Love attitudes and romantic involvement: a replication and extension

Confirming Hendrick and Hendrick's (1988) findings with American college students, British students reporting they were currently "in love" scored significantly higher on the Love Attitude Scale dimensions of Eros and Agape but significantly lower on Ludus when compared to subjects not currently in love.     

THE RELIGIOUS DIMENSIONS OF THE BIOLOGICAL NARRATIVE

Abstract. A cell/molecular biologist challenges the thesis that science and religion are two ways of experiencing and interpreting the world and explores instead the possible ways that the modern biological worldview might serve as a resource for religious perspectives. Three concepts—meaning, valuation, and purpose—are argued to be central to the entire biological enterprise, and the continuation of this enterprise is regarded as a sacred religious trust.     

Effectiveness of social skills training with children: A meta-analytic study

This meta-analytic study examined the relative effectiveness of three methods of social skills training with socially isolated children: coaching, interpersonal cognitive problem solving, and modelling. An exhaustive search of the published literature in the area produced a total of 43 studies that met stringent criteria for inclusion in the subsequent analysis. Social skills training produced significant improvements in children's levels of social interaction, sociometric status and cognitive problem solving abilities. No training technique produced a significantly greater improvement than either of the others. Isolated children showed larger increases in their levels of social interaction and sociometric status than non-isolate children. Multi-modal training programmes were recommended to capitalize on the independent therapeutic effects which derive from a number of different social skills training techniques.     

CREATIVITY IN SCIENCE

Abstract. Creativity is a concept far more often associated with art than with science. The creative dimension of scientific inquiry and practice is described and compared with its artistic counterpart; similarities and differences are analyzed.     

The effects of a short-term social problem solving programme with children

This study examined the effectiveness of a short-term training programme for improving children's interpersonal cognitive problem solving ability and social status. Subjects were twenty primary school children aged seven-to eight-years old. Children in the training condition participated in a four week programme aimed at improving their ability to think of alternative strategies to problematic social situations and recognize the consequences of interpersonal actions. Children in the intervention condition showed significant improvements in their levels of alternative solutions thinking (p <0.005) and consequential thinking (p < 0.05) but not sociometric status (p > 0.05).     

Post-traumatic psychocultural therapy (PTpsyCT): Integration of trauma and shattering social labels of the self

This article discusses the interaction between psychological Iraumatization and elhnocultural considerations in psychotherapy. Black veterans are highlighted to demonstrate the complexities of cultural and traumatic factors. The importance of recognizing the powerful and detrimental impact of stigmatizing social labels borne by certain groups of patients is discussed, as well as a specialized treatment model, post-traumatic psychocultural therapy, to help minority persons whose presenting complaints include suffering the aftereffects of psychological trauma. As the model integrates trauma and cultural issues, the veteran-therapist dynamics (particularly related to countertransference and cultural counterresistance), cultural stigma, and the therapist's achieving of transexperiential and transcultural competencies in therapy are emphasized.     

Post-traumatic demoralization syndrome (PTDS)

Demoralization appears to be a key dimension of patients' presenting complaints to therapists today. This is especially true when the patient has gone through psychological traumatization; for example, rape, war, natural disaster, incest, or technological or occupational accidents. This article is to alert clinicians to this pervasive malady in patients, as it focuses on the dynamics and components of post-traumatic demoralization syndrome (PTDS) found in patients in the aftermath of psychic trauma. Some patients who seek assistance after a traumatic experience show symptoms many mistakenly formulate as being a pure case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTDS). Experience has shown that these patients' symptoms and complaints often do not add up to a full traumatic disorder, and even if they did, or could be classified as partial PTSD (Kulka and Associates, 1988), the clinician could still fall short in grasping the most complete clinical picture of their patients' symptomatology. In this article the PTDS will be described along with its various components, and how therapist can integrate the knowledge of this condition to help their patients recover from the self-fragmentation that attends psychological traumatization.     

Involvement and outcomes in short-term interpersonal cognitive problem solving groups

This study examined the extent to which patterns of involvement in interpersonal cognitive problem solving (ICPS) groups were predictive of improvements in ICPS skills. Thirty-one 7–8-year-old children were assigned to experimental or control groups. Participants in the experimental group participated in six sessions of ICPS group work. All participants were tested for the ICPS skills of alternative solutions thinking (AST) and consequential thinking (CT) immediately before and after the group work period. As predicted, the experimental group showed significantly greater improvements in AST and CT skills than the control group. Means-end thinking was significantly correlated with improvements in AST and CT, level of involvement and positive behaviour within the groups were predictive of improvements in AST but not CT. Findings indicated the importance of group dynamics for ICPS outcomes and are discussed in relation to their theoretical and practical implications.