Meaningfulness and Kinds of Normative Reasons

Philosophia - Meaningfulness is the dimension of importance that exists for beings capable of adjudicating between competing kinds of normative reasons. The way an agent decides to rank competing...     

Counsellor conflict in managing the frame: Dilemmas and decisions

An essential feature of psychodynamic counselling is a secure frame for the work that holds boundaries as sacrosanct, both to ensure ethical practice and to provide a vehicle through which unconscious processes can be recognized and understood. Conscious or unconscious attacks on the frame are inevitable in any therapeutic relationship, and provide an opportunity for exploration and insight. However such incidents also have an impact on the therapist who must decide how to respond. In order to understand more about the therapist process when there is an attack on the frame, an investigation was carried out into ways in which psychodynamic counsellors manage the difficulties and dilemmas that arise as they try to hold a secure therapeutic frame. Ten counsellors were interviewed using a semi‐ structured interview format during which they were asked about an instance when the frame was challenged and the process by which it was resolved. The resulting dilemmas were categorized using grounded theory. Three categories of dilemmas emerged a) prior to making a decision about how to deal with it, b) after making a decision, and c), as a result of the outcome of the action taken. The nature of the dilemmas and the process of resolving them are reported and discussed.     

Take a look at the bright side: effects of contrast polarity on gaze direction judgments

Observers are inaccurate when judging the gaze direction of eyes shown in negative rather than positive polarity. On the basis of this polarity effect, it has been proposed that gaze is perceived as directed from the dark part of the eye. Our experiment investigated whether direction judgments simply follow this heuristic, as has been suggested. Participants judged the gaze direction of eyes shown at different eccentricities in positive or negative polarity. The error pattern revealed that most errors were incorrect "straight" judgments, suggesting that judgments do not merely follow the heuristic "the dark part does the looking." We suggest that gaze judgments are based on the outcome of a competition between gaze direction signals: Whereas luminance cues may indicate that gaze is directed from the dark part of the eye, geometric cues may indicate the opposite. This interpretation is supported by reduced overall error rates, and fewer incorrect "straight" responses, for more extreme gaze directions.     

Effect of intensity of visual stimulation on auditory sensitivity in relation to personality

Auditory thresholds were determined by a modified method of limits under 10 intensities of light (patterned or homogeneous). An analysis of variance of the data showed significant results for intensity conditions, personality type and the interaction of these parameters. Auditory sensitivity increased under weak, and decreased under strong, intensities of light in introverts. It increased under all intensities in extraverts, with greater increase at greater intensities, and increased under weak and medium intensities in ambiverts. The EPI E, but not N, scale scores and sensitivity increases correlated positively, at medium and strong intensities of light.     

Belief-level markers of physical activity among young adult couples: Comparisons across couples without children and new parents

The health benefits of regular moderate–vigorous intensity physical activity (MVPA) are well established, yet young adults, particularly parents, often show declines in MVPA and may represent a critical population for intervention. Theory-based correlates used to guide future interventions are scant in this population. The purpose of this study was to examine theory of planned behaviour (TPB) belief-level constructs as correlates of directly assessed MVPA across cohorts of couples without children and with their first child over the initial 12?months. Participants were 238 adults (102 not expecting a child, 136 expecting first child) who completed baseline demographics, belief measures of the TPB and seven-day accelerometry, followed by assessments at 6 and 12 months. Results showed select medium-sized belief-PA correlations with sex and cohort interactions. Overall, women had larger affect-based behavioural belief associations with MVPA than men (e.g. PA relieves stress), and among new parents, mothers showed larger associations with control over MVPA than fathers. Mothers also had larger associations between control beliefs and MVPA compared to women without children (e.g. domestic duties, bad weather). Extremely high means and low variability on the behavioural beliefs show limited room for possible changes in intervention while control beliefs had low means suggesting room for change. Interventions targeting control among new mothers may be paramount for increasing MVPA, yet the TPB yielded less insight into the targets for promoting MVPA among young men.     

Development of defensive burying in Rattus norvegicus: experience and defensive responses

Rats (Rattus norvegicus) deprived of the opportunity to interact with particulate matter until they were young adults engaged in defensive burying after they were shocked by a wire-wrapped dowel in a test chamber that held bedding material. Interacting with a particulate substrate during development is not necessary for the expression of defensive burying in adulthood. However, interacting with a particulate substrate early in the rats' lives did have a substantial effect on the emergence and maintenance of burying behavior. Defensive burying developed at a later age and declined at an earlier age in rats maintained on wire mesh from birth until testing than it did in rats raised until weaning on bedding and housed on mesh thereafter. Because defensive burying is a complex, flexible, yet reliable response sequence that cannot be performed without the appropriate substrate, it has considerable potential as a model for the study of the development of species-specific defense responses.     

Stress,psychiatric co-morbidity and coping in patients with chronic idiopathic urticaria

This study examined life event stress, perceived stress and psychiatric co-morbidity among patients with Chronic Idiopathic Urticaria (CIU). It also investigated the relationship between coping, stress, the severity of CIU and psychiatric co-morbidity. Total of 100 CIU patients and 60 allergy patients participated in the study. They completed the General Health Questionnaire, the Social Readjustment Rating Scale, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Ways of Coping Checklist. Compared with allergy patients, CIU patients had worse co-morbidity and higher levels of life event stress and perceived stress. Emotion-focussed coping was associated with the severity of CIU; perceived stress was associated with co-morbidity.     

An analysis of complaints to the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy, 1996–2006

In autumn 2006 the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy approved a proposal to conduct an independent audit of complaints submitted. This article represents the first stage of that audit. Case information from the professional conduct files was accessed and a total of 84 cases, considered by a pre‐hearing assessment panel to require a full hearing, were identified for this audit. The cases cover the period from October 1996 to January 2006. The information obtained was entered into a database for numerical analysis. Key findings suggest that accredited members are disproportionately complained against, as are male members of the association. The majority of complaints are made by people who are themselves involved in counselling.