Need for Family Therapy Services for Middle-Class Families in India

This qualitative study explored the needs of Indian middle-class families for family therapy services. Four focus group interviews were conducted with middle-class parents in Madras, India. Participants were introduced to the concept and practice of family therapy and were encouraged to take a more active role in supporting the services they suggested. Participants identified problems faced by Madras middle class families and five different types of services that they were aware of. Three categories of need for family therapy were identified from the narratives of the participants. Several themes fit in each of the three categories. Implications for clinical application are discussed.     

音乐、时间与人的存在--对儒家"成于乐"的现代理解

也子曾经说过：“兴于诗,立于礼,成于乐”。这就是说,一个人只有通过音乐才能真正完成自身,成为一个真正成熟了的人,但是,究竟为什么呢？本文试图回 一问题,论文的观点是,音乐使人摆脱了以视觉为中心的空间视野,把人的完成安置在时间的视域中,这样,“成于乐”就意味着成为一个“即从即成”（即始始终）的“时者”（时间人）。因此,“成于乐”也就是说人的存在成为一项永远都不能完成和终结,到死都在寻求某种新的开始的无尽的事业,换言之,通过“成于乐”,人的存在获得了时间性的维度。     

A Survey of Management Educators’ Perceptions of Unethical Faculty Behavior

To help academic associations in management develop, refine, and implement a code of ethics, we conducted a survey of management educators’ perception of the ethicality of 142 specific behaviors in teaching, research, and service. The results of the survey could be used to inform ethics committees of these associations regarding the level of acceptability of such conduct. The potential value of our study for the Academy of Management or similar management associations lie in our (1) systematically involving the members in building support for the code of ethics, (2) assessing members’ ethical judgments on both cross-sectional and longitudinal bases so as to identify areas needing particular attention in ethical training, (3) providing an extensive list of specific examples of questionable and potentially unethical behaviors so as to make it easier to implement the code, and (4) providing a template survey document for potential use in involving more stakeholder groups in the development of codes of ethics.

Indiscriminability as Indiscernibility by Default

Most solutions to the sorites reject its major premise, i.e. the quantified conditional . This rejection appears to imply a discrimination between two elements that are supposed to be indiscriminable. Thus, the puzzle of the sorites involves in a fundamental way the notion of indiscriminability. This paper analyzes this relation and formalizes it, in a way that makes the rejection of the major premise more palatable. The intuitive idea is that we consider two elements indiscriminable by default, i.e. unless we know some information that discriminates between them. Specifically, following Rough Set Theory, two elements are defined to be indiscernible if they agree on the vague property in question. Then, a is defined to be indiscriminable from b if a is indiscernible by default from b. That is to say, a is indiscriminable from b if it is consistent to assume that a and b agree on the relevant vague property. Indiscernibility by default is formalized with the use of Default Logic, and is shown to have intuitively desirable properties: it is entailed by equality, is reflexive and symmetric. And while the relation is neither transitive nor substitutive, it is “almost” substitutive. This definition of indiscriminability is incorporated into three major theories of vagueness, namely the supervaluationist, epistemic, and contextualist views. Each one of these theories is reduced to a different strategy dealing with multiple extensions in Default Logic, and the rejection of the major premise is shown to follow naturally. Thus, while the proposed notion of indiscriminability does not solve the sorites by itself, it does make the unintuitive conclusion of many of its proposed solutions—the rejection of the major premise—a bit easier to accept.     

Trauma, forgiveness and the witnessing dance: making public spaces intimate

In this paper I explore the concept of forgiveness as a response to gross human rights violations. I present a conceptual examination of the effects of massive trauma in relation to what I refer to as the 'unfinished business' of trauma. Using a psychoanalytic framework, I consider the process of 'bearing witness' about trauma and examine how this process opens up the possibility of reciprocal expressions of empathy between victim and perpetrator. I then argue that, in this context of trauma testimony and witnessing, empathy is essential for the development of remorse on the part of perpetrators, and of forgiveness on the part of victims. Using a case study from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) I clarify the relationship between empathy and forgiveness, and show how the restorative model of the TRC can open up an ethical space and create the possibility of transformation for victims, perpetrators and bystanders. In my conclusion I suggest that forgiveness in politics is the only action that holds promise for the repair of brokenness in post-conflict societies, particularly if, as in South Africa, victims have to live together with perpetrators and beneficiaries in the same country.     

Memory and Narrative Healing Processes in HIV Counseling: A View from Africa

The AIDS pandemic in Africa has wreaked pain on millions of people, particularly the youth. Beyond physical symptoms, the disease destroys the emotional and psychological well-being of its victims and their families. Although psychotherapists are desperately needed, most of those in Africa have not been given sufficient training in HIV counseling. In addition, access to specific models of healing for those traumatized by the news of infection with HIV disease is hardly available. Memory healing processes, which are essential in grief work in Africa, can be combined with ritual theory within a narrative framework to provide a model for bringing healing to clients traumatized by the news of HIV infection. Augustine Nwoye, Ph.D., is presently Associate Professor, and formerly Chairman, Department of Psychology, Kenyatta University, Nairobi, Kenya. A first version of the paper was presented as a Keynote Address at the International Conference in Durban, South Africa, organized by the South African Association of Marital and Family Therapy, May 2004. I thank Dr. Frida Rundell, the then President of the Association, for her invitation and hospitality.     

Learning by Preparing‐to‐Teach and Teaching: A Meta‐Analysis

The present research meta‐analytically examined the effects of preparing‐to‐teach and subsequent teaching (relative to mere studying without teaching expectancy) on the acquisition of domain knowledge. The synthesis of 28 studies indicated that the estimated effect sizes (Hedges' gs) were 0.35 for preparing‐to‐teach and 0.56 for teaching with preparing‐to‐teach. Both preparing‐to‐teach and teaching with preparing‐to‐teach were effective in promoting deep learning (as well as surface learning) and even after a delay. The learning benefits of teaching with preparing‐to‐teach were larger when students expected and engaged in an interactive teaching activity than when they expected and engaged in a non‐interactive teaching activity. The mere expectation of interactive teaching also produced larger learning effects than the expectation of non‐interactive teaching. These results suggest that preparing‐to‐teach and teaching, interactive teaching after preparing to do so in particular, are useful for enhancing learning.     

Comparing to ingroup and outgroup members: Do we assimilate,contrast, or neither?

Previous work studying social comparisons suggests that people are likely to assimilate to ingroup members (e.g. Ledgerwood & Chaiken, 2007) but can also contrast from ingroup members if outgroup members are present (Blanton, Miller, & Dye, 2002). The present research built upon these findings by including a no-comparison control group to test for true contrast and assimilation effects. Across two studies, women primed with a gender-math stereotype received false feedback about their performance on a math task; and in some conditions, they learned of the performance of ostensible male and/or female co-participants. Relative to a no-comparison control, we did not see evidence of ingroup assimilation in either study. However, in both studies, we found that participants were likely to contrast their self-evaluations away from downward targets, regardless of group membership. This suggests that self-enhancement motivations may be stronger than the drive for ingroup assimilation.