Trauma Transformed: An Empowerment Response by Bussey,M. & Wise,J. B. (Eds.)

A group worker needs effective ways to get a group started and to involve its members. The check-in, an exercise to open group sessions, and other go-rounds which give each member a turn to speak, have become popular techniques. This article examines the value, purpose and problems of the check-in and other types of go-rounds and gives guidelines for use in a group. It is possible to perform acts that are techniques without employing groupwork as well as to use these same techniques and be doing goupwork. The techniques are not unique to our field; they are shared by all of the helping professions. The method informs how and when these techniques are to be selected, in what combinations, and with what intents (Klein, 1972).     

Infant Recognition of Hebrew Vocalic Word Patterns

The ability of infants to recognize phonotactic patterns in their native language is widely acknowledged. However, the specific ability of infants to recognize patterns created by nonadjacent vowels in words has seldom been investigated. In Semitic languages such as Hebrew, groups of multisyllabic words are identical in their nonadjacent vowel sequences and stress position but differ in the consonants interposed between the vowels. The goals of this study were to assess whether infants learning Hebrew show a preference for (1) a nonadjacent vocalic pattern or template, common in Hebrew nouns (CéCeC), over a nonattested nonadjacent vocalic pattern (CóCoC), and (2) a nonadjacent vocalic pattern common in Hebrew words (CaCóC) over an existing but less common pattern (CaCéC). Twenty Hebrew‐learning infants aged 8 to 11 months were presented with lists of nonsense words featuring the first two patterns (Experiment 1), and 20 were presented with nonsense words featuring the second two patterns (Experiment 2). The results showed longer listening to CéCeC than to CóCoC lists and to CaCóC than to CaCéC lists, suggesting that infants recognized the common nonadjacent vocalic patterns in both cases. The study thus demonstrates that Hebrew‐learning infants are able to disregard the intervening consonants within words and generalize their vocalic pattern to previously unheard nonwords, whether this pattern includes identical or different vowels and regardless of the rhythmic pattern of the word (trochaic or iambic). Analysis of the occurrence of the relevant vowel patterns in input speech in three Hebrew corpora (two addressed to children and one to adults) suggests that exposure to these patterns in words underlies the infants' preferences.     

The Explanatory Power of Choice Bracketing: A Commentary on Read et al., “Choice Bracketing”

Journal of Risk and Uncertainty -     

Krafting the obesity message: A case study in framing and issues management

This study examined the application of framing theory in issues management. Using case study methodology, the researchers analyzed message frames used by Kraft Foods in its public response to the obesity crisis, how the Kraft frames were reported by the media and whether Kraft's approach might help define effective framing and issues management practices in public relations. The study suggested that framing was indeed useful in Kraft's attempt to manage the issue of obesity.     

A preliminary study of group intervention along with basic canine training among traumatized teenagers: A 3-month longitudinal study

The current study aimed to reduce the psychological distress of teenage girls who were exposed to traumatic event (physical or sexual abused), through using dogs-assisted therapy. Two sets of designs conducted: 1) longitudinal design which aims to answer the question: does dog assisted therapy will reduce psychological distress (namely depressive symptoms, post-traumatic symptoms), improve self confidence and subjective well being among these teenage girls? 2) Cross-sectional design that aims to compare the treatment group (dogs-assisted therapy) with comparison group at baseline and after the last session. The groups (intervention vs. matching) were compared on socio-demographic variables (only for time 1), subjective well-being, coping with stressful life events, PTSD symptoms, and depressive symptoms at base line (time 1) and at the end of the intervention (time 2). Findings from the longitudinal perspective have shown a rapid decline at the level of PTSD symptoms in the intervention group, along with significant reduction in the proportion of participants with elevated risk for PTSD. The main significant findings from the cross-sectional design were: lower level of subjective well-being, higher level of PTSD symptoms and depressive symptoms among the intervention group compared to the matching group at base line. However, these differences became non-significant at the end of the intervention. Various explanations for these findings are discussed.     

Advantages of Group Therapy for Adolescent Participants in the Same Gang Rape

This paper deals with the issue of including in the same therapeutic group in a prison setting two (or more) young people who participated in the same gang rape. We provide a background for group therapy with adolescent sex offenders and point out the characteristics of group rape. In addition, we describe the uniqueness of working in a prison as opposed to working in the community or other settings outside the home. Characteristics of adolescent sex offenders and the group process provide a rationale against the inclusion in the same therapeutic group of two youths who committed a rape together. However, our observations during eight years of clinical experience and research in the prison clarify why it can and should be done.     

Cognitive-Behavioral Interventions for Anxiety Disorders: Rapid Review Suggestion of Larger Effects among Hispanic than Non-Hispanic White People

ABSTRACT

Anxiety disorders are common among Hispanic people. Evidence-based guidelines indicate cognitive-behavioral interventions (CBI), but they were developed primarily with non-Hispanic white (NHW) people. This rapid scoping review and meta-analysis clarified the relative effectiveness of CBI with Hispanics and NHW people with anxiety disorders and explored the clinical effects of cultural modifications among Hispanic people. Evidence from nine studies in the United States and one in Puerto Rico was synthesized. Meta-analysis of four randomized controlled trials (RCT) found no statistically or practically significant differences between Hispanic and NHW participants on anxiety alleviation. Both groups enjoyed large clinical benefits. However, a significantly greater drop-out rate among Hispanic participants was found. Meta-analytic adjustment for this study characteristic of loss to follow-up suggested a somewhat larger clinical benefit among NHW people. Scoping synthesis of six non-RCTs suggested that deep cultural adaptations of CBI would substantially improve outcomes among Hispanic people. Consistent with Hispanic-paradox and barrio advantage theories such culturally sensitive interventions may well take beneficial Hispanic outcomes beyond those of NHW people. This field's synthetic knowledge, therefore, essentially consists of two competing hypotheses that will require rigorous testing with a necessarily larger and better controlled RCT than has been represented in this field thus far.     

The Internalization of the “Father” Object Among Young Men and Its Relation to Separation–Individuation Patterns, Anxiety and Depression

While the father’s influence on his offspring’s personalities and well-being has historically been neglected, literature on this topic has recently been accumulating. The father’s influence is touches upon numerous practical and ethical implications for social work, psychotherapy, and psychodiagnosis. The present study draws from Mahler’s (Mahler, Separation individuation. The selected papers of Margaret S. Mahler, 1963, 1967, 1974; Mahler et al., The psychological birth of the human infant. Symbiosis and individuation, 1975) theory of the psychological birth of the child and offers a novel focus on the pivotal internal representation of the father. According to this theory, hindered developmental processes lead to depression and anxiety. 130 students took part in the current study, in which the internal father object was examined with regard to separation–individuation processes, and the levels of anxiety and depression were recorded. The study’s results show a significant negative relation between the quality of the paternal object and levels of anxiety and depression. A theoretical model was constructed to illustrate the similarities and discrepancies in the development of depression and anxiety in light of the father object as mediated by the separation–individuation processes that were examined.     

An algebraic and Bayesian technology for object recognition

This paper presents a new robust, low computational cost technology for recognizing free-form objects in three-dimensional (3D) range data, or, in two dimensional (2D) curve data in the image plane. Objects are represented by implicit polynomials (i.e. 3D algebraic surfaces or 2D algebraic curves) of degree greater than two, and are recognized by computing and matching vectors of their algebraic invariants (which are functions of their coefficients that are invariant to translations, rotations and general linear transformations). Such polynomials of the fourth degree can represent objects considerably more complicated than quadrics and super-quadrics, and can realize object recognition at significantly lower computational cost. Unfortunately, the coefficients of high degree implicit polynomials are highly sensitive to small changes in the data to which the polynomials are fit, thus often making recognition based on these polynomial coefficients or their invariants unreliable. We take two approaches to the problem: one involves restricting the polynomials to those which represent bounded curves and surfaces, and the other approach is to use Bayesian recognizers. The Bayesian recognizers are amazingly stable and reliable, even when the polynomials have unbounded zero sets and very large coefficient variability. The Bayesian recognizers are a unique interplay of algebraic functions and statistical methods. In this paper, we present these recognizers and show that they work effectively, even when data are missing along a large portion of an object boundary due, for example, to partial occlusion.