Schools as Ethical or Schools as Political? Habermas Between Dewey and Rawls

Education is oftentimes understood as a deeply ethical practice for the development of the person. Alternatively, education is construed as a state-enforced apparatus for inculcation of specific codes, conventions, beliefs, and norms about social and political practices. Though holding both of these beliefs about education is not necessarily mutually contradictory, a definite tension emerges when one attempts to articulate a cogent theory involving both. I will argue in this paper that Habermas’s theory of discourse ethics, when combined with his statements on constitutional democracy and law, manifests this tension for formal education. Through a contrast with Dewey’s social-liberal view of education on the one hand, and the procedural liberalism and its associated view of education, common to Rawls and others writing in the contemporary Anglo-American tradition on the other, the questions of what this means for education and why it matters are raised and addressed.     

An Intervention to Help Community-Based Organizations Implement an Evidence-Based HIV Prevention Intervention: The Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System

Considerable resources have been spent developing and rigorously testing HIV prevention intervention models, but such models do not impact the AIDS pandemic unless they are implemented effectively by community-based organizations (CBOs) and health departments. The Mpowerment Project (MP) is being implemented by CBOs around the US. It is a multilevel, evidence-based HIV prevention program for young gay/bisexual men that targets individual, interpersonal, social, and structural issues by using empowerment and community mobilization methods. This paper discusses the development of an intervention to help CBOs implement the MP called the Mpowerment Project Technology Exchange System (MPTES); CBOs’ uptake, utilization and perceptions of the MPTES components; and issues that arose during technical assistance. The seven-component MPTES was provided to 49 CBOs implementing the MP that were followed longitudinally for up to two years. Except for the widely used program manual, other program materials were used early in implementing the MP and then their use declined. In contrast, once technical assistance was proactively provided, its usage remained constant over time, as did requests for technical assistance. CBOs expressed substantial positive feedback about the MPTES, but felt that it needs more focus on diversity issues, describing real world implementation approaches, and providing guidance on how to adapt the MP to diverse populations.     

Individual differences in reappraisal ability: Links to reappraisal frequency, well-being, and cognitive control

Reappraisal is generally viewed as an adaptive emotion regulation strategy. Reappraisal frequency has been associated with greater well-being, and reappraisal ability is thought to be composed of several crucial cognitive control processes. However, the relationships among reappraisal ability, reappraisal frequency, well-being, and various cognitive control processes have not yet been determined. In this study, we experimentally examined individual differences in reappraisal ability (RA), and also assessed reappraisal frequency, well-being, and several cognitive control processes. We observed a positive relationship between RA, reappraisal frequency, and well-being. RA was also related positively to working memory capacity and set-shifting costs, and marginally related to abstract reasoning. These findings have important implications for understanding the cognitive components and affective outcomes of RA.     

Australian normative data for the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering

People who stutter often report negative impacts on their wellbeing as a result of their chronic fluency disorder. The need for a comprehensive assessment of the wellbeing and experience of stuttering should be a prime consideration when measuring treatment outcomes. One such measure designed to evaluate wellbeing and aspects of the individual's experience of his or her stuttering is the Overall Assessment of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering (OASES). Normative data for the OASES Adult version (OASES-A; and hereafter referred to simply as the OASES) has begun to be collected over the past 10 years, though none are available for an Australian population. This paper presents Australian normative data for the OASES for 200 adult males and females who stutter, aged between 18 and 85 years. Additionally, the influence of age, sex, and frequency of stuttering on the Australian OASES scores are also presented. No significant relationships between OASES scores were found for sex and age, which is in keeping with the USA original dataset. However, those participants who had more severe stuttering were more likely to have higher negative impacts for 'General Information', Communication in Daily Situations,' and for the overall OASES score. Implications for further research are discussed. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will be able to: (i) describe the purpose of the Overall Experience of the Speaker's Experience of Stuttering for Adults (OASES), (ii) evaluate the relevance of the OASES to treatment planning and the evaluation of stuttering treatment outcomes in the adult population, and (iii) compare Australian normative dataset with the USA and Dutch normative datasets for the OASES.     

Brain Wave Biofeedback: Benefits of Integrating Neurofeedback in Counseling

Consistent with the 2009 Standards of the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, counselors must understand neurobiological behavior in individuals of all developmental levels. This requires understanding the brain and strategies for applying neurobiological concepts in counseling practice, training, and research. Neurofeedback, biofeedback for the brain, is one modality based in neuroscience that empowers individuals to recognize, monitor, and self‐regulate brain wave activity to create greater wellness. Neurofeedback has significant potential in counseling preparation, research, and practice.     

Emotion words affect eye fixations during reading

Emotion words are generally characterized as possessing high arousal and extreme valence and have typically been investigated in paradigms in which they are presented and measured as single words. This study examined whether a word's emotional qualities influenced the time spent viewing that word in the context of normal reading. Eye movements were monitored as participants read sentences containing an emotionally positive (e.g., lucky), negative (e.g., angry), or neutral (e.g., plain) word. Target word frequency (high or low) was additionally varied to help determine the temporal locus of emotion effects, with interactive results suggesting an early lexical locus of emotion processing. In general, measures of target fixation time demonstrated significant effects of emotion and frequency as well as an interaction. The interaction arose from differential effects with negative words that were dependent on word frequency. Fixation times on emotion words (positive or negative) were consistently faster than those on neutral words with one exception-high-frequency negative words were read no faster than their neutral counterparts. These effects emerged in the earliest eye movement measures, namely, first and single fixation duration, suggesting that emotionality, as defined by arousal and valence, modulates lexical processing. Possible mechanisms involved in processing emotion words are discussed, including automatic vigilance and desensitization, both of which imply a key role for word frequency. Finally, it is important that early lexical effects of emotion processing can be established within the ecologically valid context of fluent reading.     

"Age of onset of marijuana use and executive function": Correction to Gruber et al. (2011)

Reports an error in "Age of onset of marijuana use and executive function" by Staci A. Gruber, Kelly A. Sagar, Mary Kathryn Dahlgren, Megan Racine and Scott E. Lukas (Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, Advanced Online Publication, Nov 21, 2011, np). Figure 1 should have been presented in color. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2011-27123-001.) Marijuana (MJ) remains the most widely abused illicit substance in the United States, and in recent years, a decline in perceived risk of MJ use has been accompanied by a simultaneous increase in rates of use among adolescents. In this study, the authors hypothesized that chronic MJ smokers would perform cognitive tasks, specifically those that require executive function, more poorly than control subjects and that individuals who started smoking MJ regularly prior to age 16 (early onset) would have more difficulty than those who started after age 16 (late onset). Thirty-four chronic, heavy MJ smokers separated into early and late onset groups, and 28 non-MJ smoking controls completed a battery of neurocognitive measures. As hypothesized, MJ smokers performed more poorly than controls on several measures of executive function. Age of onset analyses revealed that these between-group differences were largely attributed to the early onset group, who were also shown to smoke twice as often and nearly 3 times as much MJ per week relative to the late onset smokers. Age of onset, frequency, and magnitude of MJ use were all shown to impact cognitive performance. Findings suggest that earlier MJ onset is related to poorer cognitive function and increased frequency and magnitude of MJ use relative to later MJ onset. Exposure to MJ during a period of neurodevelopmental vulnerability, such as adolescence, may result in altered brain development and enduring neuropsychological changes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved).     

Examining changes in relationship adjustment and life satisfaction in marriage

The current study examined the association between relationship adjustment and life satisfaction before marriage to 6 years into marriage in a sample of 126 couples. Results showed that both premarital relationship adjustment and premarital life satisfaction uniquely predicted marital adjustment 6 years into marriage. Premarital life satisfaction, but not premarital relationship adjustment, predicted life satisfaction 6 years into marriage. While premarital relationship adjustment scores were not uniquely associated with future life satisfaction scores, changes in relationship adjustment were positively associated with future life satisfaction. These findings are supportive of the idea that helping people to improve their relationships may increase overall life satisfaction. The findings also suggest that, while an individual's base level of life satisfaction may set some parameters for the course of relationship adjustment, changes in life satisfaction over time impact marital adjustment. Starting marriage with higher life satisfaction may increase chances for a happier marriage. Overall, the findings suggest that life satisfaction plays a role in marital adjustment over time, and that it is important to consider life satisfaction as not only an outcome associated with relationship adjustment but also as a predictor of relationship adjustment.     

Co-occurring mental health and substance use problems in offenders: implications for risk assessment

We undertook a secondary data analysis to study issues relevant to co-occurring mental health and substance disorder in a combined sample of offenders (N = 3,197). Using the Personality Assessment Inventory, we compared the frequency of depressive, traumatic stress, and personality disorder symptom elevations across offenders with and without substance problems, identified the extent to which co-occurring problems were accompanied by risk factors for suicide and aggression, and tested for gender differences. Offenders with substance problems were more likely than others to have increased mental health problems and risk factors for suicide or aggression. Women with substance problems, compared with men, had higher depression, traumatic stress, and borderline features, in addition to lower antisocial features. The frequency with which suicide and aggression risk factors were associated with mental health problems was generally similar across men and women. Measurement issues relevant to co-occurring disorder and risk assessment are discussed.