Sullivan's Approach to Inner Psychotic Experiences: A Case Illustration

Harry Stack Sullivan's concept of interpersonal psychiatry has been recognized as a landmark in the American psychoanalytic movement, in particular his influence on the development of object-relations theory. He is an influential figure in interpreting the inner experiences of persons with schizophrenia. Psychotic experiences represent a failure of one's self-system and the dissociation dynamism. Delusions and hallucinations are experiences in lost control of self-awareness. The person regresses to dreams or experiences from infancy and childhood in facing spontaneous conflicts and anxiety in interpersonal transaction. As a result, the tripartite self-system is fractured. In this paper, the writer applies Sullivan's concept in interpreting the inner psychotic experiences of a client with schizophrenia. Its implication for clinical social work practice is also discussed.     

The Consumer Approach to Economic Studies

This article examines how recent history textbooks from the United States, Japan, China, and South Korea present the Korean War. The comparative analysis focuses on four areas: the causes of the Korean War, American involvement in the war, Chinese involvement in the war, and the results of the war. Analysis of the central story lines reveals that some consistent statements exist about certain events in the Korean War, but inconsistencies and conflicting views seem to dominate the history textbooks in these countries. The authors believe that comparing international history textbooks creates a good opportunity for students to see the complexity and controversy of history interpretation. Such a critical comparative approach helps students better understand how people in different countries perceive and interpret historical events. The authors argue that reviewing the similar and conflicting interpretations of the war gives students a unique opportunity to develop their critical-thinking ability and reasoning skills.     

青年、文化与阶级:试论新生代农民工研究的文化维度

英国文化研究的伯明翰学派关注第二次世界大战后兴起的青年亚文化,成为影响深远的理论流派。伴随着网络社会与消费社会在中国的崛起,新生代农民工群体日益成为文化生产的主体。在当代中国新生代农民工研究中主要有两种范式:"阶级形成"范式强调这一群体的苦难、集体抗争与阶级的形成,"市民化"范式强调在城乡二元文化对立中,新生代农民工群体对城市文化的融入。这两种范式都忽略了新生代农民工作为青年的文化生产。杀马特和庞麦郎这两个个案的出现彰显了已有研究的不足和突破既定范式的需要。借鉴伯明翰学派文化研究理论,以一种"亚文化范式"切入新生代农民工考察具有可能性。     

A Case Study Approach to Reducing the Risks of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

ABSTRACT

The risk of child sexual exploitation is a growing concern, both within community and child care settings. Within community services working with vulnerable young people, the risks of exploitation are pervasive and present a constant management problem for professionals. This makes the need for focused educational interventions within such settings all the more vital. This case study aims to describe the assessment, formulation, intervention, and outcomes of a young female considered to be at risk of sexual exploitation. It was hypothesised that, after completion of a psychoeducational group designed to enhance knowledge and skills around child sexual exploitation, positive outcomes would be seen in psychometric assessment, risk-taking behavior, and risk awareness. Results demonstrated no clinically significant change for measures of impulsivity, resourcefulness, or self-reported difficulties. A significant increase was seen for self-reported self-esteem, and all outcomes revealed a positive direction of change. Observational accounts of behavioral and attitudinal change produced more positive results, revealing an increase in prosocial behaviors and a reduction in risk-taking behaviors. Outcomes are discussed in relation to the individual’s history and the residential care environment. Implications for future research and practice are outlined, and the study limitations are considered.     

A Blumerian Approach to Storytelling

Blumer's work on life histories and symbolic interactionism represents an important contribution in the twenty-first century. I join his work with research on storytelling to build a Blumerian approach to storytelling. This approach holds that social actors use stories to construct subjective meanings, stories exist in some social context, stories are told or written for some audience, a wide range of social processes produce stories, the temporal sequence of storytelling audiences is important, social actors use interactional techniques of showing story preferences, and symbolic structures and narrative linkages are the resources social actors use to compose stories. Future research can continue to develop this approach.     

A Narrative Approach to Groups

This paper considers the ways that narratives can be used in groups to create meaning, organize the past, explain the present and consider alternatives for the future. Narratives are formats for self-creation; they can also be used to provide support or education, promote self-understanding and interpersonal effectiveness. Already familiar in self-help groups and reminiscence groups for the elderly, narrative approaches can be useful in many other formats. In this paper I discuss ways of eliciting narratives, understanding their meaning from many perspectives and using them to promote growth and healing in groups. The group leader's role is reconfigured into that of participant observer and manager of the group process. It is up to the leader to provide a context in which multiple accounts can emerge for consideration.     

Nursing-Home Resident Quality of Life: A Longitudinal Case Study Approach

Longitudinal quality-of-life (QOL) research incorporating multiple perspectives can add to knowledge about how nursing home residents experience QOL, but these methods are seldom used. This study employed interviews and participant observation to conduct multiple-perspective, longitudinal case studies of six residents. Close, reciprocal relationships with staff members, staff knowledge of residents, and autonomy were fundamental to QOL. Autonomy was experienced through choice and self-advocacy. Changes in QOL over time related to changes in resident health status, acclimation to the setting and family member availability. Study results may have implications for staffing and staff training.     

Arguing for Democracy: A Multimodal Approach to Argumentative Writing Instruction in the Social Studies Classroom

Democratic societies require a citizenry skilled in argumentation. At present, the written argument maintains primacy among communicative modes. Because of its cognitive demands, written argumentation is often difficult to teach. A multimodal approach to writing instruction carries the potential to assist struggling learners. This article outlines an instructional approach in which students engage with a visual argument to better understand the essentials of argumentation, as specified by the Toulmin Method. It asserts that once students have deepened their understanding of argument via a visual mode, they will then be able to apply this understanding to the written mode of argumentation. It concludes with a brief discussion of how students may apply their understanding of multimodal argumentation toward civic engagement.     

A New Approach to Jewish Divorce

The traditional Jewish law of divorce, which permits a husband to divorce his wife, but does not sanction the wife's divorcing him, has created hardship for Jewish women for centuries. In view of the new attitudes toward the equality of women, the rabbis of the Reconstructionist Movement in Judaism have innovated an egalitarian "get" (divorce), a bold effort to prevent Jewish women from becoming agunot (abandoned wives.) By means of the new type of divorce, the Jewish woman takes the initiative and divorces the husband.     

A New Approach to Religious Commitment

Abstract

The authors propose a new framework for studying religious commitment. Commitment is viewed as a general social process which occurs in various aspects of life (e.g., marriage, work, politics, and religion). It consists of subjective and behavioral components. Religious commitment is defined as the interaction between people's religious consciousness and religious participation. Other religious beliefs, feelings, and intellectual inclinations are considered to be parts of people's religious orientations, not aspects of commitment as other approaches have suggested. Data from members of six Christian denominations are used to explore this conceptualization and the relationships among these variables. Some determinants and consequences of commitment also are considered. The evidence yields several propositions regarding factors that affect commitment and the effects of religion on people's attitudes and behaviors. The paper's implications for future research on religious commitment in particular and commitment in general also are discussed.     

A Systems Approach to Marital Process

An event of marital communication and negotiation is conceived as a cybernetic system composed of many parts and stages, following the framework of general systems theory. Couple communication is presented as a feedback loop based on the congruent transmission and effective reception of personal and interpersonal information. Couple negotiation is viewed as a system in development. Connections between component subsystems are mapped along with the pathways of progression from one stage to the next. No subsystem is taken as final but is constantly reworked in relation to the system as a whole. Implications for counseling, education, and research are suggested.     

A Systems-Crisis Approach to Family Treatment

This paper presents a model which integrates a wide range of possible interventions using family treatment and provides a method of differential decision making with regard to the intervention to be used in a given case. The model uses an ecological perspective and draws on concepts from general systems theory and crisis theory. A number of case examples are provided to demonstrate how the model has been applied in a clinical setting.