What produces mental illness: genes, environment, both,neither? The answer can be found in memes-replicable units of information linking genes and environment in the memory and in culture-whose effects on individual brain development can be benign or toxic. This book reconceptualizes mental disorders as products of stressful gene-meme interactions and introduces a biopsychosocial template for meme-based diagnosis and treatment. A range of therapeutic modalities, both broad-spectrum (meditation) and specific(cognitive-behavioral), for countering negative memes and their replication are considered, as are possibilities for memetic prevention strategies. In this book, the author outlines the roles of genes and memes in the evolution of the human brain; elucidates the creation, storage, and evolution of memes within individual brains; examines culture as a carrier and supplier of memes to the individual; provides examples of gene-meme interactions that can result in anxiety, depression, and other disorders; proposes a multiaxial gene-meme model for diagnosing mental illness; identifies areas of meme-based prevention for at-risk children; and defines specific syndromes in terms of memetic symptoms, genetic/ memetic development, and meme-based treatment.

Caring is all around us and is manifested in diverse settings such as parenting, friendships, volunteering, altruism, mentoring, teaching, pet adoption, and gardening. The study of caring, the giving end of our relations, has been dispersed among a large variety of research paradigms (e.g., evolution, brain research, attachment theory, feminism, altruism, volunteering, parenting, social support, prosocial development, organizational citizenship behavior and sustainability) and this has impeded our understanding of caring. The Caring Motivation is a pioneering attempt to bring the diverse research on caring together and to examine caring as a motivation from a broad perspective that relies on these very diverse literatures. Author Ofra Mayseless underscores that we as a species have an innate, biologically driven and evolutionarily chosen, yet contextually sensitive, general motivation to care, tend, empower, and nurture. Several intriguing insights emerge, and a conceptual model of caring as a fundamental and encompassing human motivation is presented. This is the first time that such a model is discussed in detail and its presentation helps us understand core common processes of caring across diverse targets as well as unique adaptations. The model presents for the first time a comprehensive view on how caring is psychologically activated and sustained and underscores the importance of life meaning and purpose in its enactment. The book also introduces a preliminary and innovative model of the universal developmental course of the caring motivational system from infancy to adulthood. This novel and pioneering view opens up exciting new arenas for research and for applications in psychotherapy, education, human growth, spirituality and religions, leadership and organizational behavior, and human sciences in general and highlights the pivotal place of care in our lives.

Many of our endeavors - be it personal or communal, technological or artistic - aim at eradicating all traces of dissatisfaction from our daily lives. They seek to cure us of our discontent in order to deliver us a fuller and flourishing existence. But what if ubiquitous pleasure and instant fulfilment make our lives worse, not better? What if discontent isn't an obstacle to the good life but one of its essential ingredients? In Propelled, Andreas Elpidorou makes a lively case for the value of discontent and illustrates how boredom, frustration, and anticipation are good for us. Weaving together stories from sources as wide-ranging as classical literature, social and cognitive psychology, philosophy, art, and video games, Elpidorou shows that these psychological states aren't unpleasant accidents of our lives. Rather, they illuminate our desires and expectations, inform us when we find ourselves stuck in unpleasant and unfulfilling situations, and motivate us to furnish our lives with meaning, interest, and value. Boredom, frustration, and anticipation aren't obstacles to our goals-they are our guides, propelling us into lives that are truly our own.

This collection of essays represents some of the most important recent research into changing patterns of family, household and community life. It brings together some of the leading sociologists in the field to explore how these informal social relationships change over time and the life course. It will be essential reading on courses concerned with the family and youth sociology.

"The stories people tell about themselves are interesting not only for the events and characters they describe but for something in the construction of the stories themselves. The ways in which individuals recount their histories-what they emphasize and omit, their stance as protagonists or victims, the relationship the story establishes between teller and audience-all shape what individuals can claim of their own lives. Personal stories are not merely a way of telling someone (or oneself) about one's life; they are the means by which identities may be fashioned."-from the Introduction In this provocative book, psychologists, anthropologists, and sociologists analyze interviews with a range of subjects-a minister who uses the death of his son to reaffirm his identity as a man of God, women who have given up their children at birth for adoption and who blame society for their action, Holocaust survivors, a victim of marital rape, and many others. Together these studies suggest a new way of thinking about autobiographical narratives: that these life stories play a significant role in the formation of identity, that the way they are told is shaped (and at times curtailed) by prevalent cultural norms, and that the stories-and at times the lives to which they relate-may be liberated from their psychic and social constraints if the social conditions of story telling can be critically engaged. Presenting a wide range of life stories, these studies demonstrate how "telling one's life" has the potential to clarify or mystify one's commitments and to animate or encumber one's future development.

The "Advances in Group Processes" series publishes theoretical analyses, reviews and theory-based empirical chapters on group phenomena. Volume 19 includes papers that address fundamental issues of solidarity, cohesion and trust. Chapter one shows how solidarity is a consequence of group-level phenomena (competition) and individual level phenomena (similarity). The second chapter examines solidarity among injection drug users, showing that the cohesion and solidarity of drug users are patterned by principles of collective action. The next two chapters integrate extant theories to provide new insights. Chapter three integrates principles of social exchange, status organizing processes and game theory to theorize solidarity; while chapter four shows how research on emotions can explain solidarity in status-differentiated groups. Two chapters then review and analyse long-standing programmes of research on cohesion and trust. Chapter five reviews a decade of growth for the theory of relational cohesion, showing how emotions lead to cohesion and commitment. Chapter six analyses how learning and social control can produce trust in networks of varying size. The final two chapters examine processes that are often neglected in the production of solidarity and cohesion. Chapter seven analyses group loyalty as a function of intra- and inter-personal factors. Chapter eight examines how relatively subtle features of speech arrangements can either maintain or disrupt solidarity. Overall, the volume includes papers that reflect a wide range of theoretical approaches to solidarity and contributions by scholars that work in the general area of group processes.

There are many walks of life in which teamwork is found and in which, by common consent, it could be better. Yet even the most basic questions about teams remain unresolved. What makes a group of individuals a team? Does teamwork involve a special type of reasoning? What makes teams successful? How do we learn to be team players? This volume brings together, for the first time, contemporary research from across the social sciences, addressing such questions from a variety of theoretical and empirical perspectives.

This volume considers the dynamic relations between the contemporary practices of international criminal tribunals and the ways in which competing histories, politics and discourses are re-imagined and re-constructed in the former Yugoslavia and beyond. There are two innovative aspects of the book - one is the focus on narratives of justice and their production, another is in its comparative perspective. While legal scholars have tended to analyze transitional justice and the international war tribunals in terms of their success or failure in establishing the facts of war crimes, this volume goes beyond mere facts and investigates how the courts create a symbolic space within which competing narratives of crimes, perpetrators and victims are produced, circulated and contested. It analyzes how international criminal law and the courts gather, and in turn produce, knowledge about societies in war, their histories and identities, and their relations to the wider world.

Moreover, the volume situates narratives of transitional justice in former Yugoslavia both within specific national spaces - such as Serbia, and Bosnia - and beyond the Yugoslav.In this way it also considers experiences from other countries and other times (post-World War II) to offer a sounding board for re-thinking the meanings of transitional justice and institutions within former Yugoslavia. Included in the volume's coverage is a look at the Rwandan tribunals, the trials of Charles Taylor, Radovan Karadzic, the Srebrenica genocide, and other war crimes and criminals in the Yugoslav.Finally, it frames all of those narratives and experiences within the global dynamics of legal, social and geo-political transformations, making it an excellent resource for social science researchers, human rights activists, those interested in the former Yugoslavia and international relations, and legal scholars.

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"Finally! The book that helps you deal with irrational, impossible people." - Oprah's Book Club 2.0 Let's face it: we all know people who are downright irrational. No matter how hard you try to reason with them, it never works. So what's the solution? How do you talk to someone who just won't listen? What can you do with an unrealistic boss, an angry spouse, or an overly emotional friend? You can't win by ignoring the insanity-and you can't argue it away. But you can stop it cold. Top-ranked psychiatrist and communication expert Mark Goulston shows you how in Talking to "Crazy", a life-changing book for everyone trapped in maddening personal or professional relationships. Goulston unlocks the mysteries of the irrational mind, and explains how faulty thinking patterns develop. His keen insights are matched by a set of counterintuitive strategies proven to defuse crazy behavior, along with scripts, examples, and exercises that teach you how to use them. You'll learn: Why people act the way they do * How instinctive responses can exacerbate the situation-and what to do instead * When to confront a problem and when to walk away * How to activate the Sanity Cycle-which quickly transforms you from threat to ally * How to use 14 simple, but effective communication techniques, including assertive submission flattery, the kiss-off, and more * And much more You can't reason with unreasonable people-but you can reach them. This powerful and practical book shows you how.

aThis book provides a unique, powerful, rich, and nuanced understanding of identity development among Muslim-American youth. The publication of Muslim American Youth is a landmark event in developmental science.a
--Richard M. Lerner, Bergstrom Chair in Applied Developmental Science, Tufts University

aSirin and Fine . . . render visible the complex lives of a profoundly maligned and misunderstood group
--Muslim-American youth. They deploy surveys, focus groups, in-depth interviews, and identity maps to explore how Muslim-American youth are creating and re-creating themselves within these politically and socially charged times. . . . This is a must read.a
-- M. Brinton Lykes, Lynch School of Education and Center for Human Rights and International Justice, Boston College

Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the subsequent awar on terror, a growing up Muslim in the U.S. has become a far more challenging task for young people. They must contend with popular cultural representations of Muslim-men-as-terrorists and Muslim-women-as-oppressed, the suspicious gaze of peers, teachers, and strangers, and police, and the fierce embodiment of fears in their homes.

With great attention to quantitative and qualitative detail, the authors provide heartbreaking and funny stories of discrimination and resistance, delivering hard to ignore statistical evidence of moral exclusion for young people whose lives have been situated on the intimate fault lines of global conflict, and who carry international crises in their backpacks and in their souls.

The volume offers a critical conceptual framework to aid in understanding Muslim American identity formation processes, aframework which can also be applied to other groups of marginalized and immigrant youth. In addition, through their innovative data analytic methods that creatively mix youth drawings, intensive individual interviews, focused group discussions, and culturally sensitive survey items, the authors provide an antidote to aqualitative vs. quantitativea arguments that have unnecessarily captured much time and energy in psychology and other behavioral sciences.

Muslim American Youth provides a much-needed roadmap for those seeking to understand how Muslim youth and other groups of immigrant youth negotiate their identities as Americans.

The "theory of mind" framework has been the fastest growing body of empirical research in contemporary psychology. It has given rise to a range of positions on what it takes to relate to others as intentional beings. This book brings together disparate strands of ToM research, lays out historical roots of the idea, and indicates better alternatives.

This volume describes classic and contemporary theory and research in social psychology that sheds light on how people think about health and illness, as well as their willingness to engage in health-relevant behaviors. The Editors have selected papers that serve to illustrate the reciprocal relation between advances in theory and advances in practice.

The first two sections of the volume examine people's mental representations of health and health practices, and how these personal construals and implicit theories are linked to behavior. People can react to new health information in different ways - with acceptance, defensiveness, or downright ignorance. Research that can help us to understand these varied reactions is examined in Section 3. The following sections consider how classic social psychological theories and perspectives can be used to understand behavior relevant to health and illness. These include social influence, social comparison, pluralistic ignorance, social support, cognitive dissonance, message framing, and attribution theory. Finally, several articles consider links between personality characteristics and health, such as those between hostility and heart disease, and confiding traumatic experiences and immune function. The volume also contains a introductory chapter by the editors which provides a discussion of why social and personality psychologists should be interested in health and illness.

Together with overviews for each section, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading, the volume is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on health psychology. The volume is also appropriate for courses in related disciplines such as public health, nursing, health education, health communication, and other allied health sciences.

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Marriage and other long-term committed relationships are an integral part of our lives and confer many benefits. People in satisfying marriages report greater life happiness, live longer, and are less vulnerable to mental and physical illness. Unfortunately, many couples experience significant relationship distress and about half of marriages end in divorce. Among those who stay married, a notable number of couples remain in unstable, severely distressed marriages for years or even decades. Given the serious physical and psychological consequences of relationship distress and divorce for spouses and their children, it is clear that relationship science-the basic and applied study of relationship development, maintenance, and dysfunction-is of critical importance. The Oxford Handbook of Relationship Science and Couple Interventions showcases cutting-edge research in relationship science, including couple functioning, relationship education, and couple therapy. The book presents the most current definitions of and classifications for relationship dysfunction and discusses the latest research on the biological, psychological, and interpersonal causes and correlates of couple dysfunction and subsequent treatment implications. The latest findings regarding empirically supported prevention and treatment interventions for couple dysfunction are highlighted, as well as diversity and cultural issues in the context of working with couples. This Handbook will appeal to researchers who seek to understand the development of relationship distress and design interventions to prevent and treat couple distress and clinicians who are diagnosing, assessing, and treating couple dysfunction.

Thanks for revealing such beneficial information in this book about myself and my family. My attitudes, relationships, and people skills have been enhanced because I understand myself and others better. Jo Ann Clark, Children's Pastor: Formerly of: Church on The Way, Van Nuys, CA, Glendale Presbyterian Church, Glendale, CA This book is a must read for everyone in leadership, Pastor Michael and Linda show us how to honor and love one another by embracing our differences. Rev. David de Carvalho, Associate Dean for the College of Counseling and Health Care, University of the Nations. Pastor Mike's years of experience has lead him to a revelation of people and their personalities that will bring illumination, transformation and empowerment to live in harmony with one another. In this book are the essential tools for elevation in your relationship skills. Pastor Steve Hage, Orange County, Ca., The Gathering For over 12 years, I served with Mike and Linda in Ministry as a worship leader. They began teaching me these principals early on, which have been invaluable in leading teams of individuals with diverse personalities and gifts, as well as understanding my own natural tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. Raisa Wilfong, RE/MAX Cross Country, Highland Village, Texas Mike and Linda have devoted their lives to helping people see and appreciate their God given attributes and have always had a heart for helping people establish strong, healthy relationships. They have designed their ministry with that goal in mind. In 1987 the Lanphere's became associated with the University of Nations, the educational arm of Youth With A Mission. Since then they continue teaching at bases around the world. Their focus is in the Introduction To Biblical Counseling Schools and also seminars on Leadership Development and Leadership TEAM building. Michael Lanphere, Founder, Lifecourse Ministries, www.lifecoursministries.com

This book presents an intricate, interdisciplinary evaluation of loneliness that examines the relation of consciousness to loneliness. It views loneliness from the inside as a universal human condition rather than attempting to explain it away as an aberration, a mental disorder, or a temporary state to be addressed by superficial therapy and psychiatric medication. Loneliness is much more than just feeling sad or isolated. It is the ultimate ground source of unhappiness-the underlying reality of all negative human behavior that manifests as anxiety, depression, envy, guilt, hostility, or shame. It underlies aggression, domestic violence, murder, PTSD, suicide, and other serious issues. This book explains why the drive to avoid loneliness and secure intimacy is the most powerful psychological need in all human beings; documents how human beings gravitate between two motivational poles: loneliness and intimacy; and advocates for an understanding of loneliness through the principles of idealism, rationalism, and insight. Readers will understand the underlying theory of consciousness that explains why people are lonely, thereby becoming better equipped to recognize sources of loneliness in themselves as well as others. Written by a licensed social worker and former mental health therapist, the book documents why whenever individuals or groups feel lonely, alienated, estranged, disenfranchised, or rejected, they will either withdraw within and shut down, or they will attack others with little thought of consequence to either themselves or others. Perhaps most importantly, the work identifies the antidotes to loneliness as achieving a sense of belonging, togetherness, and intimacy through empathic emotional attachments, which come from a mutual sharing of "lived experiences" such as feelings, meanings, and values; constant positive communication; and equal decision making. Provides key insight into the dynamics of loneliness, enabling readers to be able to recognize its sources and counter its insidious and invidious force-not only in one's self, but in others as well Presents cross-disciplinary perspectives that addresses and critiques both philosophical and psychological views on loneliness Reviews the works and words of philosophers from Descartes to Kant and Wittgenstein, and of psychologists from Freud to Erikson, Fromm, and Mahler Authored by a former mental health therapist who has taught philosophy for more than 30 years

Contents:
Foreword: Alan S. Gurman, Ushering in a New Era. Preface: Thomas L. Sexton, Gerald Weekes, Michael S. Robbins, A New Era of Couple and Family Therapy. Part 1: Understanding Families and Couples: The Foundations of Practice. Dorothy S. Becvar, Eras of Epistemology: A Survery of Family Therapy. Michael S. Robbins, Carla C. Mayorga, Jose Szapocznik, The Wcosystem "lens" to Understanding Family Functioning. Celia Jaes Falicov, Ethnicity and Culture in Family Therapy: New Variations on a Fundamental Theme. Part 2: Major Theoretical Models of Couple and Family Therapy. Jill Scharff, Object-relations and Psychodynamic Approaches to Couple and Family Therapy. William C. Nichols, Family of Origin Treatment. Barry L. Duncan, Scott D. Miller, Jacqueline A. Sparks, International Solution Focused Brief Therapies: Evolving Concepts of Change. Harlene Anderson, Postmodern Social Construction Therapies. Frank M. Dattilio, Cognitive-behavioral Couple and Family Therapy. Victoria Behar Mitrani, Structural-Strategic Approaches to Couple and Family Therapy. Jay Lebow, Integrative Approaches to Couple and Family Therapy. Part 3: Evidence Based Couple and Family Intervention Programs. Thomas L. Sexton, Michael S. Robbins, Amy S. Hollimon, Alyson L. Mease, Carla C. Mayorga, Efficacy, Effectiveness, and Change Mechanisms in Couple and Family Therapy. Susan Johnson, Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy: Empiricism and Art. David Atkins, Sona Dimidjian, Andrew Christesen, Behavioral Couple Therapy: Past Present and Future. Scott Henggler, Sonja K. Schoenwald, Multisystemic Therapy. Thomas L. Sexton, James F. Alexander, Functional Family Therapy: A Mature Clinical Model for Working with At-risk Adolescents and Their Families. Part 4: Special Applications/Special Populations. S. Michael Plaut, Karen Donahey, Evaluation and Treatment of Sexual Dysfunction. Nancy Breen Ruddy, Susan McDaniel, Medical Family Therapy. Timothy J. Ozechowski, Holly Waldron, The Treatment of Adolescent Conduct Disorders and Drug Abuse. Luciano L'Abate, Treatment through Writing. Rita DeMaria, Psychoeducation and Enrichment: Clinincal Considerations for Couple and Family Therapy. Part 5: The Future of Couple and Family Therapy. Thomas L. Sexton, Gerald R. Weeks, Michael S. Robbins, The Future of Couple and Family Therapy.

Seduction is a complicated concept that is a part of the general human experience. Despite the prevalence of seduction in our personal lives as well as within popular culture, the concept has not been widely discussed and researched as an academic field. Seduction in Popular Culture, Psychology, and Philosophy explores the concept of seduction and the many ways it can be understood, either as a social and individual practice, a psychological trait, or a schema for manipulation. Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, this publication features research-based chapters relevant to sociologists, media professionals, psychologists, philosophers, advertising professionals, researchers, and graduate level students studying in related areas.

This book conceptualises the lived experience of intimacy in a world in which the terms and conditions of love and friendship are increasingly unclear. It shows that the analysis of the 'small world' of dyads can give important clues about society and its gendered makeup.

Since its inception, the field of psychology has emphasized the importance of creating and maintaining social connections. Though theorists often disagree on how and why people form and maintain relationships, they agree on the importance of having a few positive and lasting relationships, and on the seriousness of social exclusion. The Oxford Handbook of Social Exclusion offers the most comprehensive body of social exclusion research ever assembled. Bringing together contributions from leading scholars from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives, this volume explores: - why people have a need to belong, why people exclude others, and how people respond to various forms of social exclusion. - research on how social exclusion affects people according to their stage of development, their involvement in romantic relationships, and within their work relationships. - the power of social exclusion in shaping a variety of behavioral and cognitive processes. - research on how to reduce the often negative consequences of social exclusion. This is an exciting time of proliferation in social exclusion research, as new findings spark new questions regarding the causes and consequences of social exclusion. Both stimulating and foundational, the current research and theories presented in this handbook represent a fertile area of study from which future insights can be gained.

This book extends positive psychology by embedding leisure into the positive science field, following a new paradigm and aggregating various domains and fields. Positive science can be applied to the field of leisure and, in turn, leisure can serve as an arena to study some of the most important optimal functioning variables. The book presents knowledge on a diverse range of topics about optimizing socio-cognitive processes and behaviors, places and contexts, societies and cultures through leisure. These topics are unified by an underlying continuum that extends from individuals and subjective experiences to social worlds. The contributions highlight components of everyday life, showing that subjective experience and life trajectories are structured and social goals and life purposes are defined and achieved within interactions between individuals and their lived contexts and environments in daily life.

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Dialogue as a Means of Collective Communication offers a cross-disciplinary approach to examining dialogue as a communicative medium. Presented in five parts, the book takes the reader on a journey of exploring the power and potential of dialogue as a means for communication. In particular, this volume comes at a time when the global society's attention has been directed to creating more productive conversations in the name of world peace and harmony. It provides a unique new work on dialogue that brings the reader into a "dialogue with dialogue," offering an opportunity to understand the communicative potential of dialogue.
In the book, readers are introduced to five sections: Section I examines the historical and cultural perspectives of conversation. This examination helps to create a foundation for a deeper study of the emergent and salient aspects of conversation as it relates to cultural creativity and human systems design. Sections II offers the reader an examination of dialogue through different philosophical and theoretical perspectives as well as methodological ideas related to conversation. Section III explores different modalities of conversation and the application of design conversation within and across various types of design settings and human experiences. Section IV examines the field of practice as related to use of different forms of conversation. Here various authors will share their different approaches to conversation and their reflections and insights in using conversation in a variety of settings. Concluding the book, Section V reflectively examines the authors' contributions to the book and provides the reader with a focus on the future.

"Dramatic Psychological Storytelling" presents a seven-step model for insight and change, anchored by the expressive arts and the action method, Psychotheatrics. Combined with the expressive arts, storytelling offers a way to frame experience. Psychotheatrics, using the expressive arts, transforms the storytelling experience into a phenomenological framework for depicting challenges, strategies, and outcomes resulting in the dynamic illustration of inter-subjective meaning.

The number of black-white mixed marriages increased by 504% in the last 25 years. By offering relevant demographic, research, and sociocultural data as well as a series of intensely personal and revealing vignettes, Dr. Brown investigates how mixed race people cope in a world that has shoehorned them into a racial category that denies half of their physiological and psychological existence. She also addresses their struggle for acceptance in the black and white world and the racist abuses many of them have suffered. Brown interweaves research findings with interviews of children of black-white interracial unions to highlight certain psychosocial phenomenon or experiences. She looks at the history of interracial marriages in the United States and discusses the scientific and social theories that underlie the racial bigotry suffered by mixed people. Questions of racial identity, conflict, and self-esteem are treated as are issues of mental health. An important look at contemporary mixed race issues that will be of particular interest to scholars, researchers, students, and professionals dealing with race, family, and mental health concerns.

This book offers a broad theoretical foundation by relating and contrasting relevant international literature with the outcomes of a particular research project. It provides a critical reevaluation of the complex phenomena of coping with disasters on a general level by applying this integrative theory of disaster coping to a specific context. A cultural psychological model is developed in order to suggest ways of understanding and assessing local and cultural specificity. This interaction of the general and locally specific is central to our understanding of cultural psychology of coping with disaster. The book provides a basic overview, by presenting various approaches to coping with natural disasters and relating them to each other in a coherent manner. So far, most research approaches either focus on technical, social, psychological or cultural aspects of coping, neglecting their interconnectedness. Coping is seldom seen as an extensive, long-term process, in which disaster relief complexly interacts and is integrated with the local actors and conditions. Until now, a perspective is missing, in which the mentioned modes of coping are integrated with cultural interpretations and practices and long-standing forms of communal self-help, which possibly develop in places that are frequently threatened by natural disasters.