Why Pains Are Not Mental Objects

Philosophical Studies -     

Toward a theology of maturity in pastoral care

Popular theology has neglected a developmental perspective and has reinforced the concepts of human inadequacy and divine self-sufficiency. This has tended to keep persons in a state of infantile dependency on a super-father-figure God. Pastoral care, with its concern for the person and its commitment to the processes of growing and maturing in the self and in relationships, needs a theological frame of reference which positively reinforces a developing maturity in relation to God, as well as self and others.Formerly Associate Professor of Psychology of Religion and Pastoral Care at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Woodruff is Executive Director of the Peninsula Pastoral Counseling Center, Hampton, Virginia.     

A new modal language with the λ operator

A system of modal logic with the operator is proposed, and proved complete. In contrast with a previous one by Stalnaker and Thomason, this system does not require two categories of singular terms.     

Marriage and ministry in midlife women

This study of 15 midlife women seminarians or clergy and 13 of their husbands focuses upon the tension between a commitment to family life and a commitment to ordained ministry. The women were preparing to become Protestant clergy or were already in this vocation, while their husbands were middle-class, successful professional people. The study examines the impact of the new cultural self-development ethic upon the lives and religious faith of the women. Husbands' responses to the wives' changes are considered, and suggestions are made to supervising judicatories regarding assistance that may be given to the couples.He is an ordained minister of the Lutheran Church in America as well as a licensed psychologist in the state of Pennsylvania.     

Therapist Interventions Associated with Productive Emotional Processing in the Context of Attachment-Based Family Therapy for Depressed and Suicidal Adolescents

Productive emotional processing is considered a key change mechanism in attachment-based family therapy (ABFT). This study examined the impact of attachment-based family therapy therapist interventions aimed to promote productive emotional processing of primary adaptive emotions in a sample of 30 depressed and suicidal adolescents who had participated in a larger randomized clinical trial. Results of sequential analyses revealed that relational reframes and therapists’ focus on primary adaptive emotions were associated with the subsequent initiation of adolescents’ productive emotional processing of primary adaptive emotions. In contrast, interpretations, reassurances, and therapists’ focus on adolescents’ rejecting anger toward their parents were all followed by the discontinuation of adolescents’ emotional processing that had already begun. Finally, therapists’ general encouragement of affect and focus on adolescents’ unmet attachment/identity needs were associated with both the initiation of adolescents’ productive emotional processing, and with the discontinuation of such processing once it had already begun. Theoretical and clinical implications are discussed.     

Infants' responses to mothers' imitative behaviors

Several investigators have suggested that young infants' smiles and vocalizations following their mothers' imitative behaviors might reflect infant recognition that the mother's behavior is imitative or at least contingent. This study investigated whether infants smile and vocalize more frequently subsequent to maternal imitative than non-imitative behavior during both spontaneous and imitative face-to-face interactions. Fourteen 3 1/2-month-old infants and their mothers were videotaped in these two face-to-face interaction situations. The infants vocalized more frequently during the imitative situation and infant vocalizations plus simultaneous smiling, and vocalizations occurred more often following maternal imitative than non-imitative behavior. Although these data suggest that infant vocalizations and simultaneous smiles and vocalizations may reflect the infants' recognition of maternal imitative behavior, they do not establish definitively that it is the imitation per se vs. the contingency aspect that is recognized by the infant.     

A methodology to assess the utility of future space systems

The Air Force SPACECAST 2020 study identified and prioritized some future space systems and technologies required in the next century. This paper presents the results of research on the SPACECAST 2020 value model. The model determines and prioritizes future space systems’ utility towards controlling and exploiting space. This research identifies the assumptions and simplifications in the additive utility function and assesses modifications. The research shows that mutual utility independence of the mission areas is a reasonable assumption. Mutual utility independence allows the use of the multiplicative and multilinear utility functions. Also, the SPACECAST 2020 scoring functions used the same scoring scale and only measured the utility of future capabilities. This study makes modifications to the SPACECAST 2020 measure-of-merit scoring functions. It replaces most of these functions with either a concave, convex, linear or ‘S’ scoring function, which have expanded capability ranges to include both current and future capabilities. The modified scoring functions and alternative utility functions do not alter the SPACECAST 2020 results but do improve the credibility and future usefulness of the model. This study shows that the initial assumption of using an additive utility function is also valid. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.