Some Legal Issues Patients May Face While in Therapy

This article on forensic family therapy touches upon a few of the major germane ethical and legal dicta which regulate and circumscribe psychotherapy practice. Differences between ethical and legal rulings are delineated. Some of the problems which may confront and even engulf individuals, couples, and families during their life cycle and which bring them into the orbit of the legal and/or judicial systems before, during, or after the period of assessment and treatment are explored. Some issues that have received the least coverage in the family forensic literature are highlighted; and some of the areas that have been accorded a great deal of attention elsewhere are mentioned only briefly. A short commentary on the forensic family professionals’ potential role in each arena of practice is provided.     

双语跨语言的句法启动

本文介绍了跨语言句法启动的图片描述法、补句法和句子回忆法三种研究方法;总结了跨语言句法启动研究关注的主要问题,包括：词序的一致性对跨语言句法启动的影响、词汇因素在跨语言句法启动中的作用、语言内和语言间句法启动的比较以及跨语言句法启动产生的机制等。同时也指出,在双语词序一致性,第二语言的熟练程度,双语语言学特性的差异性是否或者如何影响跨语言的句法启动等方面仍需进一步的研究     

Maltreated Children's Emotional and Behavioral Problems: Do Teachers and Parents See the Same Things?

We examined whether parent/caregivers and teacher/therapists differ in their perceptions of the behavior problems of young maltreated children. The sample consisted of 33 maltreated preschoolers (58% neglected, 24% sexually abused, 18% physically abused, 59% African American, 41% Caucasian) enrolled in a metropolitan-area treatment center providing an educational/intervention program for maltreated children and their families. Most (82%) of the participant families had an annual income of $10,000 or less. Parent/caregivers and teacher/ therapists provided data about the children, employing the Colorado Child Temperament Inventory, Child Behavior Checklist, and Preschool Behavior Questionnaire. The results indicate that the teacher/therapists and the parent/caregivers perceived the same child as behaving differently. Implications concerning how teachers and parents might communicate are discussed, as well as possible reasons for the two different perceptions of the same child. Three potential reasons for the differences are that they are due to the different perspectives of parents and teachers in assessing child behaviors, to situational variation in child behavior (e.g., home versus school), or to some combination of both effects.     

An educational program to overcome language and cultural barriers to genetic services

Providing genetic services to families who do not speak English and whose cultures are quite diverse presents a unique challenge to genetic specialists. One approach that is being employed successfully is the use of specially trained genetic assistants to provide outreach, case finding, referral, support, interpretation, advocacy, and follow-up counseling. A basic genetic assistant training program for five bicultural/bilingual Southeast Asian case managers is described. The course syllabus can be used to train health workers who represent a variety of cultures and languages.     

TREATING OVERWEIGHT CHILDREN THROUGH PARENTAL TRAINING AND CONTINGENCY CONTRACTING1

Fifteen overweight girls aged 5 to 11 yr were randomly assigned to one of two weight-reduction treatments: response-cost plus reinforcement, response-cost only, or a no-treatment control group. In the response-cost plus reinforcement group, parents contracted to facilitate their child's weight loss by carrying out reinforcement and stimulus control techniques, completing weekly charts and graphs, and encouraging their child to exercise. The response-cost only group parents did not contract to reinforce their child's performance. The response-cost program applied to both experimental groups was conducted in weekly meetings in which parents lost previously deposited sums of money. Twenty-five per cent was deducted for missing the weekly meeting, 25% for failing to fill out charts and graphs, and 50% if their child failed to meet her specified weekly weight-loss goal. At the end of the 12-week treatment period, both experimental groups had lost significantly more weight than the control group. After an eight-week, no-contact follow-up, some of the lost weight was regained. The response-cost plus reinforcement group was still significantly below the controls. The response-cost group just missed significance. A 31-week, no-contact follow-up failed to show a treatment effect, but did show a trend towards slower weight gain by the response-cost plus reinforcement group.     

Secondary traumatic stress and adjustment in therapists who work with sexual violence survivors: the moderating role of posttraumatic growth

ABSTRACT

Due to their secondary exposure to the traumatic events disclosed by clients, therapists who work with sexual violence survivors are at risk of experiencing secondary traumatic stress. We examined whether the negative effects of secondary traumatic stress on therapist adjustment would be buffered by posttraumatic growth. Sixty-one therapists who work with sexual violence survivors completed measures of secondary traumatic stress, posttraumatic growth and a range of adjustment indicators. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses demonstrated that posttraumatic growth moderated the negative impact of secondary traumatic stress on therapist depression, anxiety, personal meaning and satisfaction with life. Posttraumatic growth sustained positive affect through a direct effects model only. This study provides support for the protective role of posttraumatic growth in adjustment to secondary traumatic stress.     

Development of the Lurian Approach: A Cultural Neurolinguistic Perspective

This article presents a discussion of the principle of extracortical organization of higher mental functions and its significance for the development of contemporary neuropsychology. The role of external factors (stimulus-mediator, symbol) in establishing functional connections between various brain systems is, in principle, universal. However, inasmuch as differing mediators and means, or significantly different details within them (direction of writing, orientation by maps or by the behavior of sea birds, etc.) may and in fact do develop in different cultures, neuropsychological analysis must take into account cross-cultural differences. Diagnostic tools must also be adapted to differing cultural contexts. The efficacy of this principle for the analysis of bilingual aphasia and of mental organization of speech, including the effect of acquisition of literacy in native language, is demonstrated. The importance of this principle for the development of new directions in applied neuropsychology is also discussed.     

非平衡中-英双语者言语产生中非目标语言的语音激活

采用改造的图片命名启动范式考察非平衡中-英双语者在言语产生中非目标语言的语音激活范围。实验1探讨在准备用汉语命名图片后,英语词汇的语音激活。结果发现,英语语音一致词的命名反应快于语音相关词和语音无关词,且语音相关词的命名反应快于语音无关词,说明在一语的产生过程中,二语对等词和相关词的语音都得到了激活。实验2探讨在准备用英语命名图片后,汉语词汇的语音激活。结果发现,汉语语音一致词的命名反应快于语音相关词和语音无关词,而语音相关词与语音无关词之间的命名反应没有显著差异,说明在二语的产生过程中,只有一语对等词的语音得到了激活。总结果表明,非平衡中-英双语者使用目标语言时,非目标语言的语音也可以得到激活,并且激活范围可能受非目标语言熟练水平的影响。     

Language-experience facilitates discrimination of /d-th/ in monolingual and bilingual acquisition of English

To trace how age and language experience shape the discrimination of native and non-native phonetic contrasts, we compared 4-year-olds learning either English or French or both and simultaneous bilingual adults on their ability to discriminate the English /d-th/ contrast. Findings show that the ability to discriminate the native English contrast improved with age. However, in the absence of experience with this contrast, discrimination of French children and adults remained unchanged during development. Furthermore, although simultaneous bilingual and monolingual English adults were comparable, children exposed to both English and French were poorer at discriminating this contrast when compared to monolingual English-learning 4-year-olds. Thus, language experience facilitates perception of the English /d-th/ contrast and this facilitation occurs later in development when English and French are acquired simultaneously. The difference between bilingual and monolingual acquisition has implications for language organization in children with simultaneous exposure.     

汉—英并列双语者图片命名的重复启动效应

使用图片命名的重复启动范式来考察同一语种内和不同语种间条件下图片的重复呈现对词汇生成的启动效应。结果表明,语种内重复启动显著大于语种间重复启动,汉、英语种内重复启动效应无显著差异;语种间条件下两种语言间的重复启动存在不对称性,汉语—英语的启动大于英语—汉语的启动。实验结果支持词汇/概念分布模型。