Encouraging children to mentalise about a perceived outgroup increases prosocial behaviour towards outgroup members

We investigated whether encouraging young children to discuss the mental states of an immigrant group would elicit more prosocial behaviour towards them and impact on their perception of a group member's emotional experience. Five‐ and 6‐year‐old children were either prompted to talk about the thoughts and feelings of this social group or to talk about their actions. Across two studies, we found that this manipulation increased the extent to which children shared with a novel member of the immigrant group who was the victim of a minor transgression. The manipulation did not lead to greater sharing towards a victim from the children's own culture and did not influence their perception of a victim's negative emotions. These results may ultimately have implications for interventions aimed at fostering positive intergroup relations within the context of immigration.     

The Strengths and Limitations of Case Record Reviews in Examining Family Preservation Outcome Formulation and Treatment Planning

Much debate has centered on what are reasonable outcomes of the short-term intensive family preservation services (IFPS). However, little attention has been given to how therapists actually formulate outcomes in their practices. The files of 98 families who used IFPS were reviewed to determine how therapists formulated outcomes and whether formulated outcomes varied by service sector (child welfare or mental health) and child age. It was found that formulated outcomes in mental health were more likely than those in child welfare to have a child focus and an interpersonal locus. Variation in outcome formulation in child welfare by child age was found, with outcomes of younger children more likely to be parent-focused than were outcomes of older children. The issues pointed out by these findings are discussed. Since case records are a potential data source for researchers, the paper concludes with a discussion of the strengths and limitations of case record reviews for research purposes.     

Mental verb input for promoting children's theory of mind: A training study

An experimental study investigated the effect of the type of mental verb input (i.e., input with think, know, and remember) on preschoolers’ theory of mind development. Preschoolers (n = 72) heard 128 mental verb utterances presented in video format across four sessions over two weeks. The training conditions differed only in the way the mental verbs were presented: the form (statement or question), the referent (first person or other person), and the interaction style (overheard or interactive). Children who overheard the characters discussing the mental states of someone else, either in statement or question form, significantly improved in their false belief understanding. These experimental findings demonstrate mental verb utterances about other people, even when not directed to the child, scaffold children's attention to differing perspectives, thus more efficiently promoting some aspects of their ToM development.     

Domestic violence against women: Understanding social processes and women's experiences

The prevalence of domestic abuse against women has been estimated as high as one in four. The risk is particularly high for women who are younger, economically dependent, unemployed and with children. Research about the factors that maintain situations of abuse has generally focused separately on the coping strategies of women, barriers to leaving the relationship and the perpetrators' means of abuse. In this study we used a community psychology perspective to seek a broader understanding of what maintains situations of abuse, in order to suggest interventions in a rural County in the North of England. Twelve women who had experienced domestic abuse and had used voluntary sector services agreed to be interviewed about their experiences and the resources and strategies available to them. Using grounded theory we generated four themes: (1) Commonalities and contradictions in the experience of abuse; (2) living with abuse; (3) the response of systems reinforced or challenged the abuse and (4) dealing with abuse beyond the relationship. These findings illustrate how situations of domestic abuse can be prolonged by limited options available to victims for support and protection, and a lack of active public acknowledgement that domestic abuse is unacceptable. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Family therapists in trauma-response teams: bringing systems thinking into interdisciplinary fieldwork

Attention to the mental health facets of disaster-preparedness and trauma-response teams has increased considerably over the past decade. As family therapists take part in these efforts, they bring with them a worldview that adds valuable contributions to the nature in which fieldwork is conducted and the manners in which interdisciplinary teams function on the ground. In this article, we present how systems thinking sensitizes trauma workers to a variety of clinical presentations and biopsychosocial complexities inherent in this work. We describe common clinical- and practice-related challenges, alongside practical strategies for effectively dealing with these challenges. We draw upon our experiences as family therapists trained in the field of trauma, and our work as field responders, supervisors and team leaders across a variety of local and large-scale disaster events and contexts.     

自我责任归因与推断的心理结构与特征

基于日常经验取向,运用问卷调查的方法,探索自我责任归因与推断的心理结构及其基本特征。对382名被试问卷调查的统计分析结果显示：（1）自我责任归因与推断结构是一种一元单向决定模式,即“责任推断→责任情感→责任行为”。（2）个体倾向于较多地将挫折或失败的原因归咎于可控起因,而较少归因于不可控起因。（3）个体在进行自我责任推断时,可控性程度仅对责任的大小构成影响,并不影响对是否承担责任的推断。（4）在自身应为挫折或失败承担责任时,个体在情感体验上较多自我责备,较少自我同情;在行为反应上,较多积极应对,较少甚至不大会消极应对。     

Parent-School and Community Partnerships in Children's Mental Health: Networking Challenges, Dilemmas, and Solutions

Inter-agency collaboration, service coordination, and the creation of successful partnerships among parents, teachers, and human services professionals continues to be a challenge for the development of responsive community-based systems of care for at-risk youth and their families. We explore how one inner-city neighborhood struggles to create successful community partnerships through traditional networking strategies. Our findings identify networking strategies that appear to work and those that do not. Recommendations for improving communication are provided.     

Poverty and Mental Health: Underclaiming of Welfare Benefits

The study undertaken by a local MIND welfare benefits service found that 51% of people attending a local mental health resource centre were not receiving the welfare benefits to which they were entitled. Being in receipt of correct benefit entitlement was found to be unaffected by: whether a person had a long history of using mental health services; whether they had a care manager; or whether they had previously been given benefits advice. Women were less likely to be receiving their correct benefit entitlement than men. It is argued that the only way to guarantee that people receive their full benefit entitlement is to ensure that highly trained and experienced welfare benefits advisers are readily accessible to all people who use mental health services.     

"中小学生心理健康"公众观的调查和分析

本研究调查分析了家长、教师对中小学生心理健康判断标准的认识.因素分析表明,家长主要强调四个因素"精神和神经病症"、"良好品行"、"健康人格"和"循环性";教师则强调五个因素"精神分裂症状"、"神经质"、"好学生标准"、"不良人格"和"不良品行".公众对于情、意、个性及社会适应等同心理健康的关系认识较为清楚,但对认知、品行及体征与之的关系认识则片面和模糊."好学生标准"对判断有重要影响.     

Mental Attention, Consciousness, and the Progressive Emergence of Wisdom

I discuss the mental–attentional mechanisms of consciousness, meditation, and the emergence of wisdom. A developmental (neoPiagetian), dynamic flash-light model of mental attention is used. I model the initial stages of consciousness in infancy, showing that the growth of consciousness is influenced by the number of schemes that attention can coordinate. I discuss ordinary consciousness in adults and the stages/levels of adult development in consciousness. Wisdom is defined as an expectable but often missed outcome of adult development. To accelerate access to wisdom, two complementary paths are mentioned: a natural life-experience path and a meditation path. Maturational organismic factors and the role of mental attentional mechanisms in these two paths are discussed, and a constructivist neuropsychological model of what happens in the brain during meditation, and in higher consciousness, is sketched. Processes involved in higher stages of consciousness are then examined from this perspective.