Volume 4, Number 1, March 2016
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Editorial
by Chiara Centomo e Chiara Lui

Articles:
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The Italian school grappling with complexity
by Anna Maria Carletti e Andrea Varani
AbstractThe Italian school grappling with complexityThe text proposes an analysis of the educational content in the National Guidelines highlighting shared aspects as well as problematic issues. In light of epistemology and constructivist theories of complexity, we try to offer insights on teaching methods and subject knowledge, the revision of which is today an urgent task, in order to build school curricula that will enable students to understand and take on the challenges that the modern world presents us. All this unquestionably requires appropriate training of teachers.
Keywords: epistemology, constructivism, complexity, education, reflectivity.
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What game are we playing? Knowing, learning and changing with children
by Gabriele Bendinelli e Chiara Lui
AbstractWhat game are we playing? Knowing, learning and changing with childrenStarting from a brief excursus about how various psychological theories treated the theme of child's play, this work is aimed to go beyond the realistic dichotomy between fantasy and rationality. Constructivist's assumptions and procedural perspective drive us to explore play as a tool in children's hands, through which they can know, understand and give sense to their experiences. This approach leads us, as psychotherapists and consultants, to construe their construing processes, inviting us to adopt children's language of play and practice sociality towards them.
Keywords: play; children; development; psychotherapy; learning.
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…What about siblings? A journey into the world of brothers and sisters of people with disabilities.
by Giulia Tortorelli
Abstract…What about siblings? A journey into the world of brothers and sisters of people with disabilities.The fraternal relationship is one of the most significant relations of kinship that we can experience in lifetime. It may happen that this particular relationship is characterized by the presence of a brother or sister with various disabilities. In this case the role of the other children, which are often left in the shadows, might become even more complex. This paper aims at exploring and developing the features related to their role, in order to highlight that their identities and experiences do not vanish in the definition of “being the brother/or the sister of...”.
Keywords: fraternal relationship, siblings, sibshop, disability, parenting support.
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Sexuality and risk: a journey through some adolescents’ choices
by Elena Bordin
AbstractSexuality and risk: a journey through some adolescents’ choicesWho are the adolescents? What are they engaged to do? What does the risk in the field of sexuality, mean to them? The proposal of this article is to consider the adolescence as a combination of processes, which would allow teenagers to experience new self constructions, and to suggest an alternative interpretation of some sexual risk-taking behaviour. To look at the world through their eyes, some adolescents’ experiences will lastly be presented.
Keywords:: sexuality, risk-taking behaviour, adolescents, elaborative choice, Personal Construct Psychology.
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Hikikomori: Fear comes from the Far East. Social Construction of Youth Discomfort and Moral Panic Dynamics
by Giuseppe Toscano
AbstractHikikomori: Fear comes from the Far East. Social Construction of Youth Discomfort and Moral Panic DynamicsThe aim of this paper is to analyze some of the mechanisms involved in the media construction of social problems. I will focus on the Hikikomori Syndrome. Hikikomori is a Japanese expression referred to teenagers and young people who have withdrawn from social relationships for months and even for years. This social problem has emerged in Japan between 1999 and 2000. However in the last few years the increase in the number of Hikikomori made this syndrome the object of great interest all over western countries. I will examine how the mass media manage to reframe the problem of Hikikomori, to make it comprehensible by a western audience and to present it as an impending treat. As a result the bases are led to create moral panic, which according to Stanley Cohen amplifies deviant behaviors, facilitates their spread and hides the way to find a solution to the problem.
Keywords:: symbolic interactionism, constructivism, social problems, Hikikomori, teenagers.
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A workshop for parents and carers of children on the autism spectrum: Managing Angry Behavior
by Heather Moran
AbstractA workshop for parents and carers of children on the autism spectrum: Managing Angry BehaviorThe Managing Angry Behavior parent workshop is run in a UK city-based community service for children with autism (without learning disability) which receives frequent referrals for children with aggressive behavior. This paper illustrates one way of helping their parents using an approach based on behavior therapy and Personal Construct Psychology. It has run in the current format 17 times since September 2014. The group aims to help parents to understand their child’s behavior and how they might encourage more appropriate expressions of anger.
Keywords:: autism, Personal Construct, anger, parent, group.
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A workshop for parents and carers of children on the autism spectrum: Managing Angry Behavior (English original version)
by Heather Moran
Instruments:
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Useful Questions in Interviewing Families and Children
by Harry Procter
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Useful Questions in Interviewing Families and Children (English original version)
by Harry Procter
Interviews:
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Constructs and Relationships: an interview with Harry Procter
by Chiara Centomo
Harry ProcterConstructs and Relationships: an interview with Harry ProcterH. G. Procter, PhD, Consultant Clinical Psychologist. Harry Procter is Visiting Professor at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. He conducted his doctoral research in the early 1970’s at the Department of Mental Health, University of Bristol, on applying Personal Construct Psychology to family processes and beginning the development of a Systemic Constructivist approach to family therapy. After training as a Clinical Psychologist in Nottingham, he worked in Adult and then Child and Adolescent Mental Health in Somerset before retiring from the NHS in 2004. Currently, he is involved in supervision and teaching in a number of countries and is continuing to develop Constructivist applications to relational and organizational contexts. He has published over 40 papers and chapters covering a variety of topics including family therapy for children and adults with mental health and learning disabilities, schizophrenia, autism, hypnotherapy, reflective practice, formulation and the philosophical background to his approach. He has edited two volumes of papers of Milton H. Erickson for Paidos Publications, Barcelona and is currently co-editing a volume of papers presented at the International Congress on Personal Construct Psychology, University of Hertfordshire, July 2015.
Recently he has been researching the work of Charles S. Peirce whose work provides a fascinating meta-framework for looking at and understanding constructivist approaches. Two recent chapters for the new Handbook of Personal Construct Psychology address Relational Construct Psychology and PCP, Society and Culture.
He has developed various types of Qualitative Grid, which are user-friendly methods of displaying the construing of members of groups and families, tracing their different positions and charting change over time.
Keywords:: developmental age, family system, clinical practice, philosophical background,
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Constructs and Relationships: an interview with Harry Procter (English original version)
by Chiara Centomo
Glossary:
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Preverbal construing
by Fay Fransella
translated by Davide Scapin and Cecilia Pagliardini
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Parenting activity
by James C. Mancuso
translated by Davide Scapin and Cecilia Pagliardini