Helping partnerships that facilitate recovery from severe mental illness

The intent of this study was to learn how consumers experience helping partnerships that assist them in recovery to inform families, professionals, and peers about meaningful actions and strategies that promote the healing process. In-depth interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 10 individuals who had a self-reported diagnosis of severe mental illness. Using the phenomenological research process, helping partnerships and how they develop were described. Six key themes emerged from the data and included Networks of Helping Partnerships, Teaching-Learning, Spirituality, Creative Drive, Time, and Medication Adherence. Characteristics and behaviors of helping partners were identified, as well as structures that promoted their development. Educating the public, consumers, and mental health professionals about how to promote recovery, the role of spirituality and creativity, the benefits of medication and therapy, and the impact of learning on progressing through recovery can go a long way toward eliminating the mystery and fear associated with mental illness.     

The use of the simulated father-son group to facilitate separation-individuation

Recently, there has been an increased appreciation of the importance of the role of father in childhood development. The first part of the article presents a review of the psychoanalytic, developmental literature on the role of the preoedipal father, dividing it into two categories. One concerns father's functions and the other concerns the results of father's failures during the preoedipal period. The second part of the article deals with the author's clinical experience. The author worked for several years with a group of young Vietnam era veterans in a Veterans Administration Mental Hygiene Clinic. All of these patients exhibited psychopathology indicative of disturbances during the preoedipal period and failure to complete the separation-individuation process. Their histories revealed physically or emotionally absent fathers. In light of father's psychological impact on his son, the author combined this group with a group of older veterans, who were all fathers themselves. The group was led by a male-female cotherapy team. The paper reports the experience of the group after a period of a year. One of the primary effects of the group was that a simulated father-son group developed in which the older men carried out parental functions, generally associated with fathering. According to the literature cited, such functions facilitate the separation-individuation process.     

An ecological approach to facilitate successful employment outcomes among people with multiple chemical sensitivity

Many adults with multiple chemical sensitivity (MCS) must prematurely exit the workforce because of the severity of their MCS symptoms, the resulting disability stigma, and their unmet needs for on-the-job accommodations. To help individuals with MCS continue working or re-enter employment, rehabilitation professionals must understand the barriers resulting in unemployment and implement interventions to reduce or remove those barriers. In this article, the Ecological Model of Career Development is presented as a scheme for identifying barriers and implementing rehabilitation interventions to improve the employment outcomes among people with MCS.     

A group majority voting model of public good provision

A model of public good provision by majority rule selection incorporating the behavior of rational group voting is formulated. Two probability maximizing candidates are assumed. If voters are risk averse in public sector preferences, then a unique symmetric (both candidates offering identical platforms) equilibrium exists. If certain additional conditions hold on the group cost functions of political support, this equilibrium will lie at the public good levels which maximizes the sum of voter utility. It is further demonstrated that it is unlikely for those conditions to be satisfied and therefore more realistic asymmetric equilibria with positive voter turnout is predicted.This paper is based on an essay of a dissertation submitted to Tulane University under the supervision and invaluable assistance of Steven Slutsky, Jonathan Hamilton, and William Oakland. The advice of Gerald Whitney, Michaels Johnson, and an anonymous referee is also gratefully acknowledged. All errors remain the authors.     

Using focus group interviews to understand staff perceptions from training in the therapeutic community model

The current article is concerned with the use of focus group interviews in understanding staff perceptions of training to work with drug users during the different stages of change from addiction to rehabilitation in the Therapeutic Community model. The article discusses the use of the focus group interview as the most appropriate method for the scope of this study, based on the assumption that trainees are aware of their own needs and demands from training. Methodological issues relevant to the use of focus groups and the individual responses to the training program are discussed. The content and structure of the training program are also discussed. The article concludes that gaining information on people's own perceptions and experiences from the training process can contribute significantly to program improvement.     

A group model for adoption studies for special-needs children

A comparison of the effectiveness of the group model with the individual method for adoption studies reveals that the group method had a greater success in permanent placement and used adoption staff members' time most efficiently.     

A signal-jamming model of persuasion: interest group funded policy research

This article analyzes a simple model of policy making under uncertainty in the presence of an interest group that may fund and lobby research. In the model, if research is not disclosed via lobbying it enters the public domain and, subsequently, is randomly observed by the policy maker (PM). Consequently, the interest group strategically chooses both whether to fund research and whether to lobby it versus let it be randomly observed. The main result is that for a range of parameter values, in equilibrium the interest group sometimes funds, but never lobbies, research. This behavior effectively “jams” the public signal of the PM, making the policy choice worse on average. This occurs despite all research being unbiased. The results provide qualified theoretical support for the value of research funding transparency and implications for the interpretation of interest group funded research.     

Exponential random graph model specifications for bipartite networks—A dependence hierarchy

In this paper, we review the development of dependence structures for exponential random graph models for bipartite networks, and propose a hierarchy of dependence structures within which different dependence assumptions may be located. Based on this hierarchy, we propose a new set of model specifications by including bipartite graph configurations involving more than four nodes. We discuss the theoretical significance of the various effects that the extended models afford, and illustrate application of this hierarchy of models to several bipartite networks related to the political mobilization in Brazil in the early 1990s (Mische, 2007).     

Using freedom of information requests to facilitate research

The Freedom of Information Act (FOI) is a powerful tool for social researchers. However, these researchers have yet to harness the full potential of FOIA. Drawing on a number of studies using FOIA as a method of obtaining data, this article identifies the potential uses of FOIA and the limitations in its use, offering important advice on research design for studies which use FOIA both in the UK and abroad. The section ‘The role of freedom of information in research’ outlines the provisions of the UK FOIA and the section ‘How to make a request for information’ outlines the costs and benefits of utilising FOIA as a data collection tool. In sections ‘The risks and rewards of FOIA’ and ‘Combining FOIA and other methodologies,’ the article considers the place of FOIA within mixed methodology and cross jurisdictional studies, demonstrating the central role that FOIA can play in research.     

A model for short-term group therapy on a children's inpatient unit

The paper describes the group therapy model which has evolved over the past two years on the Child Psychiatry Inpatient Unit of North Carolina Memorial Hospital. It begins with a brief review of the literature concerning group therapy with latency-aged children. The setting and patient population are described. Vignettes from group sessions are used to illustrate techniques which have evolved to deal with this particular setting and population. These include a leadership style characterized by much clarification, modeling, and limit setting; extensive focus on beginning and terminating; clearly defined behavioral limits; the use of time out; and use of play materials requiring little skill or attention as anxiety binders as well as projective media; and observation and supervisory discussions open to all members of the treatment team. The paper concludes with a discussion of the potentials and limitations of group therapy in such a setting. The thesis is that this model is effective in diagnosing developmental levels, in developing interpersonal skills, in substituting verbalization for action, and in mastering separation anxieties, though the setting limits the extent to which controlled regression, transference, and group pressures can develop and be used to produce change.     

Anticipated dependence: A determinant in an integrative model of power relations among elderly couples

The study proposes an integrative, multivariate model for analysis of conjugal power relations among elderly married couples, from the perspective of the husband. The conceptual framework of the model is based on the well-known Resource Theory. However, in addition to the resources examined in other studies (e.g., economic and social resources), this model considers the husband's anticipated dependence on his wife as a potential factor that may explain conjugal power relations. The integrative model was tested on 211 elderly husbands in Israel. It was found that the primary variables explaining conjugal power relations in late adulthood are psychological-expressive in nature. Instrumental-economic resources were not found to have any explanatory power in the late stage of life. Traditional attitudes of the husband regarding the capacity of women to fulfill roles outside of the home correlated positively with his perceived power in the marital relationship. The findings indicate that the Resource Theory may be expanded and that anticipated dependence can be incorporated as a potential resource affecting current power relations among elderly couples.     

Using a model of group psychotherapy to support social research on sensitive topics

This article describes the exploratory use of professional therapeutic support by social researchers working on a sensitive topic. Talking to recently bereaved parents about the financial implications of their child’s death was expected to be demanding work, and the research design included access to an independent psychotherapeutic service. Using this kind of professional support is rare within the general social research community, and it is useful to reflect on the process. There are likely to be implications for collection and interpretation of data, research output and the role and experience of the therapist. Here, the primary focus is the potential impact on researcher well‐being.     

A theory of recovery

1. Mental illness generally involves a loss of self--the meaning and purpose that once defined life are gone. 2. People respond to loss of self by asking "why." 3. Whether or not people find answers to "why" questions, they need to move on to asking, "How do I proceed?" 4. Action based on answers to "how" questions provides new meaning and purpose.     

Young female incest victims in treatment: Stages of growth seen with a group art therapy model

This article describes a treatment model for female child incest victims combining art and group therapy. Five stages of growth are identified: gathering, self-disclosure, regression, reconstruction, and ending.This project is in part supported by a grant from the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, Department of Health and Human Service.     

A balance theory approach to group problem solving

This paper presents a conceptualization of group problem solving based on Heider's balance theory [Cartwright, D., Harary, F., 1956. Structural balance: a generalization of Heider's theory. Psychological Review 63, 277–292; Heider, F., 1946. Attitudes and cognitive organization. Journal of Psychology 21, 107–112; Heider, F., 1958. The Psychology of Interpersonal Relations. Wiley, New York], in which the problem solving process is viewed as a struggle toward increasing structural balance. Balance theory provides a means of representing problems that captures both gestalt restructuring and incremental search aspects of the problem solving process. An experimental method based on a flexible card categorization task operationalizes this conceptual view in a group problem solving situation. Results of an experiment investigating the effects of certain properties of problem structure on group problem solving behavior and performance are reported.