Psychology Internships in the Treatment of Severe Mental Illness: Implications for Training in Academic Medical Centers

Despite an increasing focus over the past 2 decades by federal and state governments on the care of persons with severe mental illness, psychologists remain underrepresented among behavioral health professionals working with this population. Within the discipline there is growing concern about the need to adequately train, recruit, and retain psychologists in this specialty. This is a particular concern in academic medical settings where the overall severity of illness among those receiving psychiatric services continues to increase. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to intensively examine the experience of predoctoral interns engaged in treating individuals with severe mental illness in an academic medical center in order to identify the professional developmental experiences and training needs of those learning to care for this population. This analysis, conducted with semistructured interviews at four points during the internship year, yielded a series of recommendations for improving internship training and recruiting psychologists to this specialty.     

Personality Disorders in Older Adult Inpatients with Chronic Mental Illness

It has been hypothesized that some types of personality disorders tend to remit with age whereas others may become more prominent. The present study determined the prevalence and nature of 13 personality disorders with a self-report inventory (Coolidge Axis II Inventory) in an older group of chronically mentally ill inpatients (N = 30, mean age = 63 years) and a younger group of similar patients (N = 30, mean age = 39 years). All patients met DSM-IV criteria for either Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, or recurrent severe Major Depression with psychotic features. The prevalence rate of personality disorders was high for both groups: 58% for the older sample and 66% for the younger group. The younger group was more likely to be diagnosed Antisocial, Borderline, Passive-Aggressive, Sadistic, and Schizotypal, but the groups were not different in the rates of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. This study supports the hypothesis that some personality disorders remit with age. However, no evidence was found to suggest that other personality disorders become more prominent in older adult psychiatric populations. Suggestions for future research are offered.     

Socially Valued Roles,Self‐Determination,and Community Participation among Individuals Living with Serious Mental Illnesses

Decades after deinstitutionalization, individuals living with serious mental illnesses remain isolated, socially disengaged, and devalued members of communities. Burgeoning research and services need conceptual clarity to improve such social conditions. This qualitative inquiry used grounded theory and participatory approaches to conduct an in‐depth exploration of community participation for individuals living with serious mental illnesses based on key stakeholder perspectives (n = 45). Results revealed that community participation is a multifaceted construct with layers of meaning for individuals living with serious mental illnesses. Overarching themes are contextualized in Self‐Determination Theory and presented with deidentified illustrations. Implications for services, research, and policy are discussed.     

Gender Differences in Reactions to Mental Illness Labeling: The Role of Agency and Communion

Numerous individual characteristics influence responses to receiving a mental health diagnosis, including gender. This study sought to determine how gender influences reactions to being labeled as depressed or not depressed, which were categorized as falling into themes of communion or agency. Using the themes developed by Niedzwienska (2003), 168 college students’ responses to depression labels were coded as a part of a laboratory experiment. The results indicate that the expected sex differences do exist, but multivariate analyses indicate that the choice of communal themes was influenced by sex but the use of agency themes was not influenced by sex.     

EPIPHANY PHILOSOPHERS: AFTERWORD

Being a theist makes a difference, but not so much to what propositions we assent to, nor to an expanded ontology of spiritual entities. Rather, it is concerned with what commitments we enter into, and involves a participatory engagement with a broader reality then we might have supposed was possible. Embodied practices are a crucial part of the contemplative path, which draws on the wisdom of the body. This leads on to a “labor of culture.” Our present culture is not obviously as secular as supposed to be, but what has now become sacred is a strong sense of the individual ego, around which many ethical and political commitments are built, and which sits uneasily with our widely accepted mechanistic view of life. The crucial challenge to artificial intelligence is whether it can find ways of enhancing the mutual recognition that is crucial to the ethical life.     

Religious education and spiritual development as a cultural component of the lifelong learning policy in Romania. The example of orthodox Christianity

In a context of growing globalisation and European integration, Christian religious education seems to be more and more neglected within the social debate. Given the differences between European countries, the question may arise: What is the relevant situation in Romania? The article analyses the religious education and spiritual development as a cultural component of lifelong learning policy in Romania, based on more than 20 semi-structured interviews conducted with Romanian professionals, research workers, teachers and experts in education. In order to describe the role played by religious education in Romania three main aspects may be quoted: (1) Spiritual development completes the economic and social development of people; (2) The national culture and values contribute to the promotion of life models in accordance with Christian orthodox religion; and (3) The integral development of the person is part of the lifelong learning policy in Romania and includes orthodox spirituality. These aspects are analysed on the basis of the answers given by national experts in lifelong learning and religious education.     

Relationship stigma and Black-White interracial marital satisfaction: the mediating role of religious/spiritual well-being

Although the percentage of Black-White interracial marriage continues to increase in the United States, research is limited related to the impact of stigma on these couples and the processes that influence their responses to negative racial experiences. In the current study, the Vulnerability-Stress-Adaptation model was used as a theoretical foundation to investigate the relationship between stigma and couple satisfaction among Black-White interracially married couples, along with the potential mediating role of religious/spiritual well-being. A community sample of 180 interracially married individuals responded to surveys assessing their experiences of stigma due to being a member of an interracial couple, religious/spiritual well-being, and couple satisfaction. The analysis revealed that relationship stigma was negatively associated with couple satisfaction, and religious/spiritual well-being mediated the relationship between these two variables. To conclude, recommendations for intervention and prevention in the lives of Black-White interracial couples are offered.