Preliminary Findings from a Qualitative Study of Trauma Survivors in Treatment: Changes in Personal Narratives

This article seeks to document the characteristics and themes of later trauma recovery using a grounded theory analysis of interviews with trauma survivors enrolled in outpatient treatment. Little research exists that speaks to patients’ own accounts of the process of trauma recovery. Such accounts might elucidate how psychotherapy helps survivors make and remake meaning of their lives, their experience of traumatic events, and the resources they might call on in psychotherapy to secure recovery. This study examined narrative material gathered in a series of interviews with trauma survivors (n?=?14) who had been in treatment for an average of 8 months and could be described as in a later phase of the recovery process. Two significant themes emerged from the analysis: (a) greater coherence to the trauma narrative, and (b) the emergence of a more reflective and observational stance with respect to one's history. Implications for trauma-informed therapy are discussed.     

Performance on a measure of category fluency in cognitively impaired elderly

ABSTRACT

Measures of verbal fluency are widely used in the assessment of cognitive functioning of the elderly. However, limited research has evaluated patterns (across specific timed intervals) of performance on tasks of language fluency in different forms of dementia. The current study investigated semantic fluency in 488 elderly individuals (249 with Alzheimer's dementia, 97 Vascular dementia, 97 Mild Cognitive Impairment and 45 cognitively intact) across 15-second intervals in an animal naming task using retrospective chart review. Normal controls produced significantly more exemplars and AD patients produced fewer animal names than the other groups. After the first 15- second time interval, the demented groups produced significantly fewer exemplars than the non-demented. At the end of 30 seconds it was possible to differentiate normal aging from MCI who no longer differed from the VaD group. Overall, it appears that the greatest and most clinically meaningful differences between the diagnostic groups were detected in the first three 15-second intervals. The present findings support the use of time intervals and total scores on tasks of verbal fluency in clinical settings and for research purposes.     

DOUBLE-VOICE IN S. Y. AGNON'S “HANIDAḤ”: OVERTURES TO A DEVELOPING DISCOURSE

It is widely acknowledged that S.Y. Agnon's story, “Hanida?” (1919), represents a significant artistic transition for the author. Beyond the transitional and inaugural aspects of the story's themes and structure, I wish to consider how its discursive style itself constitutes a significant development in Agnon's literary work. Particular qualities in the story's narrative discourse, more so than in his previous work, anticipate Agnon's later literary achievements. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of discourse in the novel, I will also seek to demonstrate how the story's dialogic, polyphonic qualities, not only anticipate these later works, but suggest some new hermeneutic avenues to reading Agnon.     

Extreme Versatility Versus Paucity of Play Interest

Abstract

Reorganisation of the public school system. By Frank Forest Bunker. Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1916, No. 8. 186 pages. Reviewed By A. A. Douglass

Girls of the Morning-Glory Camp Fire. By Isabel Hornibrook. Boston, Lothrop, Lee and Shepard Co., 1916. 321 p. Reviewed By Amy E. Tanner

Education and social progress. By Alexander Morgan. New York, Longmans, Green, 1916. 252 p.

American university progress and college reform relative to school and society. By James H. Baker. New York, Longmans. Green, 1916. 189 p.

República Oriental del Uruguay; Inspección Nacional de Instrucción Primaria. Memoria correspondiente a los años 1911 a 1914, inclusives, presentada a la Dirección General de Instrucción Primaria y al Ministerio de Instrucción Pública, por el Doctor Abel J. Pérez, Inspector Nacional. Montevideo, Barreiro, 1915. 570 p.

Human interest composition subjects. By George F. Paul. Syracuse, C. W. Bardeen (c. 1916). 162 p.

Plant anatomy, from the standpoint of the development and functions of the tissues; handbook of micro-technic. By William Chase Stevens. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston's Son &; Co. (c. 1916). 3d ed. rev. and enl. 399 p.

The principles of health control. By Francis M. Walters. Boston, D. C. Heath &; Co. (c. 1916). 476 p.

The essentials of effective gesture, for students of public speaking. By Joseph A. Mosher. New York, Macmillan, 1916. 188 p.

Oral English; directions and exercises for planning and delivering the common kinds of talks, together with guidance for debating and parliamentary practice. By John M. Brewer. Boston, Ginn (c. 1916). 396 p.

Report of the Commissioner of Education for the year ended June 30, 1915. Volume 1. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1915. 780 p.

Publications of the Survey Committee of the Cleveland Foundation, Cleveland, Ohio, 1916.

Boys and girls in commercial work. By Bertha M. Stevens. 181 p.

Schools and classes for exceptional children. By David Mitchell. 122 p.

Measuring the work of the public schools. By Charles Hubbard Judd. 290 p.

Department store occupations. By Iris Prouty O'Leary. 127 p.

The building trades. By Frank L. Shaw. 107 p.

Railroad and street transportation. By Ralph D. Fleming. 76 p.

Digest of state laws relating to public education, in force January 1, 1915. Compiled by William R. Hood, with the assistance of Stephen B. Weeks and A. Sidney Ford. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Education, Bulletin, 1915, No. 47. Washington, Govt. Printing Office, 1916. 987 p.

The Young and Field literary readers. Book Two. By Ella Flagg Young and Walter Taylor Field. Boston, Ginn (c. 1916). 208 p.

The British Isles. Cambridge geographical readers, III. Cambridge, University Press, 1915. 210 p.

Solid geometry. By William Betz and Harrison E. Webb. With the editorial coöperation of Percey F. Smith. Boston, Ginn (c. 1916). 504 p.

Present day geography. By Mrs. R. E. Brown. Syracuse, C. W. Bardeen (c. 1916). 68 p.

America the wonderland; a patriotic festival. New York, Ethical Culture School (c. 1915). 55 p.

The Germania of Tacitus. Edited by Duane Reed Stuart. New York, Macmillan, 1916. 139 p.

National Education Association yearbook and list of active members, revised to December 31, 1915. N. E. A. Bulletin, Feb., 1916, vol. 4, no. 4. 375 p.

National Education Association of the United States. Journal of proceedings and addresses of the fifty-third annual meeting and international congress on education held at Oakland, California, August 16-27, 1915. Secretary office, Ann Arbor, Mich., published by the Association, 1915. 1193 p.     

Coding for Short-Term Memory as a Function of Age

Twenty-one young (), 21 middle-aged (), and 21 old () female volunteers viewed letter sequences of 12 letters each and were required to recall the letters in exactly the same order as they saw them. In half of the sequences the letters could not be coded into meaningful units, while in the other half the letters could be chunked into three complete four-letter words. The findings indicated that the age groups did not differ from each other in the low-code condition, but that with the high-code sequences the old subjects performed significantly more poorly than either the young or middle-aged subjects. These findings suggest an age-related deficit in the coding of sequentially ordered material.     

The Development of Strategic Processing of Ambiguous Words: Riddles Versus Neutral Context

Children in Grades 4 and 6 read isolated target words following the auditory presentation of an ambiguous word (e.g., deck). The ambiguous word occurred as the last word in either a neutral sentence (e.g., “There is the deck”) or as the last word in a riddle (“Why couldn't anybody play poker on the ark? Because Noah sat on the deck). Related target words were consistent with either the dominant meaning (e.g., porch) or the subordinate meaning (cards) of the ambiguous word. In the neutral context, Grade 4 children showed equivalent facilitation for dominant and subordinate targets relative to unrelated target words; Grade 6 children showed facilitation only for the dominant targets. In the riddle context, both groups of children showed equivalent facilitation for the two types of related targets. The neutral context results supported the hypothesis that the two bases of context effects—automatic lexical access and selective access—develop at different rates (Simpson &; Foster, 1986). The results obtained from the riddles suggest that the selective process is strategic (Ceci, 1989).     

Bibliography of Walter Burkert

Geoffrey Hartman (ed.), Bitburg in Moral and Political Perspective. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1986.

Haneda Nobuo (translator) December Fan. The Buddhist Essays of Manshi Kiyozawa. Kyoto, Higashi Honganji Publication Department, 1984, 98 pp.