Unscrambling the B-Picture: Counselling Consultancy and Strategic Management

Some reflections are presented on the author's experience as a management counsellor and how he works with people in organisations. The basic assumption is that the critical unit is the individual and that working with organisations means working with people firstly as individuals alone and secondly as individuals in groups of one sort or another. Each individual experiences an organisation differently and these individual perceptions drive behaviours in organisations. The idea that the best modes of working are through psychologically close team with common perceptions and values is questioned. The author's preference is to counsel people individually and then help them to relate collectively at levels which are mutually tolerable. The optimum performance of individuals within an organisation is when they have learned to accommodate their needs in a mutually agreeable organisational culture.     

“We Need Something Different”

This article examines responses to the controversial picketing and media-savvy provocations of the Westboro Baptist Church (WBC). Since WBC’s conduct is widely perceived as cruel, people often respond with anger and animosity, which reinforce WBC’s self-representation as a persecuted church. Conversely, I have engaged Westboro Baptists in interviews that function as “bridging conversations.” This methodology centers on critical-empathic listening, comparative religious ethics, and a disciplined restraint from expressing moral judgment. I argue that this response is supported by the data and understandings obtained, metapragmatic commentary, my rapport with churchgoers, and evidence of their empathy. In conclusion, I gauge the methodology’s risks and consider its expansion, for example, with undergraduates who have joined our conversations. In an era of polarized discourse, nonjudgmental listening is a counter-intuitive response that troubles entrenched binaries, including the public fashioning of WBC as a dehumanized enemy.     

On The Content and Character of Pain Experience

Tracking representationalism explains the negative affective character of pain, and its capacity to motivate action, by reference to the representation of the badness for us of bodily damage. I argue that there is a more fitting instantiation of the tracking relation – the badness for us of extremely intense stimuli – and use this to motivate a non‐reductive approach to the negative affective character of pain. The view of pain proposed here is supported by consideration of three related topics: the pain caused when the body is damaged, reparative pain and the messenger‐shooting objection to tracking representationalism.     

Pavlovian counterconditioning is unchanged by chlordiazepoxide or by septal lesions

Two experiments were performed to test whether the minor tranquillizer chlordiaz-epoxide or septal lesions could interfere with Pavlovian counterconditioning. Rats were first trained to bar-press for food on a random interval schedule on which was superimposed the presentation of a light which predicted delivery of a shock. This training continued until all animals were showing stable suppression of responding to the light. Separate groups were then presented, while the manipulandum was retracted from the box, with either a shock paired with the delivery of food or shock and food delivery in a random relationship with one another. This type of intrusion period alternated with the presentation of the light and shock. Pavlovian counterconditioning developed, as shown by progressively less response suppression in the paired groups compared to the random groups. This Pavlovian counterconditioning was in no way reduced by either chlordiazepoxide (5 mg/kg) or by medial or lateral septal lesions. It is argued that these results rule out Pavlovian counterconditioning as a process which is affected by minor tranquillizers or by septal lesions when they interfere with the behavioural tolerance observed after partial punishment or partial reward schedules.     

The Married Professional Woman: An Examination of Her Role Conflicts and Coping Strategies

A group of 232 married women doctors, lawyers and professors were surveyed about their attitudes toward their roles and how they cope with role conflicts. Close to half of the women reported that it was impossible to rank the relative importance of their family and career roles, and a majority of women stated that they often experienced strains between these roles. Coping strategies such as having family members help with chores, having family members help resolve role conflicts, reducing standards within certain roles, considering personal interests important, and scheduling and organizing activities carefully were found to be significantly related to satisfaction. It is suggested that married professional women who develop effective coping strategies will find the challenge of combining a profession and a family a rewarding one.