供精助孕技术的社会伦理问题

供精助孕技术作为人类辅助生殖技术之一,是实现不育症家庭生育后代的重要手段。通过对人类精子库的发展历程和相关政策的介绍,探讨全球不同社会环境下供精助孕技术所面临的对个人、家庭、社会等方面的伦理问题。讨论供精过程对捐精者的心理社会影响、供精助孕技术后代的知情权及其与供精者的关系界定、供精助孕后代近亲婚配及社会地位和心理状况、实施供精助孕技术对社会学父亲心理社会的影响等问题。如何充分发挥供精助孕技术在辅助生育上的优势并协调社会家庭结构将是未来辅助生殖技术政策调整的方向。

     

消防武警新兵适应不良影响因素的中介效应模型

采用军人适应不良量表、核心自我评价量表、自我韧性量表、亲子关系问卷和军营联结问卷对435名消防武警新兵进行调查,考察了消防武警新兵适应不良的影响因素及其内在机制。结果发现：1）核心自我评价、韧性、亲子关系和军营联结与适应不良均显著负相关。2）韧性在核心自我评价与适应不良关系间起着部分中介作用,军营联结在核心自我评价、亲子关系与适应不良关系间起着部分中介作用。     

The role of the dorsal and ventral hippocampus in olfactory working memory

Olfactory working memory and pattern separation for odor information was assessed in male rats using a matching-to-sample for odors paradigm. The odor set consisted of a five aliphatic acids with unbranched carbon chains that varied from two- to six-carbons in length. Each trial consisted of a sample phase followed by a choice phase. During the sample phase, rats would receive one of five different odors. Fifteen seconds later during the choice phase one of the previous odors was presented simultaneously side by side with a different odor that was based on the number of aliphatic acids that varied in the carbon chains from two- to six-carbons in length and rats were allowed to choose between the two odors. The rule to be learned in order to receive a food reward was to always choose the odor that occurred during the study phase. Odor separations of 1, 2, 3 or 4 were selected for each choice phase and represented the carbon chain difference between the study phase odor and the test phase odor. Once an animal reached a criterion of 80–90% correct across all temporal separations based on 40 trials, rats received a control, dorsal hippocampal, or ventral hippocampal lesion and were retested on the task. On postoperative trials, only the ventral hippocampal lesion group was impaired relative to both control and dorsal hippocampal groups groups. There were no effects on odor pattern separation. All groups of rats could discriminate between the odors. The data suggest that the ventral hippocampus, but not dorsal hippocampus, supports working memory for odor information.     

Virtual human analogs to rodent spatial pattern separation and completion memory tasks

Spatial pattern separation (SPS) and spatial pattern completion (SPC) have played an increasingly important role in computational and rodent literatures as processes underlying associative memory. SPS and SPC are complementary processes, allowing the formation of unique representations and the reconstruction of complete spatial environments based on partial spatial information. We present two novel computerized navigational tasks as human analogs of well-established rat SPS and SPC tasks. Results from these tasks show that human participants are sensitive to increasing SPS and SPC demands. Specifically, memory accuracy decreased with decreasing separation distance between target and foil locations in the SPS task and with decreasing number of distal spatial cues in the SPC task. These tasks set the stage for valuable future directions, including the use of these tasks with imaging and clinical populations.     

Special Rules for the Church: The “Ministerial” Exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act

Abstract : In the Hosanna‐Tabor case, the United States Supreme Court held that there is a broad exception under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for employees who are ministers. A Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod school could fire an elementary school teacher with a disability because she was a “called teacher,” even though the termination would otherwise have violated the ADA. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America supported this decision, but this contradicts the ELCA's position with respect to persons living with disabilities. It also reflects an “idolatry of the call” inconsistent with the priesthood of all believers. A better course for the ELCA is to agree to be bound by those standards that it advocates for the secular world.     

A review of Lacan's seminar on anxiety1

The seminar on anxiety marks a turning point in the development of Lacan's thought from several perspectives. First, Lacan implicitly abandons his theory that the unconscious is structured like a language. He also abandons the endeavour to identify Freud's theory with his own. He develops some original new ideas about anxiety, some of which are of great interest, such as the connection between castration anxiety and narcissism; others, such as his denial of the existence of separation anxiety, are absurd. Lacan's main point of divergence from Freud, his rejection of the inner world, also emerges clearly in this seminar.     

Effect of a reliability observer on the frequency of positive parent behavior recorded during naturalistic parent-child interactions

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effect of the presence of a reliability observer on the number of positive parent behaviors recorded by a primary observer during naturalistic parent-child interactions. Thirty parents and their young clinic-referred children served as subjects. After two initial home observations, a reliability observer was present to record data in observation session 3, but not session 4, for one-half the subjects. For the remaining subjects the reliability observer was present in session 4 but not session 3. The results of a 2 × 2 analysis of variance indicated a group by session interaction which resulted from an increase in maternal attention to the child in the presence of a reliability observer. Hypotheses to explain the finding are presented and implications of the results are discussed.This research was supported in part by NIMH Grant MH28859-01.     

The Development of Family Loyalty and Relational Ethics in Children

Despite little research investigating how family loyalty and relational ethics develop in children, theorists suggest that children's early family loyalty experiences play a significant role in their future relationships. Twenty-four children, ages 5–10 years, were interviewed to examine developmental trends in children's conceptualizations of family and family loyalty and their reasoning through parent-child ethical dilemmas. Results indicate (a) younger children possess a simpler, more concrete schema for family and family loyalty than do older children and (b) younger children are less able than older children to adopt their parents' perspectives in reasoning through ethical dilemmas.A psychotherapist with T. W. Ponessa & Associates     

Observed Family Interaction During Clinical Interviews: A Comparison of Families Containing Preschool Boys With and Without Disruptive Behavior

The clinical intake interview is an opportunity to observe family interactions and formulate hypotheses about their influence on presenting problems. In this study family interactions were assessed during an unstructured segment of a clinical intake. Families with disruptive preschool boys were compared with those having nonproblem boys. Mothers' and fathers' reports of marital satisfaction, parenting involvement, and child behavior problems were examined in relation to observed behavior during intake. Patterns of family interaction emerged which were consistent with previous research and with family systems theory. Clinic boys oriented more toward mothers than fathers and interacted more negatively with their fathers than did comparison boys. Implications for integrating the assessment of family interactions into clinical practice and research with behavior problem children are discussed.