The performance of school integration according to the perception of specialist teachers in therapeutic pedagogy

The main purpose of this article is to analyse the perception that specialist teachers in therapeutic pedagogy have of the integration of students with specific needs for educational support. Diverse groups of students are differentiated. More specifically, it aims to know how teachers perceive students' performance and participation, and also certain attitudes towards the students (acceptance, involvement of fellow students…). Teachers' opinions of various measures to improve integration are also analysed as are the diverse preferred means of schooling and support. For this purpose, a 114-item Lickert-type questionnaire, with 8 additional personal identification items, was used. The sample comprised 106 specialist teachers who work in Asturias, out of an entire sample of 406. The results reveal that specialist teachers do not perceive the same attitudes in the different groups studied. Students with behaviour disorders are the most rejected and the ones from whom teachers can expect the least. The group of ethnic minorities needs to improve family involvement. The specialists demand more human and physical resources and most of them think that ordinary centres provide the most suitable form of schooling.     

Analysis of the indicators of pathological Internet use in Spanish university students

Addiction to and problematic use of the Internet are relatively recent phenomena whose scope, characteristics and correlates have begun to receive increasing attention by clinicians and researchers alike. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between time spent connected to the Internet and the variables that indicate a pathological and addictive use of this technological resource. The sample was comprised of 1,301 university students of both sexes (927 women and 374 men), with ages ranging from 18 to 30 years old. The results showed that, although most people use the Internet appropriately, users who invest higher quantities of time in the Internet more frequently exhibit connection behavior that is controlled through negative reinforcement, a high degree of arousal when online, loss of control over connection behavior, changes in health-related habits, and interference in the social, family, academic, or work spheres. These findings suggest that excessive Internet use is associated with the onset of several problems that are similar to those associated with other behavioral and technological addictions.     

Lenin and the crisis of Russian Marxism

This article attempts to understand the philosophical significance of Lenin’s work, Materialism and Empiriocriticism (1909), by putting it in the historical perspective and context of the theoretical debates of the time. The author argues that Lenin’s decision to engage in philosophical discussion was motivated by the need to respond to the growing struggles of Marxism, and specifically to the dangerous consequences of positivism that spread to Russia, which thereby led to a crisis in theory and political practice. Lenin’s work is the first philosophical assault on positivism, and most notably on its specific form, Machism, which he criticizes from the position of dialectical materialism. Recognizing the damaging effects of the positivistic position for Marxism, Lenin attacks Alexander Bogdanov’s Empiriomonism as a form of Machism which undermines the materialistic foundation of Marxist philosophy.     

Gender/ed identities: an overview of our current work as child psychotherapists in the Gender Identity Development Service

Abstract

This paper is adapted from a presentation first given at the 2017 Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP) Conference. We hope to give a feel of our work as psychoanalytic child psychotherapists working in a Tier 4 national assessment service for gender variant children and connect with our colleagues working therapeutically with these families in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and other settings. Gender variance does not have a single cause, or straightforward developmental pathway; rather it is a complex interplay of multiple factors, akin to sexuality in the diverse manifestations and ‘tributaries’ taken. This paper is given as a plea for complexity, to counter the current intense focus on gender identity and the consequent reductionism this can lead to. To this end, three case studies from the clinic, taken from Under Five, Latency and Adolescent phases of development, are explored. The complexity of the cases is then discussed, followed by parallel issues of development, divergence and difference. These three ‘average’ cases from the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) serve to demonstrate the need for child psychotherapy as part of multi-disciplinary thinking about gender variance and how attention must be maintained to each unique story and process of identity development; as well as our clinical task to establish and encourage depressive functioning and secondary processes where possible.     

Adult Attachment,Differentiation of Self,and Relationship Satisfaction in Lesbians and Gay Men

We examined adult attachment styles, differentiation of self, and relationship satisfaction in a sample of 298 Italian lesbians (48%) and gay men (52%), all of whom were ages 19–71 years (M?=?36.1; SD?=?11.8) and in a couple relationship for at least six months. Participants were recruited via the Internet and completed a web-based survey. We tested the hypotheses that attachment insecurity and differentiation of self would predict relationship satisfaction, as well as that differentiation of self would mediate the relationship between adult attachment and relationship satisfaction. Results supported the hypotheses, thus indicating that attachment insecurity and differentiation of self were correlated with and predicted relationship satisfaction. Furthermore, results supported the hypothesized mediating role of differentiation of self. Finally, results indicated that younger participants, lesbians, and participants in civil unions reported higher levels of relationship satisfaction. Implications for counselors and therapists working with LG populations are discussed.

     

“Owning” the personal past: Adolescents’ and adults’ autobiographical narratives and ratings of memories of recent and distant events

Adults and adolescents are characterised as having different perspectives on their personal or autobiographical memories. Adults are recognised as having vivid recollections of past events and as appreciating the meaning and significance of their autobiographical memories. In development, these qualities are noted as absent as late as adolescence. To evaluate the assumption of developmental differences, we directly compared autobiographical memories of adults and adolescents drawn from each of several periods in the past, using measures of narrative quality (coded independently) and participants’ own subjective ratings of their memories. Adults’ narratives of events from the previous year and for the “most significant” event of their lives were coded as more thematically coherent relative to those of adolescents’; the groups did not differ on thematic coherence of narratives of early-life events (ages 1–5 and 6–10 years). The ratings that adults and adolescents provided of their autobiographical memories were similar overall; differences were more apparent for early-life events than for more recent events and indicated stronger mnemonic experiences among adolescents than adults. The pattern of findings suggests that whereas adults have more sophisticated narrative tools for describing the significance of events and their relation to the corpus of autobiographical memories, adolescents as well as adults have vivid recollective experiences as well as personal and subjective perspective on the events of their lives and their memories thereof.