Not all who stand tall are proud: Gender differences in the proprioceptive effects of upright posture

Research shows that individuals feel and later perform better when given positive feedback in the context of an upright posture, as opposed to a slumped one, even if unaware that their bodily position is meant to express emotion. We sought to determine whether proprioceptive feedback from body postures operate differently for women and men. Participants received success feedback when in either an upright or slumped posture, which was covertly manipulated. Results showed that for men the effects of posture were intuitive and appropriate: receiving success feedback while upright enhanced performance self-ratings. In contrast, after adopting an upright posture, women went on after success feedback to perform more poorly and make more negative self-ratings, than after adopting a slumped posture. A number of theories are offered as potential explanations for this gender effect.     

Do gains in working memory capacity explain the written self-disclosure effect?

Klein and Boals (2001) concluded that expressive writing about negative life events improves health by reducing intrusive thoughts, as measured by the Impact of Events Scale (IES), and thus freeing working memory (WM) capacity. We replicated their WM gain and rejected the possibility that it reflected task practice alone. We extended their work by showing that such WM effects and reductions in self-reported health symptoms can be observed within a short time frame of a week in a normal population of college students and can occur without reductions in IES scores. Two alternative explanations are discussed of how WM gains can be observed in the written self-disclosure effect without reductions in the frequency of intrusive thoughts and avoidance attempts.     

Changes of the Health Service System and the Search for Evidence and Rationality

The health service systems of the Western world are transforming rapidly. These systems are under pressure from an increase of new biomedical possibilities for intervention in the processes of the human body, from the rising expectations of the public, and from demographic developments that are leading to an increase in the number of elderly people in the Western world. Parallel to these changes on the macro level there are major changes on the micro level, that is, there is a search for methods to manage the basic way that the health system functions. In short, the financing, organization and practice of medicine will be changed considerably over the next 5-10 years. In the search for a harmonious development in this field the concept "evidence" must be seen in a broad perspective that encompasses, among other things, the increasing multidisciplinary nature of modern medicine.     

Studying Early Adolescents' Academic Motivation,Social-Emotional Functioning,and Engagement in Learning: Variable- and Person-Centered Approaches

This study used variable- and person-centered data analytic techniques to examine how early adolescents' academic motivation and social-emotional functioning were associated with their self-reported cognitive and behavioral engagement in the middle school classroom. Regression results showed that both motivational and mental health constructs contributed to the prediction of individual differences in classroom engagement. Person-centered analyses revealed between group variation in classroom engagement as a function of differing patterns of motivation and mental health among different subgroups of adolescents. Convergent and complementary information on these subgroups was provided by using two different grouping approaches. Findings are discussed in terms of broad patterns of promise or problems during early adolescence.     

Relationships between Teachers' Occupational Stress and Their Burnout and Distress: Roles of Coping and Negative Mood Regulation Expectancies

Teaching school is a highly stressful occupation. Consequences of this stress are burnout, physical and emotional distress, and choosing to leave the profession. Research on teacher stress and burnout has largely focused on environmental and contextual factors while ignoring personality characteristics of teachers that may have an impact on relationships between job stress and its consequences. The current study has a cross-sectional self-report design, focusing on teachers' negative mood regulation (NMR) expectancies as predictors of their coping, burnout and distress, in response to occupational stress. NMR expectancies are people's beliefs that they can control the negative moods they experience. Participants were 86 primary and secondary school teachers, who filled out questionnaire measures of teacher stress, NMR expectancies, coping, burnout, and distress. Simultaneous regression analyses showed that higher stress on the job did indeed predict greater burnout and distress. Additionally, stronger NMR expectancies predicted more active coping. NMR expectancies also predicted less burnout and distress, independent of stress level and coping. Believing one could control one's negative moods was associated with more adaptive outcomes for teachers. Results argue for the value of examining individual difference variables in research on occupational stress, in particular negative mood regulation expectancies.     

Dropping-in: the unexamined encounter

The paper seeks to initiate some discussion and debate on the widespread practice within Further Education and Higher Education counselling services of offering brief initial meetings to students during a 'walk in' hour. As counselling services with limited resources struggle to meet the challenge of increasing numbers and increasing severity of disturbance among the student population, this paper puts forward the view that nevertheless, cutting down on a full assessment session may not be the best response. While the author is aware of the considerable thought and ingenuity applied to this area by HE and FE colleagues, and the wide variety of practice which is emerging, the purpose of this paper is to focus specifically on the practice of the 'drop-in'. This term refers to an initial meeting which runs from anything between 5 minutes and half an hour, does not require a prior appointment and is differentiated in this paper from other responses such as emergency slots, duty hours or full initial assessment interviews. A further paper, in collaboration with colleagues from a number of different institutions, will aim to research the impact of a range of pre-assessment interventions on clients, counsellors, the counselling service and the institution. In the light of the generally brief counselling offered within the HE and FE setting, the generally late adolescent client group and the growing concern about student mental health, some clinical and service issues are explored. The paper then discusses the impact of the drop-in at the level of the institution, arguing that it has a powerful symbolic function, albeit in fantasy, of offering staff a quick solution to difficult-to-manage anxiety and distress. Going further, the suggestion is made that the arrival of the drop-in can be seen as part of a much wider unconscious attack on thinking that is taking place within educational institutions generally, where a place for the kind of thought and reflection offered by psychological therapies is being relentlessly squeezed out. A much fuller debate on the largely unexamined practice of the drop-in is called for.     

The counsellor and the GP: The gulf and the isthmus - or the dilemmas of difference

Research supervision in the field of counselling and psychotherapy is a fruitful area for investigation in view of the fact that the research supervisory relationship is powerful and highly charged, whether consciously acknowledged or not. Researchers trained as counsellors and psychotherapists possess the skills to facilitate the emergence of, and work creatively with, impasses and crises, both in the research itself and the supervisory relationship, as a result of their training and experience in dealing with crisis and catharsis in clinical work. This paper will demonstrate these points using a case vignette from my work as a supervisor of research dissertations undertaken by students on a Masters in Therapeutic Counselling course. Drawing on narrative analysis, clinical supervision theory and discursive analysis it will look at the strengths and weaknesses of a ‘psychotherapeutic’ approach to research supervision.     

Reviews

The Prayers and Tears of Jacques Derrida: Religion Without Religion, John D. Caputo, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1997. The Indiana Series in the Philosophy of Religion, xxix + 374 pp. ISBN 0–253–21112–3 (pbk.)

Religion in the Contemporary World: A Sociological Introduction, Alan Aldridge, Polity Press: Cambridge, 2000. vii, 232 pp. ISBN 0–7456–2083–3

The Anthropology of Religion, Fiona Bowie, Oxford, Blackwell. 1999. 284pp, tables & bibliogr. ISBN 0–631 20848–8 (pbk)

Theorizing about Myth, Robert Segal, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press. 1999. 184pp. Cloth £45, paper £15. ISBN 1–558–49194–5 (hbk), 1–558–49191–0 (pbk)     

Religiously Affiliated Continuum of Care Retirement Communities

SUMMARY

The paper introduces an action research initiative called Spirited Scotland, an embryonic movement seeking to restore spirituality to an appropriate place in health and social care. It locates the initiative in the changing social and spiritual circumstances of post-industrial Scotland and identifies some challenges it faces associated with the prevailing understandings of health, becoming ill, and successful ageing. The paper also considers some policy and practice challenges raised by Spirited Scotland, in terms both of content and process.