Fairy-tales and teaching family therapy

This paper sets out to illustrate how well-known fairy-tales can be adapted to serve as a useful teaching tool in family therapy. Familiarity with fairy stories means they can be used as a ready access to common family constellations and dynamics. This may be particularly useful when asked to present an introductory workshop or single lecture to participants unsophisticated in family therapy conceptualizations or practice. Potential clinical applications are also briefly mentioned.     

Exploring spiritual dimensions: Toward a hermeneutic of divorce

While the divorce experience can confront people with brokenness, limits, sinfulness, and changing concepts of meaning, it can also challenge them to move to new places, to choose life in a new way. Moving through this process not only allows a person to come to terms with various aspects of the divorce in a psychological sense, but also to see the movement of God within the suffering, healing, and the emergence of new life. This essay touches on various issues which emerge in the stages of death-gestation-rebirth and how they may ultimately act to strengthen the foundation of faith.Excerpted from The Effect of Divorce on Spiritual Growth: A Study in Protestant Spirituality (unpublished thesis).     

Actual and Perceived Group Performance as a Function of Group Composition: The Moderating Role of the Type A and B Behavior Patterns1

This study examined the moderating influence of the Type A and B behavior patterns on group performance and group functioning. Type As and Bs were assigned to different roles in groups given the task of deciding what items to transfer from a sinking ship to a life raft. Results indicated that groups with Type A leaders in conflict with a Type A group member arrived at relatively poor decisions. Type A leaders, however, also were perceived by their groups to be more competent than were Type B leaders. These results suggested that the Type A behavior pattern can have the paradoxical effects of hindering group problem-solving and of leading others to view Type As as more competent than Type Bs because of their active dynamic style.     

An assessment of appraisal,anxiety, coping,and procrastination during an examination period

High School students responded to an inventory which included dispositional measures of procrastination and social evaluation trait anxiety. Subsequently, and 7 days prior to their first examination (Stage 1), each of the 40 female and 23 male students completed measures of state anxiety, perception of the stressor situation, and ways of coping, all with regard to their approaching exam period. These judgments were repeated 1 day prior to their first examination (Stage 2), and again 5 days after their last examination (Stage 3). Correlational analyses indicated that threat and harm perceptions were highly positively related to state anxiety, whereas challenge and gain were moderately and negatively related. State anxiety was linked to emotion-focused coping, but was independent of problem-focused coping. In an analysis of variance, high procrastination, high trait anxious subjects felt the least challenged at Stage 1. In a ‘maverick’, post hoc analysis, high procrastinators were more likely than low procrastinators at each stage to promise themselves ‘that things will be different next time’. Discussion included an assessment of the need for specificity when using the Ways of Coping (Folkman and Lazarus, 1985) scale.     

Psychological and physical variables as predictors of coping strategies

26 women and 17 men between the ages of 26 and 62 yr. of age and diagnosed as having chronic illnesses were administered four questionnaires to assess physical and psychological variables and coping strategies: the Sickness Impact Profile, the Time Reference Inventory, and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control. The Jaloweic Coping Scale assessed coping strategies. Canonical correlation indicated a single-factor link (Wilks' lambda) between scores on the first 3 tests, and the subscales of the coping scale. A significant but small correlation of .31 between the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control subscale, Powerful Others, and the coping subscale of Emotion-focused strategies was observed, that with the subscale Chance and the coping subscale confrontive strategies was negative. A second canonical correlation deleting the Time Reference Inventory score of age extension and including the three Sickness Impact Profile subscales was significant and positive for the Composite score and the subscale Palliative of the Jaloweic Coping Scale. Such data suggest that individuals who have a locus of control orientation of Powerful Others respond to chronic illness with emotionally based behaviors. In addition, chronically ill individuals who are physically dysfunctional tend to respond with palliative coping strategies.     

A comparison of ready foods to institutional food

This study was conducted as a preliminary investigation of Ready Foods versus Institutional Food in a state residential facility serving approximately 500 mentally retarded residents. One administrative unit of the facility serving approximately 160 residents was used as the setting for the study. Along with residents in this unit, a variety of staff, client advocates, and volunteer workers participated in the investigation. Results were: (1) staff, client advocate, and volunteer worker responses significantly favored Ready Foods; (2) residents selected Ready Foods significantly more than Institutional Food; (3) residents displayed greater overall food waste with the Institutional Food as compared to the Ready Foods; (4) some residents displayed less choking or gagging with ready foods than with Institutional Food; and (5) out of 6 residents who were chronically overweight displayed statistically significant weight gain within one week after beginning Ready Foods and significant weight loss after the return to Institutional Food. Advantages of a Ready Foods System are discussed.     

Career education in france: New objectives and new methods

The objective of French vocational counselling services has changed in recent years from that of matching young people with the occupation to which they are best suited, to that of teaching individuals how to construct career goals. This paper presents a historical overview of career education techniques in France. In particular, it outlines the ADVP (Activation of Personal and Vocational Development) method, the first to have a major impact. Among the other techniques discussed are the PPPP (Psychopedagogy of Personal and Career Planning) and the DAPP (Discovery of Employment Activities and Personal Plans): the former closely resembles the ADVP but is founded on the work of Wallon; the second - based on cognitive dissonance theory - aims at encouraging students to reflect upon and involve themselves in the process of increasing their chances of acquiring the necessary qualifications for the professional activities to which they aspire. The principles underlying these three methods are examined, as is the research conducted to assess their effectiveness.     

3-D graphics animation program for the Apple II

A graphics design program for creating point-light displays of transforming 3-D objects is presented. This program was written for an Apple II microcomputer interfaced to a Texas Instruments TMS 9918A video display processor. In contrast to other 3-D design programs, it uses individual point-lights undergoing circular trajectories as a design primitive. An editor enables the user to enter and edit specific motion parameters for defining the parallel projection of as many as 16 point-lights on the screen. These parameters are then used to calculate and store in an animation list the screen positions of each point-light for each frame. Number of frames to be displayed and display rate are user defined.     

The contribution of Kleinian psychotherapy to the treatment of a disturbed five-year-old girl and her family

The theories of Melanie Klein are incorporated into many family therapy 'models' in regular use, although a detailed understanding of these theories is not an essential part of the repertoire of family therapists. In the present case, however, Klein's theories provided essential insight into the personality development of a five-year-old girl with severely disordered behaviour, as well as a foundation for the treatment offered to her and to her family.     

Effects of extended father-infant contact during the newborn period

Studies within the past decade have suggested that extended contact between mothers and newborns may have positive effects on later parent-infant interaction and may impact favorably upon the establishment of the mother-to-infant attachment bond. The present study was designed to determine whether similar extended contact effects occur for fathers. The results indicated that a group of fathers who attended their infants' births and received extended postpartum hospital contact with their infants engaged in greater amounts of en face behavior and vocalization with their infants and were more involved in infant caretaking responsibilities at 6 weeks postpartum and had higher self-esteem scores following the births compared to another group of fathers who attended their infants' births but received traditional amounts of hospital contact. Although there were more behavioral similarities than differences between the two groups of fathers, positive effects were found on behavioral measures, standardized psychometric measures, and on self-report questionnaires. The results indicated that extended contact effects are at least as salient with fathers as with mothers.