New directions for family therapy: rubbish removal as a task of choice

Family therapy may be accompanied by laughter and wit as well as serious labour. Family life has a great deal to laugh about, and family therapists, if they take families seriously, need to be able to laugh and joke with them.     

Religion,ethnicity, coping style,and self-reported self-harm in a diverse non-clinical UK population

Previous studies of ethnic and cultural differences in self-harm have focussed on overdose and suicide attempts by South Asian women. Research comparing ethnic groups has rarely examined religion or nationality. To achieve a more balanced approach this study examined self-harm methods and self-injury across gender, religion and ethnic group in a non-clinical population. Six hundred and seventeen university students completed a questionnaire asking whether they had ever harmed themselves, and the frequency and method of any self-harm. White participants and participants with no religious affiliation were more likely to report repeated incidents of self-harm, mainly scratching and cutting skin. Hindu religion was associated with lower levels of repeated self-harm. Asian males were less likely to report self-harm than both Asian females and other males. Black students were less likely to report cutting and scored highest on Rational coping style. The results raise questions about differential disclosure of self-harm across gender and culture.     

The emotionally intelligent ministry: why it matters

Pizarro and Salovey hypothesise that religious systems are frequently “inherently emotionally intelligent” and that religious leaders may be experts in emotional regulation due to the inherent demands of their role. Despite such assertions, to date there appears to be little exploration of Emotional Intelligence (EI) amongst religious populations. Thus, suggesting that statements such as this may be based on supposition, speculation and stereotypes rather than grounded in sound empirical evidence. In an attempt to explore EI amongst religious systems, this study examined levels of EI amongst 226 Irish clergy. Participants completed the EI Scale. Results revealed that clergy levels of EI were lower than expected and below other diverse populations previously assessed using the same instrument. The emergence of such knowledge regarding clergy EI begins to suggest that religious systems may indeed not be conclaves of emotional abilities as previously assumed. Given the relevance and the potential value of employing EI abilities within the ministry, this result is both surprising and disconcerting.     

MESSIANIC JEWS AND JEWISH IDENTITY

In recent years Messianic Judaism has grown considerably worldwide and has caused much concern within the contemporary Jewish community. Messianic Jews claim they are completely Jewish, but they are considered by the majority of the Jewish community to be Christian apostates. This paper considers the practices and beliefs of the Messianic community, explores the issue of their identity and reflects on this in relation to Jewish identity throughout the universal Jewish community. It explores the question of placing Messianic Jews outside the Jewish fold, given that the various branches of contemporary Judaism are deeply divided over central tenets of faith and practice. It considers the Messianic belief in Jesus as the Messiah in the light of normative Jewish approaches to aspects of Halakhic teaching.     

Rural Embedded Assistants for Community Health (REACH) Network: First-Person Accounts in a Community–University Partnership

Community research and action projects undertaken by community–university partnerships can lead to contextually appropriate and sustainable community improvements in rural and urban localities. However, effective implementation is challenging and prone to failure when poorly executed. The current paper seeks to inform rural community–university partnership practice through consideration of first-person accounts from five stakeholders in the Rural Embedded Assistants for Community Health (REACH) Network. The REACH Network is a unique community–university partnership aimed at improving rural health services by identifying, implementing, and evaluating innovative health interventions delivered by local caregivers. The first-person accounts provide an insider’s perspective on the nature of collaboration. The unique perspectives identify three critical challenges facing the REACH Network: trust, coordination, and sustainability. Through consideration of the challenges, we identified several strategies for success. We hope readers can learn their own lessons when considering the details of our partnership’s efforts to improve the delivery infrastructure for rural healthcare.     

‘Undesirable’ and ‘desirable’ shifts in children's responses to repeated questions: age differences in the effect of providing a rationale for repetition

This study examined factors influencing children's tendency to shift responses when questions are repeated within an interview. Forty nine 4–5‐year‐olds and 40 7–8‐year‐olds were questioned about a video they had seen, with questions repeated by the same or a different interviewer. Half the children were given a rationale for question repetition, and half were not. Overall, the older children shifted less than the younger children, and, unlike the younger children, more to misleading than unbiased questions. The rationale did not affect overall shifting, but reduced the probability of ‘undesirable’ shifts (towards inaccuracy) in the younger children, and increased ‘desirable’ shifts (towards accuracy) at both ages. In the younger children, the rationale reduced total number of shifts, but only with the same interviewer, while in the older children the reverse applied. The results suggest developmental progression in the relative contributions of memorial and social/motivational factors to shifting. Implications for investigative interviewing with children are discussed. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Individual Differences in Decision Making Depend on Cognitive Abilities,Monitoring and Control

Decision making is the process by which actions are constructed and initiated. Across many research streams, this can be explained in terms of three broad cognitive processes: cognitive abilities that construct judgements and potential courses of action, and interacting monitoring and control processes that determine when to initiate them as behaviour. The aim of this research was to investigate the generality of individual differences in these processes, and their power to predict patterns of decision behaviour identified in our previous research. Undergraduate participants (N = 364) completed nine tests assessing cognitive abilities, monitoring confidence, control thresholds and various patterns of decision behaviour. The tests differed in their cognitive ability requirements and the nature of the payoffs associated with decisions. Cognitive abilities were a strong predictor of individuals' decision competence and optimality, while monitoring confidence and control thresholds were strong and unique predictors of their overall decisiveness, and reckless and hesitant errors. These results were strongest when the measures of cognitive abilities and monitoring confidence were derived from tests with the same cognitive requirements as the tests used to derive the decision behaviours and when the control threshold measure was derived from tests with the same decision payoffs as the test used to derive the decision behaviours. This effect was particularly pronounced for control thresholds, highlighting the domain‐specific nature of cognitive control processes. These findings demonstrate how cognitive abilities, monitoring output and control thresholds interact with cognitive requirements and context‐specific payoffs to drive individual differences in decision‐making behaviour. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.