SYMLOG: Clinical technology for therapist family of origin and family system appraisal

SYMLOG, an acronym for Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups, reflects a technology for the quantification and graphic organization of subjective observational data. The SYMLOG field diagram-a graphic diagram which reflects relational interactions on three dimensions-provides the opportunity to analyze the admixture of therapist family of origin dynamics in conjunction with family relational behaviors. This article presents a sample SYMLOG clinician family of origin evaluation with accompanying elaboration surrounding SYMLOG field theory.     

WHIMSICAL DESIRES

To desire is to want, but not necessarily to be disposed to do anything. That is to say, desiring does not necessarily involve having any disposition to act. To lend plausibility to this view I appeal to the example of whimsical desires that no action could help us to realise. What may lead us to view certain desires as whimsical is precisely the absence of any possibility of realizing them. While such desires might seem less than full‐blooded, I argue that we can have full‐blooded desires concerning such matters because of our (non‐whimsical) concern for others. That is to say, whimsical desires can have a borrowed seriousness. The article goes on to strengthen the separability of dispositions and desires by narrowing down the concept of triggering conditions for a disposition. If we allow the triggering conditions to be too broad then it will always make sense to say that someone with a desire simply must have a disposition because, all other things being equal, they would bring about what they desire if they were able to do so.     

Stress and emotional memory retrieval: effects of sex and cortisol response

In some situations, memory is enhanced by stressful experience, while in others, it is impaired. The specific components of the stress-response that may result in these differing effects remain unclear, and the current study sought to address this knowledge gap. Forty healthy participants (20 women, 20 men) were exposed to emotionally arousing and neutral pictures. Twenty-four hours later, 20 participants underwent a social stressor (speech and math tests), and 20 underwent a control reading task, both followed by a delayed free recall task. Cortisol responders to the stress condition (5 men and 1 woman) showed reduced memory retrieval for both neutral and emotionally arousing pictures. Men and women in the stress condition who did not produce a cortisol response showed increased retrieval of unpleasant pictures compared to controls. The results provide further evidence that cortisol is a primary effector in the stress-induced memory retrieval deficit. At the same time, stress can enhance memory retrieval performance, especially for emotional stimuli, when the cortisol response is absent.     

An integrative theory of desistance from sex offending

Despite the fact that most offenders eventually desist from committing further crimes, there is an absence of comprehensive psychological and social accounts of the desistance process, beginning at the point when an individual decides to stop further offending, and finishing at the point of successful reentry and social reintegration. Building on previous work, the Integrated Theory of Desistance from Sex Offending represents an attempt to advance our understanding of desistance. The theory describes the desistance process in four phases: (1) decisive momentum (initial desistance), (2) rehabilitation (promoting desistance), (3) re-entry (maintaining desistance), and (4) normalcy (successful maintenance of desistance over a long period of time). The theory has significant implications for further theorizing, empirical research, clinical practice, and policy making.     

Adaptability in organisms and artifacts: A multi level perspective on adaptive processes

Adaptability to changing circumstances is a key feature of living creatures. Understanding such adaptive processes is central to developing successful autonomous artifacts. In this paper two perspectives are brought to bear on the issue of adaptability. The first is a short term perspective which looks at adaptability in terms of the interactions between the agent and the environment. The second perspective involves a hierarchical evolutionary model which seeks to identify higher-order forms of adaptability based on the concept of adaptive meta-constructs.Task orientated and agent-centered models of adaptive processes in artifacts are considered from these two perspectives. The former is represented by the fitness function approach found in evolutionary learning, and the latter in terms of the concepts of empowerment and homeokinesis found in models derived from the self-organizing systems approach. A meta-construct approach to adaptability based on the identification of higher level meta-metrics is also outlined.     

The duplication of love's reasons

If X loves Y does it follow that X has reasons to love a physiologically exact replacement for Y? Can love's reasons be duplicated? One response to the problem is to suggest that X lacks reasons for loving such a duplicate because the reason-conferring properties of Y cannot be fully duplicated. But a concern, played upon by Derek Parfit, is that this response may result from a failure to take account of the psychological pressures of an actual duplication scenario. In the face of the actual loss of a loved one and the subsequent appearance of a duplicate, how could we resist the inclination to love? Drawing upon duplication scenarios from Parfit and from Stanislaw Lem's Solaris, this paper will argue that there could be reasons for X to come to love a duplicate of Y but that these would not be identical with the reasons that X had (and may still have) to love Y. Nor (in the case of an agent with a normal causal history) could they be reasons for a love that violates the requirement that love is a response to a relationship and therefore takes time to emerge.     

Flow state in self-paced and externally-paced performance contexts: An examination of the flow model

ObjectivesKimiecik and Stein's (1992) flow model proposed that personal and situational factors affect the experience of flow. Singer, 1988, Singer, 2000 argued that different mental processes underlie self-initiated and reactive performances. The first purpose of this study was to examine main and interaction effects between imagery use and confidence on flow state in different performance contexts. The second purpose was to assess main and interaction effects between flow state, imagery, and confidence on self-paced service and externally-paced groundstroke performance in tennis.DesignThis field study used a repeated-measures design.MethodA pilot study was conducted to inform the set up of the two performance contexts. Flow states were assessed on two separate occasions, (a) for the service performance, and (b) for the groundstroke performance. A total of 60 junior tennis athletes completed imagery and confidence measures before the field test.ResultsA significant interaction between imagery and confidence was found for flow state in the groundstroke but not in the service task. No significant interaction effects were found for performance outcome. Flow state significantly predicted groundstroke performance, and imagery and confidence predicted service performance.ConclusionsThe examination of flow in different performance contexts is challenging. Imagery and confidence are central to the experience of flow. Flow state appeared to be more important for the externally-paced than self-paced task. The relationship between flow and performance is complex, which requires the conceptual expansion of Kimiecik and Stein's (1992) flow model.