"Languaging" factors affecting clients' acceptance of forgiveness intervention in marital therapy

Forgiveness is a significant intervention for healing interpersonal injury. Yet therapists do not often use forgiveness intervention. Employing a semantic perspective and a survey design (n = 307), this study investigated whether the language used to rationalize forgiveness intervention (set at five levels: personal growth, relationship reconciliation, spiritual issue, others' growth, and pardoning/condoning) may affect its acceptability. Gender, problem type, and choice were also included in the analyses. Overall, forgiveness was found to be an acceptable intervention. A pardoning/condoning rationale led to significantly lower acceptability ratings. Other results are discussed. We conclude that therapists should be less apprehensive about using forgiveness, but need to inform themselves better concerning its purpose, process, and articulation.     

The theory,structure, and techniques for the inclusion of children in family therapy: a literature review

Many barriers prevent therapists from including young children in family therapy, despite the theoretical belief that every family member should be present. Although there is a wealth of literature describing how to include children, the information has not been compiled in a way that is easily accessible to therapists. In this article, we report the findings of an exhaustive and systematic literature review of 64 publications, published between 1972 and 1999, related to including children in family therapy. The purpose of this article is to offer therapists a succinct compilation of theoretical, structural, and practical aspects as well as a comprehensive listing of specific techniques for including children in family therapy.     

Learning from extremism in the history of mental health. The example of multiple personality disorder

This article reviews some of the history of the cultural forces that shaped the diagnosis of multiple personality disorder/dissociative identity disorder and the subsequent abuses that occurred at the time of its popularization. Some of the implications that can be drawn from these kinds of historical excesses in the field of mental health will be discussed. The article concludes by underscoring the ethical obligation inherent in maintaining healthy professional skepticism toward ideas driven by ideology and fad, rather than scientific empiricism.     

Voice and Identity in a Bicultural/Bilingual Environment

Researchers have noted that with the onset of adolescence, girls' voices become muted and school achievement drops. Girls learn that the expression of strong feelings leads to distance from others, and that full use of their bodies and minds cause others discomfort. Self-esteem suffers and girls become at risk for destructive behaviors. Most studies have been done with middle class Caucasian girls. Those few studies done with young girls of color speak of girls on the margin who seem to resist losing their voices and their self-esteem. This article describes a study involving 5th–8th grade girls participating in an Advisory group program at a grammar school in a predominantly Mexican community of a large city. Group sessions were taped and analyzed for common themes including voice and self-esteem. Focus was directed to the influence of the bicultural/bilingual environment in analysis of group content. Implications for practice are included.     

Understanding domestic violence against women: using evolutionary psychology to extend the feminist functional analysis

Evolutionary psychologists such as Wilson and Daly (1993b) hypothesize that one goal of male-perpetrated domestic violence is control over female sexuality, including the deterrence of infidelity. According to this hypothesis, domestic violence varies with women's reproductive value or expected future reproduction, declining steeply as women age. We tested this hypothesis with a sample of 3,969 cases of male-perpetrated partner-abuse reported to a single police precinct in a large urban area over a 14-year period. Results show that (a) rates of domestic violence decrease as women age, (b) younger men are at greatest risk for perpetrating domestic violence, (c) younger, reproductive age women incur nearly 10 times the risk of domestic violence as do older, post-reproductive age women, and (d) the greater risk of domestic violence incurred by reproductive age women is not attributable solely to mateship to younger, more violent men. Discussion addresses theoretical implications of these findings and suggests a refinement of the feminist hypothesis of domestic violence against women.     

Contemporary Conceptions of Environmental Risk: Implications for Resource Management and Policy

Recent theoretical development in environmental sociology has focused on the concept of risk. Macro- and middle-range theoretical conceptualizations relevant to understanding environmental risk and resource depletion have emerged from Europe and the United States. We review five theoretical approaches to the environment–society relationship and identify convergent characteristics relevant for resource management in the modern world. These characteristics suggest goals for resource management should include expanded discursive systems, a more informed public and building institutional trust.     

Grease Cowboy Fever; or,the making of Johnny T

Through a mix of theory, memoir and performance narrative, this chapter examines the making of drag persona Johnny T. as part of a king movement where the dominant cultural paradigm of gender is reconsidered and remastered. As seen in Grease, Saturday Night Fever and Urban Cowboy, pop culture icon John Travolta's particular blend of 50s greaser, faggy 70s disco, and 80s country masculinities are shown to be prime drag king conditions, particularly for a dyke who came of age during the 70s Travolta fever. While drawing from personal experience as a king, current trends in the king movement, and gender theory, this essay calls into question the lines between performing masculinity on and off the stage, inviting us to see both the work and play, the parody and realness, the struggle and liberation that make up the transgressive world of drag kinging and gender variance. Drawing upon gender theorists Judith Butler and Judith Halberstam, gender is exposed as a social construction both produced and performed, and as such, drag kinging is framed as an arena where gender is reconfigured.     

Gender differences and attitudes towards homosexuality

The aim of this research is two-fold. First, it examined individuals' attitudes towards homosexuals in Singapore. Second, it also investigated whether gender differences in attitudes towards homosexuals exist. Respondents comprised 365 students and data were collected through the use of questionnaires. Results generally suggested that respondents harboured negative attitudes towards homosexuals. The prevalence of such ambivalent attitudes seemed to suggest that respondents were still generally quite conservative in their attitudes towards gender roles and homosexuality. Our findings also revealed that, generally, women reported that they were more comfortable in working closely with male homosexuals while the reverse was true for men. Implications of our findings were discussed.     

A revolution in genetics: changing medicine, changing lives

The sequencing of the human genome is only the tip of the iceberg. It is the beginning of a revolution that many predict will transform medicine. How will genetics research affect physicians and patients and the practice of medicine? When investigators identify the function and association of human genes with common chronic diseases, diagnosis, treatment, and classification of human diseases will be changed forever. Genetic susceptibility testing allows patients to know their predisposition to disease long before symptoms appear. Physicians can intervene with customized advice so that the patient can prevent, modify, or avoid the predisposed condition by better understanding both his or her genetic and environmental risk for disease. The promise of a genetic approach to drug therapy involves moving from one size fits all to personalized medicine tailored to the individual patient. Physicians will become mentors and counselors, advising patients on the best treatment path given their unique genetic predisposition--even in this sophisticated, high tech field, the physician-patient relationship is likely to improve, highlighted by individualized therapies and personal attention.