Problematic Life Situation Research Articles

Соотношение долженствования и возможности: моральные аспекты выбора религиозной личности

Paradoxically, the choice of a variant of behavior, as well as the norm that should be fol­lowed in a particular case, is the more difficult, the more variations of normative prescrip­tions a person has. This article is devoted to the peculiarities of the moral aspects of choos­ing by a religious person in problematic life situations (moral choice of an Orthodox Chris­tian belonging to the Russian Orthodox Church is used as an example). In particular, the situation associated with such an ambiguous phenomenon as divorce is considered. A re­ligious person in such a situation is presented with norms that contain a different amount of requirements. Canons prohibit divorce (there is only one exception – the betrayal of one of the spouses). Norms formulated by modern church authorities prohibit divorce, but allow it in the presence of one of eleven reasons. A complex dilemma arises when choosing between the canons and the new norms. If such a choice is made by a competent cleric (bishop, clergyman), the principles of oikonomia (indulgence) or akribeia (literal adherence to the canon) are used. If a layman makes a choice in a particular life situation, in order to formulate a moral assessment or self-assessment adequate to the case, one of two formula­tions of a well-known moral principle can be useful: a normative formulation “ought implies can”, that expands responsibility, or a formulation “without ‘can’ there is no ‘ought’”. The latter wording serves as the basis for limiting liability for the choice.

Complex psychological, pedagogical, medical and social adaptation of adolescents at risk as a strategy for the development of the city educational potential

With the aim of considering an important socially significant problem of adaptation of orphan adolescents prone to deviant behavior, the authors conducted a study of their personal characteristics on the basis of the educational institution Sinyaya Ptitsa. Sinyaya Ptitsa (Blue Bird in English) (Moscow region, Stupinsky district) is one of the first orphanages for children and adolescents in Russia. Sinyaya Ptitsa is a stationary institution that implements a set of measures for the social rehabilitation of children and adolescents. Orphan children and adolescents, who were left without parental care, temporarily live in the institution, where specialists provide them with comprehensive social, psychological, pedagogical, medical, and social aid. The respondents underwent psychodiagnostic examination and questioning in accordance with the tasks set. The results of this study allow to draw up a psychological portrait of an adolescent from a deprived background with deviant behavior, who has a file in the juvenile delinquents’ room. Their physical and indirect types of aggression are normal but close to a high level, there is a readiness to manifest negative feelings at the slightest excitement, which prevents cooperation with others, they are inclined to provoke conflicts and often use a coping strategy for solving problems in a stressful situation, in an attempt to effectively overcome a problematic life situation. This study has allowed to identify the specifics of the personal characteristics of orphan adolescents, the knowledge of which increases the level of competence and educational potential of teachers. The psychological work on the prevention of deviant behavior in adolescents will allow to improve the quality of life of the younger generation in the metropolis in the future.

Применение проектных задач для развития интеллектуальных способностей учащихся начальной школы

The article reveals the essence of the concepts of "intelligence", "abilities", "intellectual abilities", "intellectual operations" from psychological and pedagogical positions. Based on the analysis of psychological and pedagogical research and practical experience, the effectiveness of the widespread use of design tasks in the educational process of primary school is proved, which stimulates the successful formation of intellectual operations in children of primary school age and the development of intellectual abilities. The peculiarities of conducting classes in which junior schoolchildren solve project problems are characterized. As an example, a description of a lesson on the implementation by fourth grade students of the final annual work aimed at implementing the previously mastered skills to solve design problems is given. In turn, this ensures the readiness of schoolchildren in the future to think and act not according to a template both in a non-standard educational situation and in a problematic life situation.

Social Support: A Factor of Protection against Stress during Adolescence

The present study focused on the relationship between the adolescent’s perception of minor stress in different domains (school, relationship with parents, managing free time, romantic relationships, work and future) and the social support received from the family, friends, and other important people and perceived as such. The study participants were 525 students, from which 186 masculine and 339 feminine, with ages between 15 and 18, from three high schools from Maramures county. The instruments used for collecting the data were Problem Questionnaire (PQ), by Seiffge-Krenke, which allowed us to identify the stress perceived in different domains, and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), by Gregory Zimet, for evaluating the social support perceived from family, friends or other important people. From the analyses done, it results the fact that adolescents who registered a high score regarding the social support perceived from family members, evaluate the issues with parents, issues regarding the managing of free time, self-issues and issues on their whole as being less stressful in comparison with the group which reports a lower level of social support perceived from the family. On the other hand, high values of social support perceived from friends represent a protection factor only in the case of the problems which adolescents have with themselves, in comparison with the group which declares that has a low social support from friends. Finally, the article underlines the need to educate the teenagers and parents as well in receiving and giving social support, as a factor of protection against problematic life situations.

Особенности художественного текста как средства формирования нравственных качеств личности на занятиях по иностранному языку в многопрофильном вузе

We attempt to analyze the main features of a literary text as a means of moral qualities development in the process of a Foreign Language classes in a comprehensive university. Various moral qualities such as the ability to work in a team, flexibility, honesty, courage and tolerance, sense of justice, the desire for knowledge are highly valued on the labour market today. The potential of the “Foreign Language” discipline contains a unique combination of ideas of spiritual, moral and aesthetic education, through which students are introduced to the ideals of morality and cultural patterns. We aim to identify the essence of text interpretation concept, which includes the reflexive component, important for the development of the aforementioned personal qualities. It is shown that the literary texts contain philosophical information, examples of problematic life situations in which certain social skills, human qualities, decisions and actions are demonstrated. Various examples of life situations presented in the literary texts are deeply analyzed and interpreted by students.

Gender differences among adolescents with substance abuse problems at Maria clinics in Sweden.

Aim:The article describes similarities and differences regarding various risk factors between girls and boys with substance abuse problems who begin outpatient treatment at the Maria clinics in Sweden. Potential hypotheses and some implications are also discussed.Methods:This cross-sectional study was based on interview data from 2169 adolescents obtained over three years from outpatient clinics in 11 Swedish cities.Results:Girls appear to consistently have more difficult family and childhood environments than boys, and are more likely to have problems related to school, more serious substance abuse problems, and more severe mental health problems. Criminal activity is significantly higher among boys.Conclusions:The study shows that girls entering treatment generally have significantly more risk factors than boys and thus more extensive problems in several aspects of life, which in turn increases the risk of developing serious drug and alcohol problems in adulthood. The study supports the gender-paradoxical relationship in which a smaller proportion of girls than boys enter treatment for substance abuse, even though girls tend to have more problematic life situations.

Early onset of sexual intercourse is an indicator for hazardous lifestyle and problematic life situation

In public health efforts, knowledge about risk-groups is important for creating societal conditions to ensure good health on equal terms. To investigate differences in lifestyle and perceived health among 15-year-old teenagers with experience of sexual intercourse (self-defined) and same-aged teenagers without experience of sexual intercourse. A two-cluster questionnaire study among 15-year-old Swedish students (n = 2170) in 2009/10. Chi-squared test was used to identify differences between three groups: teenagers who had not had sexual intercourse; teenagers who had had sexual intercourse at age of 14 or younger; and teenagers who had had intercourse at an age of 15. Thirty-two per cent (n = 334) of girls and 31% (n = 324) of boys had had sexual intercourse. Teenagers with experience of sexual intercourse at 15 years or younger used more tobacco, alcohol and illicit drugs than same-aged teenagers without intercourse experience did. Furthermore, teenagers with experience of intercourse, especially those with a debut at 14 year or younger, had less positive school experiences, more involvement in injuries and physical violence, were less (girls) and more (boys) physically active, and perceived a poorer health than teenagers without intercourse experience. Sexual intercourse at the age of 15 or younger is an indicator for a hazardous lifestyle and problematic life situation.

Reconceptualizing the Communicative Action of Publics: Acquisition, Selection, and Transmission of Information in Problematic Situations

This article proposes a new concept about communication behaviors related to problem solving. Communicative action is epiphenomenal to problem solving: As problem solvers, members of a public use communication as an instrument to cope with their problematic life situations. A good theoretical description of the communicative features of problem solving, therefore, is critical to understanding the social phenomena related to the development and behavior of publics. In existing literature, however, communication behaviors are conceptualized mostly as acts of information acquisition with little regard to other communicative actions such as information transmission. In this article, we propose a new model, communicative action in problem solving, which encompasses broader aspects of communication behaviors related to a problematic life situation: information acquisition, information selection, and information transmission. We then test the reliability and validity of the new construct for one personal and two social problems. Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical implications of the new concept for public relations research and practice.

Perceptions of women about menstrual regulation services: qualitative interviews from selected urban areas of Dhaka.

Menstrual regulation (MR) programmes were introduced in Bangladesh in 1974 to reduce morbidity and mortality due to unsafe abortions. About 468,000 MR procedures are performed annually, and its potential is not fully used. To develop MR programmes, the voices of women could add important aspects to its acceptability. This qualitative interview study aimed to explore and describe the perceptions about MR in a sample of women from Dhaka, Bangladesh. The most prominent perception was that, despite the moral dilemma inherent in terminating pregnancies, MR was highly valued as a solution in problematic life situations. However, unprofessional attitudes and misconduct among MR providers were revealed, and there was also a lack of knowledge and openness in families. To improve the quality of MR services, professional ethics needs to be highlighted in training and supervision of providers. To improve the acceptability of MR, education on the benefits of MR has to be made available to the whole population.

My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf. Thomas Szasz

My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf. Thomas Szasz. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2006, 154 pp., $29.95 As Sartre said, "The Jew is one whom other men consider a Jew; that is the simple truth from which we must start." Similarly, a mentally ill person is one whom others consider mentally ill; we deal here with the language of stigma, not the language of nosology. Thomas Szasz In My Madness Saved Me: The Madness and Marriage of Virginia Woolf, Thomas Szasz diverges from his usual approach to mental illness, which is a more or less abstract critique of the moral, legal, logical, and conceptual bases upon which modern psychiatry has situated itself. In this book, Szasz takes as his subject not the flawed logic and spurious science of psychiatry, but a specific, famous individual human being as the focus of all the contradictions inherent in that impaired logic and that pseudoscience. For those of us who respect his work, this is a welcome and long overdue departure. Szasz begins with a lengthy preface running to almost 13 pages, in which he introduces Virginia Woolf in general terms, and he lays out the fundamentals of his approach in a way we have not seen before. "I view all behavior," he says, "'mental illness,' 'psychiatric diagnosis,' 'mental hospitalization,' and 'psychiatric treatment,' according to what we might call the Shakespearean or theatrical model" (p. 3). He quotes from As You Like It: "All the world's a stage / And all the men and women merely players, " and he accuses Virginia Woolf of living, in Alfred Adler's words, a lifelie, of denying "what one knows to be true while pretending it is not." Adler, Szasz reminds us, believed that this self-deception was the cause of mental illness. This is a view that is not confined to the mental health professions. One of my favorite disquisitions on Shakespeare is Cavell's Disowning Knowledge in Six Plays of Shakespeare (1987). (The six plays are King Lear, Othello, Coriolanus, Hamlet, The Winter's Tale, and Antony and Cleopatra; see also Wynne, 2004.) As we have seen in his other works, Szasz states his position clearly: "Madness-if we are willing to look life in the face-is neither particularly difficult to understand nor especially interesting. It seems that way only because we mystify it. . . . The ingredients are anger, aggression, fear, frustration, confusion, exhaustion, isolation, conceit . . . cowardliness, and difficulty getting along with others" (p. 12). He argues that "Virginia paid dearly for her gutlessness: as a person, she deprived herself of motherhood; as a writer, of moral seriousness" (p. 39). And also: "The problem was not that she denied her 'illness,' as Leonard [her husband] put it, and as psychiatrists love to put it. The problem was that she was a coward who preferred to frame her problematic life situation in terms of mental illness instead of framing it as the problem of what to do with the rest of her life" (p. 86). That is, she framed it as a pseudomedical problem rather than as an existential predicament. The reader will note that Szasz, as a proponent of the existential-moral view of life and of life's meshugaas, is quite comfortable with, and unembarrassed by, words like "gutless" or "coward," words that will horrify those espousing a more "scientific" view of the human condition. "When a woman displays a dramatic despair shortly after delivering a baby," says Szasz, "psychiatrists say she suffers from postpartum psychosis. I say she suffers from the realization of having made an irreversible, life-altering decision, a choice that, in retrospect, she regrets, and one having consequences with which she feels unable to cope" (p. 27). He continues: "The core meaning of the term 'mental illness,' let us not forget, always lay, and continues to lie, in its power to annul ordinary (rational) intentionality. The view that Virginia's mad behavior was unintentional and meaningless (irrational) is shared by all of the compilers and editors of the vast corpus of her work" (p. …

Coping Styles in Persons Recovering from Substance Abuse

This qualitative study was conducted among persons recovering from substance abuse. The data were collected in three rehabilitation facilities in Trinidad in 2002–03. The aim was to examine the types of coping strategies which subjects used and learned in response to stressful and problematic life situations, starting with experiences related to childhood and socialization. The coping styles reported were overwhelming in the category of emotion-focused coping, developed in the main to regulate stress in uncontrollable situations in childhood and to cope with the loss of significant others. Only a minority used, or were able to use, problem-focused or social support coping strategies to meet stressful events. It is suggested that the observed bias in the development of the individuals’ coping ‘armamentarium’ might have had, in the long run, negative implications for individuals’ capacity to meet ongoing challenges of life. This has critical implications for how we fashion preventive approaches to the problem of substance abuse.

Adolescent voting for right-wing extremist parties and readiness to use violence in political action: parent and peer contexts

Almost all shapes of adolescent risky and deviant behaviour take place in the context of peer-relations. The present study examined the role of parents and peer-relations with respect to two indicators of deviant political development. In the fall 1998, directly after the German parliamentary elections, 1309 East German adolescents were asked about their voting for a right-wing extremist party and their readiness to use violence in political action. Friend′s voting was a strong predictor of individual voting for a right-wing extremist party, particularly when the friend was the best friend with a reciprocal nomination, and when the friends frequently communicated about political themes. In addition, voting behaviour and willingness to use violence were associated with membership in peer groups who met frequently. Finally, the violence-disposed adolescents spent more of their spare time with peers and less with their parents. Similarities of our results with the findings of research on deviant behaviour in non-political areas support the idea that deviant political behaviour could be an expression of a problematic life situation.

Vem blir nykterist?

Who becomes an abstainer? On the abstainer as deviantThe principal aim of the study is to find out what the characteristics are of those consumers that later choose to abstain from alcohol. Both cross-sectional and panel data from the level-of-living surveys (LNU) conducted 1968, 1974, 1981 and 1991 are analysed. The results show that those becoming abstainers during the study period have a higher proportion of smokers than the long-term abstainers and, compared to the long-term abstainers and the drinkers, poorer mental health, a higher prevalence of use of minor tranquillizers and a sparser social network. In the beginning of the study period (1968-74) an association was also found between cardiovascular disease and later abstinence. Whereas (physical) health selection has become less obvious over time, the importance of negative psychosocial selection increases, especially for women. The findings underline the importance of distinguishing the new, selected abstainers - former drinkers - from long-term abstainers. This holds true especially in studies of the relationship between alcohol consumption on the one hand and mortality or morbidity on the other hand. It is likely that a majority of the long-term abstainers, of which some are lifetime abstainers, are part of a social context in which abstinence is not seen as deviant, whereas a large proportion of the new abstainers have a problematic life situation. The abstainers’ deviant position says something about the Swedish drinking culture in the last decades of the twentieth century. The fact that the psychosocial selection is so pronounced, and increases over time, reflects a social climate where an ever-decreasing number sees abstinence as an attractive choice.

Adolescent sexuality: an educational and counseling challenge.

A review of family-planning literature reveals that researchers adopt narrow definitions of sexual behavior and focus almost exclusively on risks of pregnancy and diseases. Little concern is shown in these articles about promoting the idea of more communicative, pleasurable, and egalitarian sexual relations among teenagers, because the focus is on avoiding behaviors that are defined as "high risk." In the United States, there is little evidence that these contraceptive-based sex education programs have resulted in reduced sexual activity, diminished teenage-pregnancy rates, or increased effective contraceptive use. In Canada the clinical evidence is that existing prevention strategies are not working. In Sweden the increasing rates of STDs and teenage pregnancies in the late 1980s worried authorities. The figures were brought down in the 1990s by extensive efforts both in schools and at publicly funded adolescent health clinics and family-planning units. It has been shown that girls with good self-esteem and a sense of responsibility avoided pregnancies and STDs in follow-up studies. Girls with a high degree of risk-prone behavior or attitudes and girls with a problematic life situation and without adequate family support were those who became unintentionally pregnant and/or acquired an STD. Countries where sex education has been accepted, combined with widely spread family-planning services and abortion on demand, have the lowest pregnancy and abortion rates in the world. But even they could do better by putting sex education in its proper place in society and by using both old and new methods.

Joining with all members of a family system: The rhetoric of antilogic in family therapy dialogue

Family therapists face a significant rhetorical challenge in working with families that disagree about the problematic life-situation which brought them to therapy. Therapists must find a way to join with disagreeing family members and then find a way to engage in a therapeutically useful conversation with them. Thus, they must deal resourcefully with contradictions. This article explores the ways that the Sophistic rhetorical concept of antilogic may be employed in helping therapists join and then engage in a therapeutically useful conversation with families who hold contradictory views concerning the problem that brought them to therapy.

How to recognize risk prone adolescent girls?

Background Lack of positive feminine self-esteem, previous risk behaviour and inadequate home support are likely to disturb a safe and satisfactory initiation of sexual life. A study was performed to recognize girls needing extra counseling in gynecological clinics of low risk population. Methods 245 girls, 13–19 years of age, who attended the out-patient adolescent, gynecologic clinic of Folkhalsan between 1989–94 were studied. A semistructured interview including developmental circumstances, sexual and social behavior and actual life situation, was developed and conducted at the time of the first visit lasting one hour. On this basis the girls were divided into 5 group and have been followed-up for a mean of 1,4 years. Results 27% of the girl showed a high degree of risk prone behavior (e.g. heavy drinking) or attitudes and were classified as risk prones. 23% had a problematic life situation or lacked adequate family support and were classified as support-needers. During follow-up all unwanted pregnancies and 87% of STD:s occurred in these two groups. Negative attitudes to sexuality and need of excessive behavioral control were prevalent in 9% of the girls, classified as negative-feminines. They had a low degree of sexual activity. A good self-esteem and responsability was found in 20% of the girls, classified as positive-feminines. They had no pregnancies nor STD:s during follow-up. Finally, 20% of the girls were not possible to classify, and were called non-defineds. Conclusions Adolescent girls apparently express different patterns of behavior to solve their developmental crisis. This study shows that about half of the girls attending an adolescent gynecologic clinic, may have problems requiring extra social, psychosexual and behavioral counseling. A focused interview facilitates the identification of such cases.

The rhetoric of recovery and change.

How can we know whether people who have been treated for an illness or been helped with a problem have indeed regained their health or solved their problem? Is "health" an objective condition-something that is observable, visible, perhaps even measurable? This article discusses these questions with the help of an analysis of the account given by a patient in psychotherapy regarding her recovery from a problematic life situation. The point of departure here is that recovery from illness or from a condition of ill-health should be understood as a reorganization of cultural, social and psychological elements which together are able to convey the picture that treatment has been successful and full recovery has been achieved. What the patient presents is not a "report" on an "actual" transformation process, nor is it an accumulated description. Rather, the patient presents a narrative, shaped by and created out of her own life situation and the interview situation in which she is engaged. It is a narrative that highlights certain aspects of a course of events and which arranges the pieces of the puzzle in such a way as to convey a picture of transformation and recovery.

From Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Psychotherapy Integration: An Evolving View

Mapping the Journey: Evolution of a Story From Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Psychotherapy Integration: An Evolving View Marvin R. Goldfried. New York: Springer Publishing Company, 1995, 304 pp., $42.95 (hardcover). With the ever increasing proliferation of schools of psychotherapy, the lack of significant differences in outcome among diverse models of therapy, and the increasing need for accountability from a more informed consumer base, the move toward psychotherapy integration has gained momentum in recent years. One of the leaders of this movement has been Marvin Goldfried, a distinguished behavior therapist and long-time proponent of psychotherapy integration. In this volume, using a broad sampling of his previous writings, Goldfried takes us on a fascinating journey, documenting in a vivid way his own sense of theoretical evolution. Following a new introduction, Goldfried begins this book with his first article on behavior therapy and then lays out for the reader the trajectory of his professional development, using articles he generated over the years as the road map by which we may understand his professional journey. Though not strictly chronological, the flow of the book moves from his earlier to later writings. Traditionally, there have been three avenues toward psychotherapy integration: technical eclecticism, theoretical integration, and a common factors approach (Norcross & Newman, 1992). The common factors approach represents the core of Goldfried's efforts toward collaboration and integration: the understanding that there are common principles of change which may be delineated across theoretical orientations. These common therapeutic principles include: (1) an expectation that therapy will be helpful, (2) the availability of an optimal therapeutic relationship, (3) the use of feedback to increase patients' awareness, (4) the facilitation of corrective experiences, and (5) the opportunity to engage in ongoing reality testing. From Cognitive Behavior Therapy to Psychotherapy Integration is divided into five sections: an introduction; sections on cognitive-behavioral assessment, facilitating coping skills, expanding the scope of cognitive-behavior therapy, and a final section detailing the challenges and opportunities of psychotherapy integration. In Part I, Goldfried presents an overview of his thinking as concerns the essentials of psychotherapy, and argues for the study of psychotherapy integration for two primary reasons. First, it is clear that professionals from all orientations are moving toward more eclectic/integrated models of practice. Goldfried cites a number of studies that document this phenomenon, and maintains that as scientist-practitioners, our clinical practice must be supported by empirical research. Second, he rejects the uniformity myth that all models of therapy are basically equivalent, and argues that different models of therapy may have differential effects depending on presenting concern and client characteristics. Although he does not accept the uniformity myth, Goldfried's focus is not on differences among therapies, but on commonalities, or "therapeutic strategies or principles" (p. 8). By doing so, integrationists hope to arrive at clinically robust phenomena which will lead to a better understanding of the change process itself. Part II (Assessment) represents some of Goldfried's earliest work, and the behavioral emphases are most evident in this section. In it, he documents procedures for behavioral assessment, delineates between traditional and behavioral modes of assessment, and discusses the emergence of cognitive variables in cognitive-behavioral models. In Part III Goldfried develops the theme of facilitating client coping skills. In this chapter he uses language that is vaguely constructivist, as he reframes the teaching of coping skills as an active process by which clients are able to gain a new sense of perspective over stressful or problematic life situations. …

Science education and the development of abilities to cope with problematic life situations

Science education and the development of abilities to cope with problematic life situations

Science education and the development of abilities to cope with problematic life situations

Science education and the development of abilities to cope with problematic life situations