An exploratory analysis of the contexts and circumstances of filicide‐suicide in Chicago, 1965–1994

Filicide is the killing of a ward by a parent. Relative to many other types of homicide, filicide is an infrequent event. Filicide followed by the offender's suicide is less frequent still. The contexts and circumstances surrounding filicide‐suicide may nevertheless provide insight into parental psychology. Some research suggests, for example, that filicidal genetic parents are more likely to commit suicide than are filicidal stepparents. Five hypotheses are tested for this study, using a database that includes incident‐level information on over 22,000 homicides committed in Chicago during the years 1965–1994. Findings do not support the hypothesis of differential risk of suicide following filicide by genetic parents and stepparents. Previous work is replicated, indicating that: (1) filicides that include multiple victims are more likely to end in the offender's suicide than are filicides that include a single victim, (2) parents are more likely to commit suicide following a filicide of an older child than a filicide of a younger child, (3) older parents, relative to younger parents, are more likely to commit suicide following filicide, and that (4) fathers, relative to mothers, are more likely to commit suicide following filicide. Discussion suggests future directions for research that can inform our understanding of filicide and of filicide‐suicide. Aggr. Behav. 00:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Exploring definitions of bullying among personality disordered patients in a maximum‐secure hospital

The current study explored the perceptions of staff and patients concerning how patient‐to‐patient bullying should be defined and what behaviours it should include. Participants were randomly selected from the Personality Disorder Unit of a maximum secure hospital. A total of sixty interviews were conducted (30 staff and 30 patients). Problems in attempting to utilise definitions of bullying developed for use in other contexts, i.e., schools, were identified. Patients and staff presented with similar views about how it should be defined: both felt that aggression did not have to be repeated or severe in order to be classed as bullying, that bullying could be accidental, that the power imbalance between perpetrator and victim was not always explicit and, finally, that victims could provoke bullies unintentionally. Indirect (i.e. covert) forms of aggression were less likely to be considered bullying than direct (i.e. overt) forms. A number of differences were found between staff and patients regarding how bullying was conceptualised. Staff were more likely than patients to hold the belief that some patients liked being bullied, and appeared to acknowledge a broader definition of bullying than patients, accounting for a wider range of aggressive behaviours. A number of similarities between the current study and previous prison‐based research were found. The implications of these findings for current research and the value in attending to prison‐based research are highlighted. Aggr. Behav. 00:000–000, 2005. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

TECHNO‐SECULARISM,RELIGION, AND THE CREATED CO‐CREATOR

Abstract. I take up the challenge posed by John Caiazza (2005) to face down the religiously vacuous ethics of techno‐secularism. Techno‐secularism is not enough for human fulfillment let alone human flowering. Yet, communities of faith based on the Bible have a positive responsibility to employ science and technology toward divinely appointed ends. We should study God's world through science and press technology into the service of transforming our world and our selves in light of our vision of God's promised new creation. This warrants invocation of the concept of the human being as the created co‐creator developed in the theology of Philip Hefner.     

WHAT IS “SECULAR”? TECHNO‐SECULARISM AND SPIRITUALITY

Abstract. I argue that there is no “roaring reality of rampant secularism” with “technological application as its chief agent,” as claimed by John Caiazza (2005). Two phenomena, techno‐religion and a spirituality of technology, suggest a different picture of reality: Technology may be an alternative spirituality rather than an ally of a secularism that makes “nutcrackers of the soul” out of people who should be “dancers” (Nietzsche). An analysis of secularism and its manifold causes indicates that secularism is a fruit of both science and religion. The secular is a companion of religion rather than its enemy. Hence, I recommend a heuristic instead of an ontological use of the concept of secularism. In a technological age, religion is changing rather than being displaced. These changes are illustrated by the increase of private religiosity, megachurches, and cyber‐spirituality. Energized by the tension between finitude and creativity, technology shares in the marks of spirituality (Philip Hefner) and in the potential for good and evil. In this situation, fundamentalism and dogmatism in religion, science, and technology are a greater threat than secularism.     

Dementia care‐giving in black and Asian populations: reviewing and refining the research agenda

Despite the increased prevalence of dementia little work has been done to explore the extent and nature of care‐giving in black or Asian‐UK populations. Evidence that does exist suggests that the consequences of care‐giving are significant but different from those experienced by white carers and are mediated by a number of culture‐related factors. These include: ethnically specific conceptualisations of dementia; expectations of family duty; religiosity; the adoption of positive re‐appraisal strategies, and beneficial outcomes. Present approaches to research are narrow, do not take account of cultural dimensions and employ terminology and care‐giving frameworks which are of limited relevance. That the evidence base is characterised by small‐scale studies, and weak methodology further undermines its validity. Research deficits are systemic and fundamental and are both conceptual and methodological. A key contribution would be the development of a multi‐dimensional theoretical model that takes account of the role played by culture, ethnicity and structural inequality in shaping care‐giving experiences and profiles. Incorporating the perspectives of black and Asian carers, and the influence of the life course of individuals and communities and employing qualitative methods would also influence the direction of research, improve its quality and generate knowledge in this underdeveloped field. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

When multi‐problem poor individuals' values meet practitioners' values!

Every intervention process can be thought of as a journey of partnership between people, as well as an intellectual journey of ideas and an emotional journey of relationships. This exploratory study aims at reaching a better understanding of three questions: (i) What values do individual heads of multi‐problem poor households and practitioners show regarding their relationship? (ii) How might those values inform the interaction between them, in positive and/or negative ways? (iii) What might the value system which organizes the interaction between the participants be? This study was carried out using a critical incidents technique and was based on a sample comprising two sub‐groups: 100 heads of multi‐problem poor families and 97 professionals. Findings reveal the following individual values: heads of multi‐problem poor families value instrumental support, relationships and effectiveness; while professionals' appreciate relationships, obedience to their own instructions and (in)effectiveness. These value systems seem to frame the interaction in games of responsibility avoidance that lead to the individuals' disempowerment, disguised in an aura of ‘adequate impotence’. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Children's understanding of mental states as causes of emotions

Theory of mind studies of emotion usually focus on children's ability to predict other people's feelings. This study examined children's spontaneous references to mental states in explaining others' emotions. Children (4‐, 6‐ and 10‐year‐olds, n = 122) were told stories and asked to explain both typical and atypical emotional reactions of characters. Because atypical emotional reactions are unexpected, we hypothesized that children would be more likely to refer to mental states, such as desires and beliefs, in explaining them than when explaining typical emotions. From the development of lay theories of emotion, derived the prediction that older children would refer more often to mental states than younger children. The developmental shift from a desire‐psychology to a belief‐psychology led to the expectation that references to desires would increase at an earlier age than references to beliefs. Our findings confirmed these expectations only partly, because the nature of the emotion (happiness, anger, sadness or fear) interacted with these factors. Whereas anger, happiness and sadness mainly evoked desire references, fear evoked more belief references, even in 4‐year‐olds. The fact that other factors besides age can also play an influential role in children's mental state reasoning is discussed. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The hybrid split ad technique and onsite rewards

With a ‘split ad’, information is presented as two distinct parts, such as when two short commercials for a given brand are separated by other television content. Two studies are presented in this paper which demonstrate the advantages of an emerging form of the split ad strategy, which is termed the ‘hybrid split ad’ technique. Using this approach, a message typically begins in a traditional medium and then concludes at a website. In Experiment 1, the hybrid split ad technique is shown to enhance attitudes towards an advertised product by increasing the perceived importance of favourable attributes provided at the website. Experiment 2 replicates this finding and also addresses an issue of managerial importance, namely, how to motivate consumers to pursue the second (web‐based) portion of the ad. Offering consumers an incentive at the website is useful in this regard, provided that the incentive is small enough not to undermine the positive effects of the hybrid split ad.     

The analyst: His professional novel1

The psychoanalyst needs to be in touch with a community of colleagues; he needs to feel part of a group with which he can share cognitive tension and therapeutic knowledge. Yet group ties are an aspect we analysts seldom discuss. The author defi nes the analyst's ‘professional novel’ as the emotional vicissitudes with the group that have marked the professional itinerary of every analyst; his relationship with institutions and with theories, and the emotional nuance of these relationships. The analyst's professional novel is the narrative elaboration of his professional autobiography. It is capable of transforming the individual's need to belong and the paths of identifi cation and deidentifi cation. Experience of the oedipal confi guration allows the analyst to begin psychic work aimed at gaining spaces of separateness in his relationship with the group. This passage is marked by the work on mourning that separation involves, but also of mourning implicit in the awareness of the representative limits of our theories. Right from the start of analysis, the patient observes the emotional nuance of the analyst's connection to his group and theories; the patient notices how much this connection is governed by rigid needs to belong, and how much freedom of thought and exploration it allows the analyst. The author uses clinical examples to illustrate these hypotheses.     

The four antinomies of the death instinct1

Matte Blanco examines four paradoxical positions that arise out of Freud's writings on the death instinct. He notes that death is not a content known to the unconscious. Furthermore, the absence of time and space in the unconscious means that the conditions necessary for any process such as instinct are similarly absent. Matte Blanco demonstrates the way in which the antinomies that he explores can be explained in terms of the logics that obtain in the unconscious, and he suggests that the concept of the death instinct is one of the most profound expressions of the relationship between the modes that underlie conscious and unconscious logic.