Israeli Adolescents' help-seeking behaviours in relation to terrorist attacks: the perceptions of students, school counsellors and teachers

Exposure to terror seriously threatens the well-being of children and adolescents. School mental health professionals cope simultaneously with the counselling needs of their clients and with their own fears and doubts. This report is based on two studies. The first study was concerned with the perceptions of Israeli adolescents of the place of terrorist attacks in their lives. It also examined adolescents' help-seeking attitudes and behaviours in relation to terrorist attacks. The second study investigated Israeli school counsellors' and teachers' perceptions of their own roles and professional attitudes in relation to terror. A better understanding of the effects of terrorism on adolescents as well as potentially effective approaches to coping with its individual and organisational outcomes are proposed.     

Teaching Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) to students: The effects of MBCT on the levels of Mindfulness and Subjective Well-Being

This study aimed to address the gap in the literature considering empirical evidence in support of the assumption that Mindfulness is the mediating factor in the positive outcomes of Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) programmes, and to further examine the link between Mindfulness and Subjective Well Being. The research question was whether MBCT would increase participants’ levels of Mindfulness and Satisfaction with Life and decrease participants’ level of Negative Affect. A Repeated Measures (Test–Retest) within participants design was employed and fifteen Counselling students at the University of East London provided data anonymously at the beginning and end of MBCT programme by completing the Freiburg Mindfulness Inventory (FMI) (Walach, Buchheld, Buttenmuller, Kleinknecht, & Schmidt, 2006), Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) (Diener, Emmons, Larsen & Griffin, 1985) and Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) (Watson, Clark & Tellegen, 1988). The results indicated that by the end of the MBCT programme: participants’ level of Mindfulness significantly increased; Positive Affect remained unchanged; Negative Affect significantly decreased; a strong trend in the data indicated an increase in participants’ Satisfaction With Life but failed to reach a statistically significant level; Mindfulness and Negative Affect were significantly negatively correlated, while Mindfulness and Satisfaction With Life were not found to be associated. A longer practice time of Mindfulness during the programme was found to be significantly correlated with a higher level of Mindfulness at the end of the programme. The results were interpreted in support of the assumption that Mindfulness has an important role as a mediating factor in symptoms relief and positive outcomes following participation on Mindfulness programmes. The results also support of Brown and Ryan's (2003) conclusion regarding the role of Mindfulness in enhancing Well Being. A Positive Psychology framework was applied in interpreting the data and it was suggested that there was ground to believe that Mindfulness can be integrated well, as a concept and as a therapeutic intervention, into the field of Positive Psychology.     

Know Thyself and Become What You Are: A Eudaimonic Approach to Psychological Well-Being

In an effort to strengthen conceptual foundations of eudaimonic well-being, key messages from Aristotle’s Nichomacean Ethics are revisited. Also examined are ideas about positive human functioning from existential and utilitarian philosophy as well as clinical, developmental, and humanistic psychology. How these perspectives were integrated to create a multidimensional model of psychological well-being [Ryff, C.D.: 1989a, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57(6), pp. 1069–1081] is described, and empirical evidence supporting the factorial validity of the model is briefly noted. Life course and socioeconomic correlates of well-being are examined to underscore the point that opportunities for eudaimonic well-being are not equally distributed. Biological correlates (cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, immune) of psychological well-being are also briefly noted as they suggest possible health benefits associated with living a life rich in purpose and meaning, continued growth, and quality ties to others. We conclude with future challenges in carrying the eudaimonic vision forward.     

Teaching Beginning Braille Reading Using an Alphabet or Uncontracted Braille Approach

This study examined the effects of using a research based print reading program modified to accommodate beginning braille readers using an alphabet or uncontracted braille reading approach with five beginning braille readers. Four of the 5 participants displayed a clear increase in their ability to read high frequency words when they began using the Early Steps reading program modified to an Early Steps Alphabet Braille Reading Program. Study findings indicate that access to reading activities and materials afforded to sighted peers resulted in improved reading outcomes for children with visual impairments. Teachers, participants, and family members all viewed the use of the uncontracted braille reading program and materials favorably. Specialized reading instruction was also perceived as beneficial by teachers of students with visual impairments when the training addressed the specific needs of braille readers.     

Divine Encounter

“Divine Encounter” is a poem depicting a place-based religious experience.     

中国古代关于"家"的哲学论纲

Unlike traditional Western philosophy, which places no special emphasis on the importance of family structure, traditional Chinese philosophy represented by Confucianism is a set of theories that give family a primary position. With family as the foundation, a complete framework of “human body → two genders → family and clan” is formed. Therefore, family in Chinese philosophy is existent, gender-interactive and diachronic. It should also be noted that family also plays a fundamental role in Chinese theories on cosmology, religion, and many other subjects. In other words, Chinese culture as a whole is imprinted with reflections on family. Nowadays, as the value of family becomes less prominent, re-examining ancient Chinese philosophy will undoubtedly bear theoretical significance. Meanwhile, traditional Chinese philosophy can also offer an ideological framework for the re-construction of family values in the contemporary world. __________ Translated by Zhang Shaoqian from Zhexue yanjiu 哲学研究 (Philosophical Researches), 2008, (1): 56–63     

The Phenomenological Dimension of Meaning: Words,Vowels, Phonemes As Ways To Sing The World,To Celebrate The World,and To Live It

This is commentary on Cornejo’s Intersubjectivity as co-phenomenology: from the holism to the being-in-the-world-with-others, co-phenomenology, in which meaning is defined as a construal of phenomenological experience, it is not an individual creation, but rather an intersubjective one. In this paper the basic question is how language expresses the world and things and, consequently, what vision of the world is expressed by language and what relationship it creates with the real. Language is a set of differences between signs and meanings. It lives for and by this constant aspiration to say the inexpressible, to capture the elusive. Language tries to express the driving inner movement of the real through references and interlacing, by multiplying the relational threads of meanings. For example, the phonetic gesture performs for the speaker and his listener a certain structuring of experience, a certain modulation of existence. This is a communicative dimension in which meaning is always a process. It is the situation of co-feeling between subjects, in which understanding is achieved, as defined by Cornejo in his essay.

中小学教师工作-家庭冲突的测量

本研究旨在分析我国中小学教师工作-家庭冲突的结构并编制适合我国中小学教师的工作-家庭冲突问卷。在文献分析基础上,通过开放式问卷调查、教师访谈,分析1025份问卷数据,确定了中小学教师工作-家庭冲突包括工作干扰家庭和家庭干扰工作两方面,两方面均包括情绪情感、心理资源和行为方式三维度。编制的我国中小学教师工作-家庭冲突问卷共22个项目,信效度良好,适合用来分析中小学教师工作-家庭冲突的状况。     

处理疼痛的理念

处理疼痛的理念各有不同。有人认为手术后疼痛很正常,挺着吧。人老了,腰腿痛就该扛着。而有的人会积极给予止痛治疗,以患者舒适为目标。2007年7月我国卫生部签发了关于《医疗机构诊疗科目名录》中增加“疼痛科”的文件,说明我国进入了一个止痛治疗的新时代。得到疼痛治疗是患者的基本权利,也是医师的崇高职责。有疼有痛忍着不治的时代即将过去,及早、及时为患者止痛是人道主义的体现。     

史事宗易学研究方法析论

夫援史证《易》本为易家释《易》普遍之现象,然自赵宋三李一杨(李光、李杞、李中正、杨万里)开宗奠基后,历宋元明三朝而踵继者众,至有清一朝,更以超迈往古之姿,创猗欤盛哉之势,将史事易学推至极盛。由于此派易学著作甚多,易家援引史事形貌多样,不仅丰富史事易学之内容,亦充实义理易学之内涵,并建构出此派易学独特之体系,值得吾人深入研究。海内外曾从事相关研究者虽不乏其人,惟此派易学研究方法仍有讨论之空间,愿将个人研究之拙见,提供未来研究者之参考,冀收后出转精之效。其内容包括史事易学之定义、史事易家之典型、史事易学发展史略、援史证《易》研究之重点(如援史动机、援史类型、援史与卦爻比附之切当性、援史之史观、以说理为本以援史为末),以及史事易学研究之发展性等等,希望透过文献资料之搜集与分析,进而从易学与易学史之角度推论,俾有助于史事宗易学研究方法之建立,与史事易学研究深度广度之推扩。