Psychotherapy of depression: current status, future directions

This article reviews recent studies of psychotherapy for treatment of depression. There is evidence that cognitive behavioral and interpersonal therapies are useful treatments for depressed outpatients, roughly comparable to antidepressant pharmacotherapy. Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy do not, however, necessarily treat the same patients and there is emerging evidence of a neurobiological "boundary" that may delimit therapy response. Psychotherapy plus pharmacotherapy combinations appear particularly useful for outpatients with more severe, recurrent depressions. Depression-focused psychotherapy may also provide an important alternative to an indefinite course of maintenance pharmacotherapy for patients at high risk for recurrence.     

Critical consciousness: current status and future directions

In this chapter, the authors consider Paulo Freire's construct of critical consciousness (CC) and why it deserves more attention in research and discourse on youth political and civic development. His approach to education and similar ideas by other scholars of liberation aims to foster a critical analysis of society--and one's status within it--using egalitarian, empowering, and interactive methods. The aim is social change as well as learning, which makes these ideas especially relevant to the structural injustice faced by marginalized youth. From their review of these ideas, the authors derive three core CC components: critical reflection, political efficacy, and critical action. They highlight promising research related to these constructs and innovative applied work including youth action-research methodology. Their conclusion offers ideas for closing some of the critical gaps in CC theory and research.     

Vicarious traumatisation: current status and future directions

Theorists and practitioners have long recognised that working with trauma clients can trigger reactions in the therapist similar to those experienced by the client. Nevertheless, research in this area has been lacking. One obstacle has been confusion regarding key terms. Vicarious traumatisation is the most appropriate concept given that it relates specifically to trauma work, incorporates intrinsic and extrinsic factors, and can be located within the framework of the constructivist self-development theory. Although limited, research has identified a range of factors that influence vicarious traumatisation, such as experience, personal trauma history and coping style. Future investigation is required to examine aspects that could enhance counsellor resilience. In addition, vicarious traumatisation needs to be studied in terms of a broad range of clientele and occupations.     

Avoidant personality disorder: current status and future directions

Avoidant Personality Disorder (APD) is the topic of a growing body of research literature. In this article, we review empirical studies of APD with the goals of identifying the themes that underlie this work and pointing to new directions for future research. In particular, we recommend that future studies evaluate several unique factors postulated by personality theorists to be central to this condition.     

Evaluative conditioning: Recent developments and future directions

Evaluative conditioning (EC) is generally considered to be one of the routes via which likes and dislikes are acquired. We identify recent trends in EC research and speculate about the topics that will dominate future research on EC. Many of the recent developments in EC research were shaped by functional definitions of EC that refer only to environmental conditions, but not to mental processes and representations. These functional definitions stimulated the development of and debates between theories about the mental processes that mediate EC. These trends, as well as greater methodological and conceptual sophistication, inspired meta-conditional studies that aim at determining the conditions under which EC is characterized by certain properties. The question of whether EC depends on contingency awareness remains a central topic, albeit with a stronger link to theorizing about underlying mental processes. Other automaticity features have gained enhanced interest, as can for example be seen in research investigating whether EC is goal-independent and whether EC is resource-independent. We argue that future research would benefit from a sharper distinction between processes that operate during acquisition (i.e., when CS–US pairs are presented) and processes that operate during measurement (i.e., when the effects of CS–US pairings are assessed). We conclude with a short summary of all articles in this Special Issue, relating them to the identified trends in EC research.     

Career self-efficacy: Empirical status and future directions

Bandura's self-efficacy theory, stemming from a social cognitive model of behavior, has been gaining empirical attention in the career literature. This paper reviews emerging findings applying self-efficacy theory to career-relevant behaviors; examines a number of conceptual and methodological issues arising from this work; and offers several directions for future research and theory on the career self-efficacy construct. Self-efficacy appears to offer promise in understanding certain career entry behaviors, such as college major choices and academic performance, though there has been little work relating self-efficacy to career development beyond college or exploring causal connections between self-efficacy and career behaviors. An expanded base for research on career self-efficacy is advocated.     

Item factor analysis: current approaches and future directions

The rationale underlying factor analysis applies to continuous and categorical variables alike; however, the models and estimation methods for continuous (i.e., interval or ratio scale) data are not appropriate for item-level data that are categorical in nature. The authors provide a targeted review and synthesis of the item factor analysis (IFA) estimation literature for ordered-categorical data (e.g., Likert-type response scales) with specific attention paid to the problems of estimating models with many items and many factors. Popular IFA models and estimation methods found in the structural equation modeling and item response theory literatures are presented. Following this presentation, recent developments in the estimation of IFA parameters (e.g., Markov chain Monte Carlo) are discussed. The authors conclude with considerations for future research on IFA, simulated examples, and advice for applied researchers.     

Fostering integrity in research: Definitions, current knowledge, and future directions

Over the last 25 years, a small but growing body of research on research behavior has slowly provided a more complete and critical understanding of research practices, particularly in the biomedical and behavioral sciences. The results of this research suggest that some earlier assumptions about irresponsible conduct are not reliable, leading to the conclusion that there is a need to change the way we think about and regulate research behavior. This paper begins with suggestions for more precise definitions of the terms "responsible conduct of research," "research ethics," and "research integrity." It then summarizes the findings presented in some of the more important studies of research behavior, looking first at levels of occurrence and then impact. Based on this summary, the paper concludes with general observations about priorities and recommendations for steps to improve the effectiveness of efforts to respond to misconduct and foster higher standards for integrity in research.     

Evolutionary developmental psychology: Current status and future directions

The field of developmental psychology is part of a continuum of disciplines, from cell biology to cultural anthropology, that are focused on understanding developing and potentially evolving phenotypes; the reciprocal interactions between genetics and experiences produce variation in developing phenotypes and this variation is the grist for evolutionary selection. The articles in this issue provide cutting edge and multidisciplinary analyses of developing and potentially evolving phenotypes in areas that are of central interest to developmental scientists, including mother–infant attachments, stress responses in children, social cognition, and life span development. The articles and other recent works signal the reemergence of developmental psychology as an evolutionarily informed, multidisciplinary field. In this view, it is not about nature versus nurture or biology versus psychology, it is about tackling difficult problems at multiple levels of analysis, each of which has something to contribute and none of which is sufficient in and of itself.     

Development of orbitofrontal function: current themes and future directions

In recent years, an exciting thrust in the developmental research literature has been the focus on "executive" functions (EF). However, the emphasis has been on the more purely cognitive aspects of EF operative in abstract reasoning and problem solving-aspects associated mainly with dorsolateral frontal regions. Although the literature on adult neuropsychology has seen an emerging and growing interest in the study of processes more related to orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), including emotion and personality, research on the development of EF has lagged behind. This special issue of Brain and Cognition is intended to redress this imbalance by bringing together researchers who are studying the nature and development of orbitofrontal function from a wide variety of perspectives.     

Psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia: Unresolved issues, current trends, and future directions

Psychiatric rehabilitation refers to a treatment philosophy and to a set of assessment and treatment techniques designed to reduce disability and maximize environmental adaptation. The field of psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia is now well developed, and successful interventions exist for teaching many essential community-living skills and for promoting maintenance and generalization of these gains. Recent developments include the creation of new skills-training interventions and cognitive rehabilitation techniques and improvements in the delivery of vocational and substance abuse treatments. As a field, psychiatric rehabilitation is continuing to develop in a manner that is responsive to perceived treatment needs, shortcomings of existing interventions, and developments in related fields (e.g., social psychology, neuroscience of schizophrenia). Some of these developments in theory and research point to areas of conceptual/theoretical weaknesses in existing treatments and assessment measures and suggest directions for further development. This article reviews the current status of a number of areas within the psychiatric rehabilitation of schizophrenia, highlighting future needs.     

Disability and the family: Current status and future developments

Recent years have witnessed increased interest in the effects a disability or chronic illness has on both the nuclear and the extended family. Personal accounts by family members and landmark legislation has stimulated interest in this area of endeavour. Reports of marital and family disharmony has fuelled research investigating the sources of stress and coping in families with a member who has a disability (Seligman, 1991).     

Parenting cognitions and parent-child conflict: current issues and future directions

The chapters in this volume explore a number of important issues in parenting cognitions. It is clear that they have opened up several new areas for consideration. We have suggested yet another new direction for researchers interested in cognitions and conflict having to do with the identification of automatic styles of information processing and their separation from more considered approaches. We have come some way in the study of parenting cognitions since the early 1980s; we have some distance yet to go.     

Empathy in Counselling and Psychotherapy: Present status and future directions

This paper considers the current status of the construct of empathy and the methodological difficulties experienced in researching empathy arising from the assumptions inherent in the ‘drug metaphor’. This paradigm assumes therapy to comprise active ingredients delivered by the therapist. Four areas of current concern are reviewed along a range from theory to appropriate research methodologies, and it is argued that the current demise of productive research is a function of both conceptual confusion and inappropriate research paradigms and methodological procedures. Accordingly, it is argued that empathy research requires conceptual clarity and comprehensiveness. A more collaborative research enterprise adopting the events paradigm in which a multidimensional approach to empathy is pursued in the context of additional components is recommended. The future of empathy in counselling and psychotherapy is reviewed according to the relation between theory and research in the area of the therapeutic bond, and between research and practice adopting the scientist-practitioner model.