Using a feminist lens in contextual therapy

Both contextual and feminist therapy have not been given the attention they deserve in the field of MFT. We believe that not only do these approaches have undiscovered merit but also, when integrated, they provide a useful framework for conducting therapy that addresses marginalized voices and raises social consciousness. In this article, we “layer” feminist theory onto contextual therapy and argue that the constructs of contextual therapy may relate well to many women's experiences in families. We then illustrate our combined feminist‐contextual therapy with two case examples. This integration broadens the scope and sensitivity of contextual therapy to address issues of gender.     

Using Methods That Matter: The Impact of Reflection,Dialogue, and Voice

In recent years, the field of community psychology has given considerable attention to how research and evaluation methods should be designed to support our goals of empowerment and social justice. Yet, as a field, we have given much less attention to whether the use of our methods actually achieves or supports our empowerment agenda. With the primary purpose of beginning to establish the norm of reporting on the impacts of our methods, this paper reports on the findings from interviews of 16 youth and adults who had participated in one participatory evaluation method (Photovoice). Two specific questions were examined: (1) What is the impact of participating in a Photovoice effort; and (2) How does the method of Photovoice foster these impacts? Overall, participants noted that they were significantly affected by their experiences as photographers and through their dialogue with neighbors during Photovoice group sessions. Impacts ranged from an increased sense of control over their own lives to the emergence of the kinds of awareness, relationships, and efficacy supportive of participants becoming community change agents. According to participants, Photovoice fostered these changes by (a) empowering them as experts on their lives and community, (b) fostering deep reflection, and (c) creating a context safe for exploring diverse perspectives. The implications of these findings for the science and practice of community psychology are discussed.     

Monkey homologues of language areas: computing the ambiguities

The 'language-readiness' of human brains most probably resulted from modification of structures present in non-human primate brains, but identifying such homologues and the nature of their modifications has been highly problematic. In a recent article, Arbiband Bota suggest that these problems can be overcome using a neuroinformatics approach. But its assumptions ignore many non-local, activity-dependent, regressive, and allometric effects of neurodevelopment that violate assumptions of classic homology. What if these effects are what matter most?     

Happy affect and smiling: is their relation moderated by interpersonal power?

Three studies examined the hypothesis that the relation between self-rated happy affect and overall smiling during dyadic interactions is moderated by one's relative power. In all 3 studies, interpersonal power was experimentally manipulated, and smiling and self-reported happy affect were measured during and after the interaction, respectively. Happy affect was positively correlated with overall smiling for both low-power and high-power participants. Moreover, the correlations for both low- and high-power participants were comparable to those found when power roles were not unequal or made salient, based on analysis of the present studies as well as comparison with the previously published literature. Happy affect and overall smiling had a positive relation that was not moderated by interpersonal power.     

Vincent Brümmer and Marcel Sarot (eds.) Revelation and Experience [Proceedings of the 11th Biennial European Conference on the Philosophy of Religion]

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

Chicken or egg? Untangling the relationship between orthographic processing skill and reading accuracy

There is increasing evidence of a relationship between orthographic processing skill, or the ability to form, store and access word representations, and reading ability. Empirical research to date has not, however, clarified the direction of this relationship. We examined this question in a three-year longitudinal study of children from Grades 1 to 3. We included standard measures of orthographic processing skill, at both the lexical and sublexical level, and word reading accuracy, as well as controls of vocabulary, non-verbal reasoning, and phonological awareness. In all analyses, word reading predicted progress in acquiring orthographic processing skill, regardless of grade level or orthographic processing measure. In contrast, orthographic processing skill did not predict progress in word reading. Our results suggest that, between Grades 1 and 3, children acquire orthographic processing skill through their reading and that this ability, as characterized by the most common tasks used to date, does not play an independent role in supporting reading acquisition.     

Predictive Relationship Between Parental Beliefs and Accommodation of Pediatric Anxiety

Behavior performed by parents to assist a youth in avoiding or alleviating anxiety, known as accommodation, is ubiquitous among pediatric anxiety disorders and strongly related to poor treatment outcome. According to cognitive-behavioral theory, the beliefs parents hold regarding accommodation should predict parental accommodating behavior. Unfortunately, little is known about the beliefs parents hold regarding accommodation, as there exists no validated measure of this construct. First, the psychometric properties were examined for the Parental Accommodation Scale (PAS), a novel measure of parental accommodating behavior frequency (PAS-Behavior scale) and parental beliefs about accommodation (PAS-Belief scale). Second, the relationship between parental beliefs about accommodation and accommodation frequency was examined. Results provide preliminary evidence of the internal consistency and convergent validity of the PAS. Stronger positive beliefs about accommodation significantly predicted accommodation frequency, even after controlling for youth anxiety severity. Specifically, beliefs that accommodation prevents youth from losing behavioral and emotional control significantly predicted accommodation frequency. Therefore, efforts to decrease accommodation in clinical settings should involve correcting maladaptive parental beliefs about accommodation, with a particular emphasis on beliefs regarding the necessity of accommodation in preventing a youth from losing behavioral and emotional control.