Therapeutic Forgiveness: Developing a Model for Empowering Victims of Sexual Abuse

Forgiveness is increasingly popular in therapy as a way to facilitate healing, but there are definitional discrepancies and confusion regarding the degree to which it is conceptualized as either an interpersonal/relational or an independent/self-enhancing process. In this article forgiveness is conceptualized as an interpersonal process linked to apology or contrition on the part of the offender. Yet it is also independent. A model is described that was developed for the benefit of abuse victims whose offenders will not or cannot apologize. Using the model, victims can accomplish for themselves what would be accomplished for them through an apology.     

A Framework for Exploring Different Judgments of Social Need

Starting from the position that the source of definitions of social need must be examined, the paper suggests that it is also of value to analyse the sequential process through which a series of judgments about need is made by both consumers and providers of services. A framework is suggested by which the relationship between source and sequence of need judgments may be explored, and the factors influencing them identified. This framework is also used to clarify some ambiguities in the use of the term ‘need’, and to consider some implications for need studies. A consensus definition of need is offered in the light of this discussion.     

Number of Replications Required in Control Chart Monte Carlo Simulation Studies

Monte Carlo simulations have been used extensively in studying the performance of control charts. Researchers have used various numbers of replications in their studies, but almost none of them provided justifications for the number of replications used. Currently, there are no empirically based recommendations regarding the required number of replications to ensure accurate results. This research examined six recently published studies to develop recommendations for the minimum number of replications necessary to reproduce the reported results within a specified degree of accuracy. The results of this study indicated that using 10,000 replications was unnecessarily large and a smaller number of replications could be used to reproduce the target ARLs within the 2% error bands satisfying the modified Mundfrom's criteria. In many cases, only 5,000 replications or fewer were required. In general, the number of replications required to reproduce the target ARL decreased as the shift size increased. In addition, the results of this study provide general recommendations for the required number of replications to use in future SPC simulation studies.     

Cultivating students’ reflective capacity through group-based mindfulness instruction

ABSTRACT

Cultivating critically reflective practitioners is a vital professional competency for social work students. However, few reflective models support undergraduate students to foster nonconceptual skills important to developing reflective capacity. This article presents a group-taught mindfulness teaching intervention applied in a professional practice course to facilitate reflective capacity of social work students preparing for their first placement. Trial data derived from pre–post course administration of the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire show significant gains in awareness were produced on two of the questionnaires’ five mindfulness facets of describe and nonjudgment. A developmental model detailing these shifts and its implications for group-based learning is outlined.