“Editing” Genes: A Case Study About How Language Matters in Bioethics

Metaphors used to describe new technologies mediate public understanding of the innovations. Analyzing the linguistic, rhetorical, and affective aspects of these metaphors opens the range of issues available for bioethical scrutiny and increases public accountability. This article shows how such a multidisciplinary approach can be useful by looking at a set of texts about one issue, the use of a newly developed technique for genetic modification, CRISPRcas9.     

Human Germline CRISPR-Cas Modification: Toward a Regulatory Framework

CRISPR germline editing therapies (CGETs) hold unprecedented potential to eradicate hereditary disorders. However, the prospect of altering the human germline has sparked a debate over the safety, efficacy, and morality of CGETs, triggering a funding moratorium by the NIH. There is an urgent need for practical paths for the evaluation of these capabilities. We propose a model regulatory framework for CGET research, clinical development, and distribution. Our model takes advantage of existing legal and regulatory institutions but adds elevated scrutiny at each stage of CGET development to accommodate the unique technical and ethical challenges posed by germline editing.     

Work engagement during life-span: The role of interaction outside the organization and task significance

Growing proportion of older employees in the workforce has pushed scholars and managers to examine the changes of individual work-related attitudes and behavior during the life-span and accordingly reconsider work design to sustain the engagement of aging workforces. This study contributes to ambiguous previous findings by investigating age–work engagement linkage and moderating effects of such job characteristics as employees' perceived task significance and interaction outside organization. Survey of bank employees revealed an overall positive linear effect of age on work engagement; task significance was further positively related to work engagement. Although the direct impact of interaction outside the organization to work engagement was not found, the interaction outside the organization moderated the relationship between age and work engagement: older employees with more external interactions reported higher engagement levels than older employees with fewer interactions. Work engagement was highest for older employees who experienced more interaction outside the organization, or perceived their work as significant or both. There was no positive effect of age on work engagement for employees with both lower levels of interaction outside organization and lower task significance.     

Being engaged when resources are low: A multi-source study of selective optimization with compensation at work

This study examined self-regulation in the form of selective optimization with compensation (SOC) at work as a moderator of the relationships of job control (as a job resource) and feeling recovered and energized in the morning (as a personal energy resource) with self- and coworker-rated work engagement. SOC was hypothesized to offset low levels of job control and low levels of personal energy. Based on a sample of 405 public-service employees in Germany, including a multi-source subsample of 141 employees and their respective coworkers, the results showed that SOC use moderated the relationship between the level of personal energy and self-ratings as well as coworker ratings of work engagement such that SOC mitigated low levels of personal energy. SOC at work did not offset low job control. The results suggest that using SOC is particularly important when employees lack energy. SOC strategies should, therefore, be fostered by managers and organizations.     

A Primer on Psychotherapy Process Research: A Review of Cognitive Therapy of Depression

Researchers conducting psychotherapy process research aim to understand the process by which efficacious psychotherapies achieve therapeutic benefits. A key challenge in this research is how to maximise what can be learned from naturalistic longitudinal data. We provide a selective overview of research examining the process of change in cognitive therapy of depression. While the efficacy of this treatment is widely recognised, a consensus regarding how the treatment reduces depressive symptoms and provides protection from relapse and recurrence has yet to be reached. We review the current state of the research addressing the process of change in cognitive therapy, highlighting how specific methodological features can be used to better understand the process by which this treatment achieves its effects. We highlight the importance of two key challenges to making causal inferences from a process–outcome relation: (a) establishing the temporal precedence of predictors to outcome variables, and (b) evaluating whether any relations identified could be spurious. We argue that methodologically rigorous studies tend to support key claims of the model underlying cognitive therapy of depression. We conclude by considering future directions. For example, we highlight the importance of efforts to understand patient characteristics that may moderate process–outcome relations and could ultimately prove useful in tailoring treatment to best suit individual patients.     

Sandplay therapy with couples within the framework of analytical psychology

Sandplay therapy with couples is discussed within an analytical framework. Guidelines are proposed as a means of developing this relatively new area within sandplay therapy, and as a platform to open a wider discussion to bring together sandplay therapy and couple therapy. Examples of sand trays created during couple therapy are also presented to illustrate the transformations during the therapeutic process.     

Existential crises in two religious patients: Vicissitudes of faith and the emergence of the true self

The authors present two clinical cases involving an existential crisis which led the patients to lose what had been the foundation in their lives, their faith. Although the therapeutic settings differ – the first patient had a few psychotherapy sessions following a psychotic episode with a mystical background, while the second was in the final stage of analytic treatment – the authors highlight how in both clinical cases a loss of faith becomes a total and urgent crisis of the Self. The fracture which ensues seems to generate an intense engagement of the body which, paradoxically during a loss of faith, induces an experience of ecstasy of the kind that has traditionally been reported. In the first case the experience of ecstasy was lived first‐hand by the patient who thereafter redefined the psychotic breakdown as a “moment of truth”; whereas the second patient, through a deep projective identification, induces an eerie countertransferential feeling of ‘metaphysical’ shortfall in the agnostic psychoanalyst, triggering bewilderment, physical discomfort and awe in him. In both cases the authors believe that the notable somatic involvement may be correlated to a potentially profound and unprecedented contact with the True Self.     

Coping orientation and psychological distress in healthcare professionals: The utility of appraising coping acceptability

The purpose of this study was to examine interaction effects of healthcare professionals' coping orientation (i.e., engagement versus disengagement) and appraisal of coping acceptability (ACA) on psychological distress, taking into account the individuals' job specificity and the psychological climate in their work environment. A cross‐sectional survey was conducted, and Japanese healthcare professionals (N = 189; 117 female; mean age: 40.1 ± 11.2 years) reported the coping strategies that they employed for task‐related or interpersonal stressors, their cognitive appraisal of the stressors, their ACA, and the psychological distress evoked by the stressors. The results showed that adding consideration of the ACA to the variable of coping orientation significantly improved predictions of psychological distress for both task and interpersonal stressors. There was no significant interaction between the coping orientation and the use of coping strategies that incorporated the ACA. These results suggest that considering the ACA, in addition to the coping orientation, would be useful for understanding individual differences in the mediators of healthcare professionals' coping in stressful situations.