Using Genetic Analyses to Clarify the Distinction Between Depressive and Anxious Symptoms in Children

Self-report measures of depression and anxiety in children are highly correlated and distinguishing between shared and independent factors in their etiologies is therefore problematic. The aim of this article was to test whether less correlated measures of depression and anxiety could be produced and, if so, what genetic and environmental factors would account for the variance in these symptoms. Second-order factor analysis of the items from two standardized self-report questionnaires of depression and anxiety collected from 395 pairs of same-sex twins aged 8 to 16 years resulted in purer dimensions of depression and anxiety. Behavioral genetic analyses confirmed the distinction between these two dimensions, and bivariate analyses revealed that the association between the two was primarily accounted for by shared genetic factors.     

Dream Reflection in Logotherapy: Facilitating the Psychotherapeutic Process and Case Studies

Logotherapy or Existenzanalyse is a treatment orientation developed by the late Viennese psychiatrist, Dr. Victor Frankl. Frankl's orientation places primary emphasis upon helping the client to notice, actualize and honor the meaning and meaning potentials in his or her life. This helps the client to shrink his/her existential meaning vacuum, and the symptoms and problems that grow and flourish in this existential vacuum. In this article Frankl's treatment orientation is briefly outlined, with a focus on the use of dream reflection to facilitate the Logotherapeutic process which is illustrated through case material.     

Re-Collection in Existential Psychotherapy with Couples and Families Dealing with Death

Re-collection is a treatment dynamic in existential family therapy in which the client family is helped to remember and honor meanings that family members have previously actualized and deposited in the past. This shrinks the family meaning vacuum and those symptoms and problems that grow and flourish in a family meaning vacuum. In this article, an existential orientation to re-collection with families who are dealing with the death of a loved one is presented, described, and illustrated with case material.     

Gender-Related traits and helping in a nonemergency situation

In prior research, mostly on helping in emergeicies, individuals' scores on expressivity (or femininity) generally have been unrelated to helping, whereas instrumentality (or masculinity) scores frequently have been significantly related to assisting. In two studies, we examined the relation of expressivity and instrumentality to willingness to help in a nonemergency situation in which the other's need was unambiguous; moreover, we assessed possible mediators of relations. Expressivity was positively related to amount of helping, and this relation appeared mediated by sympathetic responsivity. Masculinity was not significantly related to helping, although it was marginally, negatively related to assisting in one study. The findings are discussed in relation to those in related research.     

Distinguo: The response to equivocation

Logical guarantees of validity must be understood as subject to the proviso that no equivocation is committed. But we do not have a formal theory of equivocation. This paper attempts to formulate rules for responding to equivocal arguments in the context of dialogue. What occurs when one distinguishes meanings of an equivocal expression turns out to be rather different from definition.     

What cognitive and numerical skills best define learning disabilities in mathematics? / ¿Qué habilidades cognitivas y numéricas definen mejor las dificultades de aprendizaje en matemáticas?

Differentiating students with mathematical learning disabilities (MLD) from those with low achievement (LA) is still an unresolved issue. This study explored whether the specific combination of certain cognitive and numerical skills can classify students with MLD, with LA, and without MLD. In order to do this, an analysis was carried out of the performance of 756 Spanish students in grades two to six, on different numerical and cognitive tasks. Two factors were extracted using a principal component analysis of the tasks: a semantic-cognitive factor and a verbal-automation factor. The results obtained from comparing the groups showed that students with MLD and LA demonstrated significant differences in the semantic-cognitive factor, and that these differences were consistent across grade levels. In contrast, there were no differences between groups in the automatic-verbal factor. These results confirm that the groups are not only quantitatively different but also qualitatively different.     

Hermeneutic listening: An approach to understanding in multicultural conversations

Listening is crucial to reaching multicultural understanding. Borrowing from the work of Hans-Georg Gadamer we develop a hermeneutics of listening. To listen we must risk our prejudices, but these prejudices constitute our very identity. In this paper we attempt to answer the question, “Why Listen?” if listening is such a potentially dangerous activity.     

Heidegger's Brightness as a Responsibility of the Therapist in Existential Family Therapy

The author reflects upon the Heideggerian concepts of thrown-ness, death imagery, arrogance and brightness and their usefulness in existential family therapy. The article describes and illustrates with clinical material the process of helping a couple or family to move from an arrogance response to thrownness and death imagery to the response of brightness as attendants of Being. The responsibilities of the therapist in facilitating such a process are also described.Director of the Worthington Logotherapy Institute, co-director of Lantz and Lantz Counseling Associates, and a professor at The Ohio State University. College of Social Work     

Impact of substance abuse and child maltreatment training on service utilization in a rural setting

Substance abuse and child maltreatment have been recognized as co-morbid problems encountered in families presenting in the child protective services (CPS) system. Nonetheless, utilization rates of substance abuse treatment services have generally lagged well behind what the research would suggest are prevalence rates for substance abuse disorders in this population, suggesting problems in recognition and referral practices among CPS workers. In response to this, 25 training programs were funded by the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect. This study reports data from one program. Trainees indicated a high level of satisfaction and demonstrated significant knowledge gains. More importantly, utilization of substance abuse services increased significantly across time in a multi-county region receiving training relative to a comparison region receiving none. The gain was limited, suggesting that while increased knowledge may translate into increased service utilization, additional barriers to accessing needed services must also be addressed.