Male IPV Perpetrators’ Self-Reports of Accountability: A Content Analysis of Exit Letters Written by Clients Who Completed a Batterer Intervention Program Between 1990 and 2015

Batterer intervention programs (BIPs) continue to be the primary mode of intervention for male perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV). The extent, however, to which BIPs are effective remains unclear. In particular, studies are needed that can provide detailed information on how accountability is promoted during the BIP process, and if clients leave a BIP with a clear sense of what it means to be responsible for their behaviors. The present study seeks to expand our knowledge of accountability as it is understood in the BIP context through an exploration of clients’ written reflections on their experiences with such a program. A random sample of 555 exit letters were collected from a participating BIP in 2015 and analyzed to understand clients’ perceptions on accountability. A three-coder iterative approach to analysis, focusing on content and global coding of broad thematic and subthematic categories was used. Our findings show that many clients admitted to the use of some type of abusive behavior as the precipitating factor for their involvement in the BIP, and that additionally, they generally recognized the need to be responsible for their behaviors and the consequences associated with their abuse. However, we also found that an increased emphasis on accountability in BIPs may be warranted. In particular, more research is needed to explore how BIPs promote accountability among their clients, and how individuals who complete a BIP understand and interpret their role in perpetrating abuse.

Érzelmi És Társas Mintázatok a Fapofa- (Still Face) Helyzetben 3–6 Hónapos Csecsemőknél

Háttér és célkitűzések:A fapofa-paradigma (Tronick, Als, Adamson, Wise és Brazelton 1978) szokatlan megszakításos helyzetet teremt az anya-csecsemő interakcióban, így az egyik leggyakrabban alkalmazott eljárás az egyéni és a diádikus társas és stressz-szabályozási minták vizsgálatában csecsemőkorban. A kódrendszerek sokfélesége miatt azonban ellentmondásosak az eredmények a mintázatok azonosításában. Jelen tanulmányban egyik célunk egy olyan globális kódrendszer kialakítása volt, amellyel külön vizsgálhatjuk a társas viselkedés és az érzelemkifejezés szerepét a regulációs mintázatok formálódásában. Másik célunk a fapofa- és a regulációs szakaszokra jellemző társasviselkedés-mintázatok keresése és a két szakasz közötti változásuk vizsgálata volt.Módszer:101 3–6 hónapos, tipikusan fejlődő csecsemő-anya párral vettük fel a fapofa-paradigmát. A csecsemők érzelmi állapotát, társas viselkedését és stressz-szintjének alakulását a jelen kutatásra kidolgozott Érzelmi és Társas Szabályozási Mintázatok Globális Kódrendszerével értékeltük a fapofa- és a regulációs szakaszokban.Eredmények:Az érzelmi dimenzió mintázatai egyértelműen mutatták a klasszikus fapofa-hatást a mintában. A társas dimenzióban négy fő mintázatot defi niáltunk: anyára pozitív, anyára negatív, anyára vegyes és minimalizáló. A fapofa-szakasz domináns társas mintázatai eltérően jósolták be a regulációs szakasz társas mintázatait. A társas viselkedés két szakasz közötti változásában a stressz-szinttel való összefüggésük mentén adaptív, rizikós és többesélyes mintázatokat azonosítottunk. Klaszterelemzéssel egy Nyugodt és egy Nyűgös csoport különült el, amiben az érzelmi dimenzió differenciáló szerepe emelkedett ki a társas dimenzióval szemben.Következtetések:Eredményeink alátámasztják, hogy már 3 hónapos kortól jelen lehetnek a stressz szabályozására specifi kus, egyéni regulációs mintázatok. Kódrendszerünk a globális dimenziók alkalmazásának fontosságára hívja fel a fi gyelmet, amely informálhat az összetett érzelmi, valamint a társasviselkedés-mintázatok és a stresszreguláció kölcsönkapcsolatáról, és így hozzájárulhat azok adaptív vagy maladaptív jellegének felméréséhez.Background and aims:The Face-to-Face-Still-Face Paradigm (FFSF, Tronick et al, 1978) artifi cially generates an unusual perturbation in the infant-mother interaction and as such has become a widely used procedure in the investigation of individual and dyadic social and stress regulation in infancy. The various coding systems, however, have brought about controversial results in the identifi cations of regulatory patterns. One of our aims was to develop a global coding system, by means of which the role of the social and emotional regulatory behaviors in the formations of organized regulatory patterns could be evaluated separately. Our second aim was to search for social behavior patterns exhibitive of the Still Face and Regulatory episodes as well as to examine their changes from one episode to to other.Method:The FFSF paradigm was administered to 101 typically developing 3-6 months-old infant-mother dyads. The emotional state, the social behavior and the changes in the stress level of the infant were evaluated in two episodes of the FFSFP by the Global Coding System of Emotional and Social Regulatory Patterns that has been developed for the purpose of this study.Results:The classical Still-Face effect has been clearly demonstrated by the results of the emotional state dimension. Beyond this, we identifi ed four social regulatory patterns: positive-to-mother, negative-to-mother, ambivalent-to-mother and minimization. The dominant social patterns in the Still-Face episode predicted variously those in the Reunion episode. Different patterns of the interrelations of the changes in social strategies and the stress level in the Reunion episode could be identifi ed as adaptive, risk and multi chance patterns. Two groups of infants have been separated by the cluster analysis, the calm and the fussy groups. Emotional dimension, as contrast to social dimension, has emerged as signifi cant clustering predictor. Conclusion: Our results support the hypotheses that individual stress regulatory patterns can be present from as early as three months of infant age. Our coding system draws attention to the importance of global behavioral coding dimensions that can inform us about the interconnection between the complex emotional and social behavior patterns and the stress regulation and thus can contribute to the exploration of their adaptive versus maladaptive nature.

Hippocampal place cells encode global location but not changes in environmental connectivity in a 4-room navigation task

Flexible navigation relies on a cognitive map of space, thought to be implemented by hippocampal place cells: neurons that exhibit location-specific firing. In connected environments, optimal navigation requires keeping track of one’s location and of the available connections between subspaces. We examined whether the dorsal CA1 place cells of rats encode environmental connectivity in four geometrically-identical boxes arranged in a square. Rats moved between boxes by pushing saloon-type doors that could be locked in one or both directions. While rats demonstrated knowledge of environmental connectivity, their place cells did not respond to connectivity changes, nor did they represent doorways differently from other locations. Importantly, place cells coded the space in a global frame, expressing minimal repetitive fields despite the repetitive geometry (global coding). These results suggest that CA1 place cells provide a spatial map that does not explicitly include connectivity.

Unifying the global coding sequence space enables the study of genes with unknown function across biomes

One of the biggest challenges in molecular biology is bridging the gap between the known and the unknown coding sequence space. This challenge is especially extreme in microbial systems, where between 40% and 60% of the predicted genes are of unknown function. Discarding this uncharacterized fraction should not be an option anymore. Here, we present a conceptual framework and a computational workflow that bridges this gap and provides a powerful strategy to contextualize the investigations of genes of unknown function. Our approach partitions the coding sequence space removing the known-unknown dichotomy, unifies genomic and metagenomic data and provides a framework to expand those investigations across environments and organisms. By analyzing 415,971,742 genes predicted from 1,749 metagenomes and 28,941 bacterial and archaeal genomes we showcase our approach and its application in ecological, evolutionary and biotechnological investigations. As a result, we put into perspective the extent of the unknown fraction, its diversity, and its relevance in genomic and environmental contexts. By identifying a target gene of unknown function for antibiotic resistance, we demonstrate how a contextualized unknown coding sequence space enables the generation of hypotheses that can be used to augment experimental data.

Covert Assessment of the Family System: Patterns, Pictures and Codes

Covert measures of the family system can tap concepts and discover patterns of which family members themselves are unaware and can avoid social desirability bias. Covert measures can be particularly useful in cross-cultural research and can avoid many pitfalls of language and translation. Three such measures which have been used cross-culturally are described. The first is a method of measuring triangulation of children by the parents based on patterns of agreement in a true-false questionnaire describing the family. The second is a projective measure in which family members as a group create a picture of their family distinguishing relationships between individuals and boundaries within and around the family. The third is a global coding scheme used to evaluate family processes from taped interaction.

Covert Assessment of the Family System: Patterns, Pictures and Codes

Covert measures of the family system can tap concepts and discover patterns of which family members themselves are unaware and can avoid social desirability bias. Covert measures can be particularly useful in cross-cultural research and can avoid many pitfalls of language and translation. Three such measures which have been used cross-culturally are described. The first is a method of measuring triangulation of children by the parents based on patterns of agreement in a true-false questionnaire describing the family. The second is a projective measure in which family members as a group create a picture of their family distinguishing relationships between individuals and boundaries within and around the family. The third is a global coding scheme used to evaluate family processes from taped interaction.