Research are presented as examples of direct genetic counselor involvement. Suggestions for future directions of quality improvement activities for genetic counselors are discussed.     

Nursing and genetic health care

Advances in DNA technology are leading to major developments in nursing practice in clinical genetics, including the creation of new roles for nurses who care for people with genetic conditions. Application of genetic information and testing is moving genetics into the mainstream of health care. Therefore, it is anticipated that nurses in all areas of practice will become involved in the provision of information about genetic testing and assisting individuals and families in decision making and adjustment to new genetic information. This article provides an overview of the profession of nursing which may be useful to genetic counselors in the development of collaborative relationships between the two professions.     

Nonconsensual Sexual Experiences in Precollege Women: Prevalence and Risk Factors

The authors of this study examined the prevalence of nonconsensual sexual experiences in dating situations among a sample of 330 incoming female college students. Results indicated that 38.5% of women reported experiencing at least one form of sexual victimization in dating, ranging from unwanted sexual contact to rape. Victimization was related to history of childhood sexual abuse as well as previous consensual sexual activity. Discussion focuses on the need for education and prevention programs during the secondary school years and counseling assistance for college-age victims.     

The Devil's Dilemma in Flaubert' Saint Antony

In La Téntation de Saint Antoine Gustave Flaubert dramatizes a philosophical exchange about the nature of divine providence and the efficacy of petitionary prayer. The Devil and Antony consider the question of whether God can be called upon for relief from suffering. The Saint assumes as popular religion teaches that it is possible to ask for God's help in emergency situations, while the Devil poses a dilemma to challenge Antony's faith. The Devil seeks to expose contradictions in some of the beliefs Antony holds about God's infinite perfection. The Devil's argument purports to prove that God is not a person, and that for this reason God is inaccessible to human interaction. The Devil's dilemma is supposed to be this:
(1) If God as an infinitely perfect being created the universe, then divine providence is not needed [does not exist].
(2) If divine providence is needed [exists], then the universe is defective [not the creation of God as an infinitely perfect being].
Although these look at first to be the opposite poles of an excluded middle, propositions (1) and (2) are mere contrapositives. Since the Devil's propositions (1) and (2) are logically equivalent, the Devil can only proceed to the conclusion that God does not exist or that divine providence is not needed or does not exist paradoxically by assuming that God exists or that divine providence is needed or exists. Yet if divine providence is needed or exists, then God exists as its divine source. If the Devil is supposed to succeed by logic, his dilemma as Flaubert portrays it is powerless to prove that the only reasonable religious attitude is an impassionate metaphysical acknowledgement of the existence of an impersonal infinitely perfect Substance, which is absolute unchanging unmoveable Being.     

The Consulting Process: A Multidimensional Approach

The consulting process seems to work similarly regardless of whether the consultant is internal or external or is doing individual or group consultation. Some differences may occur depending on whether the consultant is a process helper or content helper, although good content-focused consultants often possess excellent process skills and use them as a regular part of the consulting process. Several consultation processes were reviewed, and from this a six-step approach is presented.     

Sex Differences on Affective Dimensions: Continuing Examination

This study was designed to explore sex differences along several affective dimensions. A sample of 455 undergraduate students was administered several affective scales. A discriminant analysis was performed using the affective scales as discriminating variables and sex as the group variable. Significant sex differences were found on only two of nine affective scales, and the substantive significance of these differences seems to he minimal. The authors concluded that the promotion of faulty stereotypical beliefs should be abandoned in favor of increasingly complex inquiry in this area.     

Rhetorical theory and family therapy practice

The study found that a connection exists between rhetoric and therapy because both fields are interested in using language as a tool for generating change. Persuasion is viewed as inherent in human communication, even though people do not necessarily intentionally attempt to persuade others. Following a brief (but detailed) explanation of the theoretical stance which informs the implementation of rhetorical techniques in therapy, three pragmatic exemplars are offered to demonstrate the employment of two classical rhetorical concepts, the parastasis catalogue and syncrisis.The authors are grateful to Sandra Kodner, MS for her participation in the development of this project.