The Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale: Analysis of Reliability and Validity1

Development of the Iowa Infant Feeding Attitude Scale (IIFAS) is described. In Study 1, a set of 17 items was selected on the basis of responses by 125 postpartum women. Analyses of the reliability and validity were then conducted. In Study 2, these analyses were replicated using data from an independent sample of 130 postpartum women. Study 3 involved an analysis of the ability of scores on the IIFAS to predict duration of breast-feeding among a sample of 725 women who had initiated that method of feeding their babies while in the hospital. Limitations of this research and possible future uses of the IIFAS in studies addressing the determinants and consequences of infant-feeding attitudes are discussed.     

Black Churches as Therapeutic Groups

This article examines how Black churches serve as therapeutic groups and thus provide a source of psychological support to African American communities. Group theory is used as a conceptual framework to discuss the findings from 7 focus groups conducted in Black churches in the New York metropolitan area. Implications for counselors working with clients involved in the Black religious tradition are discussed.     

Balancing acts: Rational agency and efficacious action

In this paper I try to problematize our conception of rational agency and to suggest that this conception is a matter of some practical and political significance. This is done on the one hand by indicating why more attention should be paid to the role of practical know‐how, or skill, in the application of general laws or principles to particular cases, and on the other by looking to a Chinese model of efficacious action, where much attention is paid to cultivating the skills required to make the transition from general to particular, albeit at the expense of recognizing the significance of what we would think of as scientific understanding.     

Intergenerational Effects of Incest on Parenting: Skills,Abilities, and Attitudes

Women's perceptions of generational influences of incest on their skills, abilities, and attitudes toward parenting their own children were investigated. Overarching themes that emerged were classified as unbalanced development, disconnected lives, and disowned dramas. Implications for clinical intervention, parent training, and future research are discussed.     

Profiles of Counseling Pioneers: A Visit With Kathleen and Gilbert Wrenn

The authors have had the honor of knowing Gilbert and Kathleen Wrenn for 20 years; this story is about them. As Gilbert stated, “I am not a lone star, but part of a constellation… ”(Wachowiak & Aubrey, 1976, p. 76). The authors are privileged to know that for Gilbert, Kathleen (his partner of 72 years in 1996) is the center of that constellation. This article briefly captures pieces of the journey of 72+ years, on which Gilbert and Kathleen, each at 96 years of age, are continuing to travel together.     

Reminiscence Functions Across Adulthood: A Replication and Extension

Reminiscence, a naturally occurring process of recalling personally experienced events from our past, has been investigated primarily from a clinical, gerontological perspective. A total of 268 participants (100 male, 168 female) ranging in age from 17 to 88 years (M age = 40.02, SD = 20.32) completed the Reminiscence Functions Scale (RFS), the Memorial University of Newfoundland Scale of Happiness (MUNSH), and a single-item question assessing the perceived importance of shared family memories. Results indicated neither age nor gender differences on the total RFS score, indicating that men and women of all ages reminisce equally frequently. However, there were gender and age differences on specific dimensions of reminiscence. Specifically, women scored higher on the RFS factor of Identity (Idn) and lower on Bitterness Revival (BiR). Younger adults tended to score higher on the RFS factors of Boredom Reduction (BoR), BiR, Problem-Solving (PS), and Idn compared to older adults. In contrast, older adults tended to score higher on the RFS factors of Teach/Inform (T/I) and Death Preparation (DP). BoR, BiR, and PS correlated negatively with happiness, whereas Conversation (C) and T/I correlated positively with happiness. Finally, T/I, Intimacy Maintenance (IM), Idn, and C all correlated positively with the measure of the perceived importance of shared family memories. The results replicate earlier work with the RFS and suggest that examining reminiscence from a contextual, lifespan perspective is an important research area.     

The Prophylactic Mastectomy Dilemma: A Support Group for Women at High Genetic Risk for Breast Cancer

The goal of this pilot study was to test the usefulness of a six session psychoeducational support group for women at high genetic risk for breast cancer who were considering prophylactic mastectomy. The themes of the group sessions included overestimation of and anxiety about risk; desire for hard data; the emotional impact of watching a mother die of breast cancer; concerns about spouse reactions; self- and body image; the decision-making process; and confusion over whom to trust in decision making. Both the participants and the multidisciplinary leaders concluded that as a supplement to individual counseling, a support group is a beneficial and cost-effective treatment modality. Recommendations for the optimal format for such a group are described.     

What It Means to Be a Man: Aging and Anxiety in Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and That Time

One of the great writers of Twentieth-century doubt, Samuel Beckett is perhaps best known for endowing his protagonists with some of the more classic symptoms of anxiety and depression. The result is an extraordinary corpus that unfolds how the intricacies and excesses of anxiety affect the behavior of men and women involved in intimate relationships, and how that behavior is exhibited in their aging years. While this discussion of Krapp's Last Tape (1960) and That Time (1976) will explore anxiety from a specifically male point of view, the works themselves compel various responses from readers of both sexes. Both pieces also may be of interest to those concerned with the rethinking of sexual roles in intimate relationships in light of an individual's response to the physical and emotional aspects of aging.     

Reframing the question of forbidden knowledge for modern science

In this paper I use the concept of forbidden knowledge to explore questions about putting limits on science. Science has generally been understood to seek and produce objective truth, and this understanding of science has grounded its claim to freedom of inquiry. What happens to decision making about science when this claim to objective, disinterested truth is rejected? There are two changes that must be made to update the idea of forbidden knowledge for modern science. The first is to shift from presuming that decisions to constrain or even forbid knowledge can be made from a position of omniscience (perfect knowledge) to recognizing that such decisions made by human beings are made from a position of limited or partial knowledge. The second is to reject the idea that knowledge is objective and disinterested and accept that knowledge (even scientific knowledge) is interested. In particular, choices about what knowledge gets created are normative, value choices. When these two changes are made to the idea of forbidden knowledge, questions about limiting or forbidding lines of inquiry are shown to distract attention from the more important matters of who makes and how decisions are made about what knowledge is produced. Much more attention should be focused on choosing directions in science, and as this is done, the matter of whether constraints should be placed on science will fall into place.