Adlerian “Encouragement” and the Therapeutic Process of Solution‐Focused Brief Therapy

The authors discuss the overlooked similarities between the therapeutic process of solution‐focused brief therapy (SFBT) and the Adlerian process of therapeutic encouragement. SFBT and Adlerian therapy share common perspectives, albeit using different nomenclature, on maladjustment, the client‐counselor relationship, and methods of facilitating change. The authors also present conclusions regarding the continuing relevance of Adlerian therapy for contemporary counseling practice.     

Spirituality and Drugs Education: A study in parent/child communication

Drugs education in the UK is in its infancy. Government strategies have highlighted parents as an important aspect of children's drugs education. This paper reports on research that has explored parents' and children's perception of drug issues as well as the experience of communication about drugs within the family. The research has drawn on a number of humanistic theoretical perspectives but rests principally upon George Kelly's Personal Construct Psychology. Data has been collected using focus group discussions with parents and children from 13-15 years old, and a key phase of this work is the use of the self-characterization to facilitate communication between parents and children about drugs and their related issues. The results of the study have highlighted the need for young people to establish a sense of self and to fulfil a meaningful life, which has been identified as being a spiritual need. This paper examines these findings from a range of literature on spirituality and explores spirituality from a Kellyan perspective and develops some clear implications for further lines of research in this area.     

Mechanistic versus phenomenal embodiment: Can robot embodiment lead to strong AI?

Embodiment has become the raison d’etre for much of the new ‘cognitive robotics’. It fills a gap in the non-interactivist approach of traditional artificial intelligence (AI) in which ‘intelligence’ is viewed as the manipulation of symbols in a vacuum. However, a foundational question for the new AI is, can embodiment lead to a strong AI, i.e. a robot mind? To address this question, two extreme poles of embodiment are distinguished here, mechanistic and phenomenal. A detailed exploration of each type of embodiment is provided together with an appraisal of whether strong embodiment is possible for robotics, or whether robotics merely provides a tool for scientific exploration and modelling, i.e. weak embodiment? It is argued that strong embodiment, either mechanistic or phenomenal, is not possible for present day robots. However, weak embodiment may provide an enlightened approach to using robots for modelling cognition.     

Changing planes: rhizosemiotic play in transnational curriculum inquiry

This essay juxtaposes concepts created by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari with worlds imagined by Ursula Le Guin in a performance of ‘rhizosemiotic play’ that explores some possible ways of generating and sustaining what William Pinar calls ‘complicated conversation’ within the regime of signs that constitutes an increasingly internationalized curriculum field. Deleuze and Guattari analyze thinking as flows or movements across space. They argue, for example, that every mode of intellectual inquiry needs to account for the plane of immanence upon which it operates—the preconceptual field presupposed by the concepts that inquiry creates. Curriculum inquiry currently operates on numerous nationally distinctive planes of immanence. I argue that the internationalization of curriculum studies should not presume a singular transnational plane of immanence but, rather, envisage a process performed by curriculum scholars with the capacities and competencies to change planes—to move between one plane of immanence and another and/or to transform their own planes. My essay is a ‘narrative experiment’ that takes seriously Deleuze’s argument that a work of philosophy should be, in part, a kind of science fiction, and also takes inspiration from Le Guin’s science fictional stories of ‘changing planes’ to generate productive and disruptive transnational agendas in curriculum inquiry.

The relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic achievement for first generation Latino college students

Hispanic students are pursuing higher education more than in previous years and they often represent their family as the first member to attend college (Strage in Coll Stud J 33:198–205, 1999). Past educational research has studied the influence of intrinsic motivation on academic achievement in various ethnically diverse elementary, middle school and high school student populations (Areepattamannil in Soc Psychol Educ 15:367–386, 2012; Crumpton and Gregory in J Educ Psychol 104:42–53, 2011; Lepper et al. in J Educ Psychol 92:184–196, 2005). Despite the fact that many studies using college student samples have also shown the positive role of intrinsic motivation with achievement outcomes (Harackiewicz et al. in Educ Psychol 33:1–21, 1998; Simons et al. in Br J Educ Psychol 74:343–360, 2004; Vallerand and Bissonnette in J Pers 60:599–620, 1992), few studies focus on Latino samples. We expect that intrinsic motivation may play an important role in the academic achievement of Latino students, particularly first generation college students. The current review will examine self-determination theory, including intrinsic motivation and extrinsic motivation, as well as relevant research pertaining to the connection between intrinsic motivation and academic achievement. The relationship between intrinsic motivation and academic achievement for first generation Latino college students will be examined along with ways to increase intrinsic motivation and academic achievement in turn. Implications for future research will be discussed.     

Refusal Self‐Efficacy Among SMART Recovery Members by Affiliation Length and Meeting Frequency

Using the Brief Situational Confidence Questionnaire, the authors examined the refusal self‐efficacy of 105 Self‐Management and Recovery Training (SMART Recovery) members according to their affiliation length and meeting frequency. Results demonstrated that longer affiliation with SMART Recovery and higher meeting frequency significantly enhanced substance refusal self‐efficacy.