Engaging African Americans in Therapy: Integrating a Public Policy and Family Therapy Perspective

The field of marriage and family therapy faces a growing imperative to reach historically underserved populations. African Americans are a prime example of a minority group in the United States that continues to be underserved by the current mental health system. We integrate Andersen’s (1995, Journal of Health and Social behavior, 36, 1–10) public policy model of health service use with Fox et al. (1995, Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, 6, 434–468) revision of the rural de facto mental health services model (Regier and Goldberg, 1978, Archives of General Psychiatry, 35, 685–693) to develop a more inclusive and culturally sensitive framework that captures salient factors influencing African Americans’ entry into and engagement in therapy. Recommendations for overcoming barriers and suggestions for future research are presented.     

关于耳蜗传出神经系统功能研究的启示

对卫生管理中具有战略地位的卫生政策的理论与实践领域的背景和文献进行分析,认为卫生政策基本理论与方法论研究、卫生政策分析方法及技术研究、卫生决策科学化研究、卫生决策体制与过程的研究,社会公众参与卫生决策的研究等,是当前我国卫生政策的理论与实践中值得研究的主要问题。     

The role of familiarity in dietary development

The rise in inadequate and unhealthily diets in children has led investigations to examine the development of food preferences. This review outlines the ways in which children choose between foods made available to them and the subsequent shaping of their own habitual diet. Children are liable to form preferences to certain hedonic foods, and to exhibit neophobic reactions to the unfamiliar. Unfamiliar foods can elicit anxiety and suspicion. Trust and liking of a once novel food can be gained through exposure, increasing familiarity towards that food. This review examines: visual familiarity (awareness of foods within their environment); taste familiarity (knowledge and experience of the taste of foods); contextual familiarity (knowledge of how foods should be presented); and categorical familiarity (which family foods belong to). The influence of familiarity is also explained with regards to both positive and negative associative learning. These associations are influenced by the specific presentation and the social environment of a novel food. The potential benefits of understanding the nature of children’s learning and preference development for the promotion of healthy nutrition to both parent and child are discussed.     

Political mindset: Effects of schema priming on liberal-conservative political positions

Although stable factors play an important role in determining people’s political positions, most Americans also hold a mix of values and beliefs some congruent with political conservatism and some congruent with political liberalism. To investigate this more dynamic component of political thinking, two studies manipulated the relative salience of schemas about personal merit vs. good fortune as explanations for success in life. In Study 1, students at a highly selective university were asked to explain their academic success focusing either on the role of hard work, self-discipline and wise decision-making (Personal Merit condition) or that of chance, opportunity, and help from others (Good Fortune condition). In Study 2, personal merit vs. good fortune was primed through prior exposure to relevant questionnaire items. In both studies, participants in the Good Fortune condition subsequently indicated more support for liberal policies than did those in the Personal Merit condition.     

The Problem of Integrating Behavioral Health in the Medical Home and the Questions It Leads to

Psychology and other behavioral health professions have amassed a broad empirical and clinical literature suggesting many medical presentations are best responded to with the addition of evidence based behavioral interventions. Despite this, psychology has not achieved a regular presence as part of medical practice. We suggest specific reasons for the current state of affairs including clinical, operational, societal labels, financial and training dimensions. Medical, psychological, administrative, and financial perspectives are reviewed. If the goals of health care system reform are to be reached then we must identify and challenge the current limitations of health care. This paper will identify the elements that need to be changed in order for psychology to be integrated into medicine rather than excluded from its policy, planning and operations.     

The Role of Christian Belief in Public Policy

It seems intuitive to the believer that God intended throughinstruction in the Law to define morality, intended to leadhumankind to "the right and the good." Further, God's love forhumankind, exemplified by the incarnation, atonement and teachingsof Jesus, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, should lead to abetter world. Indeed, the Christian worldview is a coherentand valid way to look at bioethical issues in public policyand at the bedside. Yet, as this paper explores, in a pluralisticsociety such as the United States, it is neither possible nordesirable for Christians to try to force their views on others.Still, it is obligatory for Christians to stand up and articulatetheir views in the public square. We should try to persuadeothers using either prudential or moral arguments. While wemust be willing to live with "the will of the people," at thesame time, we must not be intimidated into accepting the positionthat our voice is not valid because it has a religious basis.     

Chimpanzees really know what others can see in a competitive situation

Chimpanzee’s perspective-taking abilities are currently disputed. Here we show that in some food competition contexts, subordinate chimpanzees do take the visual perspective of dominant individuals, preferentially targeting a hidden piece of the food that the dominant cannot see over a piece that is visible to both individuals. However, the space where the animals compete is critical in determining whether subjects demonstrate this skill. We suggest that competition intensity, as mediated by these spatial factors, may play an important role in determining the strategy chimpanzees utilize in competitive contexts. Since some strategies may not require visual perspective taking in order to be successful, chimpanzees may not always demonstrate this skill. Differences in spatial arrangement may therefore account for the conflicting results of past studies.     

Experimental evidence for route integration and strategic planning in wild capuchin monkeys

Both in captivity and the wild, primates are found to travel mostly to the nearest available resource, but they may skip over the closest resource and travel to more distant resources, which are often found to be more productive. This study examines the tradeoff between distance and reward in the foraging choices of one group of wild capuchin monkeys (Cebus apella nigritus) using feeding platforms in large-scale foraging experiments conducted over four years. Three feeding sites were arrayed in an oblique triangle, such that once the monkey group had chosen one site to feed, they had a choice between two remaining sites, a close one with less food and the other up to 2.3 times as far away but with more food. Sites were provisioned once per day. The capuchins generally chose the closer feeding site, even when the more distant site offered up to 12 times as much food. The distances to, rewards of, or various profitability measures applied to each alternative site individually did not explain the group’s choices in ways consistent with foraging theory or principles of operant psychology. The group’s site choices were predicted only by comparing efficiency measures of entire foraging pathways: (1) direct travel to the more rewarding distant site, versus (2) the longer ‘detour’ through the closer site on the way to the more distant one. The group chose the detour more often when the reward was larger and the added detour distance shorter. They appeared to be more sensitive to the absolute increase in detour distance than to the relative increase compared to the straight route. The qualitative and quantitative results agree with a simple rule: do not use the detour unless the energy gain from extra food outweighs the energy cost of extra travel. These results suggest that members of this group integrate information on spatial location, reward, and perhaps potential food competition in their choice of multi-site foraging routes, with important implications for social foraging. This contribution is part of the special issue “ A Socioecological Perspective on Primate Cognition” (Cunningham and Janson 2007b).     

分配制度公平对员工分配公平感的影响:中国组织情境下的实证研究*

西方组织公平领域的主流观点认为要想提高员工的分配公平感,应着力提高分配过程的公平性以及上下级互动的公平性,即程序公平和互动公平。本研究发现:在中国组织情境下,较之程序公平和互动公平(人际公平、信息公平),分配制度公平对员工分配公平感的解释力最强;在分配制度不公平的情境下,程序公平和人际公平才会影响分配公平感,仅仅起到亡羊补牢的作用。