The Content and Function of Religious and Spiritual Beliefs

Most work on religious beliefs has used a fixed research method that only allows confirming or disconfirming a priori notions of religious beliefs. This study used a flexible, data-driven research method to derive an inductive theory concerning the content and function of religious beliefs. Data from interviews with 28 undergraduates were content analyzed, yielding 7 distinct belief domains: higher power, creation, soul, life after death, spiritual connection with others, fate, and supernatural occurrences. Function domains for each content domain, and for belief systems as a whole, were preliminarily identified. Implications for future research and therapeutic interventions are discussed.     

Parental,child-centered attributions and outcome: A meta-analytic review with conceptual and methodological implications

Eight empirical studies which bear on the relation between parents' child-centered attributions for children's problems and parental satisfaction or child adjustment were meta-analyzed. The parental attributional dimensions of stability and globality garnered the most support as correlates of parental satisfaction and/or children's adjustment; the dimensions of intent, selfish motivation, and blame received initial support and warrant further study. Important methodological and conceptual issues were identified and improvements are suggested. The need for prospective designs aimed at determining the causal relation, if any, between parental attributions and outcome, thorough assessment of attributions and the events which impinge upon them, detailed measurement of symptom and satisfaction variables, a wider array of child diagnoses, and establishment of parental diagnoses, are emphasized.     

Effects of diagnostic classification systems on clinical hypothesis-generation

In this study it was determined whether (a) classification as opposed to absence of classification has an effect on the quality of clinical hypotheses (b) the DSM-III-R and the CBCL have a different effect on the quality of clinical hypotheses, and (c) the potential difference between the DSM-III-R and the CBCL is moderated by the different number of syndromes identified by these systems. To investigate these questions, an experiment was conducted in which 86 clinicians generated hypotheses for six cases. The clinicians were divided into a DSM-III-R, a CBCL, and a control group. Of the six cases, two were classified by both classification systems as one syndrome, two were classified as one syndrome by the DSM-III-R but as two syndromes by the CBCL, and two were classified as two syndromes by the DSM-III-R but as one syndrome by the CBCL. The quality of the hypotheses was determined by means of four dependent variables selected from an overview of qualitative criteria: explanatory value, redundancy, possibility of operationalization, and specificity. No differences between the CBCL and the control groups were found. The DSM group performed better than the control group regarding explanatory value and redundancy. The DSM-III-R group also scored better than the CBCL group regarding explanatory value, particularly when the number of identified syndromes was two for the CBCL and one for the DSM-III-R.     

Idiosyncratic definitions and unsupported hypotheses: Rational emotive behavior therapy as pseudoscience

My concerns about Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) began over a decade ago. I find its concepts lack adequate and consistent definitions, its distinctive hypotheses are not confirmed by empirical data and are untestable, and its scientific foundations fall outside mainstream psychology. Contrary to what it claims, its practice and philosophy are not consisten with the use of reason in psychotherapy. These criticisms are discussed and documented. Practitioners may not be aware of the unsubstantiated claims and theoretical assumptions inherent in REBT, and that they adopt these assumptions when practicing REBT.     

Boundary regulation in family and personal systems: Perceptions of late adolescents

Examination of boundary regulation can provide family therapists with a framework to describe both the functioning of family systems and personal systems (i.e., the intrapsychic functioning of individual family members). In the present study, late adolescents' perceptions of boundary regulation within their family systems (i.e., ratings of family health, communication, leadership, expressiveness, cohesion, and family conflict) were related to regulation of their personal boundaries (i.e., self-reported personal competence, distress, and patterns of defense mechanism use). In addition, personal system variables reliably discriminated between adolescents who described their families as psychologically healthy versus psychologically unhealthy.     

Joining with all members of a family system: The rhetoric of antilogic in family therapy dialogue

Family therapists face a significant rhetorical challenge in working with families that disagree about the problematic life-situation which brought them to therapy. Therapists must find a way to join with disagreeing family members and then find a way to engage in a therapeutically useful conversation with them. Thus, they must deal resourcefully with contradictions. This article explores the ways that the Sophistic rhetorical concept of antilogic may be employed in helping therapists join and then engage in a therapeutically useful conversation with families who hold contradictory views concerning the problem that brought them to therapy.The author wishes to thank Ronald Chenail, PhD, Douglas Flemons, PhD, and Shelly Green, PhD, for their assistance in the development of this project.     

One size doesn't fit all: Full inclusion and individual differences

Recent studies have documented the increasing trend among school districts toward adopting full inclusion as the predominant model for serving students who qualify for special education services. Although these data may suggest that a paradigm shift has already taken place and that a consensus of opinion has been achieved, several organizations representing students with specific disabilities continue to support a continuum of placement options. This paper challenges a one size fits all approach to special education, and highlights the importance of considering the individual characteristics of students. The relevance of research on full inclusion, as well as methodological issues that limit generalizability of findings related to student outcomes, are discussed. The radical perspective of full inclusion is rejected in favor of an approach that emphasizes the complexities of placement decisions.