The Multisystemic and Multilevel Investigation of the Expanded Therapeutic Alliance‐Psychological Functioning Relationship in Individual Therapy

The expanded therapeutic alliance, consisting of multiple interpersonal alliance relationships, is a common factor inherent to the practice of all systemic therapies. The following study has three specific aims: (a) Bring an expanded, multisystemic emphasis to the study of the therapeutic alliance in individual therapy; (b) Understand better the session‐by‐session relationship between alliance and psychological functioning, including distinguishing within‐person from between‐person variability by using multilevel modeling techniques; and (c) Explore the role of early attachment relationships and family‐of‐origin experiences in moderating the alliance‐psychological functioning relationship. Instead of taking only one or two alliance measurements throughout treatment like in the majority of previous research, we measured both alliance and psychological functioning continuously at each session for 296 subjects.     

Change from within: The ABC‐AME church

This article describes the dilemma of a senior pastor whose urban church lost its community focus as the congregation became more affluent. His task was to determine what role the church should play in helping its less fortunate neighbors and how to get the members to support this new vision. Where there is no vision the people perish. —Proverbs 29:18     

新疆阿布达里人渊源考

本文根据国内外有关资料的记载和阿布达里人自己的传说对天山南部的阿布达里聚落进行了分析考证,指出阿布达里人的祖先是10世纪末11世纪初从中亚及西亚来的伊斯兰志愿者。     

After the Ban of Slot Machines in Norway: A New Group of Treatment-Seeking Pathological Gamblers?

Changes in demographical and clinical features of treatment-seeking pathological gamblers, and their gambling preferences before and after the ban of slot machines in Norway from 1 July 2007. Is there an emergence of a new group of gamblers seeking treatment after the ban? The participants were 99 patients, 16 women and 83 men, with the mean age of 35 years. All were referred to the Bergen Clinics Foundation, Norway, for treatment of gambling addiction in the period October 2006 to October 2009. A comprehensive assessment package was applied, focusing on demographical characteristics, the severity of pathological gambling, mental health and substance use disorder. After the ban the mean age was significantly lower, and significantly more were highly educated, in regular employment, and married. Internet gambling and a sport betting game called Odds were the most common options, and gambling problems had become more severe with greater depth due to gambling, bad conscious, heavy alcohol consumption, and more suicidal thoughts and attempts. After the ban of slot machines, the characteristics of treatment-seeking gamblers have been changed, and with great implications for treatment strategies.     

Practical Ways Psychotherapy Can Support Physical Healthcare Experiences for Male Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse

This pilot study was conducted to examine older child molestation victims' self-report of their long-term psychological adjustment at least 12 months after the date of their initial clinic evaluation. Female participants were assesed using the Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale, Children's Depression Inventory, and the Hopelessness Scale which were also administered during their first evaluation. T-ratios revealed that scores on all measures, including five of the six Piers-Harris subscales showed significant improvement. The high rate of noncompliance associated with this population is also discussed in terms of removal from the home, type of abuse, and age of the perpetrator.     

Promoting sexual health and responsible sexual behavior: an introduction

Facing a myriad of sexual health problems today, health ministries are being compelled to develop comprehensive approaches to sexual health promotion. Recently, there have been several attempts to develop these strategies at national, regional, and global levels. One of the challenges of articulating strategies has been arriving at basic definitions of sex, sexuality, sexual health, and responsible sexual behavior. However, there is remarkable consistency throughout these recent documents. These documents call for leadership of the health sector to create better climates for discussion of sexuality, access to information and education about sexuality, prevention strategies, access to care, and more research in human sexuality and evaluation of programs designed to promote sexual health and responsible sexual behavior.     

Tip Work: Examining the Relational Dynamics of Tipping beyond the Service Counter

Tips constitute a growing form of income for roughly three million American workers today. While existing scholarship on tipping focuses on worker‐customer dynamics, it neglects the implications of gratuities beyond the service counter. Drawing on the case of restaurant workers in Los Angeles, this study analyzes tip work, the bundle of social relations and labor experiences framed by tips in commercial settings. I argue that tipping strains relations between subgroups of workers who, despite collectively producing service, are subject to unequal access to tip earnings. Tips thereby shape relations among workers in ways that exacerbate existing organizational and social hierarchies.     

Further Effects of Lottery Odds on Responding

Lotteries (i.e., probabilistic bonus contingencies) are an established intervention in Organizational Behavior Management. Although common, there are many permutations of lotteries used in literature and they are often combined with other interventions. One key variable that may influence the effectiveness of lotteries are the odds that the lottery will pay out to those who earn entry. The current investigation evaluated a lottery intervention with varied payout chances (25%, 12%, 6%, or 3%). A 6% chance of winning was the lowest odds of winning where responding was reliably maintained across two participants. Implications of these results and future direction for research are discussed below.