The abstinence violation effect in child molesters

The Relapse Prevention (RP) approach to the treatment of addictive disorders (Marlatt & Gordon, 1985) and the model of the relapse process underlying it, is described and critically analysed. Its application to the treatment of sex offenders is described and a key RP construct, the abstinence violation effect, is critically examined. A reformulation of the abstinence violation effect is presented together with a discussion of the empirical support for this construct. Classification issues are also reviewed. Twenty-six incarcerated male child molesters were assessed, using the Differential Emotions Scale (Izard, Doughty, Bloxom, & Kotsch, 1974) and the Four Attributional Dimension Scale (Benson, 1989), at three points (background, lapse, and relapse) while they listened to an audiotaped recording of a description of their most typical offence chain. Subjects were also classified as either fixated or regressed according to age of onset of their offending, quality of the relationship with the victim, lifestyle issues, stress, and drug use. Eighteen subjects experienced an AVE at the point of relapse and seven as the result of a lapse. There were significant increases in most negative emotions and decreases in interest over the relapse chain. There were significantly higher disgust, contempt, hostility, fear, shame, shyness and anger scores reported by those showing an AVE. Conversely the AVE group showed significantly lower scores for joy and surprise. There were no significant differences on any of the four attributional dimensions across the relapse process but those showing an AVE reported significantly more uncontrollability and higher stability scores. The results also indicated that there appear to be different types of AVE that, in conjunction with the generally high levels of positive emotion at the lapse point, reflects the important role of emotion in the relapse process. Concerning classification, there were no differences in the frequency with which fixated or regressed offenders experienced an AVE, although five out of the seven experiencing this reaction at the point of lapsing were regressed subjects, as were twelve out of eighteen at relapse. Fixated subjects reported more positive emotions and less negative emotions than regressed offenders. In addition fixated subjects perceived the cause of their offending as more stable than regressed offenders. For subjects experiencing the AVE at relapse, those classified as fixated saw the cause of the relapse as more stable than did regressed subjects. The significance of these results for Pithers (1990) RP model, clinical practice and research, is discussed, along with limitations of the study

Mercy in the Maltese educational system : education practices to foster respect for diversity towards the migrant population

The growing diversity of learners in Maltese schools presents new challenges to policy-makers and practitioners. Schools and teachers often find themselves at odds when trying to respond to the increasingly diverse needs of the student population within schools. Over the past decade Malta made the shift from a country of emigration to a country of immigration. This trend is represented in Maltese schools, as the student population becomes increasingly heterogeneous. While this new reality is more pronounced in certain areas, all colleges have a representation of non-Maltese students, with Maria Regina College having the highest representation with a total of 1,134 students (819 at primary level, 95 in middle school and 220 in secondary school) and Saint Nicholas College having the lowest number, with a total population of eighty one migrant students (fifty-nine in the primary, eleven in middle school and eleven in the secondary school).peer-reviewe

Supporting Inclusive Design of Mobile Devices with a Context Model

The aim of inclusive product design is to successfully integrate a broad range of diverse human factors in the product development process with the intention of making products accessible to and usable by the largest possible group of users. However, the main barriers for adopting inclusive product design include technical complexity, lack of time, lack of knowledge and techniques, and lack of guidelines. Although manufacturers of consumer products are nowadays more likely to invest efforts in user studies, consumer products in general only nominally fulfill, if at all, the accessibility requirements of as many users as they potentially could. The main reason is that any user-centered design prototyping or testing aiming to incorporate real user input, is often done at a rather late stage of the product development process. Thus, the more progressed a product design has evolved - the more time-consuming and costly it will be to alter the design. This is increasingly the case for contemporary mobile devices such as mobile phones or remote controls

Chapter Supporting Inclusive Design of Mobile Devices with a Context Model

Embedded system

Shared initiative: Cross-fertilisation between system adaptivity and adaptability

In the present article we investigate a new way of how computer systems can better meet their users’ requirements. We start from the well-known notions of situation-aware adaptivity, automatically carried out by the system, and adaptations, consciously carried out by the users. We indicate the shortcomings of both of these approaches and show how they can be compensated for, at least partially, by the respective other approach. We argue that such a shared initiative of both system and user adaptations, mutually supporting each other, provides a considerable advantage in keeping a computer system in line with dynamically changing user-requirements. 1 Introduction: the concept of shared initiative between system and user control Today, software systems are faced with the problem of catering to the diverse and changing requirements of heterogeneous groups of users. Cutting down the requirements to a suppos edly fitting least common denominator for all users means not taking up the challenge. The solution must be to maste