The American psychologist
-
Psychologists are in a unique position to assist individuals and groups in the world who have survived torture and war trauma. Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and other psychological diagnoses can be treated effectively by mental health professionals and trained lay counselors in the smallest of communities in the world. ⋯ This model has been designed to be useful to mental health professionals and to lay individuals in communities who constitute the front line in treatment: health providers, midwives, ministers, and teachers. The model is presented through examples of its use in the training of mental health counselors in the United States and in the training of promotores (health promoters) and comodrones (midwives) in Guatemala.
-
The American psychologist · Apr 2001
Biography Historical ArticleVariability, constraints, and creativity. Shedding light on Claude Monet.
Recent experimental research suggests 2 things. The first is that along with learning how to do something, people also learn how variably or differently to continue doing it. ⋯ In this view, Claude Monet's habitually high level of variability in painting was acquired during his childhood and early apprenticeship and was maintained throughout his adult career by a continuous series of task constraints imposed by the artist on his own work. For Monet, variability was rewarded and rewarding.
-
Although child sexual abuse has been a concern for many researchers, therapists, and advocates for the past 3 decades, several fundamental issues regarding child sexual abuse remain unresolved. In particular, the term child sexual abuse has never been unequivocally defined. ⋯ Early researchers used broad and inclusive definitions of child sexual abuse--definitions that often continue to be used today. The consequences of these definitions are discussed, and strategies for developing other definitions of child sexual abuse are suggested.