Parents’ Understanding of Genetics and Heritability

Parents have the opportunity to educate their children to facilitate behaviours and lifestyle habits that may prevent or delay genetic disease, or mitigate predispositions within the family. We sought to determine parents’ understanding of genetic knowledge and heritability. Using a quantitative survey methodology 108 volunteer participants were surveyed from a convenience sample of all parents/caregivers within the waiting room of a general children’s outpatient clinic. Results indicated that average genetic knowledge levels were fairly high, with the majority of participants scoring 70–80 % correct on knowledge-based questions. Further, scores were found to be positively correlated with education, but inversely correlated with self-perceived knowledge. This finding suggests that participants with less experience tended to overestimate their knowledge. We suggest that gaps in knowledge of genetics and heritability could be improved by using educational interventions such as media campaigns, provision of informational brochures, or changes to current high school curriculum which would increase exposure to genetics and heritability for both parents and children.     

Management and treatment of stalkers: problems, options, and solutions

Legal sanctions alone are often ineffective in preventing stalking because, in the absence of treatment, the fundamental problems driving the stalker remain unresolved. Criminal justice interventions can be problematic because of difficulties in framing anti-stalking legislation and inconsistencies in their application. Civil remedies in the form of restraining orders may be ineffective or counterproductive. Treatment of stalkers involves pharmacotherapy when mental illness is present, but the mainstays of treatment for non-psychotic stalkers are programmes of psychological intervention. These depend on accurate assessment of the risks inherent in stalking and on the identification of psychological deficits, needs, and responsivity factors specific to the individual. Treatment can then be tailored to suit the stalker, thereby enhancing therapeutic efficacy. Developing a framework for identifying the risk factors and shaping the delivery of treatment is crucial. Two service innovations developed specifically to work with stalkers are presented as options to overcome current management deficiencies.     

‘Tell us what we need to know to do this!’ Preparing a path to safe uncertainty in assignment writing on a family therapy foundation course

This article describes a single session aimed at helping participants on a family therapy foundation course to move from a position of anxiety and discomfort about completing a written assignment to a position of safe uncertainty. Evaluation from the perspectives of course participants, course facilitators and assignment markers has shown participants engaging more enthusiastically with the writing of the assignment and expressing less anxiety about the process.     

Early Developmental Screening for Children in Foster Care

Limited data exist about the ideal timing of developmental screening for young children entering foster care, and current best practice recommends screening by 1 month into care to prioritize resources for evaluation. Therefore, we aimed to: (1) compare detection rates for potential developmental delay (DD) at foster care entry before and after implementation of a developmental screen and (2) examine accuracy of developmental screening when performed at entry and 1 month into care. Charts of 124 children <6 years evaluated for an initial foster care health assessment (IFCHA) were reviewed to determine baseline detection rates for potential DD. The Parents’ Evaluation of Developmental Status (PEDS) screening tool was then prospectively administered to 167 children <6 years during their IFCHA to determine detection rates. One month following the IFCHA, caregivers were re-contacted, and the screen was re-administered. Accuracy of the initial PEDS screen was compared to the 1 month PEDS screen by calculation of sensitivity and specificity. At baseline, potential DD was detected in 34 % of children at the IFCHA compared to 46 % after implementation of the PEDS (P = 0.041). Compared to the 1 month screen, the early screen had a sensitivity of 75 % and specificity of 88 %. Use of a developmental screening tool at foster care entry increased detection of potential DD, and the results remained consistent with screening 1 month later. These results support use of a developmental screen for children in foster care and suggest that screening be performed as early as possible to expedite necessary evaluations and referrals.     

New Directions in Sales Leadership Research

The changing environment facing sales organizations is characterized by the dimensions of complexity, collaboration, and accountability. Responding effectively to this dynamic environment requires a focus on specific leadership activities by senior sales leaders, field sales managers, and salespeople. A sales leadership framework is presented and used to identify and discuss specific leadership challenges and important research questions at different sales organization levels. Several new directions for sales leadership research are proposed to improve sales leadership thought and practice.     

Enacting the self: Buddhist and Enactivist approaches to the emergence of the self

In this paper, I take up the problem of the self through bringing together the insights, while correcting some of the shortcomings, of Indo–Tibetan Buddhist and enactivist accounts of the self. I begin with an examination of the Buddhist theory of non-self (anātman) and the rigorously reductionist interpretation of this doctrine developed by the Abhidharma school of Buddhism. After discussing some of the fundamental problems for Buddhist reductionism, I turn to the enactive approach to philosophy of mind and cognitive science. I argue that human beings, as dynamic systems, are characterized by a high degree of self-organizing autonomy. Therefore, human beings are not reducible to the more basic mental and physical events that constitute them. I critically examine Francisco Varela’s enactivist account of the self as virtual and his use of Buddhist ideas in support of this view. I argue, in contrast, that while the self is emergent and constructed, it is not merely virtual. Finally I sketch a Buddhist-enactivist account of the self. I argue for a non-reductionist view of the self as an active, embodied, embedded, self-organizing process—what the Buddhists call ‘I’-making (ahaṃkāra). This emergent process of self-making is grounded in the fundamentally recursive processes that characterize lived experience: autopoiesis at the biological level, temporalization and self-reference at the level of conscious experience, and conceptual and narrative construction at the level of intersubjectivity. In Buddhist terms, I will develop an account of the self as dependently originated and empty, but nevertheless real.