Direction of Fit and Normative Functionalism

Philosophical Studies -     

Race,racism and systemic supervision

The idea of ‘race’ and the social reality of racism have gained increasing attention in family and systemic psychotherapy. This article seeks to extend this attention by focusing upon the influence of race and racism in the supervision of family and systemic psychotherapy. The way in which the idea of race might be conceptualized is discussed, before looking at how race and racism have been addressed in the field. Attention is then turned to systemic supervision, focusing upon the ideas generated about how supervisors might position themselves in relation to these issues, the implications this might have for the supervisory relationship and the relationships between supervisees and client families. It is proposed that by virtue of the supervisor's position of power over the supervisee, it is the supervisor's responsibility to initiate conversations about race and racism. A proposal for this task is outlined, which recognizes that these conversations are ongoing. A concluding assertion is made that such conversations should form part of the evaluative process for trainee supervisors.     

Does participation in research lead to changes in attitudes among clinicians? Report on a survey of those involved in a French practice research network

Background/Objective: With increasing awareness of some of the limitations of randomised controlled trials as the ‘gold standard’ of psychotherapy evaluation, researchers at the start of the twenty‐first century have focused on a number of new priorities: developing studies in natural conditions; investigating the psychotherapeutic process to better understand the conditions, causes and mechanisms of change; and reducing the gap between clinicians and researchers. Can these three interrelated objectives be combined? Method: A French psychotherapy practice‐based research network (PRN) is used as a field of research for these issues. A survey was used to investigate the conditions that encouraged the clinicians to participate in the PRN study within the context of clinicians’ general opposition to research. Results: Several elements emerged as the key to clinicians’ positive involvement in research: the methodology implemented (intensive case studies during one year); the choice of measures; the constant attention to the practicalities and the potential contribution of studies to clinical practice; the organisation of work in peer groups; the training methods; the use of new information technologies and the sense of participation in a project that would support the profession. Implications: These elements are briefly discussed in relation to the question of how best to encourage clinicians to engage with research.     

“Not Thinking” Helps Reasoning

Despite previous research suggesting that participants’ negative and positive emotions can impair and facilitate reasoning performance, a recent study proposes that the emotional content of the mood induction materials may not be crucial in eliciting these phenomena—deontic selection task performance is as poor when these materials are neutral as when they are negative (Perham and Oaksford 2006). We extend this finding to syllogistic reasoning performance. Participants in the mood induction conditions (negative and neutral) verbally described their experiences in relation to twenty negative or neutral words whereas participants in the control condition received no such mood induction. Subsequent syllogistic reasoning performance was significantly poorer for both mood induction conditions yet only those in the negative mood induction condition showed a significant increase in anxiety. Results imply that the key mechanism involved in the impairment derives from the production of irrelevant thoughts and that these need not be linked to a positive or negative mood, thus “not thinking” may actually help the reasoning process.     

Creating research collaboration among the global community of sales scholars: key takeaways from the 2013 AMA faculty consortium

Within the contemporary business milieu, the discipline of selling and sales management has taken on a more prominent role in recent years. Myriad factors have contributed to the rise of interest in sales including globalization, technology, more sophisticated analytical approaches and new opportunities for co-creation of value between organizations and their customers. Over the past three decades, seven faculty consortia in sales have served as milestones to document the progress of the field, particularly the evolution of academic research. This article provides key takeaways from the most recent American Marketing Association (AMA) Faculty Consortium in Selling and Sales Management, which had the overarching goal of fostering new opportunities for building intercontinental research teams to effectively address the substantive issues for the future of the field.