Why Care About Gender?

I address motivations that feminist philosophers have for being concerned about the “maleness” of philosophy and the “problem of difference” within feminist theory. An appropriate motivation for caring about both sets of issues is the desire not to oppress others. In order to be able to understand this motivation and to act on it, we need to retain gender as an analytical category.     

Using Family Systems and Birth Order Dynamics as the Basis for a College Career Decision-Making Course

This article shows how family systems, birth order, and sibling dynamics ideas can be used as the foundation of a college career planning course.     

Types of Paradoxical Intervention and Indications/Contraindications for Use in Clinical Practice

A review of theoretical mechanisms underlying paradoxical interventions is undertaken in an effort to classify them into three broad types: redefinition, symptom escalation and crisis induction, and redirection. A list of individual and family patient characteristics and problems particularly applicable to each type of paradoxical intervention is presented along with contraindications for use. Last, implications for training and cautions as to their use are presented.     

A Theory-Based Empirical Classification of Family Problem-Solving Behavior

A method for classifying family interaction behavior is presented that underlies several related studies of variation in families' modes of interpreting and interacting with the social environment. Evidence is presented for the existence of three dimensions of family problem-solving behavior that: (a) are consistent with theory of variation in families' orientations to the environment; (b) are useful for interpreting differences within nonclinical as well as clinical samples of families; and (c) have been shown, within current samples' ranges, to be essentially independent of surface markers of family variation and accumulated skills of family members.     

A Queer Supplement: Reading Spinoza after Grosz

This article critiques Elizabeth Grosz's understanding that queer theory is unproductive insofar as it disrupts the specific identities of gay and lesbian. Reconsidering ideas about desire, the body, and identity that Grosz takes from Gilles Deleuze's work on Friedrich Nietzsche and Baruch Spinoza, this essay argues that, despite her productive reworking of homophobia in terms of “active” and “reactive” forces, Grosz's application of Spinoza is only partial. Focusing on Spinoza's evaluation of bodies, the essay both critiques Grosz's approach to experimental desire and observes Spinozist preoccupations in order to talk about the experimental body. It concludes that if Grosz were to attend more seriously to the Spinozist imperative to analyze a body in terms of its capabilities—that is, its power to be affected—the epistemological basis of her argument would change. It would be difficult to dismiss the plurality and sensibility of a queer body or its challenge to lesbian and gay as the source of a primary identity.     

Two of a kind: Perceptions of own and partner's attachment characteristics

Because it is universally relevant, and because it is formed in infancy, giving it a strong preconscious quality, attachment was chosen for a study of Allport's (1924) construct of social projection. Individuals in 301 dating couples rated themselves and their partners on each of four continuous attachment dimensions (i.e., security, dismissiveness, preoccupation, fearfulness). The individual's own rating on a particular dimension significantly predicted the individual's perception of how the partner rated on the dimension, after controlling for the partner's self-rating on the dimension. Thus people perceived their partners to be more similar to themselves than they really were, demonstrating social projection. In general, the higher the degree of emotional intimacy was, the more social projection was demonstrated.     

Toward Training for Competence in Multicultural Counselor Education

This article reviews the literature on multicultural counselor education. Counselor training models from social-organizational and counseling psychology are reviewed in terms of their focus on sensitizing counselors to cultural difference. It is recommended that counselor training programs place more emphasis on assessment of counselors' cultural values and attitudes, the therapeutic relationship between counselors, and clients' and counselors' application of cultural knowledge in counseling sessions. Este artículo revisa la literatura sobre la educación de consejeros multi-culturales. Se revisan los modelos de entrenamiento de consejeros sacados de la psicología social/organizational y consejerial en términos de su enfoque en la sensibilización de consejeros a las diferencias culturales. Se recomienda que los programas de entrenamiento de consejeros pongan más énfasis en la estimación de los valores y actitudes culturales de los consejeros, la relacion terapéutica entre consejeros y clientes, y la aplicación del conocimiento cultural por el consejero en las sesiones de consejería.     

Outcomes of Systemic/Strategic Team Consultation:

This is the third in a series of reports on a small-sample study of systemic/strategic team consultations. It sheds new light on aspects of the therapeutic alliance in Milan-informed therapy. Ratings of the end-of-session interventions and ratings of the therapist's relationship skills (warmth, active structuring) significantly predicted client improvement at 1-month and 3-year followups. These results dispute the Milan team's idea that an intervention's effects are unpredictable. Also, our findings challenge the way some teams have adopted an impersonal, emotionally unresponsive style under the guise of "neutrality." In view of this and other recent studies, we conclude that systemic/strategic therapists should devote more attention to collaborative and affective qualities of the therapeutic alliance.