Parenting stress and competence among mothers of young children with substance use disorders: The roles of trauma and reflective functioning

Posttraumatic stress symptoms are prominent in the lives of parents of young children with substance use disorders (SUD). Parenting experiences, particularly stress and competence, impact parenting behaviors and concomitant child growth and development. Factors that promote positive experiences of parenting, such as parental reflective functioning (PRF), and protect the mother and child from negative outcomes are crucial to understand to develop effective therapeutic interventions. The current US study analyzed baseline data from a parenting intervention evaluation to examine how length of substance misuse, PRF, and trauma symptoms were associated with parenting stress and parenting sense of competence among mothers in treatment for SUDs. Measures included the Addiction Severity Index, PTSD Symptom Scale-Self Report, Parental Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, Parenting Stress Index/Short Form, and Parenting Sense of Competence Scale. The sample included 54 predominantly White mothers with SUDs who had young children. Two multivariate regression analyses found that (1) lower parental reflective functioning and higher posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with higher parenting stress, and (2) only higher posttraumatic stress symptoms were associated with lower levels of parenting sense of competence. Findings underscore the importance of addressing trauma symptoms and PRF when aiming to improve parenting experiences for women with an SUD.     

Practical-theoritical argumentation

This essay explores the dialectics of theory and practice in terms of argumentation theory. Adapting Jonsen and Toulmin's (1988) notion of a Theory-Practice spectrum, it conceives Theory and Practice as extreme ends of a continuum and discourses as falling at various points along the continuum. Every theoritical discourse has essential practical aspects, and every practical discourse has essential theoretical aspects. Practices are theorized to varying degrees but every practice is thorized to some degree. Reflective discourse, which is discourse about practice, moves to and fro along the Theory-Practice continuum. Reflective discourse involves argumentation. Practical argumentation connects theory to practice; it appeals to general warrants, which may be simple or may tap into elaborate conceptual structures, in order to establish grounds for practical judgments. A practical discipline is a relatively coherent intellectual-professional enterprise that cultivates a field of social practice by engaging within itself and with practitioners in a reflective discourse. The argumentation of a practical discipline, like ordinary practical reflection, moves to and fro along the Theory-Practice continuum but in more methodical steps informed by systematic methodological reflection on the reflective process itself.     

A Religious Interpretation of Emergence: Creativity as God

Thinking of God today as creativity (instead of as The Creator) enables us to bring theological values and meanings into significant connection with modern cosmological and evolutionary thinking. This conception connects our understanding of God with today's ideas of the Big Bang; cosmic and biological evolution; the evolutionary emergence of novel complex realities from simpler realities, and the irreducibility of these complex realities to their simpler origins; and so on. It eliminates anthropomorphism and anthropocentrism from the conception of God, thus overcoming one of the major reasons for the implausibility of God-talk in today's world—here viewed as a highly dynamic reality (not an essentially stable structure), with God regarded as the ongoing creativity in this world. This mystery of creativity—God—manifest throughout the universe is quite awe-inspiring, calling forth emotions of gratitude, love, peace, fear, and hope, and a sense of the profound meaningfulness of human existence in the world—issues with which faith in God usually has been associated. It is appropriate, therefore, to think of God today as precisely this magnificent panorama of creativity with which our universe and our lives confront us.     

文本阅读研究的技术模型和新观点

文本阅读心理研究一直是心理学界广泛关注的课题。从20世纪30年代第一个严格的文本阅读实验至今,这一领域的研究方法和技术模型不断进步,具体理论和实际应用不断成熟。到目前为止,文本阅读领域已经形成了庞大的体系。作者首先对文本阅读研究中常用的技术模型进行了梳理,从目标、空间、时间、因果和主角五个方面分别对其进行了介绍。在此基础上,文章评述了文本阅读研究的两种新观点,即文本阅读的双加工理论和知觉符号理论。最后作者对文本阅读研究的未来趋势进行了展望     

Heinrich Hertz’s Neo-Kantian Philosophy of Science, and its Development by Harald Høffding

Summary  This article is an investigation of parallel themes in Heinrich Hertz’s philosophy science and Kant’s theory of schemata, symbols and regulative ideas. It is argued that Hertz’s “pictures” bears close similarities to Kantian “schemata”, that is, they are rules linking concepts to intuitions and provide them with their meaning. Kant’s distinction between symbols and schemata is discussed and related to Hertz’s three pictures of mechanics. It is argued that Hertz considered his own picture of mechanics (the “hidden mass” picture) as symbolic in a different way than the force and energy pictures. In the final part of the article it is described how Harald H?ffding soon after the publication of Hertz’s Principles of Mechanics developed a general theory of analogical reasoning, relying on the ideas of Hertz and Kant.     

Mentalizing in psychotherapy: patients’ and therapists’ reflective functioning during the psychotherapeutic process / Mentalizando en psicoterapia: funcionamiento reflexivo de pacientes y terapeutas durante el proceso psicoterapéutico

Abstract

There has been a growing interest in mentalization in clinical research given its relationship with normal and psychopathological functioning and its explanatory potential as a mechanism of psychotherapeutic change. This study uses the Reflective Functioning Scale (RFS) to identify and characterize mentalization manifestations in psychotherapeutic interaction. Method: the RFS was applied to a sample of relevant episodes — 44 sessions from five different psychotherapy processes carried out with adult patients who had different diagnoses. Results: we observed a higher probability of reflective functioning (RF) passages in relevant events than in neutral segments. There were no differences in the RF passages according to episode or actor type, but there were in RF Failures, which is more likely in patients and during rupture episodes. Discussion: although certain modifications are necessary, the RFS can be applied to clinical material, and it is a promising strategy for the study of mentalization within psychotherapy.     

On the Emotions

Art historians and philosophers often talk about the interpretive significance of titles, but few have bothered with their historical origins. This omission has led to the assumption that an artwork's title is its proper name, since names and titles share the essential function of facilitating reference to their bearers. But a closer look at the development of our titling practices shows a significant point of divergence from standard analyses of proper names: the semantic content of a title is often crucial to the identification, individuation, and interpretation of its associated artwork. This paper represents a first step towards an empirically centred study of our titling practices. I argue that, in order to accept titles as proper names, we must first recognize the social, rather than the referential, function of naming.     

有关运动的语言理解的知觉模拟

针对阅读理解是建构抽象命题网络的传统理论,知觉符号理论提出：阅读加工是建构语言所述事件的知觉模拟,并由此推论：有关运动的语言理解包括动态的知觉模拟。该动态模拟假设得到一些实证研究的支持。行为学上的研究证明了语言理解中动态知觉模拟的存在,还对这种模拟的机制进行了初步探讨。该假设也得到一些认知神经科学研究的支持。作为一种新兴的观点,动态模拟假设还需要深入的检验,以进一步充实知觉符号理论的语言理解模拟观