Digitally Mediated (Dis)embodiment

This article aims to demonstrate that the philosophical anthropology of the German philosopher Helmuth Plessner (1892-1985) enables us to gain a better understanding of the experiential presuppositions and implications of information and communication technologies, such as telepresence and virtual reality, than we can obtain through interpretations that start from a dualistic, Cartesian ontology. With the help of Plessner's concept of "excentric positionality', developed in Stages of the Organic and Man (1928), Hans Moravec's Utopian claims about the possibility of disembodied existence in cyberspace are criticized and an alternative, more adequate interpretation is presented. It is argued that the corporal "poly-excentric positionality' that is inherent in the human experience of telepresence and virtual reality, radicalizes the existential " homelessness' which characterizes human life.     

The effects of the child support provisions of the Family Support Act of 1988 on child well-being

The provisions for child support reform in the Family Support Act of 1988 are likely to have a large impact upon the well-being of children eligible for child support, a group expected to include half of the children in the country. The reform is expected to increase child support payments and thereby reduce the economic insecurity and poverty of children who live apart from a parent. It is also expected to lead to increased contact between noncustodial parents and their children, which may also enhance well-being. This paper reviews the child support system in the United States, summarizes the empirical research that has been carried out on children from disrupted families, analyzes the impact that the Family Support Act may have on child well-being, and discusses the key variables that should be measured as well as the most promising sources of data to evaluate child support reform.Any opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not reflect the views of the sponsoring institutions.     

Hope: An affective cognition

Hope is here operationalized as a predominance of expected future positive feelings over future expected negative feelings. Hope, comprised of both desire and expectation, involves the interaction of affect and cognition. Modifications of Bradburn's Affective Balance Scale were used to measure hope and happiness. Four graphic rating scales were used to measure psychological well-being, perceived health, satisfaction, and happiness. Hope, measured by the Expected Balance Scale correlated as expected with the other measures. A factor analysis further supported the robustness of the hope variable. Hope is offered as an important personality dimension worthy of continued research.     

Peace Fair or Warfare: Educating the Community

Psychologists who wish to promote peace and justice must investigate how to mobilize the political will of the people in order to improve the policy making of the elite. This is the second study in a program of action research designed to investigate ways of encouraging people to accept personal responsiblity for influencing governmental foreign policy. It reports an attempt to create an ideal educational experience—a peace fair—that would provide the set of conditions that the first study suggested were essential for the acceptance of personal responsibility. The fair was successful in convincing individuals that they personally could do something to help prevent nuclear war. However, it revealed a serious weakness in the current peace movement—an inability to portray convincingly a course of national action that could promote peace and justice. This is an essential component for efficient action. Suggestions are made for the next round of research.     

与时俱进开拓创新努力做好新时期关心下一代工作

在学校党委的领导下,发挥离退休老同志的育人作用,做好青年学生的思想政治工作,全面提高综合素质,是高校关心下一代工作的重要内容。文章就发挥好离退休人员的育人职能、加强自身建设、探索有效载体等方面,阐述了新时期,如何做好高校关心下一代工作。     

Someone who Treats you as an Ordinary Human Being ... Homeless Youth Examine the Quality of Professional Care

Professor dr. Micha de Winter, Utrecht University, Department of Child and Adolescent Studies, POB 80.140, 3508 TC Utrecht, the Netherlands. Summary In this article we describe a peer-research project, in whichnineteen homeless youngsters interviewed 190 of their ‘colleagues’about the quality of professional care and the improvementsthat, according to them, should be made. The interviews werefollowed by discussion meetings with social workers and policymakers. The youngsters report mixed feelings about the professionalcare system. On the one hand they think they should do morethemselves, there should not be too much professional interferenceand certainly not a patronizing attitude. On the other hand,they want better advice and assistance which is rather basedon a joint effort. The essence of professional care is, accordingto both the young and the professional participants, to finda balance between independence and assistance. From an educationalpoint of view, social workers and adolescents operate at daggersdrawn. Conflict and opposing views are often an inherent partof the road to gaining autonomy. This process, which is oftenpainful, can only be successfully completed in an atmosphereof sincerity, mutual trust and consultation. Dialogue at alllevels is believed to be a sine qua non in the improvement ofprofessional care for homeless youth.     

Influential data points in predictive logistic models

The influence of individual points in an ordinal logistic model is considered when the aim is to determine their effects on the predictive probability in a Bayesian predictive approach. Our concern is to study the effects produced when the data are slightly perturbed, in particular by observing how these perturbations will affect the predictive probabilities and consequently the classification of future cases. We consider the extent of the change in the predictive distribution when an individual point is omitted (deleted) from the sample by use of a divergence measure suggested by Johnson (1985) as a measure of discrepancy between the full data and the data with the case deleted. The methodology is illustrated on some data used in Titterington et al. (1981).     

BUILDING ON PRETREATMENT CHANGE TO CONSTRUCT THE THERAPEUTIC SOLUTION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

This paper reports the authors' "accidental" discovery that change in the problem situation frequently occurs prior to the first session, and that clients can often recall and describe such changes, if prompted. The authors describe one technique for eliciting reports of pretreatment change from clients, and discuss the results of an informal survey of 30 families who responded to this intervention. Rather than discounting pretreatment change as a "flight into health," it can be framed in Batesonian terms as a "difference that makes a difference."     

A cross-national validation of the client satisfaction questionnaire: the Dutch experience

A Dutch translation of the eight-term version of the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ-8) was administered to community mental health outpatients in the Netherlands (n = 110). Data analyses indicate that the Dutch CSQ-8 has highly similar operating characteristics and psychometric properties compared with the English language version. Results also indicate that one general satisfaction factor was found in the Dutch CSQ-8 data. All eight of the scale items loaded heavily on this general factor, strong inter-item correlations were found, and the scale demonstrated high internal consistency. On these grounds, we can conclude that the Dutch CSQ-8 has the same properties as the original questionnaire and can be used as such in Holland. It was also found that those clients who decided to stop therapy on their own were less satisfied than other clients. Clients who made a common decision with their therapist or let him/her make that decision were more satisfied than clients who stopped by themselves. Additional research is planned to investigate whether clients who complete treatment goals are indeed more satisfied and whether this line of research could be a means of studying the external validity of the scale.