The rhetoric of transformation in the healing of alcoholism: The twelve steps of alcoholics anonymous

Close attention to spirituality and change are necessary for a fuller understanding of how Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) works. This paper draws upon the conceptual tools of the anthropology of religious healing to interpret AA's program for recovery, the Twelve Steps. The Twelve Steps are described as a fundamental component of AA discourse, and as a rhetoric of transformation. The Twelve Steps outline a rhetorical process which moves the alcoholic from drinking to sobriety by means of a rhetoric of predisposition, of empowerment, and of transformation. AA discourse is spiritual, in that members are persuaded to interpret the world, their lives, and their affliction in sacred terms. Healing is not cure, but a new way of attending to the world and engaging with others, including God, or a ‘Power greater than ourselves’.

There is a God, and it's not me.     

Effects of Self-Monitoring Intervention on Independent Completion of a Daily Living Skill for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders in China

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a self-monitoring intervention on the independent completion of dishwashing for three boys with autism (ages 6, 7, and 8) in China. The self-monitoring intervention included visual task analysis, in vivo modeling, self-recording, video self-feedback, and reinforcement. A multiple probe across subjects design was used. Prior to the study, the children had limited or no dishwashing skills, nor did they receive any training on self-monitoring. All three children acquired dishwashing and performed the task independently without supervision one week after the intervention. Their parents were very satisfied with this intervention.     

2004–2009 : révision de la loi de bioéthique en France,quels enjeux,quels débats ? Assistance médicale à la procréation,gestation pour autrui,transplantation

The bioethics law, adopted for the first time in 1994 and revised in 2004, is under revision again. This process has raised numerous debates at various institutional, professional and social levels. The government also organised a unique type of citizens’ consultation: the General Estates in Bioethics (GEB). Several panels of citizens had the opportunity to express their informed opinion on a selected set of topics concerning the law revision, after having received a special training by an expert committee. We have analysed the contributions of six public bodies – the Parliament Office for Scientific and Technological Choices Evaluation (OPECST), the National Consultative Ethics Committee, (CCNE), the State Council, (CE), the Biomedical Agency, (ABM), the Senate and the Parliamentary Information Mission for this bioethics law revision – as well as the final GEB's report. In this article, we present and compare their proposals on three themes: Medically assisted procreation (MAP), surrogacy and transplantation. Whereas a consensus emerged from the debates on certain issues – apart from the Senate, all institutions seem to be in favour of maintaining the current banning of surrogacy – other points are still under debate – how to open the access to MAP technologies, under what conditions should we grant access to selected data concerning gamete donors, how is death defined in the difficult conditions of a potential non heart beating donor, should the presumed consent regime for post mortem donation be revised, and if so how, – The parliament should discuss the law during 2010's first semester, and will have the difficult responsibility to take measures on issues raising medical, scientific, social, philosophical and moral questions.     

South African Serial Homicide: A Victim‐Focused Behavioural Typology

This current study assessed the value of the Interpersonal Model in differentiating serial homicide offences in South Africa, notably in terms of how the offender may display behavioural patterns that are indicative of them dealing with the victim as a Person, an Object, or a Vehicle. The sample consisted of 302 offences committed by 33 offenders that occurred from 1953 to 2007 in South Africa. Multidimensional scaling analysis was used to test the Interpersonal Model and results indicated that crime themes did not directly correspond to the threefold model. Instead, two crime scene types were present: Victim as Object (where the focus was on tangible gains, interaction with the victim throughout the phases of the crime was limited, and victims included men and live women) and Victim as Vehicle (where the victim might be construed as a conduit through whom the offender could realise their specific psychological needs, the interaction was extensive, and victims tended to be vulnerable). South African serial homicides did not appear to have a specific sub‐theme of Victim as Person, suggesting that the themes engaged in centred more on instrumentally focused actions but in qualitatively different ways. However, victim types were integral to the overall behavioural model. Using the Victim as Object/Vehicle dichotomy, 85.7% of the offences could be seen to engage dominantly in one of the two patterns at the crime scene. This not only supported the results of a twofold model, but having these many offenders showing a dominant crime scene type also shows that the model is an excellent representation of serial homicide offending in South Africa. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

South African Serial Homicide: Offender and Victim Demographics and Crime Scene Actions

There is an abundance of literature on serial homicide from a Western perspective that outlines operational definitions, types of offenders and how they prey upon their victims. However, currently, there is a lack of studies that compare serial homicide in different countries. The current study aims to give an overview of the demographics of serial homicide offenders and victims in South Africa and compare these to the demographics of offenders and victims from other currently available empirical studies of other countries. The sample consisted of 33 out of the total 54 solved series in South Africa between 1936–2007, which includes a total of 33 offenders, 302 victims, and 254 crime scenes. Results of the sample as a whole showed that South African serial homicide offenders are similar to offenders in other countries in terms of their actions at the crime scene and victim choice, with some notable exceptions. Additional analysis looked at the offender's consistency of targeting certain types of victims across their homicide series in comparison with the patterns of serial homicide offenders in other countries. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of prior offender/victim relationship on offender stalking behavior

The present study examined the influence of prior offender/victim relationship on offender stalking behavior. The actions that were present within the stalking offences were recorded using content analysis of victim and witness statements, and all other relevant material within the police files of 50 stalking cases. The sample was analyzed using a non‐metric multidimensional scaling procedure known as Smallest Space Analysis. The results suggested that when a prior sexual relationship existed between the offender and the victim the offender was more likely to engage in a majority of controlling style actions. However, an offender who did not have a prior sexual relationship with the victim was more likely to engage in a majority of infatuation style actions. Therefore, the study lends support to the influence of prior relationship on the actions that offenders engage in over the stalking period. Implications of the study and future research ideas are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fear develops to the conditioned stimulus and to the context during classical eyeblink conditioning in rats

In classical eyeblink conditioning, non-specific emotional responses to the aversive shock unconditioned stimulus (US), which are presumed to coincide with the development of fear, occur early in conditioning and precede the emergence of eyeblink responses. This twoprocess learning model was examined by concurrently measuring fear and eyeblink conditioning in the freely moving rat. Freezing served as an index of fear in animals and was measured during the inter-trial intervals in the training context and during a tone conditioned stimulus (CS) presented in a novel context. Animals that received CS-US pairings exhibited elevated levels of fear to the context and CS early in training that decreased over sessions, while eyeblink conditioned responses (CRs) developed gradually during acquisition and decreased during extinction. Random CS-US presentations produced a similar pattern of fear responses to the context and CS as paired presentations despite low eyeblink CR percentages, indicating that fear responding was decreased independent of high levels of learned eyeblink responding The results of paired training were consistent with two-process models of conditioning that postulate that early emotional responding facilitates subsequent motor learning, but measures from random control animals demonstrate that partial CS-US contingencies produce decrements in fear despite low levels of eyeblink CRs. These findings suggest, a relationship between CS-US contingency and fear levels during eyeblink conditioning, and may serve to clarify further the role that fear conditioning plays in this simple paradigm.     

Imitation from television by 24‐ and 30‐month‐olds

Infants’ imitation of complex actions was examined in three experiments with 24‐ and 30‐month‐olds. In all experiments, an adult modeled a series of actions with novel stimuli and the infant's reproduction of those actions was assessed either immediately or after a 24‐hour delay. Some infants watched the demonstration live, while other infants watched the same demonstration on television from a pre‐recorded videotape. Both 24‐ and 30‐month‐olds imitated actions that had been modeled on television; however, their performance was consistently inferior to that of infants of the same age who watched the demonstration live.     

A Systematic Review of the Effects of Horticultural Therapy on Persons with Mental Health Conditions

A systematic review of the benefits of horticultural therapy (HT) on persons with mental health conditions was conducted. A review of research from 1992 through 2015 located 14 studies. The studies were analyzed using the McMaster’s Critical Review Form for Quantitative Studies (MQCRF), a scale by Barras (2005 Barras, S. (2005). A systematic and critical review of the literature: The effectiveness of occupational therapy home assessment on range of outcome measures. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 52, 326–336. doi:10.1111/j.1440-1630.2005.00496.x[Crossref] , [Google Scholar]), and the Levels of Evidence for Occupational Therapy Outcomes Research. Eleven of 14 studies reported statistically significant findings in support of HT for at least one dependent variable. The findings were found in a variety of settings, mental health conditions, and with both genders. This review found moderate initial evidence that HT can improve client factors and performance skills.