Assessing and Facilitating Children's Cognitive Development: Developmental Counseling and Therapy in a Case of Child Abuse

This article presents practical implications for assessing a child's cognitive development and then facilitating developmental growth. The concepts of developmental counseling and therapy (Ivey, 1986, 1990) are presented as a systematic framework to integrate neo-Piagetian developmental theory into the interview. Specific techniques may be used for assessing cognitive development, expanding horizontal and vertical development, designing systematic questioning sequences, and planning overall treatment. An example of treatment of a case of child abuse illustrates the concepts in action.     

Temporal Patterning in the Family

The authors propose that time be considered as a variable in family process. Previous theory and research on human temporal patterning and experience are reviewed, and empirical generalizations from an initial pilot study concerned with marital and family members' orientation to "morningness" and "nightness" are presented. Further implications from this work-in-progress are delineated.     

Implications of Cybernetic Epistemology for Clinical Research: A Reply to Howard

This response to Howard's article deals with the application of cybernetic epistemology to clinical research and practice. Implications for scientific research are discussed.     

A MULTILEVEL ANALYSIS OF THE EFFECT OF PROMPTING SELF-REGULATION IN TECHNOLOGY-DELIVERED INSTRUCTION

Two studies were conducted to examine the effect of prompting self-regulation, an intervention designed to improve learning from technology-delivered instruction. In Study 1, trainees who were prompted to self-regulate gradually improved their declarative and procedural knowledge over time, relative to the other conditions, whereas test scores declined over time for trainees who were not prompted to self-regulate. In Study 2, basic performance remained stable over time and strategic performance improved over time for trainees who were prompted to self-regulate, relative to the other conditions, whereas performance declined over time for trainees who were not prompted to self-regulate. Trainees' cognitive ability moderated the effect of the prompts on basic performance and task-specific self-efficacy moderated the effect of the prompts on strategic performance. Prompting self-regulation resulted in stronger performance gains over time for trainees with higher ability or higher self-efficacy. These results demonstrate prompting self-regulation improved performance over time, relative to the other conditions, in both online, work-related training and laboratory settings. The results are consistent with theory suggesting self-regulation is a dynamic process that has a gradual effect on performance and highlight the importance of using a within-subjects design in self-regulation research.     

Ecosystemic Epistemology: Critical Implications for the Aesthetics and Pragmatics of Family Therapy

This paper proposes that family therapy be responsive to both aesthetic and pragmatic considerations. Ecosystemic epistemology, a framework of ideas based on cybernetics, ecology, and systems theory, is suggested as a way of encompassing these different perspectives. Several critical ideas, often ignored by an overemphasis on pragmatics, involve: (a) the function of language in the relation between epistemology and clinical practice; (b) healthy and pathological family ecologies; (c) art and technique in therapy; and (d) the issue of manipulation.     

ADAPTIVE GUIDANCE: ENHANCING SELF-REGULATION, KNOWLEDGE, AND PERFORMANCE IN TECHNOLOGY-BASED TRAINING

Considerable research has examined the effects of giving trainees control over their learning (Steinberg, 1977, 1989; Williams, 1993). The most consistent finding of this research has been that trainees do not make good instructional use of the control they are given. Yet, today's technologically based training systems often provide individuals with significant control over their learning (Brown, 2001). This creates a dilemma that must be addressed if technology is going to be used to create more effective training systems. The current study extended past research that has examined the effects of providing trainees with some form of advisement or guidance in addition to learner control and examined the impact of an instructional strategy, adaptive guidance, on learning and performance in a complex training environment. Overall, it was found that adaptive guidance had a substantial effect on the nature of trainees' study and practice, self-regulation, knowledge acquired, and performance.     

Focused on the Family? Religious Traditions,Family Discourse,and Pastoral Practice

The relationship between religion and the family has recently reemerged as an important object of sociological inquiry. However, research has largely overlooked the ways in which the family discourse produced by specific religious traditions is connected to family-focused pastoral practices of congregations. Using data from the National Congregations Study, we find that family discourse and pastoral practice are only "loosely coupled" to one another. Ideological differences among mainline Protestant, conservative Protestant, and Roman Catholic congregations do not translate directly into differences in family ministry offerings. These findings help explain why research often finds that religion exercises uniform effects on family life, insofar as most congregations offer a similar package of ministries even though their family discourse is markedly different .