How to Conduct Research in Your Private Practice

Mental health professionals who work in private practice and other clinical settings have huge opportunities to contribute to the science of our field. But they rarely do so. This article describes ways that practitioners who have research training can capitalize on recent developments in practice, science, and technology to conduct research in their private practice. I describe a model for conducting research as a practitioner that entails tightly integrating the research into clinical practice, and I point out why conducting research in your private practice is worth doing. The remainder of the paper provides a primer, describing strategies for implementing in a clinical setting all the elements of the research enterprise: addressing ethical and legal issues, keeping up to date with the scientific literature, selecting a good research question, conducting a single-case experimental design, finding collaborators and assistants, collecting the data, analyzing the data, writing the paper and getting it published, and handling time and money. Although this paper focuses on research in a solo or group private practice setting, many of the strategies described here can also prove useful in the conduct of research in hospital or community settings.     

RETHINKING THE IMAGE OF GOD

Abstract The present ecological crisis imposes a rethinking of the relation between the human being and the rest of nature. Traditional theological articulations of this relation have proven problematic where they foster separatism and anthropocentrism, which give a false report on the relation and have a negative impact on thinking and acting in relation to nature. One place to begin rethinking is through an exploration of the affirmation that the human being is “made in the image of God,”imago dei. Some ways of construing the theological meaning of this designation are more helpful than others. Science has recognized the extent to which the human being is not only dependent upon but even emergent from nature. We are made of the same “stuff” that makes up the rest of the universe. We are nature. The place of the human being is much more modest, recent, and precarious than usually acknowledged in theological reflection. New ways of interpreting our role within nature must evolve out of this new understanding. Philip Hefner has proposed that we think of the human being as created co‐creator. His is a distinctive and promising contribution. This essay responds with both affirmations and friendly questions.     

Spirituality in adolescence and young adulthood: A method for a qualitative study

This paper discusses an ongoing research project on contemporary forms of youth and young adult spirituality, highlighting issues in the history and definition of spirituality and in development of appropriate qualitative methods of investigation. Previous research on the topic has been bedevilled by difficulties of definition. 'Spirit' and 'spirituality' have a long history in both philosophy and religion and surviving senses of the terms include both religious and non-religious meanings. This paper suggests that 'lexical' definitions based on usage prove unwieldy because of widely varying and conflicting contents. Only a 'stipulative' definition will serve to provide a research project with a clear focus; our definition of spirituality as 'a conscious way of life based on a transcendent referent' is explained and defended. Next, we outline the distinctive features of our methodology: no direct mention of the term spirituality, an emphasis on personal narration and the use of evocative techniques. We conclude by outlining the 10 dimensions of spirituality which we have developed from our initial investigations.     

就业危机形势下——大学生就业心理问题分析及对策研究

在当前就业危机的严峻形势下,大学生就业是一个社会热点和难点问题。大学生的就业压力越来越大,由此导致大学生出现了自卑、不平衡、自负等一系列的就业心理问题。本文就大学生就业心理问题的表现、产生就业心理问题的原因以及应采取的措施作以分析。     

African-American Women’s Conceptualizations of Health Disparities: A Community-Based Participatory Research Approach

Health disparities among African-American families represent a significant social problem. Nationally, African-American infants have dramatically worse birth outcomes than other racial and ethnic groups. A Community-Based Participatory Research approach was utilized to engage community residents. This study examined participants’ definitions of infant mortality, views on the community impact of infant mortality, and strengths and vulnerabilities in the health care service delivery system. Qualitative data were gathered in a rural North Florida community where health education groups are conducted. Eight focus groups were arranged with African-American women (n = 46), ranging in age from 14 to 35, who were pregnant, parenting children under the age of two. Respondents poignantly described personal experiences of loss associated with infant mortality. They indicated awareness of problems related to lack of accessibility and availability of medical and social services. The use of social-ecological theory and implications for policy and social justice are discussed.     

Evolution: Journey or Random Walk?

Though early ideas of evolution saw it as progressive, most modern theories see it as a random walk. The theories of Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, Edward O. Wilson, Stuart Kauffman, Steven Rose, and Robert Wesson are surveyed, showing their agreement on the fact of evolution but not on the mechanism. Evolution is an incomplete theory. Any theology should therefore be based only on its broadest features. Generally, evolution is the development of complex forms from simple ancestors. Within a Christian context, it can be seen as a journey toward the unification of all things in Christ, the ultimate complexity.     

成人与中学生科学概念形成过程的四个对比实验

以一组非人工的、自然的科学概念(“反作用力”、“机械能守恒”、“熵”和“场”)为学习内容,分别以成人和中学生为被试,实验研究成人和中学生科学概念形成过程的异同。结论如下：(1)成人与中学生科学概念形成过程均分为振荡渐进期、高原期和突变期。(2)成人的振荡渐进期较长;中学生的振荡渐进期较短且振荡特征比较明显。(3)成人的高原期出现较晚,但持续较长;中学生的高原期出现较早,但持续较短。(4)中学生的突变期的跨度随概念的抽象程度提高而越来越大。     

The advice of the wise: afterthoughts about reality checking

One of the aims of this special issue on happiness advice was to assess the reality value of recommendations. All papers checked empirical indications for effectiveness, typically by inspecting whether the things advised have been found to be related to happiness in empirical research. Some limitations of this approach are that some advisers used a different definition of happiness than the papers, the papers checked the advice for present day readers, not for the contemporaries of advisers, the data that is used to check the advice is most often correlative in nature, and the papers ignored personality differences. Future research should focus on a wider range of happiness advisers, look at the interaction of the advice and individual readers and address the question of the usefulness of the advice experimentally.     

Research and Action for Bridging Science and Practice in Prevention

There is a well-known gap between science and practice. To address this gap in the areas of Child Maltreatment (CM) and Youth Violence (Y/V), the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) embarked on a Dissemination/Implementation (D/I) planning project. The project was aimed at identifying better ways to connect research and practice through reviews of the literature as well as through discussions with experts on violence prevention and research utilization. This introductory article sets the stage for the rest of the special issue by defining terms, providing a rationale for the planning project, describing the planning process, and summarizing what is to come in the rest of the issue. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.