The care-system for homeless youth in The Netherlands: perceptions of youngsters through a peer research approach

The aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of homeless youth of the care they receive. Since we wanted to involve homeless youth as participants in this project, we adopted the approach of peer-research. This form of collaborative research has a major role for homeless youth in making an inventory of the problems. A parallel is drawn between the parent-adolescent relationship and the relationship between social worker and homeless adolescent.     

Women and the Social Movements of the 1960s: Activists, Engaged Observers, and Nonparticipants

Many women in the generation that attended college during the 1960s have reported that they were influenced by the social movements of that era, even women who did not participate in them. In addition to political activists, social movements also appear to include "engaged observers"—individuals who are attentive to movement writings and activities, and express moral and even financial support for them, but who take no other action. Although activism in a movement may be the best predictor of future political action, engaged observation may be related to other indicators of political socialization, such as a powerful felt impact of the movement and well-developed political attitudes. Evidence to support this notion is drawn from studies of three samples of college-educated white and black women.     

Psychological Strengths and Cognitive Vulnerabilities: Are They Two Ends of the Same Continuum or Do They Have Independent Relationships with Well-being and Ill-being?

Research programs examining psychological strengths and vulnerabilities have remained largely separate, making it difficult to determine the relative contributions of strengths and vulnerabilities to well-being. Two studies (241 normals, 54 depressed outpatients) compared certain psychological strengths (Transcendence subscales, Values In Action Inventory of Strengths) and cognitive vulnerabilities (Dysfunctional Attitudes Scale). In multiple regression, strengths usually related more to positive well-being—life satisfaction, positive affect, vitality, meaning, elevating experience—though vulnerabilities also related to the first three variables; vulnerabilities related more to illbeing—negative affect, depression—though hope, humor, enthusiasm, and forgiveness sometimes also showed relationships. Pre-treatment strengths (hope, spirituality, appreciation of beauty and excellence) predicted post-treatment recovery from depression; cognitive vulnerabilities did not. Strengths and vulnerabilities sometimes interacted, with strengths weakening the relationship between vulnerabilities and well-being. Our findings indicate that strengths and vulnerabilities are not mere opposites (correlating at most moderately) and deserve study as distinct contributors to well-being.     

Role-Playing Computer Ethics: Designing and Evaluating the Privacy by Design (PbD) Simulation

Science and Engineering Ethics - There is growing consensus that teaching computer ethics is important, but there is little consensus on how to do so. One unmet challenge is increasing the capacity...     

Social justice and remembering “the personal is political” in counselling and psychotherapy: So,what can therapists do?

This brief contribution argues for the importance of a social justice perspective in counselling and psychotherapy, particularly within the current international socio‐political context. Much has been said about social justice over recent years in the fields of psychology, psychotherapy and counselling. Professionals and academics have expressed some concerns about what it might actually mean, or how difficult it might be in practice to engage with this perspective. In this paper, the activist phrase “the personal is political” (Hanisch, 1970) is used to illustrate the way in which a social justice approach to counselling and psychotherapy does not need to be complicated, but rather a foregrounding of a particular understanding of well‐being and the people we work with. Following this, some concrete and straightforward suggestions for how therapists might begin to act on their social justice values are made.