Improving Parent‐Child Relationships Through Filial Therapy: An Interview With Garry Landreth

Internationally known counselor educator and author Garry Landreth has a passion for filial therapy. In this interview article, Landreth discusses the basic principles and procedures of filial therapy, the 10‐week Filial Therapy Training Model he has developed, and the research that he and his colleagues and students are doing on filial therapy.     

The face of fear: Effects of eye gaze and emotion on visual attention

We investigated whether a fearful expression enhances the effect of another's gaze in directing the attention of an observer. Participants viewed photographs of faces whose gaze was directed ahead, to the left or to the right. Target letters then appeared unpredictably to the left or right. As expected, targets in the location indicated by gaze were detected more rapidly. In nonanxious volunteers the effects of fearful gaze did not differ from neutral gaze, but fearful expression had a more powerful influence in a selected high anxious group. Attention is thus more likely to be guided by the direction of fearful than neutral gaze, but only in anxiety-prone individuals.     

Absolute pitch in infancy and adulthood: the role of tonal structure

Despite many similarities in infant and adult auditory processing, the literature suggests that two aspects of music perception, pitch processing and knowledge of tonal structure, change over development. The current experiments assess the use of absolute and relative pitch cues in a tone sequence statistical learning task containing tonal structure. The results suggest that infants preferentially process absolute pitch patterns in continuous tone sequences, supporting the hypothesis that absolute pitch is present in infancy, whereas adults tracked both absolute and relative pitch patterns. Infants and adults detected the tonal structure in the input, suggesting that humans are attuned to basic aspects of tonality early in life.     

Similarities and Differences Between African Americans’ and European Americans’ Attitudes,Knowledge, and Willingness to Communicate About Organ Donation1

While little is known about African Americans’ attitudes and knowledge about organ donation, even less is known about how African Americans’ attitudes, values, and beliefs affect their behavior and behavioral intentions regarding organ donation; or how African Americans’ views are similar to or different from those of European Americans. Adults working 2 sites of a national corporation were randomly selected to complete a survey about organ donation willingness, intention to sign an organ donor card, knowledge and attitudes toward organ donation, and level of altruism. Results indicate that African Americans differ significantly from Whites on several individual attitude and knowledge items. However, the basic relationship between knowledge, attitudes, values, and behaviors regarding organ donation between the 2 groups appears the same. Furthermore, these results indicate that future organ donation promotion campaigns must focus on increasing basic knowledge and countering myths about organ donation for both populations.     

Transcendental Tense: D.H. Mellor

Kant's claim that our knowledge of time is transcendental in his sense, while false of time itself, is true of tenses, i.e. of the locations of events and other temporal entities in McTaggart's A series. This fact can easily, and I think only, be explained by taking time itself to be real but tenseless.     

Emotional reactions,coping and long‐term consequences of perceived discrimination among the Mapuche people of Chile

Although a substantial body of research has now documented the negative mental and physical health impacts of discrimination on various minority/non‐dominant groups, little has been reported on the impacts of such discrimination on indigenous populations. In this study, we investigated the self‐reported emotional reactions, coping responses and long‐term impacts of discriminatory experiences among 50 Mapuche adults in Chile. The limited literature suggests that a substantial proportion of the Chilean majority society is prejudiced and discriminatory towards the indigenous Mapuche population, and that the Mapuche experience discrimination. Interviews with participants indicated that discrimination was psychologically wounding, and aroused anger, undifferentiated bad feelings, shame and a sense of powerlessness. Participants responded with self‐protective, self‐controlled or confronting actions. Although negative long‐term effects were reported, ethnic re‐affirmation and strengthening of bonds within the Mapuche community were positive outcomes that seem to provide resilience for the participants. This does not discount however, the need for more research assessing the impacts of discrimination in Chile nor the need for anti‐discrimination measures to be implemented. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improvements to Suicide Prevention Training for Prison Staff in England and Wales

Suicide prevention training for the prison service in England and Wales has been criticized. STORM is a package emphasizing the practice and review of interactions with suicidal persons and was evaluated in a pilot study for use in prisons. Trainees completed questionnaires immediately before and after training and at 6 to 8 months follow‐up. Training significantly improved attitudes, knowledge, and confidence, and improvements were maintained at follow‐up. Satisfaction with training was very high. STORM was successfully adapted for prison settings, and showed good effects among staff trained. It should be provided to the wider prison estate, with regular refresher training.