Does Studying ‘Ethics’ Improve Engineering Students’ Meta-Moral Cognitive Skills?

Science and Engineering Ethics - This study examines the assumption that training in professional ethics is a predictor of the meta-moral cognitive ability of engineering students. The main purpose...     

Lonelier, lazier, and teased: the stigmatizing effect of body size

The authors conducted 2 studies to examine the stigmatization of the female and male body using photographic stimuli of real people. In the first study, 75 female and 55 male undergraduates rated a series of 50 photographs of women ranging in body mass index (BMI) on 3 items: gets teased, lonely, and lazy. Both male and female observers rated bodies on either side of BMI 19-20 kg/m2 higher for the gets teased and lonely items. For the lazy item, there was a clear pattern of greater stigmatization with increasing BMI. In the second study, 40 male and 40 female observers rated a series of photographs of the male body that varied in BMI and waist-to-chest ratio on the same items. Results showed that men and women judged overweight and more tubular men to be lazier, lonelier, and teased. These findings suggest that body size is an important characteristic to consider when examining body stigmatization among men and women. These results also show support for the beautiful-is-good bias.     

Broken mirror: The intertwining of therapist and client stories of childhood sexual abuse (CSA)

In recent years, there has been a great deal of attention given to the potential increased risk of vicarious traumatisation (VT) for clinicians with a history of childhood sexual abuse.

I am curious about whether the silencing, which has been ubiquitous within society, is also prevalent within the therapeutic profession. I wonder if therapists with a history of abuse feel they have to bracket their experience, and if this limits the potential for positive transformation.

In this paper, I draw upon my narrative study of therapists with a history of abuse. The methodology followed was narrative inquiry with two therapists in addition to an autoethnography. I used ‘narrative analysis’ to analyse the data. The findings of the study covered themes of transgenerational trauma, ‘the wounded healer’, caregivers’ responsibility in communal cultures and dissociation.

In this paper, I will consider the part dissociation plays when there is a shared history of trauma, and the ways in which dissociative enactments within the consulting room themselves may be part of the mutual healing. For this paper, only extracts from interviews with one of my participants will be included.     

‘It’s the unknown’ – understanding anxiety: from the perspective of people with multiple sclerosis

Objective: A qualitative study of PwMS who had clinically significant levels of anxiety was conducted to gain a richer perspective on their experience. The objective was to explore PwMS’ experiences of anxiety and their perspectives on causes and outcomes. Design: Twenty in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with PwMS consecutively recruited from the Neurology Department of a NHS University Hospital. Sixteen had a relapsing-remitting course, three had a secondary progressive course and one person had primary progressive multiple sclerosis (MS). Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using inductive thematic analysis. Results: Although participants thought different factors had initially triggered their anxiety, being given the diagnosis of MS appeared to be the most significant factor for many participants. Difficulties in the workplace and in relationships, particularly related to perceived dependence on others were also important themes. A wide range of emotional responses and negative thinking patterns were associated with anxiety; this suggested the presence of comorbid depression. Participants were able to acknowledge the positive and negative coping strategies that impacted on their anxiety. Conclusion: This review confirms that anxiety can have many negative implications for PwMS and suggests that early detection and intervention are necessary in order to improve patient’s well-being.     

Practising family therapy in India: how many people are there in a marital subsystem?

Systemic therapy would appear to be a viable form of treatment for people who exist in cultures that contain complex, extended family systems, such as those found in India. The practice of family therapy in India has evolved from Western concepts. These concepts appear to offer Indian therapists relevant and practical ways of working with families. However, some of these concepts need modifying before they can be used in an Indian context. Indian families may have very different worldviews and ideas of 'self' compared to families in the West, leading to different family organization. The situation can be further complicated by the cultural norms of therapists themselves. Therapists in India are often highly educated, come from upper-middle-class families and have been exposed to different cultures. They increasingly share many of the values of their counterparts in the West. At the same time, they retain aspects of their own cultural heritage, which is also the dominant culture for a large number of the families with whom they work. Thus, not only must Indian family therapists seek to work in culturally appropriate ways; they must also tolerate their own internalized conflicts regarding differing cultural norms. With the use of clinical data, this paper describes some of the personal and professional problems experienced by an Indian family therapist working with Western constructs of family organization.     

Hospital treatment of persons found not guilty by reason of insanity

After being found not guilty by reason of insanity (NGRI), individuals are typically admitted to a secure forensic hospital for evaluation and treatment. This patient population can pose a challenge to clinicians in the hospital setting due to significant violence risk, complex psychiatric presentations, and scrutiny from oversight boards and the public. This article reviews the scientific literature around several key aspects of hospital-based treatment of insanity acquittees, including the management of inpatient aggression, the provision of specific treatments to acquittees, the assessment of violence risk and readiness for release, and the process of community transition. The authors conclude that the existing literature is heavily weighted toward the study of risk assessment and recidivism, with relatively little attention paid to the study of therapeutic modalities and recovery-oriented care in this population.