Dr John Hunter Padel 1913–1999

SUMMARY

With the help of clinical material from two female patients with whom acting out was a major feature of their treatment I have examined the connection between acting out behaviour and separation anxiety.

To begin with, I have drawn on Freud's conception of acting out and have shown that this kind of behaviour can be closely associated with transference in that both can act as a resistance as well as an aid to the psychoanalytic process.

The link between acting out and preverbal experience is commented on and attention is given to the defensive splitting of the primary object during early development.

It is then suggested that one of the essential roots associated with acting out behaviour is that of object loss and separation.

The clinical examples show that if the child separates in a strongly hostile manner from the mother then acting out associated with separations during analysis is going to be greater.

In view of the deficits in the early mother child relationships of the two patients described I adopted a therapeutic strategy based less on confrontation and limit setting and more on a consistent attempt to understand what was being communicated in the acting out behaviour.     

Acting out in group psychotherapy

Acting out is a common occurrence in group psychotherapy. After a brief review of relevant psychoanalytic and group psychotherapy literature, this paper presents various kinds of acting out by the individual group members and the handling of such acting out by the therapist, discusses acting out by the group as a whole, and gives a brief overview of acting out by the group therapist. Specific examples are given of acting out and ways of dealing with it.     

Counselor Acting Out in the Counseling Situation: An Exploratory Analysis

Five categories of counselor acting out are explored. Also several intervention measures are presented as means of preventing or reducing counselor acting out.     

On shame,countertransference, and analytic style

Some analysands experience a restricted space in the analytic situation with special counter-transferential consequences. The author discusses how shame is involved in these situations, and projected on to the analyst. This leads to an important choice of direction for the analyst regarding counter-transference acting out or conditions for a real analytic situation. Shame plays a special rôle in these choices of direction. The author illustrates the problem with a clinical vignette and shows how integration of shame is accomplished clinically, and continues with a discussion of the connections between the analyst's analytic style, his own communicative style as a defense against shame and the analytic styles of different analytic “schools”. A discussion of Liberman's concept, of “asymmetrical dialogue” and its connection with countertransference acting out and analytic styles, forms a conclusion to the paper.     

Family protective factors among urban African American youth.

Examined the relations among family protective factors, stressful events, and behavioral adjustment of 64 African American 6th graders. The youths reported on family stressors, father-figure involvement, and kin support. Their primary caregivers reported on parenting, father-figure involvement, and family stressors. Teachers reported on child social skill deficits, acting out, and shy or anxious behavior. Based on regression analyses, stress exposure associated positively with child social skill deficits, acting out, and shy or anxious behavior. Parental warmth was associated negatively with shy or anxious behavior. Parental use of corporal punishment was associated positively with child acting out. For youth exposed to high numbers of family stressors, parental demandingness was associated negatively with child acting out and kin support was associated negatively with acting out and shy or anxious behavior, suggesting that these family factors partially shield children from the negative effects of stress.     

Arson and (para-) suicide

There have been forensic-psychiatric observations from 1963 to 1983 concerning the offenders responsibility in case of deliberate arson with 12 out of 147 suits being closely related to (para-)suicide. According the variety of relations we distinguish between fire as pure means of suicide, fire used to take along the living space or people, suicide committed in consequence of arson, furthermore arson as a symbolic suicide, and finally acting alternately with both arson as well as parasuicide.     

Emotional regulation as a mediator between interpersonal mistreatment and distress

Theory and research from the emotional labour literature focusing on mistreatment of employees by customers were used to examine interpersonal mistreatment by customers, coworkers, and supervisors. Specifically, we examined the relationships between all three of these sources of interpersonal mistreatment and psychological distress. We also examine the possibility that emotional regulation strategies mediated these relationships. In Study 1, we focused on surface acting as the mediating emotional regulation strategy. Using a sample of 256 working adults, the results of that study found a mediating role for surface acting between mistreatment and distress for mistreatment by customers and coworkers but not supervisors. In Study 2, we included measures of both deep acting and surface acting as potential mediators between sources of mistreatment and distress. Using a sample of 138 working adults, this second study again found that surface acting mediated the relationship between mistreatment and distress for mistreatment by customers and coworkers but not supervisors. Further, deep acting did not mediate any of the relationships between sources of mistreatment and psychological distress. We conclude surface acting plays an important mediating role in the relationship between interpersonal mistreatment by both customers and coworkers, and psychological distress.     

Teacher reactions to school-based consultation services: A multivariate analysis

The impact of consultation services on teachers' preferences for consultation versus referral approaches and upon teachers' perceptions of severity for common acting out, withdrawal, and academic types of student problems were investigated. The subjects were 96 teachers whose public and parochial schools were matched and randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. Following a 14-week period during which advanced school psychology graduate students served as consultants in the treatment schools, the Pupil Problem Behavior Inventory (PPBI) was administered to all teachers. The results of a repeated measures MANOVA analysis indicated that the teachers in the treatment group rated the acting out and academic problems on the PPBI as significantly less severe than did teachers in the control group. The subjects in both the treatment and control groups indicated a significant preference for consultation rather than referral services for all types of student problems presented in the PPBI. There was a moderate, positive correlation between perceived problem severity and teacher preference for referral rather than consultation services. The study's results were interpreted as supportive of the consultation model.     

Personality Characteristics of Eating-Disordered Outpatients as Measured by the Hand Test

The Hand Test was administered to 34 eating-disordered and 26 noneating-disordered college-age women to determine discriminating projective personality features. Eating-disordered women scored higher on response time, overall pathology, and passivity. Anorexics present more tension, aggression, and acting out potential whereas bulimics demonstrate significantly more passive responses. The more severely affected women scored higher on crippled, passive, and withdrawal variables. Similarities as well as differences between the groups may have important implications for the diagnosis of subgroups of eating-disordered women and for treatment planning.     

Personality characteristics of eating-disordered outpatients as measured by the Hand Test

The Hand Test was administered to 34 eating-disordered and 26 noneating-disordered college-age women to determine discriminating projective personality features. Eating-disordered women scored higher on response time, overall pathology, and passivity. Anorexics present more tension, aggression, and acting out potential whereas bulimics demonstrate significantly more passive responses. The more severely affected women scored higher on crippled, passive, and withdrawal variables. Similarities as well as differences between the groups may have important implications for the diagnosis of subgroups of eating-disordered women and for treatment planning.     

Qualitative Study on the Traumatic Experiences of Female Sex Offenders

This study into female sex offenders examines the links between their sexual acting out and traumatic life events. The methodology is based on an analysis of 35 court cases involving females convicted of sexual abuse alongside semistructured interviews recorded with 13 participants. NVivo® software was used to analyze the data thematically, whence four key themes emerged (a desire for power, sadism, extreme anger, and the quest for self-affirmation); these themes fall into a typology that highlights the different contexts and characteristics of the sexual abuse. The results also highlight a traumatic context during childhood and adolescence that is likely to have formed the basis for the development of the deviant sexual behavior and the fact that all the women acted in collusion. The discussion on the results suggests that assessing and analyzing the needs of these women should focus in particular on the relationship between the current sexual acting out and a personal biography filled with traumatic events.     

表层表演和深层表演的关系:来自元分析的证据

采用元分析的方法探讨两种主要情绪劳动策略(表层表演、深层表演)之间的相关.经筛选,共有150篇文献的162个独立样本(N = 63629)符合标准.元分析结果发现,表层表演与深层表演呈显著正相关(r = 0.17).量表的作答方式、测量工具、职业类型对表层表演与深层表演的相关具有显著影响.具体表现为,量表的作答方式为频...     

应对辱虐，有计可施？深层调节如何降低辱虐管理对员工建言行为的负面影响

针对辱虐管理给建言构成的负面作用,目前少有研究从员工管理认知的应对角度去考虑如何消减这一影响。本研究基于认知失调理论,在洞察互动公平与辱虐管理二者关系的基础上,提出深层调节这类基于认知调整的情绪劳动策略会帮助削弱辱虐管理对员工互动公平的不利作用。由于互动公平将直接影响员工向领导建言的动机,进而预测,深层调节与辱虐管理的交互会通过互动公平的中介影响员工建言(防御性和亲社会性建言)。通过对103个国企团队中530名员工分三阶段的调研,研究假设均得以验证。本文从员工基于调节认知以管理情绪的策略启发,揭示了深层调节这一对策的有效性,拓展了辱虐管理的应对视角,丰富了辱虐管理与建言领域的研究。     

The development of children's action memory: When do actions speak louder than words?

Summary Although acting consistently has been found to improve memory, the reasons for this are unclear. In this investigation, we tested whether acting improves recall by integrating separate elements within an action into an organized whole and whether this process may be strategic. First graders, fourth graders, and college-aged adults listened to, acted out, or watched the performance of action-object phrases and then verbally reported or enacted the phrases. Phrases composed of transitive verbs were expected to be integrated more by action than phrases composed of intransitive verbs, and consequently recalled better, especially by the younger children. Recall increased between first and fourth grades, suggesting that some aspects of action memory may be strategic; however, there was no evidence that acting improves recall by means of integration. The pattern of results suggested that the nature of an action's outcome may contribute to the enactment effect.     

Would introverts be better off if they acted more like extraverts? Exploring emotional and cognitive consequences of counterdispositional behavior

People enjoy acting extraverted, and this seems to apply equally across the dispositional introversion-extraversion dimension (Fleeson, Malanos, & Achille, 2002). It follows that dispositional introverts might improve their happiness by acting more extraverted, yet little research has examined potential costs of this strategy. In two studies, we assessed dispositions, randomly assigned participants to act introverted or extraverted, and examined costs-both emotional (concurrent negative affect) and cognitive (Stroop performance). Results replicated and extended past findings suggesting that acting extraverted produces hedonic benefits regardless of disposition. Positive affect increased and negative affect did not, even for participants acting out of character. In contrast, we found evidence that acting counterdispositionally could produce poor Stroop performance, but this effect was limited to dispositional extraverts who were assigned to act introverted. We suggest that the positive affect produced by introverts' extraverted behavior may buffer the potentially depleting effects of counterdispositional behavior, and we consider alternative explanations. We conclude that dispositional introverts may indeed benefit from acting extraverted more often and caution that dispositional extraverts may want to adopt introverted behavior strategically, as it could induce cognitive costs or self-regulatory depletion more generally.     

Teachers’ emotions and emotion management: integrating emotion regulation theory with emotional labor research

While the similarities between emotion regulation (Gross in J Personal Soc Psychol 74:224–237, 1998a) and emotional labor (Hochschild in The managed heart: commercialization of human feeling. University of California Press, Berkeley, 1983) have been theoretically discussed, empirical research on their relation is lacking. We examined the relations between the two constructs as well as their relations with teachers’ discrete emotions in a sample of 189 secondary school teachers. The results showed that reappraisal correlated positively with deep acting, whereas suppression correlated positively with surface acting. The findings further suggest that reappraisal and deep acting are linked to experiencing positive emotions, whereas suppression and surface acting are linked to experiencing negative emotions. However, there also were some differences in how emotion regulation and emotional labor were related to teachers’ discrete emotional experiences. Specifically, reappraisal and deep acting strategies were positively related to enjoyment; in addition, deep acting was negatively related to negative emotions such as anxiety, anger, and frustration. By contrast, suppression and surface acting strategies were positively associated with negative emotions (i.e., suppression with anxiety; surface acting with anxiety, anger, and frustration), and surface acting was negatively associated with the positive emotion enjoyment. Implications for integrating research on teachers’ emotion regulation and emotional labor are discussed.     

The Changing Value of Skill Utilisation: Interactions with Job Demands on Job Satisfaction and Absenteeism

Opportunities to learn and apply new skills are generally considered a favourable job characteristic, but can there be too much of a good thing? In this paper, we draw on vitamin and resource perspectives to investigate a more nuanced perspective on where, when and why skill utilisation delivers value as a resource. Specifically, we examine whether skill utilisation exhibits non-linear relationships with job satisfaction and absenteeism in the presence of two different job demands: task workload, which captures the quantitative demands of work, and surface acting, which captures the qualitative demands of work. Using data from 278 hospital employees, we found that surface acting moderated the non-linear relationship between skill utilisation and absenteeism. Specifically, the relationship between skill utilisation and absenteeism became increasingly positive when surface acting was high, but not when surface acting was low. Interestingly, the linear relationship between skill utilisation and job satisfaction was less positive when surface acting was high. Task workload did not interact with skill utilisation to predict employee outcomes. Our findings highlight complexities in the relationship between job resources and demands and show that the value of skill utilisation changes under demanding conditions.     

Conservation as a predictor of individual differences in children’s susceptibility to leading questions

The relationships between susceptibility to leading questions and several individual differences variables—namely number and mass conservation; self-rated social desirability; and teacher-rated assertive social skills, shyness-anxiousness, and acting out—were examined for 36 first graders. As predicted, children whose conservation skills were more advanced were least susceptible to leading questions. However, there was no reliable direct association with any of the four personality variables assessed. Results were interpreted as evidence that the ability to simultaneously consider multiple dimensions may be one general cognitive factor underlying developmental and individual differences in susceptibility to leading questions.     

A Third Method of Ethics?

In recent decades, the idea has become common that so‐called virtue ethics constitutes a third option in ethics in addition to consequentialism and deontology. This paper argues that, if we understand ethical theories as accounts of right and wrong action, this is not so. Virtue ethics turns out to be a form of deontology (that is, non‐consequentialism). The paper then moves to consider the Aristotelian distinction between right or virtuous action on the one hand, and acting rightly or virtuously on the other. It is claimed that virtue might play an important role in an explanation of acting virtuously (as it does in Aristotle’s ethics), but that such explanations can be charged with ‘double‐counting’ the moral value of the virtues. The paper concludes that, if we focus on the question of the value of virtue, rather than on the notion of right action, there is room for a self‐standing and important view which could be described as virtue ethics.