The name game: acceptability,bonus information and group size

Our previous research demonstrated the effectiveness of the name game when learning the names of group members. In three experiments we conclude our study of the name game by demonstrating that it is very acceptable to participants and successful with larger groups. Experiment 1 compared the simple and elaborate name games. In the latter, participants learned a word provided by each person in addition to their full name. This ‘bonus’ information was very well learned without detriment to the name learning. Participants rated both versions of the name game as a good use of time and worth playing again although the elaborate name game was rated as more fun. Experiments 2 and 3 used the name game with groups of around 25, finding very good recall of full names. The role of retrieval in the effectiveness of the name game was again demonstrated to be essential. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Issues of Language and Culture in Family Therapy Training

Recent census data indicate continued growth in immigration trends as American society becomes increasingly diversified. Marriage and family therapy (MFT) training programs are also experiencing a growth in the number of immigrant students. As such, issues of language and culture play a progressively significant role in the MFT training process. The purpose of this study was to examine client, trainee, and supervisor feedback concerning the experience of therapy with non-native English-speaking trainees. Several themes emerged from the written and oral responses of participants. Implications for training and future directions for research are discussed.     

The impact of disclosure of HIV on the index patient's self-defined family

For most people facing a serious illness, the family is regarded as the primary source of support. Research suggests that patterns of support may differ for people infected with HIV. Access to support normally requires disclosure of one's health problem to others. This study examined the impact of disclosure of HIV on the index patient's self-defined family. Most participants were gay men attending a London HIV clinic. Both they and the care-givers whom they identified to the researchers were interviewed. The results of this qualitative study highlight the fact that many gay men with HIV do not regard their biological family as their primary social support system. Friends and partners were commonly cited as primary care-givers. Most of those interviewed who provided support to the infected individual clearly remembered the disclosure event. They also had a number of emotional reactions, over time, to disclosure. We argue that adjustment to illness among care-givers is a complex two-way, reciprocal process whereby the infected individual and care-giver take subtle cues from one another in terms of how they appear to one another to cope. Some emotionally painful feelings may be experienced but not openly expressed. Therapists who work with families affected by illness should first learn from the patient who he or she defines as 'family'. They should also enquire about the impact of disclosure of illness on all care-givers as well as subsequent reactions and unexpressed feelings associated with this.     

Relations Between Emotion Regulation, Parenting, and Psychopathology in Young Maltreated Children in Out of Home Care

Young maltreated children, birth to three years, represent the age group with the highest rates of maltreatment in the United States (ACYF 2007). There are few studies to date that have investigated early childhood maltreatment and its effects on emotion regulatory processes and psychopathology. In response, the current investigation uses a dyadic assessment procedure to examine the relationship between parenting, emotion regulation, and symptoms of psychopathology among maltreating and non-maltreating parent–child interactions. The participants in this study were 123 children (66 maltreated and 57 nonmaltreated) from ages 1–3. Child and parent affect and child effortful control were observed during a parent–child interaction task. Symptoms of psychopathology were measured using the Child Behavior Checklist. The maltreated children exhibited more anger, more internalizing symptomatology, and less positive affect compared to non-maltreated children. Among maltreated children, emotion dysregulation was associated with internalizing symptomatology. Moreover, these data reveal parental positive affect was associated with lower child internalizing symptomatology and parental anger was associated with higher child internalizing symptomatology in the entire sample. This investigation offers evidence that emotion dysregulation subsequent to poor dyadic interactions is associated with early child maltreatment. These data suggest that maltreated children experience difficulties in emotion regulation which may be related to their higher levels of behavioral symptomatology.     

Expanding the Mediational Model of the Effects of Health-Related Social Control

Tucker, Orlando, Elliott, and Klein (2006 ) proposed that the associations between social control attempts and health behaviors are mediated by affects. The evidence is mixed regarding whether affects fully mediate these associations. In a sample of 317 college students involved in heterosexual dating relationships, we tested Tucker's mediational model and an expanded mediational model that incorporated the action readiness component of emotions (motivation to change and reactance). Full mediation of the associations between (a) positive social control and health behavior change; and (b) negative social control and hiding unhealthy behavior were found only when motivation to change and reactance were included in the model. Unexpectedly, reactance and negative social control exerted direct effects on health behavior change.     

Meaning(fullness) Without Metaphysics: Another Look at Hume’s “Meaning Empiricism”

Although Hume has no developed semantic theory, in the heyday of analytic philosophy he was criticized for his “meaning empiricism,” which supposedly committed him to a private world of ideas, led him to champion a genetic account of meaning instead of an analytic one, and confused “impressions” with “perceptions of an objective realm.” But another look at Hume’s “meaning empiricism” reveals that his criterion for cognitive content, the cornerstone both of his resolutely anti-metaphysical stance and his naturalistic “science of human nature,” provides the basis for a successful response to his critics. Central to his program for reforming philosophy, Hume’s use of the criterion has two distinct aspects: a critical or negative aspect, which assesses the content of the central notions of metaphysical theories to demonstrate their unintelligibility; and a constructive or positive aspect, which accurately determines the cognitive content of terms and ideas.