Race and sex in a lifetime

Abstract: The Jungian analysts who participated in the writing of this paper 1 explicitly or implicitly address issues of social and political stasis, retrogression and change via their particular usages of the concept of the transcendent function. Singer proposes that the transcendent function is a term that is usually applied to individuals in whom symbolic material appears that suggests the reconciling of opposites, leading to psycho‐spiritual growth. He also looks at the notion of the transcendent function as it can appear in a similar way in the collective psyche. In addition, he gives attention to the opposite phenomenon—what might be called the descendent function—as it appears in the collective psyche and its leadership, wherein symbolic material can create the division of groups of people into opposites, mobilizing destructive rather than transformative experience. Meador states that Jung designated the mediating process of assimilating unconscious images and ideas into consciousness as the transcendent function. Just as this synthesizing process can produce insight in the individual, it can also be applied to changes in collective society. Embedded collective assumptions tend to shift when opposites collide, as they did, for example, in the turmoils of the 1960s. Her contribution focuses on the recent revolution in racial and sexual attitudes as the product of a collective struggle between certain ingrained social mores from the past and conflicting new points of view. Samuels’ conclusion is that the concept of the transcendent function has little value with respect to political problems. His contribution focuses on: (i) The limitations of using ideas (such as the transcendent function) derived from analysis with individuals in furtherance of an understanding of social and political phenomena. (ii) The specific problem of a lack of credible psycho‐political models for social progress and regress—he argues that the transcendent function is not useful in this regard. (iii) The question of political aggression, violence and conflict in society is explored from the standpoint of the transcendent function so as to investigate its possible role in the management of political conflict. Samuels severely criticizes what he terms ‘triangulation’ and ‘hyper‐reflection’ on the part of analysts who engage with political debates and issues. (iv) Leadership is examined from the standpoint of the transcendent function which, again, does not seem pertinent. Rather, new discoveries in family psychology about the role of the father have greater possibilities as a basis for new thinking about leadership.     

Stability of Emotion Talk in Families from the Toddler to the Preschool Years

A substantial disparity exists for academic achievement in science between Black and White primary-school children. A similar gap exists between boys and girls. The extent to which secondary education influences these achievement gaps has not been established. The authors report analyses showing how these science achievement gaps change as a function of secondary education. Analyses of data from a large, nationally representative longitudinal study of academic achievement showed that racial disparities and disparities associated with gender continue to increase throughout high school.     

The Broaching Attitudes and Behavior Survey (BABS): An Exploratory Assessment of Its Dimensionality

The continuum of broaching behavior is a conceptual framework explicating how counselors broach or have explicit discussions about racial, ethnic, and cultural factors with their clients during treatment ( Day‐Vines et al., 2007 ). Counselors can assume 5 particular broaching orientations: avoidant, isolating, continuing/incongruent, integrated/congruent, and infusing. The authors operationalized the continuum of broaching behavior using the Broaching Attitudes and Behavior Scale and found support for a 4‐factor model of broaching behavior. El espectro de comportamiento de abordamiento es un marco conceptual que explica cómo los consejeros abordan o tienen discusiones específicas sobre factores raciales, étnicos y culturales con sus clientes durante el tratamiento ( Day‐Vines et al., 2007 ). Los consejeros pueden asumir 5 orientaciones de abordamiento particulares: evasiva, aislante, continua/incongruente, integrada/congruente e infundida. Los autores operativizaron el espectro de comportamiento de abordamiento usando la Escala de Actitudes de Abordamiento y Comportamiento y hallaron respaldo para un modelo del comportamiento de abordamiento de 4 factores.     

Testing Cognitive and Emotion-Focused Models of Worry in Black and White Samples

Several models have been proposed to conceptualize worry. Broadly, the models can be classified as cognitive (including the Avoidance Model, the Intolerance of Uncertainty Model, and the Metacognitive Model) and emotion-focused (including Emotion Dysregulation and Acceptance-Based models). Although these models have received strong empirical investigation in primarily non-Hispanic White samples, no known study has examined the applicability to racial and ethnic minority groups. The current study compared the proportion of variance explained by cognitive and emotion-focused models of worry in White and Black samples. Results indicated that cognitive and emotion-focused models significantly predicted worry in both Black and White samples. However, the overall amount of variance in worry explained by the models was less for Black samples. Specifically, controlling for gender, the cognitive models explained 53% of the variance in worry in the White sample compared with 19% in the Black sample. Similarly, the emotion-focused models explained 34% of the variance in worry in the White sample but only 13% in the Black sample. These findings suggest that well-established conceptual frameworks for worry failed to explain the bulk of the variance in worry in Black samples, leaving much unknown. Additional research is needed to identify key variables that may further explain worry in ethnic minority samples.     

Ethnocultural Influences in Cancer

Compelling evidence that ethnicity is associated with serious disparities in cancer morbidity and mortality has been documented in the medical and public health literature. In addition to the role that socioeconomic variables play in affecting cancer outcomes, health professionals are beginning to pay attention to the influence of ethnicity and culture. This paper examines the role that ethnocultural factors contribute to cancer, with particular attention to breast, cervical, prostate, and colorectal cancers. Young and Zane's adaptation of a process oriented model of how culture and ethnicity affect disease is proposed as a useful framework to understand the illness experience. It is suggested that attending to ethnocultural issues will assist health providers and researchers toward developing and implementing strategies to improve cancer outcomes among ethnic populations.