The Effect of Prolonged Implementation of Cooperative Learning on Social Support Within the Classroom

This study was conducted to determine whether cooperative learning experiences are related to social support in the classroom. The relationship between cooperative learning and social support, the impact of prolonged implementation of cooperative learning on social support, and the effect of different frequency of cooperative learning experiences on social support in the classroom were investigated. An instrument measuring social support was administered in November and in January to 91 eighth-grade students from a suburban school district in the Midwest. The results indicate that cooperative learning was highly related to social support within the classroom and that the longer and more frequently students engaged in cooperative learning, the greater the social support within the classroom.     

Fathers with joint physical custody of young children: A preliminary look

Abstract

Fathers with joint physical custody of children under age 6 report that this custody arrangement is of great benefit to the children, especially in circumstances where mothers have initiated the divorce and have sought less childcare responsibility. Joint physical custody fathers are highly available and provide closeness as the sole parent in charge. However, they also experience role overload and household management problems, and continue to feel hostility toward their former wives who have cut back on family responsibilities.     

Countertransference as a complex tool for understanding the patient in psychotherapy

This paper shows some of the complexities of the analytic relationship and processes in psychotherapy by focusing on the concept of countertransference. The development of the related concept of transference is briefly outlined and the history of the concept of countertransference and its place in the practice of psychoanalysis is presented. A clinical example is provided to illustrate some of the complexity of the issues that arise when the countertransference is used as a tool to understand the patient. Attention is drawn to the importance of sustaining the countertransference response until the transference aspects and the patient's unconscious communications have been recognised and understood. It is only at this point that an interpretation meaningful to the patient can be made.     

Mood Swings and Creativity

ABSTRACT:

This article evaluates recent evidence for an association between creativity and bipolar mood disorders. Eminent creativity and everyday creativity are distinguished, with high rates of major mood disorders‐particularly bipolar disorders— appearing among eminent creators in the arts. However, among everyday persons, including the 4–5% of the population that may develop a bipolar “spectrum”; disorder and their relatives, it is those with relatively milder mood disorders and normalcy who may show the greatest creative advantage. These seemingly conflicting results are reconciled through comparison of research designs and the creativity and diagnostic variables studied. Evidence regarding mood states that enhance creativity is also considered, both for eminent and everyday creators, and some preliminary results from a study of patients are presented. Here, milder mood elevations were tied most closely to the experience of creativity, although other patterns can exist. Three patterns are examined in terms of 23 mood, cognitive, and behavioral features that Jamison (1989) studied in eminent creators.     

Ripples in the pond: A qualitative study of graduates' perceptions of the impact of counselling training upon their work within the core professions

A small-scale qualitative study was conducted in order to examine the value of counselling training when incorporated into a person's established professional role. Questionnaires were sent to graduates from an MA/diploma in counselling course in order to identify those who had continued working within their core profession. This was followed by in-depth exploration of the issues through a focus group and interviews. Twelve respondents, from a variety of work settings, took part in this second stage. Results indicated that counselling training had impacted on all aspects of their work role and that there can be a benefit of such training in the workplace. Participants developed a tripartite understanding with regard to the self, clients and the organization, and change was experienced in each of these three dimensions. A larger-scale study, among graduates from a number of courses and also among employers, is indicated.     

Religious issues in diagnosis: The V-Code and beyond

This paper addresses the issues around considering clients' religious and spiritual functioning as a matter of client diversity. Such issues may be under appreciated by many clinicians. The introduction of a religious and spiritual problem V-Code (V62.89) into the DSM-IV provided a significant accommodation of client religious and spiritual functioning in contemporary psychodiagnostics. The V-Code allows for explicit identification of a non-pathological religious or spiritual focus in treatment. The nature of and history of the V-Code's inclusion in DSM-IV is briefly reviewed. The strengths and limitations of the V-Code for raising clinician awareness of the religious and spiritual domain of client functioning is discussed and illustrated by a number of case examples. The V-Code approach is contrasted with Hathaway's (2003) clinically significant religious impairment concept. Both are viewed as making complementary contributions to a religiously and spiritually sensitive clinical practice.     

Do positive children become positive adults? Evidence from a longitudinal birth cohort study

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the long-term consequences of positive wellbeing in childhood in the general population. We used the MRC National Survey of Health and Development (the British 1946 birth cohort) to test associations between adolescent positive wellbeing and social functioning in midlife. METHOD: Temperament and behaviour at ages 13 and 15 years were rated by school teachers on a range of criteria. These mostly referred to absence or presence of conduct and emotional problems, but four items allowed positive ratings: 'very popular with other children', 'unusually happy and contented', 'makes friends extremely easily' and 'extremely energetic, never tired'. In addition, at age 16 years survey members self-completed the Maudsley Personality Inventory, from which a summary measure of extraversion was derived, as this was previously found to be associated with midlife positive wellbeing in this cohort. RESULTS: Being a happy child, defined as receiving at least two of the above teacher ratings, was positively associated with midlife functioning and wellbeing, specifically a low probability of lifetime emotional problems, a high frequency of contact with friends or relatives, engagement in social activities, and to a lesser extent feeling satisfied with accomplishments in working life. These associations were independent of father's social class, childhood cognition, educational attainment, and midlife occupational social class. There were no independent associations between being a happy child and educational or occupational attainment, being married, engagement in prosocial activities, taking leadership in community activities, and with life satisfaction in general or with family life. Extraversion was associated with a low probability of lifetime emotional problems, high engagement in social activities, being married, general midlife life satisfaction, and satisfaction with family life, but not with social contact, prosocial activity, leadership activity, or work satisfaction. While childhood conduct and emotional problems were associated with few of the social and life satisfaction outcomes, the former were negatively associated with educational and occupational attainment, and positively with divorce, whereas the latter were negatively associated with being married. CONCLUSIONS: Prospectively rated childhood wellbeing has long-term beneficial links to adult functioning; our results also support the view that positive wellbeing has a unique impact on these outcomes, and does not merely represent the absence of mental ill-health.     

Influences on Sexual Partnering Among African American Adolescents With Concurrent Sexual Relationships

Adolescents often engage in concurrent sexual partnerships as part of a developmental process of gaining experience with sexuality. The authors qualitatively examined patterns of concurrency and variation in normative and motivational influences on this pattern of sexual partnering among African American adolescents (31 males; 20 females), ages 15 to 17 years. Using content analysis, gender and contextual differences in social norms and motivations for concurrency were explored. Findings describe the normative influences on adolescent males and females with regard to sexual concurrency and the transfer of these norms from one generation to the next.     

Isakower-like experience on the couch: a contribution to the psychoanalytic understanding of regressive ego phenomena

Since Isakower's original contribution of 1938, Isakower phenomena have been viewed as primitive experiences involving maternal breast, womb, and face imagery. This clinical report harks back to the less well-known hypothesis with which Isakower concluded his paper: he suggested that these perceptual experiences are related to childhood oedipal masturbatory fantasies at the time of going to sleep. In this paper four Isakower-like phenomena experienced by a patient on the couch are reported in the dynamic context in which they occurred. It is argued that these phenomena constitute a type of regressive ego experience that defends against oedipal conflict.