The Congruence of International Children's Rights and Feminist Principles as a Foundation for Therapy with Young People

SUMMARY

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, an international treaty that supports and protects humans under age eighteen, embodies several principles that are useful in guiding mental health treatment with young people. Here we summarize relevant tenets of the Convention and offer an analysis regarding its relevance to feminist therapy. Topics covered include participation and limited self-determination, privacy and autonomy, supportive community, access to information and care, least restrictive environment, and access to protection and recovery assistance. We then deconstruct the apparent assumptions underlying the Convention through a feminist, post-modern, social constructionist perspective. We conclude that the Convention offers a useful vision for work with children and is consistent in some ways with feminist-informed practice, although attention must be given to factors about which the Convention is silent, including gender, privilege, and assumptions regarding family, child, mental health, and human development.     

SCIENTIFIC AND RELIGIOUS APPROACHES TO MORALITY: AN ALTERNATIVE TO MUTUAL ANATHEMAS

Abstract Many people today believe that scientific and religious approaches to morality are mutually incompatible. Militant secularists claim scientific backing for their claim that the evolution of morality discredits religious conceptions of ethics. Some of their opponents respond with unhelpful apologetics based on fundamentalist views of revelation. This article attempts to provide an alternative option. It argues that public discussion has been excessively influenced by polemics generated by the new atheists. Religious writers have too often resorted to overly simplistic arguments rooted in literalist approaches to the Bible and the religious traditions. More historically conscious methods can avoid implausible claims about both religion and science.     

Individual Differences in the Moralization of Everyday Life

We report on the development and initial validation of the Moralization of Everyday Life Scale (MELS), designed to measure variations in people's assignment of moral weight to commonplace behaviors. In Study 1, participants reported their judgments for a large number of potential moral infractions in everyday life; principal components analysis revealed 6 main dimensions of these judgments. In Study 2, scores on the 30-item MELS showed high reliability and distinctness from the Big 5 personality traits. In Study 3, scores on the MELS were strongly correlated with scores on an early scale of moral judgments, suggesting convergent validity.     

What should we expect from a dual-process theory of preference construction in choice?

Dhar and Gorlin (2013) proposed a dual-process framework for understanding the effects of preference construction in choice. Drawing on the distinction operating principles and operating conditions, it is argued that their emphasis on cognitive elaboration fails to specify the mental operations involved in preference construction. This limitation makes their dual-process framework circular and susceptible to the criticism of single-process alternatives. The distinction between associative and propositional processes has the potential to fill this conceptual gap, thereby providing a more thorough understanding of preference construction effects in choice.     

Rendering unto Science and God: Is NOMA Enough?

The proverbial “war between science and religion” has in many quarters reached the status of truism. Francisco J. Ayala seeks to negotiate a truce between the opposing sides through implementing the concept of the Non-overlapping Magisteria (NOMA) of science and theology. The NOMA understanding of the interaction between science and religion maintains that science and religion cannot contradict each other because each discipline has its own proper range of inquiry, namely questions of fact versus questions of value. This article explores the boundaries of these two different domains of knowledge and finds that in both theory and practice, the territorial claims overlap significantly. Furthermore, the author argues that such “territorial trespassing” is not owing to misunderstandings concerning the essence of science and of religion as such. Instead, the overlap of boundary lines—when viewed in light of the history and philosophy of science—is understood as integral to how progressive research normally advances in both science and theology.     

The Constructive Use of Power and the Philosophy of the Self in the Training of Family Therapists

Abstract

This article presents findings from an exploratory qualitative study, which used individual interviews and a focus group to investigate how women in Black-White interracial heterosexual partner relationships retrospectively described their racial identity development and the influence of gender identity development on this process. Social consrructionist, feminist, and racial identity development theories guided the grounded theory methodology. Participants described both constraining and empowering racial identities. Salient constraining racial identities were being a “sell-out” or “traitor,” being a “rule-breaker,” having a masked reference group orientation, needing to prove reference group orientation, and having minority family status. Empowering racial identities included refusing to take sides, being “not racial,” being neutral, identifying by respect rather than by race, having a multiple reference group orientation, being strong, and being an educator and mediator.

Gender identity themes of strength and resiliency emerged as significant influences in racial identity development. Suggested questions for use within a narrative therapy context provide a clinical application of findings from the study.     

Theoretical Orientation and Therapists' Attitudes to Important Components of Therapy: A Study Based on the Valuable Elements in Psychotherapy Questionnaire

The authors describe the inception and subsequent testing of a questionnaire on attitudes regarding how psychotherapy ought to be pursued: the Valuable Elements in Psychotherapy Questionnaire (VEP-Q). A sample of 416 Swedish therapists (161 psychodynamic, 93 cognitive, 95 cognitive behavioral, and 67 integrative/eclectic) responded to the 17-item VEP-Q. A factor analysis of these items resulted in three subscales: PDT, CBT, and Common Factor, as validated by analyses of covariance. The internal consistency and test–retest reliability of the scales were excellent. In addition to theoretical orientation, variables such as gender and basic professional training influenced how respondents answered the VEP-Q. The authors conclude that the VEP-Q seems to be an appropriate instrument for describing similarities as well as differences among practitioners of various schools of psychotherapy.     

基于自身短期与社会长远利益两难选择的绿色消费机制

环境恶化及消费对环境的巨大影响,使得顾客进行绿色消费的意义重大而深远.企业希望能够掌握绿色消费的特点和机制,从而能够拉动绿色需求.绿色营销研究多针对企业,而针对顾客的研究甚少.为数不多的绿色消费研究甚少关注顾客在进行绿色消费时在自身短期利益与社会长远利益之间的两难选择,对绿色消费机制的研究也很缺乏.本研究试图从该两难选择入手,使用自我控制、利他行为、自我构建等理论,采用实验方法,从顾客的视角来研究个体因素、文化因素与情境因素是如何通过影响“关注长远利益”、“关注社会利益”,从而影响绿色消费的,并研究这两种机制的边界条件、冲突及自我构建对自身短期利益与社会长远利益两难选择的调和.     

基于伦理学视域的失能老人照护服务体系研究

研究失能老人照护服务体系问题,对于保障失能老人的生命尊严与生存权利、促进社会和谐发展等具有重要意义.基于失能老人生存需要的服务供给、人才培养、制度安排、组织监管等问题,是照护服务体系构建的基本元素.坚持人本理念以及资源配置的公平、公正与效益目标,是照护服务体系构建的伦理原则.