The self-narrative and acute psychosis

The aim of this study was to apply the narrative approach in analyzing family therapy meetings in cases of acute psychosis. The self-narrative is essential in acute psychosis since it is either collapsed or not coherent enough. The results indicate that it is important to create concrete practices that produce stories concerning the patient in relation to others. The self-narrative must be re-authored by the patient even though it is socially constructed. This is achieved by creating multiple perspectives of self-narratives in so-called therapy meetings with the patient, family members, and staff members representing different professionals.     

“Not with me you don't”: A story of narrative practice and dissociative disorder

This paper discusses issues relating to therapeutic practice based upon the narrative metaphor. A case of someone suffering the effects of Dissociative Identity disorder is used to illustrate the difficulties that clients can experience with the “expert” knowledge conception of therapy. The value of the “respectful” and “non-expert” emphasis of Narrative Practice emerges even when the therapist believes that he or she lacks expertise in the client's apparent “condition.” Three themes emanating from the case form the basis for the discussion: the client's experience of being recruited into accepting the diagnostic label of Dissociative Identity Disorder; the effects of being forced to accept a contract to eliminate self-abusive behaviour; and the therapist's dealing with a gun in the therapy room.     

The recovering female alcoholic: A family affair

Supported by a review of relevant literature and a case study, the author argues that family therapy intervention enhances the likelihood of a female alcoholic's positive prognosis. With a basis in systems theory, family therapy views the family as a system and, hence, perceives the alcoholism as a symptom of that family. A profile of the female alcoholic, how her drinking affects her family, and the role that family therapy plays in the recovery process are examined.     

Toward culturally sensitive intervention with arab families in Israel

Over the past three decades, Arab society in Israel has been undergoing processes of transition. These processes are manifested by changes in the economy, education, the status of women, family structure, and by socio-cultural changes and transformations in patterns of coping with social problems. There is a serious lack of empirical research on the implications of this process for the value systems of Arab society and families in Israel and a dearth of relevant intervention-oriented literature. This article outlines the basic cultural values in the Arab society in Israel in an attempt to illuminate the relevance of these values for family structure and for direct interventions with Arab families in Israel.     

Art in existential psychotherapy with couples and families

The authors describe and outline how art can be used in existential psychotherapy to help a couple or family uncover, discover, and make use of the meanings and meaning potentials to be found in marital and family life. In existential psychotherapy with couples and families, art can be used to help the members of the relationship notice meaning potentials in the future, honor meaning potentials that have been actualized and deposited in the past, and discover new ways to actualize meaning potentials in the here and now.     

Dissociating the generation stage in implicit and explicit memory tests: Incidental production can differ from strategic access

An assumption of the generate/recognize model of direct and indirect memory is that the generation stage is identical on explicit and implicit tests. Two experiments were conducted to examine the generation stage by requiring subjects to write down every word-stem solution they could generate on either an implicit test, a cued-recall test, or a generate/recognize test. In Experiment 1, the subjects studied words and anagrams; target generation was not significantly different on the three tests. However, in Experiment 2, the subjects studied the target words with a context word, and saw either thesame ordifferent context with the test stem. Now the generation stages dissociated, such that the context manipulation had no significant effect on the implicit test, but on the cued-recall test, more targets were generated with the same context words than were generated with different context words. The results argue against the claim that dissociations between implicit and explicit tests are due only to the addition of recognition processes on the explicit test, because the generation processes themselves can be dissociated.     

The Fire Chief microworld generating program: An illustration of computer-simulated microworlds as an experimental paradigm for studying complex decision-making behavior

Computer-simulated microworlds bridge the gap between the complexity of field investigations and the rigor of laboratory studies. The purpose of this paper is to draw attention to the major methodological issues involved in developing and using computer-simulated microworlds for the psychological study of complex decision-making behavior. These issues comprise flexibility and generality in the microworlds that can be created, adequate psychological validity, automatic trial administration and data logging, capacity to interface simulations of psychological processes, and adequate testing and documentation. Each of these issues is illustrated by indicating how it has been addressed in Fire Chief, a microworld generating program specifically designed for creating realistic, yet controllable, decision-making task environments in the psychology laboratory. Fire Chief (Omodei & Wearing, 1993a) is introduced as both fully portable to other research teams and suitable for use in many different contexts requiring a complex task situation.     

Individual differences in preschoolers' physiological and verbal responses to videotaped angry interactions

Individual differences in selection of intensity of angry interactions and physiological and self-reported responses to interadult anger were examined in preschoolers (N=34). Children watched two videotaped angry interactions between adults, while their heart rates and skin conductance responses and levels were monitored; then they were interviewed. Before the second argument, children were given the perceived choice of watching an intense or mild angry exchange. Individual differences in responding to the angry interactions were found. Both (a) children with relatively higher externalizing behavior problems and (b) boys who chose to watch intense anger had lower tonic heart rates; 80% of boys with externalizing problems chose to watch intense anger. Further, children who chose to watch intense anger (a) exhibited lower declines in heart rates upon the presentation of the argument, (b) perceived the actors as more angry, and (c) reported lower amounts of distress during the argument than those who chose mild anger.     

An observation of gender-specific teacher behavior in the ESL classroom

For the most part, gender-differentiated teacher behavior in English as a Second Language classrooms in the United States has not been examined. Does the preference for male students demonstrated by both male and female teachers in American classrooms (Sadker et. al., 1992) also occur in ESL classrooms? If so, are ESL teachers aware they show such bias? To find out, the author observed and evaluated, both quantitatively and qualitatively, classroom interactions of four ESL teachers. The teachers, two males and two females, were white, American-born, and had finished graduate studies. All but one of the ESL teachers observed showed remarkable equality in their classroom interactions with the genders. The results are discussed, and future research directions proposed.