TREATMENT OF CHILDREN'S FEARS: A STRATEGIC UTILIZATION APPROACH

The Sufi teaching story of the Watermelon Hunter perhaps teaches us much of what we need to know about Milton Erickson's strategic utilization approach to therapy:
Once upon a time there was a man who strayed from his own country into the Land of Fools. He saw a number of people running in fear from a field where they had been trying to harvest wheat. They reported to this man that there was a monster in the field. Upon closer observation, the traveler saw that it was only a watermelon. The traveler offered to kill this monster for them, and he cut the watermelon from the stalk and ate it. The people then became more afraid of him than of the monster and drove him away from their village.
It happened later that another man wandered into the Land of Fools, and the same thing began to take place. This man agreed, however, that it was a monster and led them tiptoeing away from it. He spent a long time with them and lived with them in their houses until he could slowly teach them the facts that would help them to loose their terror of melons. Eventually, they even grew melons for their own pleasure. (Shah, 1970)     

UTILIZATION AND INDIRECT SUGGESTION IN MULTIPLE-FAMILY GROUP THERAPY WITH ALCOHOLICS

The great versatility and utility of Ericksonian approaches to psychotherapy are demonstrated by the application of these techniques to large, multiple-family group therapy of alcoholic families. Using such techniques as unconscious conditioning, therapeutic binds, indirect suggestion, and the utilization approach, a therapist can manage an unwieldy group of 70 or 80 resistant patients and lead them in a positive, therapeutic direction. This paper describes how a set of specific goals are achieved using these techniques.     

STRATEGIC RITUALIZATION AND ETHNICITY: ATYPOLOGY AND ANALYSIS OF RITUAL ENACTMENTS IN AN ITALIAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

This investigation utilizes a theoretical framework that focuses on ritual enactments to examine the ways members of an Italian American community in southeastern Oklahoma use social rituals to achieve different outcomes. Several methodological strategies (especially interviews and historical analysis) are utilized to document how individuals within this ethnic community have, for over the last century, employed numerous rituals to, among other things, express their ethnicity, create community ties, enhance personal gain, and survive. Building upon the theory of structural ritualization, the concept of strategic ritualization is employed and expanded upon to examine this issue. A typology of three types of strategic ritualization is presented and defined: ritual legitimators, ritual entrepreneurs, and ritual sponsors. This conceptualization represents the first elaboration of structural ritualization theory addressing this topic. In focusing on this little studied ethnic community, the importance of ritualized practices and their strategicuse throughout society are emphasized. The relation of this research to broader concerns dealing with the social constructionist approach to ethnicity and the intersection of decision-making, culture, and structure are briefly highlighted and directions for future theory development and research are indicated.     

EXPLORING ASPECTS OF FILIPINO-AMERICAN FAMILIES

FilipinOs are the fastest growing Asian population in the United States. Yet we Westerners know little about the Filipino-American family-aspects of its organization, facets of its functioning, or salient cultural values. This paper explores these issues in the firt-generation Filipino-American family and offers specific treatment recommendations. Case examples are provided.     

THE REPRODUCTION OF FAMILIES: THE SOCIAL ROLE OF FAMILY THERAPY?

Family therapy, while highlighting the significance of family functioning for individual experience and behavior, has in general failed to respond to the critical analyses of the family that have recently been developed, and particularly that offered by the women's movement. Consequently, it cannot investigate the possibility that "dysfunction" in families is actually socially created and maintained. Family therapy's failure to consider the broader contexts of family functioning, a failure that is facilitated by the use of systems theory as its major theoretical underpinning, results in an uncritical acceptance of the contemporary family form.     

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY CONSULTATION WITH RANCH AND FARM FAMILIES: AN EMPIRICAL FAMILY CASE STUDY

There is a paucity of marriage and family therapy literature addressing therapeutic consultation with farm and ranch families. This article describes a case study in which several Marital and Family Therapy approaches were used to consult with a ranch family. It also provides empirical data showing in which of five treatment phases changes occurred. Two generations, including four couples from an extended family, participated in family consultation over 42 months and completed assessments six times. Statistical results and clinical impressions confirm that the five-phase consultative process resulted in significant improvements in family satisfaction with adaptability and family strains levels and positive movement in seven other areas.     

KNOWING THE CHILD: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH TO THE TREATMENT OF CHILDREN IN FOSTER CARE

Social workers in agencies and school settings often deal with high risk, multi problem children such as those in foster care. Increasingly, there is widespread recognition that a coordinated, multifaceted approach is required to address the range of cognitive, social, and mental health problems with which they present. This article recommends utilization of an ecological treatment intervention that is specifically tailored to the needs of the child based on a formulation of the child’s experience and developmental deficits. A case example comprising the treatment of an eight-year-old boy in foster care with comorbid diagnoses of alcohol related neurodevelpomental disorder, failure to thrive, and attachment disorder, illustrates this approach. The article concludes with implications for social work practice.     

DIRECT AND INDIRECT EFFECTS OF RELIGION ON BIRTH TIMING:

The effect of being Catholic on first-birth timing (hereafter, birth timing) varies according to how the dependent variable is measured. When birth timing is measured as age at first birth, Catholics' is slower than non-Catholics'; measured as duration from marriage, Catholics' is more rapid. Structural equation models for discrete data showing these findings explain that Catholics marry later than non-Catholics. The direct effect of being Catholic is to speed birth timing, while the larger, indirect effect (through marital status) is to slow it.     

DYNAMIC TREATMENT EFFECTS OF TEACHER'S AIDES IN AN EXPERIMENT WITH MULTIPLE RANDOMIZATIONS

Using data from a large‐scale two‐stage experiment wherein students and teachers were randomized at both kindergarten entry and first grade to be sorted into classes either with or without full‐time teacher's aides, I estimate an econometric model that is uniquely suited to take advantage of this design to determine their effect on academic achievement. The identification strategy produces fully nonparametric dynamic average treatment effects for every treatment path. I find that the use of full‐time teacher's aides increases student achievement, but the benefits appear to accrue mostly to those of higher socioeconomic status and to White students. A cost‐benefit analysis shows that full‐time teacher's aides may be a competitive alternative to class size reductions in terms of net social benefits. (JEL I21, I28)     

FEAR OF NOVELTY: A MODEL OF SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERY WITH STRATEGIC UNCERTAINTY

This paper analyzes the production of fundamental research as a coordination game played by scholars. In the model, scholars decide to adopt a new idea only if they believe that a critical mass of peers is following a similar research strategy. If researchers observe only a noisy idiosyncratic signal of the true scientific potential of a new idea, we show that the game presents a single threshold equilibrium. In this environment, fundamental research proceeds with large structural breaks followed by long periods of time in which new ideas are unsuccessful. The likelihood of a new idea emerging depends on various parameters, including the rewards of working in the old paradigm, the critical mass of researchers required to create a new school of thought and scholars' ability to properly assess the scientific value of new ideas. (JEL O31, C72, A14)     

THE BASE 32 METHOD: AN IMPROVED METHOD FOR CODING SIBLING CONSTELLATIONS*

Coding the sibling constellation of genograms has traditionally required that at least one data space be allotted for each child in the sibling group. Space requirements, given a large number of families, can become prohibitive for the researcher and practitioner using a microcomputer to store family data. A new coding method that utilizes binary and base 32 numbers is offered. That method, called the Base 32 Method, yields a space savings of about 33% over the traditional coding method for families with three children, with savings increasing to 70% for families with ten or more children. Consequent space savings will allow computer-using researchers and practitioners to store and analyze much larger amounts of family data and to test statistical hypotheses about such data with increased efficiency and speed of execution.     

THE SAIGON OF THE FAMILY'S MIND: FAMILY THERAPY WITH FAMILIES OF VIETNAM VETERANS

Unlike other wars, Vietnam was America's first teenage war. This has caused unique problems in dealing with the Vietnam veteran, as exemplified by the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although the bulk of the work done on PTSD has indicated the likelihood of veterans establishing disengaged families, it has been the author's experience that the families of Vietnam veterans often have enmeshed parent-child ties between the veteran and his children. When the children become adolescents, their quest for individualization throws the family into turmoil which has its genesis in the father's own foreclosed identity. A five-stage method of treatment (Intake, Ventilation, Bridging, Education and Hiking the Therapy Home) is proposed by the author as being a sound method of family treatment in this growing family problem.     

THE MYTH OF THE UNFEELING STRATEGIC THERAPIST

This paper explores what the authors consider to be a widespread myth: that strategic therapists ignore, avoid, or neglect client feelings in treatment. This myth is promulgated by trainers' admonitions and strategic theorists' injunctions against dealing with client affect. It is also cultivated by omission of this topic in the strategic literature. The myth is destructive in that it misrepresents what strategic practitioners actually do in a therapy session. Seven elements of the myth are delineated and the corresponding fallacies are illustrated.     

ATTRIBUTIONAL EFFECTS OF THERAPY WITH INCESTUOUS FAMILIES*

This study examines the effects of a self-help program, Parents United, on the members of families in which incest has occurred. Fifty-six male incest offenders, including three grandfathers, and thirty-five spouses were studied to assess the impact of the program on participants' attributions of responsibility for incest, changes in family relationships, and subsequent referral and recidivism. The program was successful in increasing participants' feelings of responsibility, and decreasing recidivism, but less successful in keeping the families together.     

DOING IT WHEN OTHERS DO: A STRATEGIC MODEL OF PROCRASTINATION

This paper develops a strategic model of procrastination in which present‐biased agents prefer to perform an onerous task with someone else. This turns their decision of when to perform the task into a procrastination game—a dynamic coordination game between present‐biased players. The model characterizes the conditions under which interaction mitigates or exacerbates procrastination. A procrastinator matched with a worse procrastinator may perform her task earlier than she otherwise would: she wants to avoid the increased temptation that her peer's company would generate. Procrastinators can thus use bad company as a commitment device to mitigate their self‐control problem. (JEL C72, C73, D03, D91)     

STRATEGIC DISCLOSURE OF MEANINGFUL INFORMATION TO RIVAL

I study a model of strategic disclosure of a private signal to a rival in the presence of a payoff externality. In the model, two agents forecast the unknown true state of a future period. Specifically, the quality of the signal is also private information. Hence, which quality of signal is revealed for which incentive is the main question of interest. I show that, even when disclosure is costly, the revealing equilibrium, where an agent voluntarily reveals his signal, can exist and it should be a monotone equilibrium. Asymmetry between the penalty for an incorrect forecast and the reward for a correct forecast is a necessary condition for the existence of this revealing equilibrium. If the penalty is larger than the reward, the unique revealing equilibrium is a separating equilibrium, where only the low quality signal is disclosed in order to induce the rival's imitation. On the other hand, if the reward is much larger than the penalty, the unique revealing equilibrium is a pooling equilibrium, where the signal is always revealed in order to induce the rival's deviation. If the reward is not much larger than the penalty, no revealing equilibrium is robust to a costly disclosure. (JEL D81, D82)     

INFORMATION COSTS AND THE ORGANIZATION OF CREDIT MARKETS: A THEORY OF INDIRECT LENDING

This paper explains indirect lending as a strategy for reducing a bank's cost of screening borrowers. Commercial banks appear to "ration" credit by rejecting some direct loan applicants, although they accept higher-risk borrowers who apply for loans indirectly through retailers. However, the more thorough credit check on direct loans causes applicants to sort themselves according to risk. Indirect applicants signal their higher risk through their choice of financing. Since banks gather more accurate information on direct applicants, the two types of contracts should differ in predictable ways. These implications are tested with Federal Reserve data on 5,000 automobile loans.