Radical Visionaries – Feminist Psychotherapists: 1970–1975

ABSTRACT

The work of feminist scholars, activists, therapists, and theorists has continuously impacted the United States and international cultural narrative since the radical days of the 1960s and 1970s. This special issue was created to highlight contributors to this remarkable transformation by documenting the narratives of their lives and careers. These profiles, nearly all written by or with the pioneers themselves, highlight their contributions to feminism, feminist psychology, and the vast societal change that followed their work.     

Are we certain about which measure of intolerance of uncertainty to use yet?

Intolerance of Uncertainty (IU) has been understood as a dispositional tendency to view the presence of negative events as unacceptable and threatening, regardless of the likelihood of those events occurring. The preference over the 12-item vs. 27-item of the IUS has been central to debate. The goals of the present study were to evaluate two competing models of measuring IU with model-fitting analyses and explore model invariance of gender (e.g. men vs. women). A sample of 980 individuals completed an online IUS survey. Results indicated that the two-factor short-form model provided better fit to the data compared to the full-length two-factor model proposed by. Results also indicated that the short-form IUS is gender invariant, suggesting acceptable use among men and women. These findings provide further support of a two-factor structure and suggest that the IUS is appropriate for men and women.     

Standardized Human Pedigree Nomenclature: Update and Assessment of the Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

In 1995, the Pedigree Standardization Task Force (PSTF) of the National Society of Genetic Counselors (NSGC) proposed a system of pedigree nomenclature. Recently, the PSTF (now called the Pedigree Standardization Work Group or PSWG) sought evidence that the published symbols met the needs of health professionals, were incorporated into health professional training and were utilized in publications. We searched PubMed and reference lists of select publications, reviewed the Instructions for Authors of several journals, searched the websites of professional societies, sought comment from the membership of the NSGC, and looked at recommendations and training practices of various health professional organizations. Many journals still do not cite specific standards for pedigrees, but those found cited the PSTF nomenclature. We did not find significant objections or alternatives to the 1995 nomenclature. Based on our review, we propose only a few minor stylistic changes to the pedigree symbols. The pedigree nomenclature of the NSGC is the only consistently acknowledged standard for drawing a family health history. We recommend regular and continued review of these pedigree standards to determine if additional symbols are needed to accommodate changes in clinical practice to ensure that the symbols continue to meet the needs of health professionals and researchers as well as adhere to evolving ethical and privacy standards. All health professionals, trainees, and researchers should be made aware of the utility of using a common pedigree nomenclature in clinical practice and publication. This will become particularly important as electronic medical records become more widely utilized.     

Social isolation and gender

This study investigated the relationship between gender and social support. It was found that men were more isolated than women although there were no gender differences in perceived adequacy (i.e., satisfaction with one's social support network) or network size. Given that both the adequacy and network size variables were associated with socially desirable responding but the isolation variable was not, the results suggest that the behaviorally oriented indicator of isolation was a better measure of the degree of social isolation than traditional subjective scales currently used by many researchers. This suggests that traditional measures of social support that incorporate the dimensions of network size and perceived adequacy of one's social support system need to control for socially desirable responding and that measures can and need to be developed that are not significantly influenced by this response set bias. Hence, the assessment of social support may need to be more multifaceted than is currently undertaken in many studies. Our finding that men reported being more isolated than women may be a function, in part, of the fact that the majority of the sample (76.7%) was single/did not live with a partner. Previous research has found that men generally get their emotional needs met by their spouses/partners while women often get their emotional needs met by their female friends. Consistent with the literature, and given that most of our respondents were single, this study supports the contention that men are generally more socially isolated than women because they do not create adequate emotional intimacy when they are not in partnership with a significant other.     

Altering withdrawn and intrusive interaction behaviors of depressed mothers

Interaction coaching was given to 44 depressed mothers who had either a withdrawn or intrusive interaction style with their infants. The intrusive and withdrawn mothers were given instructions either to imitate their infants' behavior or to keep their infants' attention. The results suggested that the specific type of interaction coaching for the specific type of depressed mother (imitation for the intrusive mothers and attention-getting for the withdrawn mothers) significantly improved their interaction behaviors with their infants.     

Barriers to Computerized Career Interventions in Community Outreach Centers

This study used a survey design to investigate if computer experience and computer attitudes influence whether economically marginalized individuals desire access to computerized career services in community outreach centers. The majority (84%) of the sample reported a desire for access to computerized career services at community outreach centers. A multiple regression analysis indicated computer attitudes as most predictive of intention to use computerized career services (β = .29, p < .01). Results support extending access to computerized career services in community outreach centers to meet the needs of economically marginalized individuals.