The Role of Creativity in Marriage and Family Therapy Practice: A National Online Study

The purpose of this study, using an online methodology, was to investigate therapists' perceptions of the role of creativity in couples' and family therapy. Along with completing a quantitative measure assessing creativity in their work, participants responded to four open-ended questions which addressed the meaning of creativity, characteristics of a creative family therapist, some creative interventions they have used with couples and families, and barriers to their own creativity as a family therapist. A total of 142 marriage and family therapists in 36 states in the United States participated. The findings shed light on the unique importance of creativity in couples and family treatment.     

Bocheński and Balance: System and History in Analytic Philosophy

Using the work of Józef Bocheski as apositive example, this paper sets out the casefor a balanced use of historical knowledge indoing analytic philosophy. Between the twoextremes of relativizing historicism, whichdenies absolute truth, and arrogant scientism,which denies any constructive role for thehistory of ideas in philosophy, lies a viamedia in which historical reflection onconcepts and their history is placed at theservice of the system of cognitive philosophy.Knowledge of the history of philosophy, whilenot a sine qua non, can empower analyticphilosophy to push forward to new and moresatisfactory solutions to old and new problems.Examples are adduced from Bocheski's oeuvreand from the author's own experience.     

“Mind the gaps”: An empirical approach to engineering ethics, 1997–2001

A survey on ethical issues in engineering was administered over a five-year period to Stanford engineering students and practicing engineers. Analysis of its results strongly suggests that important disconnects exist between the education of engineering students regarding ethical issues in engineering on the one hand, and the realities of contemporary engineering practice on the other. Two noteworthy consequences of these gaps are that the views of engineering students differ substantially over what makes an issue an ethical issue, while practicing engineers exhibit significant disagreement over what is the most important non-technical aspect of being a responsible engineering professional in contemporary society. These divergences impede the recognition of ethical issues and of specific moral responsibilities of engineers in concrete professional practice. It is argued that the use of suitably refined and probing surveys of engineering students and practicing engineers about ethical issues in engineering is an important although neglected empirical approach to the study of engineering ethics. Such an approach can enhance the prevailing case study method and combat over-tidy theoretical-analytical approaches to the subject. When a train arrives at a station in the London Underground, a public announcement cautions passengers to “mind the gap”, i.e. heed the space between the station platform and the carriage while entering or exiting. An early draft of this paper was presented at the International Conference on Ethics in Engineering and Computer Science, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio, March 21–23, 1999.     

Introducing ethics and engineering: the case of Delft University of Technology

This article focuses mainly on (1) the policy of Delft University of Technology since 1992 as regards the university-wide introduction of a compulsory course on ethics and engineering, and (2) the ideal structure of such a course, including the educational goals of the course. Dr. G. J. Scheurwater is Senior policy-advisor to the Board of Delft University of Technology. Prof. S. J. Doorman is Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Ethics of Delft University of Technology.     

Is transference the ‘total situation’?

This paper examines through the detailed explication of analytic material the author's experience of a psychoanalytic and a Jungian way of understanding the interactions between him and his patient. This comparative approach considers where the differences lie with respect to timing and content of interpretations and where the differences are essentially tactical rather than theoretical.     

Depression and Self-Esteem in Boys with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: Associations with Comorbid Aggression and Explanatory Attributional Mechanisms

It was tested whether boys with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), subgrouped by aggressive status, would show higher rates of depressive symptomatology and lower levels of self-esteem than would comparison boys and, in a subsample, explored attributional mechanisms that may be related to such internalizing features. Study 1 utilized 114 boys with ADHD (all prior recipients of stimulant medication) and 87 comparison boys, aged 7–12 years. Aggressive boys with ADHD reported more symptoms of depression than did nonaggressive boys with ADHD, who, in turn, reported more depression than did comparison boys. Effect sizes were moderate to large and did not vary with a depression rating scale uncontaminated by ADHD-related items. For self-esteem, the most pronounced effect was that aggressive boys with ADHD showed lower levels than did nonaggressive ADHD or comparison boys; effects were again moderate to large. Study 2 participants were a subsample of boys with ADHD from Study 1 (N = 27). We probed causal attributions in ADHD-related domains through responses to hypothetical vignettes, in which the protagonist's medication status (medicated, not medicated) was crossed with type of outcome (good, bad). Medication-related attributions were frequent. In describing the protagonist's success in relation to medication treatment, the sample showed significant associations between (a) medication-related attributions and (b) increased depressive symptomatology as well as decreased self-esteem. We discuss attributional processes that may help to explain the variation in internalizing symptoms among children with ADHD.     

Field Independence and Change Agent Correlation in Emerging Communities of Irian Jaya,Indonesia

Communities that are limited by oral traditions find theological truths communicated by missions a challenge to understand. Currently, linguists work in many of these minority language groups in order to create vital written languages and produce various literature titles that include the Scriptures. Development of a writing system requires indigenous language assistants who are adept in drawing meaning from unfamiliar cultural paradigms and accurately articulating them. Empirical studies in cognitive style conducted among the minority language groups of Irian Jaya, Indonesia show a correlation between field independence (a dimension of cognitive style) and the ability to grasp abstract linguistic concepts. The Brantley/Larsen Test was developed to identify language assistants, also known as change agents, in a culturally appropriate manner for Irian Jaya. Furthermore, this study suggests that the church would benefit from community lay counselors who manifest field independence, which indicates comprehension of abstract and complex linguistic notions found in Scriptures.Indonesia as Organizational Consultant;     

Long-term memory formation in the chick requires mobilization of ryanodine-sensitive intracellular calcium stores

Training chicks (Gallus domesticus) on a one-trial passive avoidance task results in transient and time-dependent enhanced increases in N-methyl-d-aspartate- or alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate-stimulated intracellular calcium concentration in synaptoneurosomes isolated from a specific forebrain region, the intermediate medial hyperstriatum ventrale. This increase could result from either calcium entry from the extracellular medium or from mobilization of intracellular calcium stores. We have therefore examined the effects of dantrolene, an inhibitor of calcium release from the intracellular ryanodine-sensitive store, on these processes. Dantrolene, 50 nmol per hemisphere injected intracerebrally 30 min pre- or 30 min posttraining, blocked longer term memory for the passive avoidance task, whereas memory for the task was unaffected when dantrolene was injected at earlier or later times. Preincubation of synaptoneurosomes, isolated from the intermediate hyperstriatum ventrale 10 min after training, with 100 nM dantrolene abolished the enhanced training-induced increase in intracellular calcium concentration elicited by 0.5 mM N-methyl-d-aspartate. By contrast, the training-induced enhancement of the alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionate-stimulated increase in intracellular calcium concentration in synaptoneurosomes prepared 6 h posttraining was unaffected by preincubation with dantrolene, which was not amnestic at this time. Calcium release from ryanodine-sensitive intracellular stores may thus be a necessary stage in the early phase of the molecular cascade leading to the synaptic modulation required for long-term memory storage.     

Chronic amphetamine exposure during the preweanling period does not affect avoidance learning or novelty-seeking of adult rats

The purpose of the present study was to determine whether exposure to amphetamine during the preweanling period would impact the learning or reward processes of rats tested in adulthood. In three experiments we examined whether amphetamine treatment (0-10 mg/kg per day) on postnatal days 11-17 altered the subsequent performance of adult Sprague-Dawley rats on a step-down passive avoidance, active avoidance, or novelty-seeking task. There was no evidence that postnatal amphetamine exposure affected performance on any of these tasks. These results suggest that the long-term impact of pre- and postnatal psychostimulant exposure differs, because in utero stimulant treatment is known to produce learning deficits and decrease reinforcement efficacy of rats tested in adulthood.