The Montreal Type A Intervention Project: major findings

This article reports a comparison of three short-term treatments (aerobic exercise, cognitive-behavioral stress management, and weight training) in modifying behavioral and cardiovascular reactivity to laboratory psychosocial stressors in healthy Type A men. One hundred seven men completed the treatments and evaluations, 33 in the aerobic exercise group, and 37 each in the cognitive-behavioral stress management and weight-training groups. The stress management group showed significantly greater changes in behavioral reactivity (reductions of 13% to 23% below initial values) than the two physical exercise groups, which did not differ significantly from each other. For physiological reactivity, changes attributable to intervention were trivial for all three treatment groups. The positive finding of reduced behavioral reactivity as a result of the stress management intervention is of potential clinical significance and warrants further exploration. The lack of meaningful reductions in physiological reactivity also requires further exploration in that it raises questions concerning the ability of behavioral treatments in general to modify physiological reactivity, the ability of existing measures to assess accurately changes that are produced and, most fundamental of all, the relevance of physiological reactivity as an outcome measure for treatment efforts with Type As.     

Gender differences in moral reasoning

This research tests Gilligan's hypothesis that men are more likely to consider moral dilemmas chiefly in terms of justice and individual rights, whereas women are more likely to be chiefly concerned with questions of care and relationships with others. In addition, we have investigated the effects of dilemma content upon orientation of moral judgment. Protocols from interviews with 50 college students, half women and half men, to three moral dilemmas were coded according to moral orientation. Results indicated that both moral orientations were widely used by both men and women, but that women were more likely to employ prodominantly care considerations. In a test of mean differences in proportion of justice responses, content of the specific moral dilemma showed a strong influence upon moral reasoning. Results suggest that both gender and situational factors need to be considered in our understanding of moral reasoning.     

Duaal processes in recognition and in recognition failure

It is argued that adherence of the results of experiments in the recognition failure paradigm to the function observed by Tulving and Wiseman (1975) reflects the operation of two distinct processes in recognition similar to those described by Mandler (1979, 1980). Familiarity decisions based on the target word alone can occur when target and list cue have not been integrated and result in some measure of dependence between recall and recognition. Contextual retrieval can operate in recognition when integration has occurred, and is independent of success in recall. It is further contended that deviations from the Tulving-Wiseman function arise because special instructions given to subjects produce more or less cue-target integration than is normal, and differentially affect the relative proportion of items recognized via contextual retrieval and via familiarity decisions. The first part of the paper argues that the contextual retrieval involved in recognition failure experiments takes the form of an attempted backward recall of the list cue from the target, consistent with the suggestions of Rabinowitz, Mandler, and Barsalou (1977) and claims that the results of a paper by Fisher (1979) strongly support this view.     

Functional analysis and treatment of elopement.

Elopement is a dangerous behavior because children who run away may encounter life-threatening situations (e.g., traffic). We conducted functional analyses of the elopement of 3 children who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities. The results identified a maintaining reinforcer for the elopement of 1 child, but the data were difficult to interpret for 2 of the children. Subsequent reinforcer assessments were used to help to clarify the reinforcers for elopement for these 2 children. Results of the functional analyses and reinforcer assessments then were used to develop successful treatments to reduce elopement. The findings are discussed in terms of (a) the application of functional analysis methodology to elopement, (b) the use of reinforcer assessments to identify potential reinforcers when standard functional analyses are undifferentiated, and (c) the utility of assessment-based treatments for elopement.     

Analysis of activity preferences as a function of differential consequences

Individuals who do not possess the verbal skills to express meaningful choice in the absence of its consequences may have difficulty indicating their preference for protracted activities that are unavailable until some time in the future (e.g., taking a walk, riding a bike). When we examined the preferences of 4 individuals with developmental disabilities by showing them pictorial representations of various activities, their initial choices showed no clear preferences. In a subsequent condition, selecting a photograph resulted in brief access to the depicted activity. When selections produced differential consequences (i.e., access to the activity), clear preferences emerged. In addition, 3 individuals' preferences were later shifted to an initially less preferred but more socially desirable option by superimposing additional reinforcement contingencies for engaging in the less preferred activity. Results are discussed in terms of the conditions under which choice functions as an indicator of preference and how those conditions may be altered to improve the quality of choice making without limiting access to preferred options.     

Heidegger on Aristotle's “Metaphysical” God

In courses in the twenties and early thirties, Heidegger argues that in Aristotle the question of the being of beings (ontology) and that of the unity of beings (theology) are distinct. Although he treated the two questions as part of one science, prôtē philosophía, Aristotle did not, in Heidegger's view, discuss the way in which these questions belong together. Being is determined theoretically as presence; and God, the first mover, is an aítion, an explanatory ground of motion in sensible ousía. God is required as a ground for the presence of beings as a whole. Heidegger no longer seeks explanatory grounds, nor does he prioritize theory. Rather, he inquires into the essence of ground, and the poietical involvement of Dasein in understanding being. The unity of Aristotle's questions is found in a groundless ground: Dasein as transcendence. The metaphysical god is thus no longer required in Heidegger's phenomenology.     

Where “culture wars” and therapy meet: Exploring the intersection between political issues and therapeutic practice

In the era of “culture wars,” instances where client and practitioner discuss political issues in therapy may become more frequent. This paper introduces the way in which “culture wars” manifest in today's societies and highlights the importance of therapeutic practitioners to engage with and explore their own views in relation to these polarising political debates. In doing so, this paper reflects upon the existing research focussing on the way in which “culture wars” enter the therapeutic encounter and highlights the feelings of anxiety and conflict that arise when practitioners are tasked with “talking politics” with clients. It considers the implications for practice and policy and concludes with recommendations for future scholarship, arguing for more culturally specific studies that examine how “culture wars” issues impact therapeutic work in a variety of international settings.     

How long do the advantages of learning to read a transparent orthography last? An investigation of the reading skills and reading impairment of Welsh children at 10 years of age

Spencer and Hanley (2003) showed that Welsh-speaking children aged between 5 and 7 years who were learning to read Welsh (a transparent orthography) performed significantly better at reading both real words and nonwords than did English-speaking children living in Wales who were learning to read English (a deep orthography). In this study, the reading skills of these children were reexamined three years later, during their sixth year of formal reading instruction. The children learning to read English continued to perform poorly at reading low- and medium-frequency irregular words but no differences were observed in reading regular words or nonwords. These findings emphasize how long it takes to acquire a large sight vocabulary in English, but indicated that the reading skills of the majority of the English-speaking children had caught up with those of their Welsh-speaking counterparts. However, the poorest 25% of the English readers continued to perform much worse than the lowest performing 25% of Welsh readers on both words and nonwords. An underachieving tail of this kind was not observed in the reading performance of the Welsh-speaking group. Overall, these findings suggest that in the long term the detrimental effects of an opaque orthography are most damaging to the poorest readers.     

The impact of organisational change on professionals working within a Community Mental Health Team (CMHT): a psychodynamic perspective

The aim of this study was to explore the effects of organisational change upon staff working in a Community Mental Health Team (CMHT). A grounded theory methodology was employed to analyse data from eight interviews with a range of staff. Analysis identified one core category and five key categories. ‘Corrosion of good work: an ethos in decline’ represents the core category and refers to the staff members’ sense of demoralisation of their professional values and integrity. The first key category, ‘Cultural change’, refers to staff members’ perception of change within the CMHT, with an increased emphasis on regulation, performance management and proceduralisation. Three further key categories were identified: ‘Caring clinicians and uncaring managers’, ‘Confusion regarding professional roles’ and ‘Disconnecting and isolating’. The fifth key ‘Staff departing and increasing risk for clients’, describes the impact of the working culture. These categories and emerging theory were interpreted through a psychodynamic lens, and identified the need for better management practice, support, training and supervision of staff as the foundations of safe practice.