Meditation lowers stress and supports forgiveness among college students: a randomized controlled trial

OBJECTIVE AND PARTICIPANTS: The authors evaluated the effects on stress, rumination, forgiveness, and hope of two 8-week, 90-min/wk training programs for college undergraduates in meditation-based stress-management tools. METHODS: After a pretest, the authors randomly allocated college undergraduates to training in mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR; n = 15), Easwaran's Eight-Point Program (EPP; n = 14), or wait-list control (n = 15). The authors gathered pretest, posttest, and 8-week follow-up data on self-report outcome measures. RESULTS: The authors observed no post-treatment differences between MBSR and EPP or between posttest and 8-week follow-up (p > .10). Compared with controls, treated participants (n = 29) demonstrated significant benefits for stress (p < .05, Cohen's d = -.45) and forgiveness (p < .05, d = .34) and marginal benefits for rumination (p < .10, d = -.34). CONCLUSIONS: Evidence suggests that meditation-based stress-management practices reduce stress and enhance forgiveness among college undergraduates. Such programs merit further study as potential health-promotion tools for college populations.     

EMDR治疗:适应性信息加工、临床应用及研究介绍

恭祝中国EMDR学组的成立,同时对所有致力于帮助那些遭遇痛苦的人们减轻伤痛的同仁们致以敬意。谢谢给我这个机会,让我能够对EMDR(眼动脱敏再加工)的最新进展及其理论基础作些阐述。过去二十年来,很多事情都发生了变化,也需要作些澄清。比如说,由于在我的第一本书中,将这种     

Psychotherapeutic approaches to the cancer patient

Three basic therapeutic approaches applicable to the majority of cancer patients are outlined and illustrated with case vignettes. They are: (1) Initial catharsis and validation of feelings, (2) Restoring communication impaired by denial, and (3) Understanding the psychological meaning of the illness. Using this framework, the therapist's professional skills may be organized toward specific interventions, thereby stabilizing the associated ego functions against the regression often induced by the anxieties mobilized by working with seriously ill patients.     

Adolescent alienation: Evaluating the hypotheses

Statistics reveal the steady, long-term, increase of self-and-other-destructive conduct among American youths. The conduct involved includes suicide, homicide, out-of-wedlock births, drug abuse and recorded crimes. A variety of hypotheses have been proposed to interpret this conduct — and to indicate possible remedies. Some of these hypotheses are briefly characterized, generally evaluated, and rejected. One hypothesis, the so-called youth bulge theory, suggests that the conduct is due to a disproportinate relationship between the youth population and the adult population; this disproportion — the so-called youth bulge — ultimately led to various modes of youth alienation. The youth bulge hypothesis was tested through a regression analysis which estimated the contemporaneous relationship between a measure of adolescent disorder (the youth suicide rate over time) and the proportion of youths to adults. A statistically significant but small relationship was found between the two variables. The implications of this conclusion are briefly sketched.     

Sequential analysis applied to testing the mean of a mormal population with known coefficient of variation

Given a normal population with mean y and known coefficient of variation the hypothesis H₀:μ=μ₀ is tested against H₁:μ=μ₁ using the sequential probability ratio test. The maximum of the expected sample number is shown to occur when μ is approxi¬mately equal to the harmonic mean of μ₀ and μ₁ and it is shown that this maximum value depends on μ₀ and μ₁, only through and it is found that the above test might be used to test H₀:μ≦μ₀ yntheir ratio. The operating characteristic function is investigated and it is found that the above test might be used to test against H₁:μ≧μ₁.     

Ghosts in the nursery revisited

In the last decades new research findings have illuminated many of the factors that affect the mental health development of the pre-verbal child. Attachment theory has emerged as a central concept which has great applicability to the clinical field of infant-mental health. The new knowledge base has been utilized by clinical research programs to develop new models of clinical intervention programs with infants-at-risk and their families. This article describes some of the theoretical and research findings which can be translated to, and enhance, traditional child welfare practice. The theoretical considerations are illustrated by case examples.     

Improving family planning services to rural adolescents

A longitudinal study conducted among young women and family planning service providers in 3 rural New York counties underscored the need to pay attention to individual differences among the clients served. Barriers to family planning acceptance in these counties included factors such as poor public transportation, long distances to clinic, and no telephone in many households that the urban population does not confront. The 900 young women in the sample were categorized as unserved, underserved, adequately served, or well served with regard to their family planning needs. A comparison of psychometric and survey data from these respondents indicated that clinic clients tended to be unmarried, to have a higher personal income, and have fewer children than their counterparts who were contraceptive nonusers. In addition, nonacceptors who completed the Future Events Test expected more positive events never to happen and made less use of planning for the future than the young women who were clients of the family planning clinic in their county. Although qualitative evaluation and participant-observation revealed significant differences between the 3 counties in terms of their family planning services, the distribution of women in the 4 categories did not differ among counties. Overall, these findings indicate that personality characteristics rather than situational variables are the best predictors of success or failure in taking steps to avoid unwanted pregnancy. For young women who are assessed at intake as lacking sufficient motivation to follow through on contraception, clinic personnel should develop an individualized plan aimed at providing education and raising self-esteem and optimism about control over future events.     

Gender Differences in Policy Preferences: A Summary of Trends from the 1960s to the 1980s

Using 267 repeated policy questions (962 time points), we examinegender differences in policy choices and how they have changedfrom the 1960s to the 1980s. The average gender difference inpreferences toward policies involving the use of force haveconsistently been moderately large. Sex differences in opiniontoward other policies—regulation and public protection,"compassion" issues, traditional values—have been approximatelyhalf as large but they also warrant more attention than in thepast. Our analysis suggests that the salience of issues hasincreased greatly for women, and as a result differences inpreferences have increased in ways consistent with the interestsof women and the intentions of the women's movement.     

Norma Lang’s Use of Nondeliberative Approaches: Through a Multidimensional Lens of Activity in Social Work Groups

ABSTRACT

This article is intended to enter into a conversation with the significant work done by Norma Lang on nondeliberative approaches in social work with groups, and, in particular, her use of these approaches in working with people who have limited social skills. The intention is to locate significant strands of her conceptualizing, teaching, and practice within a discussion of the concept “activity”—a concept that social work with groups has uniquely contributed to social work theory and practice. It is proposed that aspects of “activity” can be more fully understood and analyzed using a number of intersecting dimensions: interaction, purpose, meaning, and analog.