Casa de Alba: Therapeutic community for severe mental health problems

The Romão de Sousa Foundation has worked for three years to establish Casa de Alba which aims to help individuals and families affected by mental health problems. Working within a relational-integrative framework, Casa de Alba has a multidisciplinary team which makes use of therapeutic community theory and a range of psychological therapies and psychosocial interventions including individual and group psychotherapy, occupational therapy, arts, yoga, psychiatric consultation and pharmacotherapy, as well as the encouragement of self-management in everyday activities within the house. The use of over 20 acres of outdoor space will form part of the day to day therapeutic programme with activities such as horticultural therapy, ridding, walking and sports. Supervision will be used to help the staff team integrate different modalities and approaches as well as to improve the service.     

Rationality and autonomy from the Enlightenment and Islamic perspectives

Rationality and autonomy are foundational concepts in anglophone or ‘Western’ countries that originated primarily from the Enlightenment period. When compared with ‘Western’ ideologies, non-Western belief systems such as Islam may not appear, at first glance, to place as much emphasis on the value and attainment of rationality and autonomy. This may lead some people to conclude that Islam necessarily marginalises or even suppresses its believers’ development of rationality and autonomy. This article compares the concepts of rationality and autonomy from the Enlightenment and Islamic perspectives. It is argued that there exist Islamic traditions that promote the inculcation of ‘normal rationality’ and ‘normal autonomy’ within a convictional community from which beliefs develop. However, the extent to which Muslims are encouraged to cultivate and exercise their rationality and autonomy would depend, among other factors, on the specific interpretations of rationality and autonomy privileged by the Islamic tradition they belong to.     

L’attitude défaitiste des responsables d’équipe : un frein à l’innovation?

The goal of this study is to investigate the role of defeatist attitude in regard to process innovation by considering the mediating role of group potency and the moderating effect of collective autonomy. Data was gathered from 101 work teams (381 members and 101 immediate supervisors) in a public safety organization located in Canada. Results show that group potency may have a mediating role in the relationship between defeatist attitude and process innovation. Moreover, results indicate that the relationship between group potency and process innovation is moderated by collective autonomy, such that this relationship is stronger when the level of collective autonomy is high.     

The Efficacy of a Group Triple P (Positive Parenting Program) for Chinese Parents with a Child Diagnosed with ADHD in Hong Kong: A Pilot Randomised Controlled Study

The present pilot study evaluated the efficacy of the Level 4 Group Positive Parenting Program (Triple P) with Hong Kong Chinese parents who had a child with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), using a randomised controlled trial design. It was a mixed research method involving quantitative measurement and semi‐structured focus group. Participants were randomly assigned to Triple P (n = 8) or control group (n = 9) and completed measures on child disruptive behaviours, sense of parenting efficacy and satisfaction, family stress and service needs. Outcomes were assessed at pre‐, post‐, and 3‐month follow‐up. A focus group was also conducted with the participants in the intervention group upon the programme completion. Compared with the control group, the intervention group reported a significant reduction in intensity of child behaviour problems and a significant increase in parenting efficacy at post‐intervention. The gain in reducing intensity of child disruptive behaviours maintained to 3 months after the completion of programme. Qualitative data suggested the three key elements to help both parents and children get positive changes: understanding and empathy, emotional control, and persistence in applying positive parenting strategies. The results partially provided preliminary evidence supporting the efficacy of Triple P in reducing child behaviour problems for ADHD in Chinese society.     

“Here we're all in the same boat” – a qualitative study of group based rehabilitation for sick‐listed citizens with chronic pain

Musculoskeletal pain impacts upon everyday life. A degree of chronicity may pose an increased risk of sickness absence. One of two rehabilitative interventions, “Tailored Physical Activity” or “Chronic Pain Self‐Management Program”, was offered to sick‐listed citizens who experienced pain. The objectives of this paper were to: (1) Assess what factors are experienced as problematic for sick‐listed citizens in everyday life with chronic pain, and (2) Evaluate the significance of two distinct rehabilitative interventions on the future everyday lives of sick‐listed citizens. Seven semi‐structured interviews with sick‐listed citizens were analyzed using a phenomenological‐hermeneutical approach. Results were discussed by applying the theoretical framework of Antonovsky's salutogenetic model and Yaloms principles for group psychology. The potential for development of citizen's coping is evaluated based on Roessler's notion of progression. The analysis revealed four main themes: (1) Living with pain and unemployment; (2) “Putting my foot down” and “asking for help”; (3) Significance of the group, including instructors, and; (4) Aspects significant to progression. Unemployment is a major life event that promotes stress and can be accompanied by problems related to depressed mood, acceptance of the life situation, feelings of not being useful, feelings of losing control and identity conflicts. Group characteristics that gave a significant basis for progression in the self‐management program are both emotional and instrumental, while the physical training program offers a “here‐and‐now”‐experience and motivation to participate. This study indicates that the self‐management program could potentially improve coping while the physical activity program revealed one example of a means of progression.     

The Epistemic Regress Problem,the Problem of the Criterion,and the Value of Reasons

There are important similarities between the epistemic regress problem and the problem of the criterion. Each turns on plausible principles stating that epistemic reasons must be supported by epistemic reasons but that having reasons is impossible if that requires having endless regresses of reasons. These principles are incompatible with the possibility of reasons, so each problem is a paradox. Whether there can be an antiskeptical solution to these paradoxes depends upon the kinds of reasons that we need in order to attain our epistemic goals. This article explains the problems and considers the ways in which two different conceptions of human flourishing support the value of different kinds of reasons. One conception requires reasons that allow an easy solution to these paradoxes. The other—rational autonomy—requires reasons that depend upon endless regresses. So we cannot have the kinds of fully transparent reasons required for rational autonomy.     

Cooperation in Ethnically Diverse Neighborhoods: A Lost‐Letter Experiment

Several studies suggest a negative impact of ethnic diversity on cooperation, but most of them rely on attitudinal and other indirect measurements of cooperation or are derived from the artificial laboratory setting. We conducted a field experiment based on the lost‐letter technique across 52 neighborhoods in Berlin, Germany. The study has two aims. First, we investigate whether the negative effect of ethnic heterogeneity on cooperation holds for concrete cooperative behavior in a real‐world setting. Second, we test the most prominent psychological mechanism that has been proposed to explain the negative effects of heterogeneity on cooperation, namely in‐group favoritism. We do so by experimentally varying the ethnicity and religion of the senders of letters. We find strong support for the negative effect of ethnic diversity on cooperation. We find no evidence, however, of in‐group favoritism. Letters from Turkish or Muslim organizations were as often returned as those from German and Christian organizations, and the ethnic diversity effect was the same for all types of letters.     

On Replacing the Ethical Principle of Autonomy With an Ethical Principle of Accordance

The author defines and critiques the ethical principle of autonomy. As a concept, autonomy is most aligned with paradigms of counseling that focus on the individual as a psychological entity with moral agency. It is less consistent with frameworks that focus on relationships philosophically and in practice. Autonomy is paradoxical, because it is a consensually defined principle imposed on counseling practice while denying counselors a choice in its application. The author suggests accordance as an alternative ethical principle. Accordance is consistent with relational paradigms of practice and the other relationship‐focused ethical principles in counseling. Accordance fully contextualizes individual responsibility and choice.     

道德型领导者得到了什么？道德型领导、团队平均领导-部属交换及领导者收益

道德型领导是新近提出的一种领导理论,大量研究证实这种领导方式会对员工和组织带来积极影响。然而,在领导过程中处于主体地位的领导者从中获得了什么收益却较少受到关注。以50个工作团队的248名员工为研究对象,本研究基于社会交换理论考察了道德型领导与个体层次和团队层次上领导者收益的关系及其作用过程。跨层次分析结果表明：(1)道德型领导对个体层次的员工对领导的认知信任和情感信任,以及团队层次的团队绩效和领导者绩效均有显著正向作用;(2)团队平均领导-部属交换中介了道德型领导与下属对领导者的认知信任、情感信任以及团队绩效的关系,但在道德型领导与领导者绩效关系间无显著中介作用。本文揭示了道德型领导者在领导过程中获得的“收益”以及团队层次社会交换的中介作用,为道德型领导和团队社会交换的研究提供了启示。     

Duty orientation: Theoretical development and preliminary construct testing

We develop and test the construct of duty orientation that we propose is valuable to advancing knowledge about ethical behavior in organizations. Duty orientation represents an individual’s volitional orientation to loyally serve and faithfully support other members of the group, to strive and sacrifice to accomplish the tasks and missions of the group, and to honor its codes and principles. We test the construct validity and predictive validity of a measure of duty orientation across five studies and six samples. Consistent with the conceptualization of duty orientation as a malleable construct, we found in separate field studies that duty orientation mediates the relationship between ethical leadership and ethical and unethical behaviors, and between transformational leadership and ethical behavior. In predicting ethical and unethical behavior, duty orientation demonstrated incremental predictive validity beyond the effects of affective organizational commitment, organizational identification, experienced job responsibility, collective self-construal, and organizational values congruence.