Addictions and the family: An introduction

The editors of this special issue would like to express their appreciation to William C. Nichols, editor ofContemporary Family Therapy, for his support and encouragement in putting together this issue. We would also like to acknowledge and thank H. Allan Dye, Joan Jurich, Kevin R. Kelly, Richard M. Loughead, Nancy Shook, and Paul H. Wright for their patience, assistance, and editorial reviews.     

Pulling it all together: Meeting varying training requirements on national,state, and university levels for marriage and family therapy education

Marriage and family therapy programs face many challenge in trying to meet different sets of criteria including national, state, and university requirements. State regulation of the marriage and family therapy profession is a much sought after commodity. Currently 22 states have some type of MFT licensure or certification. MFT regulation criteria established by states to restrict title and function can differ in varying degrees from criteria established by the AAMFT's Commission on Accreditation. At the university level, MFT programs continue to be housed in a variety of schools including social work, education, psychology and home economics, as universities attempt to define a proper place for family therapy training. Confusion exists about whether MFT is a separate discipline or a specialization of another profession. The task of pulling it all together is addressed using one program's experience as an example.     

Inpatient versus outpatient treatment of substance abuse: Recent developments in the controversy

There has been considerable controversy the past decade on which is more effective, inpatient or outpatient treatment of substance abuse. During this same decade substance abuse treatment grew into a $40 billion industry with for-profit hospital programs accounting for as much as one-half the total figure. Recently, controlled studies have replaced the previous research literature which was largely composed of uncontrolled studies. A research consensus is developing that states inpatient rehabilitation has no advantages over outpatient treatment and that even hospitalization for detoxification is unnecessary for 90% of patients. Implications for public policy are that we are over-spending in the treatment of substance abuse by misallocating resources to the most intrusive intervention.Nicholas A. Cummings, PhD, is founder and chairman of the board of directors of American Biodyne and president of the Biodyne Institute, president of the National Academies of Practice, former president of the American Psychological Association, and founder of the four campuses of the California School of Professional Psychology.     

What is Evagrian ΓΝΩΣΙΣ?

Abstract: Evagrius famously characterises divine nature as γνῶσις οὐσιώδης, ‘substantial knowledge’. In the Alexandrian, Cappadocian, and other intellectual contexts informed by Platonic, Aristotelian, and Philonic thought, characterisations of God as a noetic or intellectual being are fairly common. However, these traditions concur in using the term νοῦς rather than γνῶσις. How can we explain that Evagrius deviates from the metaphysical mainstream? In this paper, I review this question from an historical and systematic point of view. I propose to examine ancient theories of Mind about the function and structure of the νοῦς, compare them to the Evagrian theory, and identify a possible explanation for the substitution of γνῶσις to the νοῦς. Since God is the key element in Evagrius's metaphysics, a clearer vision of the divine essence will help us appreciate the whole system more fully.     

Community engagement,greening, and violent crime: A test of the greening hypothesis and Busy Streets

Researchers have documented that vacant lot greening can reduce community-level crime and violence. Busy Streets Theory (BST) suggests that residents who are involved in the greening process can help to improve physical environments and build social connections that deter crime and violence. Yet few researchers have explored how community engagement in the greening process may affect crime and violence outcomes. We applied BST to test the effects of community-engaged vacant lot greening compared to vacant lots that received either professional mowing or no treatment, on the density of violent crime around study lots. Using mixed effects regression models, we analyzed trends in violent crime density over the summer months from 2016 to 2018 at 2102 street segments in Youngstown, OH. These street segments fell within 150 meters of an intervention parcel that was classified as one of three conditions: community-engaged maintenance, professional mowing, or no treatment (control). We found that street segments in areas receiving community-engaged maintenance or professional mowing experienced greater declines in violent crime density than street segments in areas receiving no treatment, and more decline occurred in the community-engaged condition compared to the professional mow condition. Our findings support BST and suggest that community-engaged greening of vacant lots in postindustrial cities with a concentrated vacancy can reduce crime and violence.     

A pilot investigation into unimpaired and dyslexic Persian children's word naming and spelling: Implications for models of reading and counselling

There is now a growing body of research examining developmental dyslexia in different languages and writing systems. The phonologically transparent Persian orthography is normally transcribed with two distinct spellings, words spelled with vowels (letters) transcribed as a fixed part of the spelling (transparent) and words spelled with vowels (diacritics) omitted (opaque). This peculiarity of Persian would enable one to examine the impact of transparency, as well as the possible psychological factors associated with verbal punishment in Persian schools on the development of reading and spelling. Twenty-nine Persian children (22 male and 7 female) classified as being developmentally dyslexic (mean age 9.4, SD?=?1.4) were compared with 49 unimpaired male children (mean age 9, SD?=?1.3) on two main aspects of reading Persian opaque and transparent spellings, namely: Spelling and word naming. The results showed an expected impairment on all aspects of reading between unimpaired and children with dyslexia. However, performance of both groups of participants was impaired when performing tasks with opaque as opposed to transparent spellings. There was also a strong correlation between the recorded number of times the dyslexic child was verbally punished and the number of errors on the spelling and naming of transparent and opaque words. These results are supportive of the impact of spelling transparency, as well as psychological variables as factors in the development of reading and spelling.     

Depressive symptom manifestation and help‐seeking among Chinese college students in Taiwan

One longstanding hypothesis in the research of depression among Chinese populations is that they tend to express depressive symptoms in somatic terms, which, in turn, prevent them from seeking assistance from mental health services. This study aimed to examine the manifestation of depressive symptoms and its relationship to help‐seeking attitudes among Chinese college students. The Chinese Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996 ) and the Attitudes Toward Seeking Professional Psychological Help: Shortened Form (ATSPPH‐SF; Fischer & Farina, 1995 ) were administered to 1039 Chinese college students in a private university in Taiwan. Factor ratio scores analyses revealed that Chinese college students generally emphasized somatic complaints compared to cognitive‐affective complaints in expressing depressive symptoms. Probably‐depressed Chinese students (BDI‐II scores?16), however, placed significantly less emphasis on somatic symptoms than did nondepressed students. Additionally, multiple regression analyses showed that while Chinese students with elevated BDI‐II scores were less likely to seek professional psychological help, neither somatic nor cognitive‐affective symptoms were correlated with their attitudes toward seeking and avoiding professional psychological help. These findings seem to run counter to the common assumption that Chinese people tend to express depression in somatic terms and that somatic complaints help to explain their reluctance to seek professional psychological assistance. The current results suggest that Chinese students with elevated depressive symptoms readily acknowledged and expressed cognitive‐affective symptoms of depression and they were likely to distance themselves from professional psychological help. However, somatic symptoms did not explain their reluctance to utilize mental health services.     

Evolutionary roots of intuitive parenting: Maternal competence in chimpanzees

Intuitive parenting behaviours have been shown to be universal in humans and appear to be based on psychobiological preadaptedness. This study is an exploration of the evolutionary roots of intuitive parenting through naturalistic observation of mother chimpanzees' interaction with their very young infants. Maternal competence is demonstrated initially through the behaviours of carrying the newborn infant and allowing the infant to nurse. Very early mother–infant interactions include play, ‘exercise’, cradling and grooming. Chimpanzee mothers also assess their offspring's behavioural state and muscle tone through visual inspections and movement of legs, arms, fingers and toes. Chimpanzee mothers and infants, as early as 2 weeks of age, spend some time in mutual gaze. Neonatal chimpanzees are capable of sustained face-to-face interactions, as these were observed in nursery-reared chimpanzee interactions with human adults; however, it appears that chimpanzee mothers encourage mutual gaze with their infants for only brief durations. Chimpanzees with good maternal competence exhibit sensitive responsivity to infants' communicatory signals. Thus the results of this study support the claim that there are evolutionary and comparative foundations of intuitive parenting evident in the maternal behaviour and maternal competence of chimpanzees.