Interactive Effects of Proactive and Reactive Service Recovery Strategies: The Case of Rapport and Compensation1

Researchers have recently investigated the efficacy of different strategies for recovery from service failure. This paper reports 2 studies that test the effects of a reactive (compensation) and a proactive recovery strategy (establishing prior rapport between service provider and customer). These strategies, plus aspects of the service problem, were manipulated using written scenarios. Consistent with predictions based on justice theory and the service recovery literature, customer evaluations were more favorable following high rapport, high compensation, minor service failures, and nonfinancial losses. Rapport and compensation interacted in a manner consistent with the fair process effect, although this interaction varied with failure severity and the dependent variable studied. The research underscores the importance of relationship building in the management of service failures.     

Israel Scheffler's Ethics: Theory and Practice

Evincing his not uncritical allegiance to pragmatic philosophy, Isreal Scheffler's notion of ethics and its role in education is one which attempts to dissolve inherited distinctions in the field. For Scheffler's ethics, aimed always at justifiable conduct, is conduct guided by rationality, powered by emotion, responsive the needs of it agents community, learned through moral education, practiced habitually, and ultimately justified by individual commitment to action. Scheffler's primary desideratum is to arrive at an ethics that is justifiable because it is reasonable and so can gain our commitment.     

Embodied Reflection in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression

The prime objective of this study was to explore an initial operationalization of embodied reflection in mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). The concept of embodied reflection, derived from a phenomenological frame of reference, is presented. The implications of an embodied reflection perspective for understanding how body awareness in MBCT fosters therapeutic change are discussed. This article presents the results of a small-scale exploratory qualitative study illustrating processes of embodied reflection for different subgroups of MBCT participants. The analysis suggests that different subgroups are able to harness body awareness in different ways depending on their precourse strategy for avoiding emotional experience. It is proposed that further exploration and refinement of the processes of embodied reflection will enhance clinical practice and treatment outcomes.     

The body in clinical cognitive theory: from beck to mindfulness

Working with the body in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) is often seen as a ‘means to an end’; that is, a vehicle for diverting attention from negative thought patterns, thereby fostering a detached metacognitive awareness of problematic thinking. The MBCT literature, however, accords the body a more central role. The literature expresses both the idea that the body is integral to a basic level of meaning creation experienced as a ‘bodily felt sense of something’ and that direct sensory or bodily awareness can contribute to a critical change in the felt sense of emotional difficulties. Tracing the development of the concept of the body in clinical cognitive theory, the paper concludes that these ideas of the body are anticipated in earlier revisions to Beck's schema theory. The paper concludes that research into the psychological mechanisms behind bodily awareness would be a fruitful supplement to the current research focus on metacognitive awareness.