Palm Beach County Child Abuse and Neglect System Redesign: Initial Process Evaluation

For the families in Palm Beach County who entered the child abuse and neglect system as a result of having a child placed into emergency shelter, their experience was that the system was frequently intimidating, confusing, and fragmented. The reaction of the children and their families to this system was often defensiveness and resistance. To increase the system's effectiveness, it was redesigned and privatized. The redesigned system included centralized shelter placement, a comprehensive assessment, independent service coordination, and treatment service provision within a managed care model. By emphasizing family involvement and quality service provision, the goal was to increase voluntary participation and improve family outcomes. Based on initial data, it appears that the redesigned system has been successfully implemented and has made notable progress toward meeting its system flow timeframes. The initial data also indicate that high percentages of families are participating in and are satisfied with the system, that children are spending less time in shelter placements, and that only one family has reentered the system.     

Mentoring: Some ethical considerations

To counter confusion about the term ‘mentor’, and address concerns about the scarcity of mentoring, I argue for an “honorific” definition, according to which a mentor is virtuous like a saint or hero. Given the unbounded commitment of mentors, mentoring relationships must be voluntary. In contrast, the role of advisor can be specified, mandated, and monitored. I argue that departments and research groups have a moral responsibility to devise a system of roles and structures to meet graduate students’ and postdoctoral fellows’ needs for information and advice. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a conference sponsored by the National Science Foundation on Mentoring and Research Values: Students as Vital Human Resources, Chicago, March 1995.     

Mentors, advisors and supervisors: Their role in teaching responsible research conduct

Although the terms mentor and thesis advisor (or research supervisor) are often used interchangeably, the responsibilities associated with these roles are distinct, even when they overlap. Neither are role models necessarily mentors, though mentors are role models: good examples are necessary but not sufficient. Mentorship is both a personal and a professional relationship. It has the potential for raising a number of ethical concerns, including issues of accuracy and reliability of the information conveyed, access, stereotyping and tracking of advisees, and the abuse of power. Nevertheless, mentors can be critically important for professional success and are one of a number of elements that affect the responsible conduct of research. In addition, the community as a whole has a responsibility to mentor junior members. An earlier version of this paper was presented at a conference sponsored by the National Science Foundation on Mentoring and Research Values: Students as Vital Human Resources, Chicago, USA, March 1995.     

建立新一代的精神分裂症动物模型

精神分裂症动物模型的建立与发展,是当前探索精神分裂症的神经生物学和认知心理学机制的一个关键课题。在加工-保护理论的基础上所建立起来的感觉运动门控精神分裂症模型一直受到普遍的关注。然而,高级认知活动是如何对感觉门控进行调节的这一核心问题目前还有待进一步的解决。本综述围绕着这个核心问题,系统地解释为什么惊反射前脉冲抑制成为目前最为流行的一种精神分裂症的模型,并介绍恐惧情绪学习对感觉运动门控调节作用的最新研究成果,以及阐述这种自上而下的调节作用如何受到在早期发育阶段的社会隔离的影响     

心理疾病污名形成理论述评

心理疾病污名是加诸于患者身上的耻辱标记,妨碍患者的治疗和康复。心理疾病污名的成因理论包括功能主义和生物文化两个派别,污名的发展模型解释了污名的形成过程,身份威胁模型对污名的作用机制进行了阐述。通过抗议、教育和接触可以有效地减少污名。在中国开展相关研究应注重分析传统文化、心理疾病类型与污名的关系,探讨各种减少污名策略的可行性     

TAS-20 alexithymia in obesity, and its links to personality

We studied the association between alexithymia (20-item Toronto Alexithymia Scale, TAS-20) and obesity, and also assessed the construct validity of the TAS-20 in terms of personality dimensions in obese patients. The TAS-20 and its subscales were analysed for their correlations with the NEO Personality Inventory - Revised (NEO PI-R) in an obese sample of 259 patients. Obesity was associated with higher scores on the TAS-20 than a Swedish reference sample. Obese men furthermore scored higher on Externally Oriented Thinking than the obese women. TAS-20 scores correlated with elevated Neuroticism and lower levels of Extraversion and Openness, in agreement with most previous research, but also somewhat unexpectedly with lower Conscientiousness and for women also with lower Agreeableness. The TAS-20 subscales showed divergent associations with personality variables, largely in accordance with previous findings. The associations were more prominent for the women, and some gender-specific patterns not previously reported were also revealed.     

Meaning and Interpretation. II

The paper enriches the conceptual apparatus of the theory of meaning and denotation that was presented in Part I (Section 3). This part concentrates on the notion of interpretation, which is defined as an equivalence class of the relation possessing the same manner of interpreting types. In this part, some relations between meaning and interpretation, as well as one between denotation an interpretational denotation are established. In the theory of meaning and interpretation, the notion of language communication has been formally introduced and some conditions of correctness of communication have been formulated. Presented by Wojciech Buszkowski     

Community-driven learning activities,creating futures: 30,000 people can't be wrong—Can they?

A major vehicle for the practice of community psychology is through the organization of community-based activities. My colleagues and I have developed many programs for community learning centers, in-school and after school programs, and community technology centers. In the last 10 years, 30,000 people (mostly children) have participated in activities designed for enjoyment and learning, with a view to adding protective factors and reducing negative factors in at-risk communities. Development of these programs for literacy, education, life and work skills, has increasingly followed a community responsive model. Within each program, we created explicit images of future success. That is, people could see themselves being successful where they normally fail: self modeling with feedforward. Data reports show that individuals generalized and maintained their new skills and attitudes, but the sustainability of programs has been variable. Analysis of the variations indicates the importance of program level feedforward that brings the future into the present. The discussion includes consideration of how individual-level and community-level practices can inform each other. Author Note: Aspects of this article have been presented at the 10th Trans-Tasman Community Psychology Conference, Sydney, April 2006, and in an invited address at the 114th annual convention of the American Psychological Association, New Orleans, August 2006. Partial support in the preparation of this paper was provided by mutliple grants from the US Department of Education, although no endorsement is implied.     

Interpersonal Attachment and Patterns of Ideological Belief

We examine whether two general dimensions of sociopolitical belief—right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) and social dominance orientation (SDO)—are rooted in insecure psychological attachment. Based on an undergraduate sample ( N =  255), we model the relations among attachment styles, general worldviews, RWA, and SDO. A structural equation model indicated that anxious attachment led to RWA but not SDO and that this effect was mediated by the belief that the world is a dangerous place. In contrast, avoidant attachment led to SDO but not RWA, and this effect was mediated by the belief that the world is an uncaring, competitive jungle in which people are motivated to maximize personal utility. We discuss the implications of these findings for the nature and origins of political conservatism.     

The use theory of meaning and semantic stipulation

According to Horwich’s use theory of meaning, the meaning of a word W is engendered by the underived acceptance of certain sentences containing W. Horwich applies this theory to provide an account of semantic stipulation: Semantic stipulation proceeds by deciding to accept sentences containing an as yet meaningless word W. Thereby one brings it about that W gets an underived acceptance property. Since a word’s meaning is constituted by its (basic) underived acceptance property, this decision endows the word with a meaning. The use-theoretic account of semantic stipulation contrasts with the standard view that semantic stipulation proceeds by assigning the meaning (reference) to W that makes a certain set of sentences express true propositions. In this paper I will argue that the use-theoretic account does not work. I take Frege to have already made the crucial point: "a definition does not assert anything but lays down something ["etwas festsetzt"]” (Frege 1899, 36). A semantic stipulation for W cannot be the decision to accept a sentence containing W or be explained in terms of such an acceptance. Semantic stipulation constitutes a problem for Horwich's use theory of meaning, especially his basic notion of acceptance.