The mathematics of sharing / Las matemáticas que realizan los niños al compartir

Abstract

The purpose of sharing is to construct equivalent sets, making it an ideal context for analysing important quantitative concepts such as counting, equivalence and cardinality. Two studies analysed how four- and five-year-olds shared blocks in equal sharing and reciprocity conditions and their number inferences about one set after counting the other. The researcher asked children to share double and single blocks between two characters. They succeeded more in building equivalent shares in an equal sharing than reciprocity condition. Most children who shared correctly also made appropriate number inferences. To examine whether perceptual cues helped children share the blocks, a second study used Canadian $1 and $2 coins. A double block is twice the size of a single, whereas there is no visual cue about the value relation between coins because they are the same size. Unexpectedly, children shared equally well with blocks and coins, and most children made number inferences.     

What’s it all about? A qualitative study of meaning in life for counseling psychology doctoral students

The interviews of 10 female counseling psychology doctoral students regarding their views about meaning in life (MIL) were analyzed using consensual qualitative research. The participants defined MIL as goals or purposes, were actively involved in searching for meaning, and believed that MIL had been stimulated by life-changing experiences and culture. On a personal level, they gained meaning from relationships, personal growth, and religion/spirituality. On a professional level, they gained meaning from providing therapy, conducting research, and teaching. As therapists, participants approached MIL indirectly by asking about client goals/motivations or by focusing on other clinical problems that if resolved would enhance MIL. Implications for doctoral training and for psychotherapy are offered.     

Factors impacting carded athlete's readiness for dual careers

ObjectivesThe purpose of this study was to explore factors impacting New Zealand carded athletes' ability to engage in careers outside their elite sport involvement.Design and MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 carded athletes from eight different sporting codes, followed by inductive analysis of emerging key themes. Modified realist tales were then created from each of these narratives to create a detailed and thorough account of athletes' individual and collective experiences within the carding programme.ResultsAthletes acknowledged that despite the support on offer as part of the New Zealand Academy of Sport's carded athlete programme, they were still restricted in their ability to undertake careers alongside their elite sport involvement. In particular lifestyle conflicts, career stage and the sport environment were all seen to impact athlete readiness to adopt dual careers, with many athletes feeling unable, or actively discouraged from undertaking activities outside of their sport requirements.ConclusionsThis study highlights the need to ensure career assistance programmes actively support and encourage athletes to achieve both personal and athletic success, as well as educate coaches and officials of the benefits of athletes developing interests away from the elite sport environment. Such changes will not only begin to fulfil the sporting potential of gifted athletes, but also achieve the carding system's goal of developing well-rounded individuals who actively engage in dual careers across their sport participation.     

Career Decision Ambiguity Tolerance Scale: Construction and initial validations

The Career Decision Ambiguity Tolerance Scale (CDAT) measures individual evaluations of and responses to ambiguity encountered in career decision making. It was developed and initially validated through two studies of college students. An exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis consistently showed a three-factor structure for career decision ambiguity tolerance, consisting of preference, tolerance, and aversion. In addition to support for construct validity and subscale reliabilities, the findings also support the scale's incremental validity in predicting career indecision, career decision-making self-efficacy, and career adaptability over and beyond general ambiguity tolerance. The theoretical meaning and practical application of the CDAT were discussed along with its limitations and suggestions for future research.     

Contemporary patterns of career construction of a group of urban workers in São Paulo (Brazil)

By means of a qualitative approach, this study sought to understand the patterns of career construction in contemporary times through content analysis of the narratives generated by a set of 40 urban workers in São Paulo (Brazil), intentionally selected. Five narrative patterns of career construction were found and related to the existing concepts (organizational career, protean and boundaryless career, professional career, transitional career, and hybrid careers), which were respectively described by their core feature (nostalgia, possibility, enclosure, instrumentality, and hybrid). The main results showed that one quarter of participants sought career stability, continuity, and linearity (Nostalgia), one quarter sought flexibility and discontinuity (Possibility), about 1/7 sought a career based on the profession/occupation (Enclosure), about one-third constructed hybrid career narratives, and there was a frequent emergence of crises (Instrumentality). The main contribution of this study was confirming the hybrid nature of contemporary career constructions produced in a constant tension between stability and flexibility, as well as between permanence and change; nevertheless, based on collective standards.     

Work engagement during life-span: The role of interaction outside the organization and task significance

Growing proportion of older employees in the workforce has pushed scholars and managers to examine the changes of individual work-related attitudes and behavior during the life-span and accordingly reconsider work design to sustain the engagement of aging workforces. This study contributes to ambiguous previous findings by investigating age–work engagement linkage and moderating effects of such job characteristics as employees' perceived task significance and interaction outside organization. Survey of bank employees revealed an overall positive linear effect of age on work engagement; task significance was further positively related to work engagement. Although the direct impact of interaction outside the organization to work engagement was not found, the interaction outside the organization moderated the relationship between age and work engagement: older employees with more external interactions reported higher engagement levels than older employees with fewer interactions. Work engagement was highest for older employees who experienced more interaction outside the organization, or perceived their work as significant or both. There was no positive effect of age on work engagement for employees with both lower levels of interaction outside organization and lower task significance.     

Muscle strength and functional performance is markedly impaired at the recommended time point for sport return after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction in recreational athletes

PurposeTo examine potential deficits in muscle strength or functional capacity when comparing (1) an ACL reconstructed group to matched healthy controls, (2) the ACL reconstructed leg to the non-injured leg and (3) the non-injured leg to matched healthy controls, at the time-point of recommended sport return 9–12 months post-surgery.MethodsSixteen patients (male-female ratio: 9:7) 9–12 months post ACL reconstruction and sixteen age and sex matched healthy controls were included. Outcome measures included maximal knee extensor (KE) and knee flexor (KF) dynamometry, including measurement of rate of force development, functional capacity (counter movement jump (CMJ) and single distance hop (SDH)) and the Lysholm score.ResultsCompared to the control group, maximal KE and KF muscle strength were impaired in the ACL reconstructed leg by 27–39% and 16–35%, respectively (p < .001). Also, impairments of both CMJ (38%) and SDH (33%) were observed (p < .001). Rate of force development for KE were reduced in the ACL group compared to the control group (p < .001). Similarly, the KE and KF muscle strength, CMJ and SDH of the ACL reconstructed leg were impaired, when compared to the non-injured leg by 15–23%, 8–20%, 23% and 20%, respectively (p < .05).ConclusionMuscle strength and functional capacity are markedly impaired in the ACL reconstructed leg of recreationally active people 9–12 months post-surgery when compared to healthy matched controls and to their non-injured leg. This suggests that objective criteria rather than “time-since-surgery” criteria should guide return to sport.     

Thoughts about the internalised speaking object: psychoanalytic psychotherapy with children of delayed verbal development

This paper discusses the meaningful effects of intensive psychoanalytic psychotherapy on language development in children with verbal delay or disorder. Three clinical cases of children aged five to seven are presented; two of these display significant verbal delay and one exhibits unusually high verbal abilities. Following Meltzer, the author explores the concept of the ‘internalised speaking object’ – a good object speaking to the child, which has been internalised. This internal model is essential for the child’s development of language and speech. At times, these children experience this internal object as a persecutory object which must be warded off and avoided. Even more so, when the external object addresses the children verbally, language itself becomes a persecutor and they experience a fear of disintegration. During such times, the therapist must find new and creative ways for communication. The author describes his therapeutic efforts in dealing with these difficulties which stem both from the lack of a reciprocal verbal communication and from the therapist becoming a persecutory object to the child, and demonstrates the manner in which he facilitated gradual shifts in the patient, from an anxious and defensive position into a more relaxed one. These efforts set in motion a process of internalisation of a speaking object by the child and the development of internal language, that is, thinking along with expressive verbal language. The article furnishes some evidence to support the idea that verbal development relies significantly on establishing good, strong and healthy early object relations.     

Grounded Theory methods in child psychotherapy research

This article considers the place of qualitative research in psychoanalysis and child psychotherapy. It discusses why research methodology for many years occupied so small a place in these fields, and examines the cultural and social developments since the 1960s which have changed this situation, giving formal but also qualitative methods of research much greater significance. It reflects on the different pressures to develop explicit research methods which arise both from outside the psychoanalytic field, as a condition of its continued professional survival, and from within it, where its main aim is the development of fundamental psychoanalytic knowledge. It suggests that the conduct of mainly quantitative research into treatment outcomes is largely a response to these external pressures, whilst the main benefits to be gained from the development of qualitative research methods, such as Grounded Theory, are in facilitating the knowledge-generating capacities and achievements of child psychotherapists themselves. The paper describes Grounded Theory methods, and explains how they can be valuable in the recognition of hitherto unrecognised meanings and patterns as these are made visible in clinical practice. Finally, it briefly describes three examples of completed doctoral studies, all of which have added significantly to the knowledge-base of child psychotherapy, and which demonstrate how much can be accomplished using this method of research.