Sexual assault: Myths and stereotypes among Australian adolescents

Myths and stereotypes about sexual assault reflect a society which excuses perpetrators of assault and blames victims for failing to control men's sexuality. Such views are well-established by early adulthood, but there is little research with adolescents. This study surveyed two hundred forty-four 14–16 year old Australian high school students (105 male, 139 female), of Anglo-European descent. Males were significantly more likely to endorse sexual assault myths, to agree that forced sex was acceptable in some situations, and to hold false stereotypes about sexual assault. Males also held more restrictive attitudes toward women's roles and endorsed a greater level of sexism in dating relationships. This suggests that male and female adolescents have differing expectations of dating relationships, which may underlie sexual assault within relationships. Assault-supportive attitudes are apparent at a young age, supporting the need for educational and social interventions targeting young people.     

Treatment of traumagenic beliefs among sexually abused girls and their mothers: An evaluation study

The objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the efficacy of two short-term individual therapy interventions for sexually abused girls and their nonoffending female caretakers. Thirty-two girls, ages 8 to 13, and their caretakers from primarily low-income, African-American families were randomly assigned to a theoretically based, structured experimental treatment program or to a relatively unstructured comparison intervention. Measures of child outcome were completed before and after the treatment program by each parent and child, and by a clinician blind to treatment condition. Pre- and postmeasures of maternal outcome were completed by the caretaker and a clinician not involved in the treatment. Both treatment programs yielded decreases in children's posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and traumagenic beliefs reflecting self-blame and powerlessness, and increases in children's overall psychosocial functioning. The experimental intervention was more effective than the comparison program in increasing abuse-related caretaker support of the child and in decreasing caretaker self-blame and expectations of undue negative impact of the abuse on the child. Clinical impfications of these findings include the development of interventions targeting sexually abused children's traumagenic beliefs and nonoffending parents' support of their victimized children.This research was supported by the Emory Medical Care Foundation and the Children's Trust Fund of Georgia. Preliminary findings were presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, March 1993.The authors thank the clinic families, volunteer therapists, and project staff members whose work together made this research possible. Core project staff members other than the authors include Milonne Ambroise, Mary Lynn Dell, Sherry Dey, Beth Dreelin, Jenny Gould, Katherine January, Suzann Lawry, Marie Simmons, and Lisseth Rojas.     

Effects of task instructions and oscillation frequency on bimanual coordination

Increases in the oscillation frequency of bimanual movements produce a switch from an anti-phase (180° relative phase) to an in-phase (0° relative phase) coordination pattern. This finding is observed when subjects are instructed not to intervene when they feel themselves slipping out of the anti-phase pattern. The question addressed in this study concerned how performance would be affected if subjects were instructed to try to maintain the pattern at all times. This issue was addressed using two separate groups of subjects: one group was given the do not intervene instructions, the other group was told to try to stay with the pattern at all times. Forearm rotations were tested in 15 s trials, paced by an auditory metronome set at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 Hz. Frequency distributions of the point estimates of relative phase were analyzed. The Do not Intervene group replicated previous findings, as indicated by the development of a bimodal histogram of relative phase distributions with increases in oscillation frequency. However, a very different pattern of findings emerged with increases in oscillation frequency for the group told to stay with the anti-phase pattern. Rather than a bimodal distribution being developed, the data maintained 180° as its central tendency — no secondary distribution developed around 0° relative phase. These data suggest that volitional control can over-ride the inherent dynamical tendencies of the motor system.     

Media use and political commitment: The 1992 U.S. presidential election

This study explores the relationship between media use and political commitment. Undergraduate participants answered an extensive political background questionnaire, which included measures of media use, perceived importance of information sources regarding the 1992 presidential election, and various political behaviors as an index of political commitment. Correlational analyses revealed that those who are more politically committed tend to select a variety of media sources regarding a presidential candidate. This study also investigated how informational and commitment variables were related to attitudes towards the major presidential candidates. Results observed for people expressing positive attitudes toward Perot are discussed in terms of the modern day “third party voter.”     

Cognitive processing therapy for chronic PTSD from childhood sexual abuse: A case study

This paper describes a case of chronic Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV, 4th edn; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). The client has a long history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA), as well as repeated sexual victimization as an adult and addiction issues. She presented with significant avoidance symptoms, including a highly restricted range of affect and distinct feelings of detachment from others. These symptoms had been greatly reduced by the end of the 17-week therapy including both individual and group modalities. The paper elaborates on theoretical issues, the Cognitive Processing Therapy model (Resick & Schnicke, 1993) as it was adapted for use with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, the various phases of the therapeutic process, and specific examples of therapeutic change with this particularly complicated case.     

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.     

Disputing clients' irrational beliefs

This paper describes and illustrates a conceptual framework developed to assist novice REBT therapists with enlarging their disputational repertoire. First, four disputational strategies are described and illustrated. Then four disputational styles of presenting the strategies to the client are also described and illustrated. Then the disputational strategies and the disputational styles are combined within a conceptual framework to assist the developing REBT therapist in generating a variety of disputes for a single IB. Finally, the conceptual framework is applied to the IB of the case of Karen from Dryden and Digiuseppe'sPrimer on Rational Emotive Therapy to yield thirty-two separate disputes (sixteen disputes for the premise of the IB, and sixteen disputes for the derivative) of the IB.     

Teaching peer reinforcement and grocery words: An investigation of observational learning and instructive feedback

A multiple probe across behaviors design, replicated across participants, assessed the effectiveness of constant time delay in teaching appropriate peer reinforcement and grocery words to 3 elementary students with moderate intellectual disabilities. Additionally, pretests and posttests assessed the acquisition of the participants' observational learning (acquisition of peers' grocery words) and instructive feedback (related information supplied by the teacher in the consequent event). Results indicate that the participants learned (a) how to appropriately reinforce peers, (b) to read their grocery words, (c) some of the targeted stimuli of their peers, and (d) much of the instructive feedback that was associated with each of the grocery words. Maintenance data indicate that the participants maintained their target grocery words at high levels of accuracy.