Work and Unemployed Mental Health Clients

The mental health treatment process is better served when career counseling and development are included. Their inclusion can contribute to the recovery process of clients.     

Borderline Personality Clients in University Populations

Border personality disorder symptomatology is described as it may appear within a university population. The etiology of the disorder is examined from a Kohutian self-psychology perspective. Case-management procedures are outlined with a view to preventing inappropriate contracting with severely disturbed borderline clients. Recommendations are made regarding diagnosis procedures and the use of referrals. The impact of borderline clients on university staff is also discussed.     

Potential Social Action As A Function Of Expectation-Outcome Discrepancies Among Employed And Unemployed University Graduates

Full-time employed (N = 255), partly employed (N = 48), and unemployed (N = 43) male and female university graduates completed a questionnaire that included measures designed to assess expected job levels and current job levels and two measures of potential social action (willingness to volunteer actions and hours to a fictional Campaign to Assist Unemployed Youth). Comparisons between groups and the results of multiple regression analyses provided mixed support for the prediction that larger negative gaps between expected and current employment status would be associated with a greater willingness to assist the Campaign. The unemployed respondents tended to volunteer more actions and more hours to the Campaign than did the other two groups. A multiple regression analysis showed that the current level by expected level interaction term was statistically significant as predicted, but only for the fully employed graduates. Within the full-time employed group, female graduates and those from the humanities/social sciences/education schools expressed more willingness to assist the Campaign than did male graduates and those from the sciences/medicine schools of the university. Results were discussed in relation to current research on relative deprivation and reported affect and to recent studies of job satisfaction.     

Differentiation Matching Versus Level of Differentiation in Students' Judgments of Teacher Effectiveness

The present study examined the role of differentiation matching and level of differentiation in student-teacher relationships. Subjects were residents, mental health specialists, and medical students enrolled in psychiatry courses and in five core curriculum courses, and the respective faculty professors. All subjects completed measures of differentiation at the beginning of the course and students rated the teaching effectiveness of the faculty at the end. Judged teaching "effectiveness" was associated with a high level of interpersonal differentiation on the part of the teacher. Differentiation matching of teachers and student was related to high effectiveness ratings when the student was more differentiated than the teacher under conditions of frequent teacher exposure and familiarity.     

Differentiation of Personality Types Among Opiate Addicts

A wide range of studies indicate that although sociopathic characteristics are predominant in opiate addiction, depressive and psychotic features are also frequently observed. To test the hypothesis that there are really three types of individuals who become addicted to opiates (rather than a single, predominant personality style), fifty-three opiate addicts were given the Loevinger Sentence Completion Test, the Bellak Ego Functions interview, and the Rorschach. Variables derived from these three procedures were submitted to cluster and discriminant function analyses. Three groups of addicts were identified-those primarily with impaired interpersonal relationships and affective lability (42%), those primarily characterized by thought disorder and impaired ego functioning (30%), and a group with diminished ideational and verbal activity (28%). Comparison of the assessment of these three groups with independently defined normal, neurotic, and schizophrenic samples provided support for three opiate-addicted personality types, each respectively characterized as character disordered, borderline psychotic, arid depressed. Although there seems to be a predominance of character-disordered individuals who become addicted to opiates, the data indicate several additional types of opiate addicts with different types of psychopathology who may require different approaches to management and treatment.     

人格分化的智力假设

人格与智力是个体差异中相互关联的两个重要方面,人格随智力水平的提高而不断分化,智力影响了特定人格维度之间的相关。尽管人格分化的智力假设尚未获得一致性的证据,但它却暗示了智力对人格结构的潜在影响。由于人格测量工具的信度和效度可能因受测者的能力水平而异,因此未来的研究应在使用统一测量工具的基础上,尽量扩大被试的能力范围,采用多重评估或集合评定的方法,使人格测量真正独立于受测者的认知能力。     

Application of Personality Theories and Counseling Strategies to Clients With Physical Disabilities

This article describes how certain relevant theoretical concepts, intervention methods, and criteria for determining therapeutic change, which are borrowed from several personality theories and counseling approaches, can be useful in counseling people with physical disabilities. The clinical utility of each discussed personality theory is explored in the context of the efforts directed at (a) gaining insight into the psychosocial impact of physical disability, (b) counseling for personal adjustment to the disability, and (c) becoming familiar with theory-specific guidelines for assessing therapeutic changes. It is argued that counselors who serve clients with disabilities ought to choose those interventions most congruent with their own theoretical orientation, academic training, work setting, and nature of the disability condition.     

The Measurement of Self-Esteem, Stress-Related Life Events, and Locus of Control Among Unemployed and Employed Blue-Collar Workers

The purpose of this study was to measure the self-esteem, stress of life events, and locus of control among unemployed and employed blue-collar workers. It was hypothesized that (a) being unemployed decreases an individual's self-esteem, (b) being unemployed increases an individual's stress level by experiencing significant life changes, and (c) being unemployed increases an individual's external locus of control orientation. The study was conducted in a production/manufacturing organization, utilizing a systematic random sampling procedure that yielded 562 subjects. The results from the collected data did not support Hypothesis A or C. A significant change with stress in conjunction with life events was found but was mediated by several factors, including age and a nonsignificant correlation between time laid-off and stress levels. The study suggests that an individual's reaction to unemployment does not appreciably affect their self-esteem and locus of control when compared to the employed.     

Personality Assessment With Children of Superior Intelligence: Divergence Versus Psychopathology

The perceptual and cognitive functioning of children with intelligence quotients > 135 was examined with the Rorschach Inkblot Test. A criterion measure, the Child Behavior Checklist, was also administered so as to determine whether deviations for Rorschach variables from age-appropriate norms indicated the presence of psychopathology or were evidence of nonentrenched, novel, or creative styles of encoding and processing information. Rorschach variables indicative of intellectual sophistication, nonentrenched thinking or inaccurate testily perception, and cognitive slippage were reliably elevated for this sample versus norms. Results for the Child Behavior Checklist demonstrated that the incidence of psychopathology in the intellectually superior and average samples were comparable. There was a lack of covariance between Rorschach markers of inaccurate reality perception, cognitive slippages, and schizophrenia, and the sum of behavior problems on the Child Behavior Checklist. Results for the Rorschach and Child Behavior Checklist variables were comparable for children with intelligence quotients > 150 versus between 136 and 140. It was concluded that the intellectually superior children did process the Rorschach stimuli in a manner that was nonentrenched and reliably different from norms, but that these differences should not routinely be considered as indications of psychopathology.     

Male-Female Response Profile Differences on the WAIS-R in Clients Suffering from Borderline Personality Disorders

One hundred nineteen clients diagnosed with borderline personality disorders participated in a correlational study using standard intelligence and achievement measures. We expected to confirm the presence of an organic subtype that might help clinicians who work with this group of clients (average IQ = 79.3). We found gender differences that tended to support previous research on male-female differences. In general, the data supported the presence of an organic subtype. Analyses of arrest history and additional differential diagnoses showed this category of client relatively free of dependency concerns but manifesting signs of an anxiety disorder.     

Personality Correlates of Type A Coronary-Prone Behavior

The study investigates the relationship between Type A coronary-prone behavior pattern and self-concept, need for approval, extroversion, neuroticism, and trait anxiety. Eighty-eight undergraduate students completed the Jenkins Activity Survey, which measures the Type A personality; the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS; Fitts, 1965); the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale; the A-Trait Scale (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushene, 1970), and the Eysenck Personality Inventory. It was found that Type As scored lower on all the dimensions of self-concept except the physical. It was also found that Type Bs scored higher on need for approval, but only on its avoidance component. In addition, Type As scored higher on extroversion and on neuroticism. The implications of these results are discussed.     

人格分化假设:大学生样本的证据

基于智力差异的人格分化假设认为,高智力者比低智力者有更多可变的、更分化的人格。该研究在653名大学生样本中检验了这一假设,结果表明:(1)高IQ组比低IQ组倾向于获得更极端的人格分数,在大多数人格维度上,尤其是外倾性和开放性维度,高IQ组的人格结构更加分化。(2)除神经质与宜人性、外倾性与开放性的相关外,高IQ组在其他特质维度中都比低IQ组有更低的相关和更多的人格结构。(3)没有充分证据表明高IQ组比低IQ组在人格测量中有更高的信度。     

A Discussion of Modern Versus Traditional Psychometrics As Applied to Personality Assessment Scales

Item response theory (IRT) methods are used by large testing firms, state agencies, and school districts to construct, analyze, and score most major aptitude, achievement, proficiency, entrance, and professional licensure exams. Personality assessment, in contrast, has not generally adopted these more powerful, modern psychometric techniques. We evaluate the possible role of IRT in the personality domain by highlighting key areas in which IRT and traditional methods differ. Although we conclude that IRT has a significant role to play in future personality measurement, there are many systemic and technical barriers to its routine application.     

Emotion Focused Therapy for Avoidant Personality Disorder: Pragmatic Considerations for Working with Experientially Avoidant Clients

Emotion-focused therapy (EFT), an empirically supported treatment for depression and interpersonal difficulties, is now being directed towards clients with personality disorders, such as borderline and avoidant personality disorder. In this paper, both the value of, but also potential difficulties therapists can encounter while engaging in, active EFT chair interventions with clients with avoidant personality disorder (AVPD) are described. While EFT interventions can effectively transform emotion schemes at the heart of both intra and interpersonal difficulties, avoidant clients may have difficulties engaging in EFT interventions that activate core maladaptive emotion schemes related to self and negative/unaccepting representations of ‘others’. Alliance ruptures, intransigent experiential avoidance, or ‘unresolvable stand-offs’ may result. To avoid these problems, the importance of working with a more refined and content based case conceptualization of the particular avoidant client is highlighted. Guidance in optimal emotional processing in order to transform layers of maladaptive emotion schemes present within the client with AVPD is provided. Supporting these clients’ full striving for life, and their capacity to self-soothe is also discussed. A case example illustrates application of the model and principles.     

Feasibility of Using Video to Teach a Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skill to Clients With Borderline Personality Disorder

This study tested the feasibility of using a psychoeducational video recording to teach a behavioral skill from the Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993a, 1993b) skills training program to individuals meeting criteria for borderline personality disorder. A video presenting a DBT emotion-regulation skill was developed and the extent to which viewers learned the skill material was evaluated via a randomized controlled trial (RCT), utilizing a within-subjects design. Thirty individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for borderline personality disorder participated. Participants were recruited from mental health treatment settings and were naïve to DBT. Viewing the video was associated with significant increases in knowledge of the skill, relative to viewing a control video, and with increases in participants' expectations of positive outcomes for skill use. In addition, participants rated the video as relevant and helpful. A remarkably high number (80%) utilized the skill taught subsequent to viewing the video when assigned to do so, and overall reported significant decreases in negative affect after using the skill. Video appears to be feasible as a medium for teaching DBT skills material under controlled conditions; future research is needed to examine the effectiveness of video in more naturalistic settings.     

Sociability Versus Privacy of Residential Choice: Impacts of Personality and Local Social Ties

Intra- and inter-personal determinants of sociability vs. privacy provided by a residential choice were investigated. We hypothesized that persons: (1) with strong affiliative needs; and (2) who were more socially involved with coresidents, would choose a living arrangement that offered more potential interaction (less potential privacy). Results from surveys and personality assessments of 60 male freshmen who had lived in a dorm for one year, and were forced to live in a non-dorm setting for their second year, supported both hypotheses. Follow-up interviews with the sample, conducted at the beginning of their junior year, also upheld the two hypotheses. Results confirm the role of affiliative tendencies in responding to and subsequently structuring the college environment. They also suggest that the development of local social ties, that serve as a "buffer" to the negative aspects of dorm life, also has effects that carry forward in time producing a greater tolerance for the presence of proximate others, and influencing subsequent residential decisions.