Factors Influencing Level of Stress During the Nursing Home Decision Process

This investigation examined whether characteristics of elders and their caregivers and facets of the nursing home decision-making context were associated with recalled levels of stress during nursing home decision-making. Employing a conceptual framework based upon the literature on caregiver stress and nursing home decision-making, we considered a number of factors that might influence sponsors' stress as decisions were being made about nursing home placements. We examined data from telephone interviews with a sample of 142 sponsors (responsible parties) of first-time, recently admitted nursing home residents. Higher levels of reported stress were directly associated with more factors triggering the decision to admit, higher levels of competing demands, and limited time. Employment was indirectly related to higher stress through its impact on demands. Hospitalization and being the spouse or an adult child of the resident were indirectly related to stress because they were associated with limited available time. The results offer some insights into the types of individuals who may be vulnerable to higher levels of stress and the kinds of interventions that might avert high stress in the nursing home decision process.     

Peer-mediated social-skills training and generalization in group homes

A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate generalization effects of a peer-tutoring procedure to teach social skills for individuals with developmental disabilities. Three residents with poor social skills living in community-based group homes served as participants in this study. Generalization data were collected during four conditions: (i) baseline (ii) social-skills training by therapist (iii) social-skills training by peer-tutor, and (iv) follow-up. Results demonstrated that participants did not generalize trained social skills to untrained settings (i.e., living room of a group home and community bowling alley) until the first participant was trained as a peer-tutor to train two other participants. These results were maintained 6 months after training was withdrawn. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Shendu and Qingdu: Reading the Recovered Bamboo and Silk Manuscripts

The terms du (獨) and shendu (慎獨) frequently appear in transmitted texts, notably, among others, the Xunzi and Liji. Drawing reference from the poetry of “Shijiu” (鳲鳩) (Ode 152) and “Yanyan” (燕燕) (Ode 28) in the Book of Odes (詩經), the recovered texts of “Wuxing Commentary” (五行 說) and “Confucian Poetics” (孔子詩論) have provided new material for re-shaping our current understanding of the concepts of du and shendu. This study will briefly survey the semantic ranges of these terms within the exegetical tradition and explore their meaning with regard to the poetry from which they are contextualized. In the final analysis du can be understood as the ontic quality of the heart-mind within the broad sense of cheng (誠 sincerity), or devout love, whereas shendu can be regarded as a process of moral cultivation. To some extent the re-interpretation of these terms finds commonality with, rather than subverts, the semantic ranges established by traditional glosses. The recovered texts have enhanced our understanding of these terms, in particular the concepts of heart-mind and emotion in early China.     

Accuracy, Sincerity and Capabilities in the Practice of Teaching

This paper examines the relative strengths of two conceptions of teaching. The thinner conception, which underpins a report of the Ministerial Committee on Teacher Education in South Africa, takes the definitive purpose of teaching as the organization of systematic learning. The thicker conception draws on work by Martha Nussbaum and Bernard Williams and comes from my ongoing thinking about the conditions for trustworthy practice. I propose that educative teaching is a practice whose definitive purpose is to enable people’s flourishing by developing their capabilities as these are connected to what Williams calls ‘the virtues of truth’—‘Accuracy’ and ‘Sincerity’. I consider the case for claiming (i) that the purpose of educative teaching is to enable learners to develop the virtues of truth and (ii) that trustworthy practice depends on teachers having these virtues themselves. En route I challenge MacIntyre’s grounds for refusing to admit teaching as a practice.     

The Relationship Between Parenting Behaviour and Ethnic Identity in Chinese-American and Chinese-Australian Adolescents

This study investigated the relationship between four types of parenting behaviour—warmth, control, monitoring, and autonomy-promoting—and two components of ethnic identity—ethnic behaviours/knowledge and ethnic pride—in first- and second-generation Chinese-American and Chinese-Australian high school students. As hypothesized, parenting behaviours did not predict levels of ethnic behaviour/knowledge, but ethnic pride was associated with family environments characterized as warm, controlling, and autonomy-promoting. Neither gender of respondent nor geographical location (United States or Australia) added significantly to the variance in ethnic identity. The study indicates that parenting practices contribute significantly to adolescents' sense of pride and positive evaluation of their ethnic heritage.     

Childhood tomboyism and adult androgyny

Female university and community college students (N =194) completed the Bem Sex-Role Inventory and a 12-item tomboyism index. Subjects were predominantly Euro-American (71%). A multiple regression analysis was used to test the prediction that androgyny and masculinity would significantly predict tomboyism scores. The proportion of variance in tomboyism accounted for by masculinity was significant, but once masculinity was entered, no additional predictive value was added by the entry of androgyny or femininity. Tomboyism was not related to the development of expressive qualities such as compassion and sensitivity to the needs of others. However, tomboyism was positively related to some desirable instrumental qualities such as assertiveness and self-reliance. Tomboyism was common and generally declined at puberty due to social pressure. To whom correspondence and reprint requests should be addressed at Department of Psychology & Human Development, California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, CA 93407.The second and third authors were senior undergraduates at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo when this research was conducted.     

The integration of individual and family therapy

It is time to put an end to the separation in training programs between individual and family therapy. Competent therapists should be able to think at an intrapsychic and circular level concurrently. Training programs should maintain their current major focus and develop their minor area of expertise sufficiently so that their graduates can practice both individual and family therapy and choose whichever modality is more appropriate to the case at the time. Bridge concepts, essential differences, and some integrative approaches in individual and marriage and family therapy are discussed.