Community psychology in Hong Kong: Past,present, and future

The expansion of mental health services during the 1960s from a single remote mental hospital to centers and clinics in mainstream communities fostered the development of community psychology in Hong Kong. Few psychologists were initially involved in the local community mental health movement, but its momentum resulted in increasing numbers of practitioner psychologists working in community-based service settings. Community psychology in Hong Kong today consists primarily of service delivery, but also includes applied research, community organization/consultation, and community education. Despite having many parallels with the American situation, key concepts underpinning the practice of community psychology in the Territory possess their own character as a reflection of nuances in the local scene. Prospects for the continued development of community psychology in Hong Kong appear favorable. Of special relevance is the field's potential contribution to a better understanding of the psychological phenomena associated with the Territory's sociopolitical transformation in 1997.     

Applying family therapy theories to Asian/Pacific Americans

This paper introduces a framework by which the structural and communicative-interactive theories of family therapy can be logically and systematically applied with Asian/Pacific American families. It begins with an introduction to Schutz's FIRO theory and model. Application and relevance to work with Asian/Pacific American families is discussed and illustrated with a case application.Paper originally presented at the 1987 annual program meeting of the Council on Social Work Education, St. Louis, Missouri, March 8, 1987.     

Subalgebras and homomorphisms of semi-Post algebras

Semi-Post algebras have been introduced and investigated in [6]. This paper is devoted to semi-Post subalgebras and homomorphisms. Characterization of semi-Post subalgebras and homomorphisms, relationships between subalgebras and homomorphisms of semi-Post algebras and of generalized Post algebras are examined.     

Guest editors'' commentary: Japanese socialization research in review

This focus section has presented Japanese research on a variety of socialization agents and contexts, including mothering, fathering, peers and multiple-caretakers in families and institutions. The reader is encouraged to compare the papers, discover the theoretical and applied implications of each study for child development in the reader's own culture, and to pursue collaborations with the outstanding young Japanese contributors. We conclude with brief comments on each of the five articles, discussing their limitations, most significant findings, theoretical importance, and implications for subsequent research.     

A Paradigm for Studying the Accuracy of Self-Reports of Risk Behavior Relevant to AIDS: Empirical Perspectives on Stability, Recall Bias, and Transitory Influences

Despite the importance of the issue for AIDS-related research, there is a paucity of studies that have addressed the issue of the validity of self-reports of patterns of risk behavior over time. This article frames issues of measurement in the context of cognitive psychology and presents a research paradigm that investigators can use to explore issues of accuracy, bias, and stability in self-reports. The paradigm also permits the analysis of transitory influences on risk behavior, influences which have been minimized in current AIDS research. Preliminary data are presented that support the feasibility of the method and which are suggestive of important considerations in the development of valid measures in national surveys.     

Compassion: An east‐west comparison

Compassion is an emotion that occupies a central position in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy while it is often a neglected subject in contemporary western philosophy. This essay is a comparison between an Eastern view of compassion based upon Mahāyāna Buddhist perspectives and a western view of the same emotion. Certain principles found in Mahāyāna Buddhist philosophy such as the Bodhisattva Ideal, and suffering (dukkha) to name two, are explored for the information they contain about compassion. An essay by Lawrence Blum is taken as representative of a Western view (but not exclusively) and it is analyzed for its shortcomings in light of the Buddhist view. The conclusion briefly describes the value of understanding an eastern view on compassion as a means of filling the void one finds in western medical ethics discourse which focuses so heavily, and redundantly, upon issues such as patient autonomy and paternalism.     

The discrimination learning of the liquids /r/ and /l/ by Japanese speakers

The discrimination learning of the /r/ and /l/ sounds in a single 1-h session by Japanese college students who had received little or no English conversation training was examined. About half of the subjects exhibited significant improvement after this brief amount of training. A three-state Markov model with the unconditioned, intermediate, and conditioned states was applied as a first approximation of the learning of the liquid pairs, learning which is characterized as two-stage all-or-none conditioning. Also found in the study was a significant correlation between the ability to perceive the liquids and the ability to read English as assessed by a cloze procedure. This correlation is interreted in light of general theory on phoneme awareness.