An evaluation of the effectiveness and acceptability of a new technology system to support psychotherapy helping skills training

Training counselling and psychotherapy skills using new technology is a relatively unresearched area of study. The findings from a pilot evaluation of the effectiveness and acceptability of a new technology, mPath, using a mixed method design are reported. The study found that progressive integration of the new mPath technology into learning helping skills had the best results on developing competency, as assessed by the Person‐Centred Experiential Psychotherapy Scale Training Version. Qualitative interviews showed the technology was acceptable to users. Further research is needed in this emerging field of deliberate practice.     

In this life: The impact of gender and tradition on sexuality and relationships for<Emphasis Type="Italic">Devadasi sex</Emphasis> workers in rural India

In the popular imagination and certain academic fields, sex workers’ experiences of sexuality and intimate relationships are often “naturalized,” to the point where they are assumed to be deviant or completely different than those of women in mainstream society. Researchers and sex worker organizations are challenging these reified constructions by examining more diverse and representative models of sexuality and relationships. However, the experiences of women selling sex in the “third world” are consistently portrayed as violent, non-pleasurable, and oppressive, characteristics often applied universally to “third world women.” Using data from ethnographic field work with girls and women who belong to theDevadasi (servant/slave of the God) tradition of sex work in rural Karnataka, India, this paper examines the cultural dynamics of sexuality and relationships. Gender and dominant models of feminine identity emerge as powerful factors in shaping these facets of life, producing experiences amongDevadasis that are similar to those of other Indian women. Yet,Devadasis also encounter additional constraints in their lives because of their participation in the morally and culturally contestedDevadasi system. These data contribute to emerging research that destabilizes images of sex workers as “different” from other women, while also highlighting the impact of tradition on sexual mores and relationship structure in this unique cultural context.     

Self‐reference and group membership: evidence for a group‐reference effect

Two experiments were designed to explore whether encoding information in reference to a group would facilitate the later recall of that information to the same extent as encoding with reference to the self. In both experiments, participants encoded adjectives with reference to the self, semantic properties, or a group and were subsequently given a surprise‐free recall test. In Experiment 1 (N = 37), the participants' university served as the reference group. In Experiment 2 (N=41), the participants' family served as the reference group. In both experiments, self‐reference resulted in better recall than semantic processing, replicating the typical self‐reference effect (SRE). More importantly, strong evidence for a group‐reference effect (GRE) was found in that group‐reference resulted in better recall than semantic processing and in fact facilitated recall to the same extent as self‐referencing. The existing explanations (schemas, organization, elaboration, mental cueing, and evaluation) for the SRE were compared with regard to their viability in accounting for the GRE patterns. We discuss additional features that may be important in the explanation of the SRE and suggest future directions for research on group‐referencing. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Promoting positive community relations: what can RE learn from social psychology and the shared space project?

In this article we considered the relevance of specific claims that ‘multi-faith’ approaches to Religious Education (RE) play a role in promoting good community relations. In doing so, we adopted a social-psychological perspective where engaging in positive and meaningful interactions with diverse others reduces prejudice. Survey responses from 92 RE teachers across the UK were examined to determine the extent to which strategies for promoting positive community relations were embedded within classroom practice. We next examined whether teachers intuitively used social psychological theory – namely the contact hypothesis – to promote positive communities in their classrooms. Results demonstrated that the majority of surveyed RE practitioners perceived community relations to be a core aim of RE and that contact theory was applicable to their practice. Teachers reported examples of how they embed both contact theory and RE in their classrooms but not all of these aligned with social psychological theory. Findings suggest that successful practice in RE may be further developed by integrating theoretical principles of the contact hypothesis. Implications and future directions will be discussed.     

Structural and moral commitment among same-sex couples: relationship duration, religiosity, and parental status.

This study examined ecological predictors of structural and moral commitment among cohabiting same-sex couples. Structural commitment was operationalized as the execution of legal documents, and moral commitment was operationalized as having a commitment ceremony. The authors tested 2 logistic regression models using a subsample of Rainbow Illinois survey respondents. First, the execution of legal documents was examined using the entire subsample (n=190). Because antigay victimization may sensitize individuals to the importance of legal protection, actual and feared victimization were hypothesized to predict legalization. These hypotheses were not supported. However, relationship duration, a control variable, did predict legalization. The authors then used data only from those individuals who had executed a legal document (n=150) to determine those who also reported a commitment ceremony (Model 2). Parental status, religiosity, involvement with a supportive congregation, and an interaction between gender and parental status were hypothesized to predict ritualization. Only religiosity and parental status emerged as significant. Results from this study demonstrate the importance of distinguishing between legalization and ritualization. Further, they extend knowledge about how same-sex couple commitment is shaped by noncouple factors, such as time, individual religiosity, and parental status.     

Depressive symptomatology and coronary heart disease in Type I diabetes mellitus: a study of possible mechanisms.

Recent evidence has suggested that depressive symptomatology is a risk factor for the development of coronary heart disease (CHD) in patients with diabetes mellitus, although little is understood about mechanisms that may explain this association. The Pittsburgh Epidemiology of Diabetes Complications (EDC) Study is a natural history study of 658 men and women with childhood-onset Type I diabetes. Participants from the EDC Study who reported the fewest depressive symptoms on the Beck Depression Inventory at baseline examination were least likely to develop CHD over 10 years. Differences in insulin resistance, autonomic dysregulation, inflammation, smoking, and complications associated with Type I diabetes appear to help explain this relationship. Future research should clarify causal pathways between depressive symptomatology, behavioral and physiological processes, and CHD.     

Working memory, fluid intelligence, and impulsiveness in heavy media multitaskers

Ophir, Nass, and Wagner (Proceedings of the National Association of Sciences 106:15583–15587, 2009) reported that individuals who routinely engage in multiple forms of media use are actually worse at multitasking, possibly due to difficulties in ignoring irrelevant stimuli, from both external sources and internal representations in memory. Using the media multitasking index (MMI) developed by Ophir et al., we identified heavy media multitaskers (HMMs) and light media multitaskers (LMMs) and tested them on measures of attention, working memory, task switching, and fluid intelligence, as well as self-reported impulsivity and self-control. We found that people who reported engaging in heavy amounts of media multitasking reported being more impulsive and performed more poorly on measures of fluid intelligence than did those who did not frequently engage in media multitasking. However, we could find no evidence to support the contention that HMMs are worse in a multitasking situation such as task switching or that they show any deficits in dealing with irrelevant or distracting information, as compared with LMMs.     

Essential Elements of Genetic Cancer Risk Assessment, Counseling, and Testing: Updated Recommendations of the National Society of Genetic Counselors

Updated from their original publication in 2004, these cancer genetic counseling recommendations describe the medical, psychosocial, and ethical ramifications of counseling at-risk individuals through genetic cancer risk assessment with or without genetic testing. They were developed by members of the Practice Issues Subcommittee of the National Society of Genetic Counselors Familial Cancer Risk Counseling Special Interest Group. The information contained in this document is derived from extensive review of the current literature on cancer genetic risk assessment and counseling as well as the personal expertise of genetic counselors specializing in cancer genetics. The recommendations are intended to provide information about the process of genetic counseling and risk assessment for hereditary cancer disorders rather than specific information about individual syndromes. Essential components include the intake, cancer risk assessment, genetic testing for an inherited cancer syndrome, informed consent, disclosure of genetic test results, and psychosocial assessment. These recommendations should not be construed as dictating an exclusive course of management, nor does use of such recommendations guarantee a particular outcome. These recommendations do not displace a health care provider's professional judgment based on the clinical circumstances of a client.     

Respect and Types of Injustice

Jonathan Wolff and Timothy Hinton have criticized a version of liberal egalitarianism, often associated with Ronald Dworkin, for promoting an account of social justice that fails to treat everyone with respect. This paper analyses Wolff’s and Hinton’s critiques, particularly with regard to how notions of self-respect and respect-standing are deployed. The paper argues that the analyses of both Wolff and Hinton display affinities with a dualist approach to social justice. A dualist approach theorizes respect as an aspect of both distributive, socioeconomic injustice and cultural injustice, rather than of the former only, which is typical of liberal egalitarianism. Nancy Fraser is widely associated with such a dualist framework, so her version is used to assess Wolff’s and Hinton’s work. The paper argues that both make use of ideals and commitments from the dualist approach to justice in their respect objection. However, despite their evident sympathy for the notion of cultural injustice, both continue to theorize respect primarily as an aspect of distributive justice. Thus, for cultural justice theorists, Wolff’s and Hinton’s critiques of Dworkinian justice may leave something to be desired. Thanks to Anne Phillips, Kathy King, Tamara Jugov, Neal Razzell and reviewers for Res Publica for comments on an earlier draft of the paper. Thanks to Itai Rabinowitz for insightful conversations about the issues touched on here. Thanks to the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada for making this research possible.