Orthodoxy in family therapy practice as servant or tyrant

This paper considers some of the pitfalls of a single-model approach to family therapy. It does not argue a 'right' way of practising family therapy, but proposes that the therapist needs to have available a range of approaches on which to draw. This also raises certain problems for training in family therapy, which are highlighted. A case is discussed in the light of a number of perspectives, to demonstrate how approaches can be used in complementary fashion. Finally, reference is made to some of the agency constraints which also make it difficult to practise any one model in a 'pure' form.     

盛唐时期的道教与政治

本文是英国学者巴雷特教授代表作《唐朝道教研究——中国历史上黄金时期的宗教与帝国》一书的第三部分,从宗教与政治的角度论证了武周之后中宗、睿宗以及玄宗时期的道教与皇权之间的关系,着重从佛道地位的变化分析道教在中唐发展盛极一时,成为当时与儒家治世之道相抗衡的国之重策的原因。     

Urban–Rural Variation in Satisfaction with Life: Demographic, Health, and Geographic Predictors in Halifax, Canada

This paper examines how satisfaction with life (SWL) varies in four zones of the urban–rural continuum, for 1,971 residents of the county-sized municipality of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It also examines whether the predictors of SWL themselves vary by rural–urban. Data are from the STAR project, which is an innovative GPS-assisted time diary survey. ‘Global’ SWL varies significantly by urban–rural zones, being highest in the inner city (IC), and lowest in the outer commuter belt (OCB). Self-rated health is a significant bivariate correlate, as are age, whether married, household size, and household income (all of which vary significantly by U-R zones). Several geographic variables co-vary significantly with SWL, particularly community belonging (strong in IC, weak in OCB), unsafe after dark (worst in IC, best in OCB), and commuting time (least in IC, most in OCB). A regional multivariate model yielded significant predictors related to physical health, mental health, and community geography, but excluded socio-demographic variables. Separate models for each urban–rural zone showed that SWL is more predictable at the zonal level than for the region as a whole, and the predictors vary considerably by zone. Physical health is an important predictor in the inner city and suburbs, unsafe after dark is significant only in the suburbs, and travel-related variables are very important in the inner commuter belt.     

Is there an age-related positivity effect in visual attention? A comparison of two methodologies

Research suggests a positivity effect in older adults' memory for emotional material, but the evidence from the attentional domain is mixed. The present study combined 2 methodologies for studying preferences in visual attention, eye tracking, and dot-probe, as younger and older adults viewed synthetic emotional faces. Eye tracking most consistently revealed a positivity effect in older adults' attention, so that older adults showed preferential looking toward happy faces and away from sad faces. Dot-probe results were less robust, but in the same direction. Methodological and theoretical implications for the study of socioemotional aging are discussed.     

Subliminal perception and its cognates: theory, indeterminacy, and time

Unconscious processes, by whatever name they may be known (e.g., "subliminal," "implicit"), are invariably operationalized by the dissociation paradigm, any situation involving the dissociation between two indicators (or sets of indicators), one of availability (epsilon) and the other, of accessibility (alpha), such that, epsilon>alpha. Subliminal perception has been traditionally defined by a special case of the dissociation paradigm in which availability exceeds accessibility when accessibility is null (epsilon>alpha/alpha=0). Construct validity issues bedevil all dissociation paradigms since it is not clear what might constitute appropriate indicators that, moreover, are pure and exhaustive. Semantic and theoretic drifts in the recent literature--e.g., the confusion of different versions of the dissociation paradigm, the equation of conscious-unconscious with direct-indirect tests, and the foisting of the criterion of qualitative differences--have tended to undermine emerging theoretic parsimony. On the other hand, a crucial factor has been left out of theory development: time. Both epsilon and alpha can rise and fall over time, often asynchronously, and so dissociations may wax and wane and, even, reverse over time. Some laboratory evidence suggests that accessibility measures (e.g., d'), as they approach chance, may actually dip below chance (subchance perception). If so, d'=0 (the chance-limen or objective threshold), could be an averaging artifact of positive and negative d's. Conscious accessibility is not either-or but more or less, and variable over time.     

Family predictors of disease management over one year in Latino and European American patients with type 2 diabetes

Family context is thought to influence chronic disease management but few studies have longitudinally examined these relationships. Research on families and chronic illness has focused almost exclusively on European American families. In this prospective study we tested a multidimensional model of family influence on disease management in type 2 diabetes in a bi-ethnic sample of European Americans and Latinos. Specifically, we tested how baseline family characteristics (structure, world view, and emotion management) predicted change in disease management over one year in 104 European American and 57 Latino patients with type 2 diabetes. We found that emotion management predicted change in disease management in both groups of patients as hypothesized, while family world view predicted change in both ethnic groups but in the predicted direction only for European Americans. Examining family context within ethnic groups is required to elucidate unique cultural patterns. Attending to culturally unique interpretations of constructs and measures is warranted. The import of family emotion management, specifically conflict resolution, in disease management deserves further study to support clinical intervention development. Examining multiple domains of family life and multidimensional health outcomes strengthens our capacity to develop theory about family contexts and individual health.