The Group as a Training Device and Treatment Method in a Private Pyschiatric Hospital

Clinical and research evidence indicates that the recently bereaved represent a large at-risk population. Bereavement groups constitute a particularly efficient preventive intervention for this high-risk population and thus represent excellent preventive mental health practice. In this paper, we report specifically on the technical and thematic considerations of four bereavement groups that met weekly for eight weeks. Group members were recruited from a consecutive series of individuals who had lost a spouse to cancer and who were undergoing normal grief and mourning. We found that we were able to be most technically helpful to the groups by being aware of the issues and themes that preoccupy bereaved spouses and by facilitating the emergence and discussion of these themes in the group setting. Many members, for example, struggled with complex questions of growth, identity, and responsibility for the future, questions that have not often been identified in discussions on bereavement groups as being of particular therapeutic import.     

Deleuze and Naturalism

Abstract

Against the tendency to regard Deleuze as a materialist and a naturalistic thinker, I argue that his core philosophical writings involve commitments that are incompatible with contemporary scientific naturalism. He defends different versions of a distinction between philosophy and natural science that is inconsistent with methodological naturalism and with the scientific image of the world as a single causally interconnected system. He defends the existence of a virtual realm of entities that is irreconcilable with ontological naturalism. The difficulty of reconciling Deleuze’s philosophy with ontological naturalism is especially apparent in his recurrent conception of pure events that are irreducible to their incarnation in bodies and states of affairs. In the last section of this essay, I canvass some of the ways in which Deleuze’s thought might be reconciled with a more liberal, pluralist and ethical naturalism that he identified in an early essay on Lucretius.     

The modified star graph and the petal diagram: two new visual aids for discrete alternative multicriteria decision making

Many studies have looked into the provisions of visual aids to multicriteria decision making. However, most of them have separated the display of alternative profiles and criteria weight information into two displays. This makes the analysis of the relationship between the criteria and alternatives and the effect of changing the criteria weights on the decision difficult. In this study, displays that can incorporate the display of both alternative profiles and criteria weight information for discrete alternative multicriteria decision-making problems are examined. The simple additive model is the multicriteria analysis method used. The result is two new visual aids for representing data of multicriteria decision-making problems, the modified star graph and the petal diagram. This paper discusses the two displays and compares their strengths and weaknesses. The results of a preliminary test conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the displays are also included. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The devil is in the details: Judgments of responsibility and absenteeism from work

This paper presents and tests a model suggesting that individual episodes of absenteeism, and the circumstances surrounding these events, are an important avenue for research and can help us understand the outcomes related to this behaviour. Through an experimental design using vignettes describing the absence of a co‐worker, this paper tests how reason for absence and context (i.e., work demands related to deadlines) surrounding an episode influences judgments of responsibility, emotional reactions, and behavioural intentions. The findings indicate that reasons for absence and context are important determinants of the reactions of others following an absence episode.     

It takes two: the interpersonal nature of empathic accuracy

Although current theories suggest that affective empathy (perceivers' experience of social targets' emotions) should contribute to empathic accuracy (perceivers' ability to accurately assess targets' emotions), extant research has failed to consistently demonstrate a correspondence between them. We reasoned that prior null findings may be attributable to a failure to account for the fundamentally interpersonal nature of empathy, and tested the prediction that empathic accuracy may depend on both targets' tendency to express emotion and perceivers' tendency to empathically share that emotion. Using a continuous affect-rating paradigm, we found that perceivers' trait affective empathy was unrelated to empathic accuracy unless targets' trait expressivity was taken into account: Perceivers' trait affective empathy predicted accuracy only for expressive targets. These data suggest that perceivers' self-reported affective empathy can indeed predict their empathic accuracy, but only when targets' expressivity allows their thoughts and feelings to be read.     

Testing the feasibility of developmental asset measures on college students to guide health promotion efforts

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the reliability and validity of eight developmental asset measures among a stratified, random sample (N = 540) of college students to guide health promotion efforts. The sample was randomly split to produce exploratory and confirmatory samples for factor analysis using principal axis factoring and varimax rotation and structural equation modeling techniques. Items were retained on factors if they had high loadings greater than .40 and were not complex. Concurrent validity was examined among substance use (including alcohol and tobacco) and sexual risk-taking variables. Exploratory and confirmatory samples did not differ on demographics. Parallel analysis confirmed the eight theorized constructs. Exploratory factor loadings were greater than .40. Concurrently, validity analyses were in the predicted direction. Cronbach alphas were .70 or greater with the exception of the Future Aspirations asset. Preliminary analyses support the reliability and validity of measuring developmental assets among emerging adults. Implications and potential uses are discussed.