The Churchlands' Eliminative Materialism: or The Result of Impatience

In the mid-seventies I discovered that my patience with most main-stream philosophy had run out. What had instead begun to seem promising was the new wave in philosophical method, which ceased to pander to “ordinary language” and which began in earnest to reverse the antiscientific bias typical of “linguistic analysis”… Since I was a materialist and hence believed that the mind is the brain.     

Book reviews

Contemporary psychology Experiments: Adaptations for Laboratory. By John Jung and Joan Bailey. London and New York: Wiley. 1966 Pp. xiii + 155. 238.

A Textbook of Psychology. Second Edition. By D.O. Hebb. Philadelphia and London: W.B. Saunders & Co. 1966. Pp xvi + 353. Pound2.

Behaviour Therapy Techniques: A Guide to the Treatment of Neuroses. By Josweph Wolpe and Arnold A. Lazarus. Oxford and London: Pergamon Press. 1966. Pp. ix + 198. 21s.

Motivated Learning: a Developmental Study from Birth to the Senium. By Miriam E. Hebron. London: Methuen. Methuen's Manuals of Modern Psychology. 1966. Pp. 264. 35s.

Human Brain and Psychological Processes. By A.R. Luria. Translated by Basil Haigh. New York and London: Harper & Row. 1966. Pp.xix + 587. £5 $14.50.

Higher Cortical Functions in Man. By A. R. Luria. Translated by Basil Haigh. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966. Pp xvi + 513. £6 6s.

Productive Thinking. By Max Wertheimer. Edited by Michael Wertheimer. social science Paperbacks. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966. Pp xvi + 302. 30s.

Problem Solving: Research Method and Theory. Edited by B. Kleinmuntz. London and New York: Wiley. 1966. Pp. ix + 406. 53s.

Human Conceptual Behavior. By Lyle E. Bourne, Jr. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. 1966. Pp. viii + 139. $2.50.

Attraction and Hostility. An Experimental Analysis of Interpersonal and Self Evaluation. By albert Peptone. London: Tavistock Publications. 1966. Pp. ix + 234. 30s.

Ability Structure and subgroups in Mental Retardation. By John Clausen. London: Macmillan. Washington: spartan Books. 1966. Pp. viii + 208. 80s.

The Biologiv Basis of Schizophrenia. By Jon L. Karlsson. springfield. Illionois: Thomas. 1966. Pp.xi + 77. $4.75.

Psychology for Psychiatrists. By C.G. Costello. London: Commonwealth and Unversity Library, pergamon Press. 1966. Pp. 328. 25s.

Science and theory of Psychoanalysis. Edited by Irwin G. Sarason. London: Van Nostrand. Insight Book No. 26. 1965. Pp xiii + 205. 14s.

Aspects of Learning and Memory. Edited by D. Richter. London: heinemann. 1966. Pp. x + 185. 35s.

The Spiral After-Effect. By Harry C. Holland. London: pergamon. 1965. Pp.xii + 99. 35s.

Dynamics of Response. By J.M. Notterman and D.E. Mintz. London and New York: Wiley. 1965. Pp. 277. 70s.

Contrary Imaginations: A Psychological Study of the English Schoolboy. By Liam Hudson. London: Methuen. 1966. Pp. vii + 181. 25s.

The Structure of Association in Language and Thought. By James A. Deese. London: Oxford University Press: Johns Hopkin Press. 1960. Pp. xiii + 216. 52s.

A source Book in the History of Psychology. Edited by R. J. Herrnstein and E.J. boring. London: Oxford University Press; Harvard University Press. 1965. Pp. xvii + 636. £5.     

Discrimination learning and transposition behaviour of rats in a water tank apparatus

The learning, by albino rats, of a size discrimination in a water-tank apparatus is described. The earliest discriminative behaviour of each of the six successful rats is of the one-look type in which the negative stimulus plays the major role. With further training, four of those subjects develop two-look discrimination in which relational properties of the stimuli are important as shown by the appearance of, first, one-step and, then, two-step transposition. The water-tank and jumping apparatuses are briefly compared. Evidence from studies of rats, monkeys and children is presented for the generalization that, within limits, the effect of practice on discriminative behaviour involving stimulus relata is to strengthen relational responding.     

The warming-up effect in recall performance

Two experiments on recall are reported. In the first, 120 adults recall, in successive 3-rninute sessions, names which begin with a particular letter of the alphabet, a different letter being used in each session. The second experiment differs from the first in interpolating a 20-minute lecture between the first and second sessions. The major finding is that the performance of one recall task (e.g. recalling names which begin with. N) facilitates the performance of a subsequent and similar, but not identical, recall task (e.g. recalling names which begin with K), provided the two tasks occur within a relatively short time of each other. This facilitation has the characteristics of warming-up and suggests that recall may, if only for heuristic purposes, be regarded as a high-level skill. Two minor findings are reported which indicate problems for future investigation.     

Shame,Early Abuse,and Course of Depression in a Clinical Sample: A Preliminary Study

This study of 35 depressed patients was designed to replicate findings from a community sample of a relationship between childhood abuse and bodily shame, and bodily shame and chronic or recurrent depression. In addition, we investigated whether characterological and behavioural shame would also be related to early abuse and depression course. The relation between bodily shame and childhood abuse was replicated. When the other types of shame were considered, bodily shame was the most powerful correlate of early abuse, with behavioural shame showing no relationship. However, all three types of shame appeared to be related to chronic or recurrent course of depression.     

Changes in teacher–student relationships

Background. Although teacher–student relationships lie at the heart of students’ schooling experience, fundamental questions regarding these relationships remain unanswered. Aims. This study investigates three related questions about these relationships: To what extent do they change from the beginning to the end of a school year? Are any emergent changes associated with shifts in students’ academic or motivational outcomes? Are certain ‘upstream’ factors associated with improvements or declines in teacher–student relationships? Sample. We investigate these questions with a sample of middle school students (N = 119) and their teachers (N = 30). Methods. Through a novel approach which accounts for both perspectives within teacher–student relationships, we assess these relationships at the beginning and end of the school year. Using multi-level models, we examine how changes in these relationships are associated with changes in students’ grades, homework completion rates, self-efficacy, and effort. In addition, we examine associations with two potential precursors to teacher–student relationships: students’ accuracy in taking their teachers’ perspective and their perceptions of similarity to their teachers. Results. We find that substantial changes occur in these relationships from the beginning to the end of the year; these changes are associated with shifts in important student outcomes; and changes in students’ social perspective taking accuracy and perceived similarity to their teachers correspond with changes in teacher–student relationships. Conclusions. Given the malleability of teacher–student relationships and their importance for key achievement and motivational outcomes, we advocate for researchers to conduct field experiments to inform how to improve these critical relationships.     

Victimization of Lesbian,Gay, and Bisexual People in Childhood: Associations with Attempted Suicide

Higher rates of attempted suicide have been documented among people who identify themselves as gay, lesbian, and bisexual (LGB) compared with heterosexuals. This study sought to ascertain the association between childhood abuse and neglect and attempted suicide, comparing LGBs and heterosexuals. Childhood sexual abuse among men and childhood sexual and physical abuse among women were found to mediate the association between LGB identity and attempted suicide. The experience of childhood abuse likely plays a significant role in the relationship between LGB identity and attempted suicide, but other factors such as experience of discrimination are also important.     

Walking in sacred spaces in the therapeutic bond: therapists' experiences of compassion satisfaction coupled with the potential for vicarious traumatization

The therapeutic bond is at the heart of effective therapy, yet few studies have examined therapists' experience of this bond. Using a qualitative study design, this exploratory study examines the experiences of couple and family therapists in relation to their perceptions of the satisfactions and risks involved in the therapeutic bond. The research was conducted using grounded theory methodology and eight in-depth interviews were conducted with therapists working in five counseling agencies in Sydney, Australia. Therapists described the importance of the 3 component parts of the therapeutic bond: the empathic connection between therapist and client; the role investment of the client; and the mutual affirmation experienced by both therapist and client in the therapeutic process. Walking in sacred spaces with the client was seen as both enriching and challenging for the therapist. The therapeutic bond gave therapists intense satisfaction and posed risks for them, especially when working with traumatic client experiences. However, the findings suggest that the experience of compassion satisfaction and the development of vicarious resilience counter-balanced the intense difficulty of bearing witness to clients' traumatic experiences and the potential for vicarious traumatization. The implications for sustaining couple and family therapists in their work are discussed.     

Establishing and Evaluating the Key Functions of an Interactive Systems Framework Using an Assets-Getting to Outcomes Intervention

Community practitioners can face difficulty in achieving outcomes demonstrated by prevention science. Building a community practitioner's prevention capacity—the knowledge and skills needed to conduct critical prevention practices—could improve the quality of prevention and its outcomes. The purpose of this article is to: (1) describe how an intervention called Assets‐Getting To Outcomes (AGTO) was used to establish the key functions of the ISF and present early lessons learned from that intervention's first 6 months and (2) examine whether there is an empirical relationship between practitioner capacity at the individual level and the performance of prevention at the program level—a relationship predicted by the ISF but untested. The article describes an operationalization of the ISF in the context of a five‐year randomized controlled efficacy trial that combines two complementary models designed to build capacity: Getting To Outcomes (GTO) and Developmental Assets. The trial compares programs and individual practitioners from six community‐based coalitions using AGTO with programs and practitioners from six similar coalitions that are not. In this article, we primarily focus on what the ISF calls innovation specific capacity and discuss how the combined AGTO innovation structures and uses feedback about its capacity‐building activities, which can serve as a model for implementing the ISF. Focus group discussions used to gather lessons learned from the first 6 months of the AGTO intervention suggest that while the ISF may have been conceptualized as three distinct systems, in practice they are less distinct. Findings from the baseline wave of data collection of individual capacity and program performance suggest that practitioner capacity predicts, in part, performance of prevention programs. Empirically linking practitioner capacity and performance of prevention provides empirical support for both the ISF and AGTO. Special Issue: Advances in Bridging Research and Practice Using the Interactive System Framework for Dissemination and Implementation; Guest Editors: Abraham Wandersman, Paul Flaspohler, Catherine A. Lesesne, Richard Puddy; Action Editor: Emilie Phillips Smith