改变“低挫折容忍度”的心理干预及效果评估 —— 一位奥运银牌运动员的个案研究

研究目的是描述对一名奥运选手L在奥运会前一年中进行的心理干预,以改变其“低挫折容忍度”的过程,以及评价这一理性情绪行为疗法与心理技能训练相结合的心理干预的效果。在不同的时间点采用各种评估方法对干预效果进行评估,主要的评估方法包括采用目标获得评价表进行的运动员L自我评估和教练员评估,运动员L、教练员、及搭档的“阶段性总结”评价,以及对L比赛行为的录像资料分析。通过各种评估方法所获得的结果的一致性证明了该干预方法在改变运动员的问题行为方面是有效的。通过对运动员L的问题行为的改变,提升了他在比赛中的运动表现,该运动员与其搭档在2004年雅典奥运会乒乓球男子双打项目上获得了银牌     

Utilizing Family Strengths and Resilience: Integrative Family and Systems Treatment with Children and Adolescents with Severe Emotional and Behavioral Problems

Community mental health agencies are consistently challenged to provide realistic and effective home-based family-centered treatment that meets local needs and can realistically fit within available budget and resource capabilities. Integrated Family and Systems Treatment (I-FAST) is developed based on existing evidence-based approaches for working with at-risk children, adolescents, and families and a strengths perspective. I-FAST identified 3 evidence-based, core treatment components and integrated them into a coherent treatment protocol; this is done in a way that builds on and is integrated with mental health agencies' existing expertise in home-based treatment. This is an intervention development study in which we conducted an initial feasibility trial of I-FAST for treating families with children at risk of out-of-home placement. The outcomes of the study provide initial empirical evidence that supports the effectiveness of I-FAST. Findings indicate that there were significant improvements in child behavior, significant increases in parental competency, and significant increases in the level of cohesion and adaptability in these families. All observed changes were significant from pre- to posttreatment with the families able to maintain these positive changes at 6-month follow-up. A more rigorous and robust research design, however, will be needed to establish definitive evidence of the effectiveness of I-FAST.     

Transcendence as a Subset of Evolutionary Thinking: A Darwinian View of the Creative Experience

The states of transcendence and affective discontinuities as features of the creative act are posited as analogous to Darwin's theory of evolution. The intellectual essence of Darwin's argument is that randomness processed through a selection system yields purpose. Some recent studies suggest this process holds true for profound acts of creativity. Darwin's two criteria for change, randomness and a system of recognition, are examined in application to the creative act. The argument is made that extraordinary creative people use a specific selection process coupled with the ability to de-structure or randomize their mental environment. Finally, techniques are proposed to structure a creative recognition system and to de-structure the input that is processed to enhance creative results. Considerable research into creativity has been concerned with transcendent thinking, the sudden discontinuous pattern shifts that lead to wonderful new insights. Three schools of thought have attempted to explain and resolve this discontinuity. Overton and Newman (1982) describe two of these. There is the reductionist view taking the position that all creative thinking can be explained by continuous processing. Discontinuity is treated merely as a behavioral or affective phenomenon since by nature pre-conscious algorithms are unavailable for systematic inquiry. The organismic view, on the other hand, takes the lofty position that transcendence is a function of indeterminacy: ideas actually operate in earthly terms but are post-Newtonian in nature. That is, transcendent states are delocalized concepts operating beyond the tangible limitations of space and time. Attempts to measure these phenomena are doomed to the same outcome as the proverbial killing of the goose that laid the golden egg. McCarthy (1993) has recently attempted to reconcile the above positions by arguing that the answer may well be found in the field of quantum physics and elementary particle research. She proposes that nature is a duality. Creative insight and transcendence come about through the superposition of two realities, one which is “boundary-free”; the other a more conscious process which is hierarchal and “boundary-laden.” Presented here is a reductionist point of view asserting that what we consider to be transcendence — the mystical nature of creativity — is not only sequential but a subset of the evolutionary process as set forth by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species (1859). Further, the principles of Darwin's theory may be applied to speed and improve the creative process both for individuals and groups. Other researchers in the field (Campbell, 1960, Finke, Ward, & Smith, 1992, Gruber& Davis, 1988, Kantorovich, 1993; Simonton, 1988), have invoked evolutionary thinking to explain the creative process. However, this argument looks at the two properties of evolution necessary for its function and shows how in highly creative people they may operate differently.     

Women and Career Competence: A Theoretical and Experiential Model

The authors describe an experiential workshop, developed to help women with career difficulties, that emphasizes freedom and responsibility for choice.     

Guidance Services for Children and a Right to Education Law: Results of a Longitudinal Study

A sizeable proportion of elementary school children studied received guidance services for emotional and behavioral problems. Differences emerged between children with transitory and persistent problems.     

Philosophy and Counseling: A Metatheoretical Analysis

This article deals with the relationship between philosophy and counseling theory as outlined in a metatheoretical model. The model's implications for comparing theories and value orientations are also reviewed.