Schizotypal Personality Disorder: A Clinical Social Work Perspective

Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is considered to be a “schizophrenia spectrum disorder” as evidenced in part by its cross-listing in that chapter of the DSM-5. SPD is considered to be a condition with limited potential for positive change because one of its major features is the presence of a biologically based cognitive deficit. This assumption, however, is an example of the medical model’s creating a bias against psychosocial features that are always involved in character development. The social work profession’s bio-psycho-social perspectives focus more comprehensively on all features of the condition and promote a more optimistic view of clients’ change potentials. The purposes of this paper are to examine SPD from a social work perspective and to demonstrate, with a case example, how effective intervention can be organized and delivered.     

幼儿创意绘画教学的常见问题与实施要领

创意绘画是当前比较新颖和盛行的幼儿绘画形式，主要有手指画、画架画、创意涂鸦、喷墨画、粘贴画、三维立体创作等等。创意绘画在开发幼儿动手动脑能力、审美情趣，提高创造力等方面发挥着重要的作用。当前的幼儿创意绘画教学普遍存在着偏向结果且忽视幼儿主体体验、模式固化、成人介入过多等问题。因而，需要教育工作者以及家长正视幼儿创意绘画教学中存在的上述常见问题，正确认识幼儿创意绘画的价值，正确理解幼儿创意绘画的意义，鼓励幼儿在已有简单生活经验的基础之上大胆创作和表达，减少成人的介入与干扰。     

Children and global social policy: Exploring the impact of international governmental organisations

Axford N. Children and global social policy: exploring the impact of international governmental organisations International governmental organisations (IGOs) seek to influence child welfare policy and practice in individual sovereign states. But do they succeed and, if so, in what way? This article outlines the nature of selected IGOs' work, explores the nature of their impact and seeks to explain the pattern that emerges. It also notes areas for further research.     

教育主体缺失视角下农村校园欺凌成因及治理

家庭、村庄和学校是农村学生成长过程中的三个重要教育主体，三者相辅相成共同构成农村教育主体结构。农村中小学生正是在该结构中获得成长，而农村校园欺凌事件的频发和多发则与其变化相关。农村教育主体结构的变化包括三个方面：一是家庭教育主体的缺位，表现为农村家庭隔代抚育的“不过问”逻辑；二是村庄教育主体的缺位，表现为村庄交往中的村民相互“不得罪”的逻辑；三是学校主体的缺位，表现为学校管理中官僚主义的“不出事”逻辑。这些主体行为逻辑的变化，进而带来了三者之间良性互动的阻隔，包括家庭与学校勾连的中断、村庄对学生和家庭监管的缺位，以及学校对农村社会的脱嵌。治理农村校园欺凌事件，除了法制和规范进校之外，还要搭建新型的教育主体结构，形成多元化、多主体农村校园欺凌的治理格局。     

An Inquiry into Liberty,Slavery, and Thomas Jefferson’s Place in American Memory

Abstract

This article presents a guided inquiry into Thomas Jefferson’s place in American memory. It centers on Jefferson’s liberty-based articulations and his involvement in slavery, which are paradoxical when juxtaposed. Evocative primary sources and competing secondary sources ground the inquiry. Discipline-specific strategies direct students through the stages of inquiry. Close reading, text-based writing, and informed action intertwine with history literacy, historical thinking, and historical argumentation. Discussion focuses on logical curricular extensions.     

Demand for gambling: development and assessment of a gambling purchase task

Self-report purchase tasks are a novel approach examining the reinforcing value of addictive behaviour relative to increasing monetary costs required to access the addictive behaviour (i.e. demand). These measures reveal a positive relationship between the indices of demand and addiction problem severity and can elucidate factors associated with motivation for substance use. Gambling is an addictive behaviour that has not been examined using this paradigm. This study seeks to adapt and examine the purchase task for gambling behaviour. A gambling purchase task was devised that asked individuals how often per month they would gamble at various cover charges. Participants were 73 adults from the community with either gambling disorder (n = 28) or alcohol use disorder (n = 24) or were a healthy control (n = 21). Both the alcohol and gambling purchase tasks were administered. Results demonstrate discriminant validity of the gambling purchase task, as individuals with gambling disorder have significantly greater demand for accessing gambling than other groups. The alcohol purchase task also evidenced discriminant validity in that individuals with alcohol use disorder have significantly greater demand for alcohol than other groups. These findings support the use of the gambling purchase task to assess the demand for gambling.     

The effects of tact training on stereotypic vocalizations in children with autism

This study was a systematic extension of Karmali, Greer, Nuzzulo-Gomez, Ross, and Rivera-Valdes (2005) and Ahearn, Clark, MacDonald, and Chung (2007). We investigated the effects of a tact correction procedure on stereotypic vocalizations in 4 children diagnosed with autism who ranged in age from 6 to 16 years. Participants had limited vocal verbal repertoires and were primarily dependent on prompts for the emission of appropriate vocalizations. A multiple-baseline design across participants was used. Data were collected on instances of stereotypic vocalizations and independent tacts during baseline conditions and on instances of stereotypic vocalizations, independent tacts, and echoic-tacts during intervention. Procedural integrity and social validity data were also obtained. The results indicated a decrease in stereotypic vocalizations for 3 of the 4 participants and a slight increase in appropriate vocal verbal behavior (i.e., tacting) for all participants. The study provides support for the use of tact correction procedures to decrease stereotypic vocalizations and increase appropriate vocalizations in children with autism.     

Therapeutic Assessment with Children in Family Therapy

Therapeutic Assessment with Children (TA‐C) is a brief semi‐structured intervention in which psychological assessment is used to help families with children and adolescents to change. In this paper we introduce the TA‐C model, describe its semi‐structured format and exemplify how it can be applied by family therapists.     

Good Friendships among Children: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation

Ethical dimensions of friendship have rarely been explicitly addressed as aspects of friendship quality in studies of children's peer relationships. This study identifies aspects of moral virtue significant for friendship, as a basis for empirically investigating the role of ethical qualities in children's friendship assessments and aspirations. We introduce a eudaimonic conception of friendship quality, identify aspects of moral virtue foundational to such quality, review and contest some grounds on which children have been regarded as not mature enough to have friendships that require virtue, and report a qualitative study of the friendship assessments and aspirations of children aged nine and ten (n = 83). In focus group sessions conducted in ten schools across Great Britain, moral qualities figured prominently in children's assessments of friendship quality. The findings provide evidence of children having friendships exhibiting mutual respect, support, and valuing of each other's good character.