Mary McLeod bethune and the education of black girls

Traditional definitions of feminism do not hold for some black women like Mary McLeod Bethune who had to overcome the dual burdens of race and sex in order to build a school for black girls in the racially tense South during the early part of the 20th century. Ever a pragmatist, Bethune seized the opportunity offered by the rhetoric of domesticity and certain stereotypical views of blacks in order to advance the higher cause of uplift and self-sufficiency for black women through education.     

Testing the Effectiveness of Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression—Revised: Changes in Depression,Anxiety, Dysfunctional Attitudes,and Mindfulness

We tested the effectiveness of Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression-Revised (BATD-R), and its impact on secondary outcomes: anxiety, dysfunctional attitudes, and mindfulness. It was expected that individuals who completed BATD-R would exhibit decreased depression, anxiety, and dysfunctional attitudes, as well as increased mindfulness. A sample of adults with depression (n?=?42) was recruited to complete the 10-week treatment. A healthy control group (n?=?38) was included for comparison. Outcomes (depression, anxiety, dysfunctional attitudes, and mindfulness) were assessed at pre-treatment, post-treatment or 10 weeks for the healthy control group, and three-month follow-up. At pre-treatment, the clinical group reported greater depression, anxiety, and dysfunctional attitudes, and less mindfulness than the healthy control group. At post-treatment, the clinical group reported decreased depressive symptoms, trait anxiety, and dysfunctional attitudes, and increased mindfulness, compared to pre-treatment. The control group did not exhibit changes across the 10 weeks. Clinical and healthy control group post-treatment scores did not differ. At three-month follow-up, the clinical group reported a slight increase in depressive symptoms from post-treatment, but still maintained lower depressive symptoms than pre-treatment. The clinical group maintained treatment gains in dysfunctional attitudes, and mindfulness. Results support the effectiveness of BATD-R and suggest BATD-R may influence dysfunctional attitudes and mindfulness.

     

Theme-focused family therapy: the inner emotional world of the family

This paper is an account of a method of family work developed for social workers in social services departments which allows them to work with the emotional impact on children and adults of traumatic events in family life. Theme-focused family therapy has been designed to meet the needs of the families and also to enable social workers and their supervisors to develop both psychodynamic and systemic perspectives m their work with families. It is a staged approach, moving from individual work to a structured family interview through to a series of theme-focused family sessions. It is phased in this way both to facilitate the development of a therapeutic attachment between social worker and family and to take account of the crises that can interrupt planned work in social services departments. Theme-focused family therapy is carried out in partnership with families, and gives children a voice and a leading role in the therapeutic process. The approach is illustrated with a case example.     

PERCEPTION OF THE EMOTIONAL CONTENT OF SPEECH BY CANADIAN AND MEXICAN CHILDREN,ADOLESCENTS, AND ADULTS

The study at hand was undertaken to assess and compare the respective abilities of Canadian and Mexican subjects to identify emotion in speech. Canadian and Mexican female teachers, speaking whatever words they wished in their own languages, attempted to simulate four emotional states (i.e., happiness, sadness, love, and anger). After the initial recording, these samples were passed through an electronic filter which removed the semantic content while leaving intact the tonal qualities of the speech. The filtered vocal expressions were played to Canadian and Mexican subjects 5, 9, 13, 17, 25, 45, and 65 years of age. From 5 through 25, there was a progressive increase with age in ability to identify the emotion expressed. Ability did level off, however, and eventually even decreased (such that the 65 year-olds performed less accurately than the other adult groups). Overall, the Mexican subjects were significantly more sensitive to emotion in speech than their Canadian counterparts. As well, both Canadian and Mexican subjects judged speech samples from Mexican speakers more accurately than those from Canadian speakers.     

Invasive partners: an exploration of attachment, communication and family patterns

Therapists'ratings on a sample of heterosexual couples receiving marital or partnership counselling were used to develop measures of'invasive'behaviour by the adults concerned. We suggest that this behaviour stems from difficulties in attachment and is marked by a desire to stay close to the other person, difficulties in communication, difficulties in handling relationships between three people, and problems associated with the birth of a baby. A particular feature of this behaviour is that one or other partner attempts to restrict communication from the other, perhaps in order to avoid surprises which are perceived as a threat to the relationship. Invasiveness by wives was high in those couples who had had problems after the birth of a baby and significantly lower in those who had not. Implications for practice are discussed.     

Aggression against middle and high school teachers: Duration of victimization and its negative impacts

Prior research indicates that student aggression against teachers is widespread, and it has negative impacts on victimized teachers’ emotional and physical well-being and job performance. However, little is known about the relationship between the recency and duration of victimization and teachers’ thoughts about quitting the teaching profession and related job dissatisfaction and disconnectedness to school. Analyses of data from a longitudinal study of 1,236 US teachers fills these gaps. The study found that many teachers experienced theft/vandalism and sexual harassment victimization that was limited to just 1 year. In contrast, sizeable proportions of teachers experienced verbal abuse and nonphysical contact aggression that occurred over 2 years. Multiple regression analyses showed that teachers who reported recent or multiyear victimization had lower levels of connectedness to school, less job satisfaction, and more thoughts about ending their teaching careers. These results may indicate that unless victimization recurs, negative effects of victimization are contemporaneous and are less likely to persist. Additional research is needed to examine victimization over longer than 2 years, investigate the effects of the frequency of different types of aggression against teachers, and identify school policies and interventions that weaken the connection of victimization to negative outcomes.     

Examining adversarial growth in illness: The factor structure of the silver lining questionnaire (SLQ-38)

The Silver Lining Questionnaire (SLQ-38) is purported to measure 10 aspects of adversarial growth in illness. To date however, no empirical evidence exists to support this claim. Hence the aim of this study was to investigate the factor structure of the SLQ-38 in a sample of 560 individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS), cancer, cardiac, and renal disease. The results demonstrate that 24 SLQ-38 items can be factored into five subscales: improved personal relationships, greater appreciation for life, positive influence on others, personal inner strength and changes in life philosophy, all of which are in accordance with the literature on adversarial growth. Individuals with MS experienced lower adversarial growth compared to other illness groups. Gender, age and time since diagnosis were unrelated to adversarial growth in illness. The utility of the revised SLQ-38 is discussed along with suggestions for future research on the convergent and divergent validity of this revised instrument.