Therapeutic Forgiveness: Developing a Model for Empowering Victims of Sexual Abuse

Forgiveness is increasingly popular in therapy as a way to facilitate healing, but there are definitional discrepancies and confusion regarding the degree to which it is conceptualized as either an interpersonal/relational or an independent/self-enhancing process. In this article forgiveness is conceptualized as an interpersonal process linked to apology or contrition on the part of the offender. Yet it is also independent. A model is described that was developed for the benefit of abuse victims whose offenders will not or cannot apologize. Using the model, victims can accomplish for themselves what would be accomplished for them through an apology.     

Measuring facial movement

A procedure has been developed for measuring visibly different facial movements. The Facial Action Code was derived from an analysis of the anatomical basis of facial movement. The method can be used to describe any facial movement (observed in photographs, motion picture film or videotape) in terms of anatomically based action units. The development of the method is explained, contrasting it to other methods of measuring facial behavior. An example of how facial behavior is measured is provided, and ideas about research applications are discussed.The research reported here was supported by a grant from NIMH, MH 167845. The authors are grateful to Wade Seaford, Dickinson College, for encouraging us to build our measurement system on the basis of specific muscular action. He convinced us that it would allow more precision, and that learning the anatomy would not be an overwhelming obstacle. Neither he nor we realized, however, how detailed and elaborate this undertaking would be. Seaford (1976) recently advanced some of the arguments we have made here about the value of an anatomically based measurement system. We are grateful also to those who first learned FAC and gave us many helpful suggestions as to how to improve the manual. We thank Linda Camras, Joe Hager, Harriet Oster, and Maureen O'Sullivan also for their comments on this report.     

A Framework for Exploring Different Judgments of Social Need

Starting from the position that the source of definitions of social need must be examined, the paper suggests that it is also of value to analyse the sequential process through which a series of judgments about need is made by both consumers and providers of services. A framework is suggested by which the relationship between source and sequence of need judgments may be explored, and the factors influencing them identified. This framework is also used to clarify some ambiguities in the use of the term ‘need’, and to consider some implications for need studies. A consensus definition of need is offered in the light of this discussion.     

Personal Network Correlates and Predictors of Homelessness for Injection Drug Users in Baltimore, Maryland

Injection drug users are at high risk for homelessness and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection. This study sought to examine incidence rates and the social and economic antecedents of homelessness of impoverished inner-city injection drug users. Of the 569 participants, from a nontreatment sample who participated HIV prevention study, interviewed at baseline, 324 (57%) were reinterviewed 5.2 months later. At baseline 48% of the participants reported that they had been homeless in the past 10 years. Of the 324, 18% reported that at both interviews they had been homeless within the prior 6 months, 12% reported homelessness at baseline but not at follow-up, and 8% reported homelessness at follow-up but not at baseline. At baseline personal social support network characteristic of size of material aid and size of sex network was found to be associated with self-reports of homelessness. Baseline reports of presence of mother in personal network, size of material aid network, and network density were found to be associated with reports of homelessness at follow-up. These result suggest the need for alternative approaches to addressing issues of homelessness injection drug users.