Conceptual issues in network therapy

This paper presents three concepts developed within the context of a project to study and conduct network therapy. The concepts discussed are: (1) the need for balance in participant composition, specifically in terms of support systems for core members, and the participant levels of affective involvement; (2) the therapeutic use of polarization of the network members against the therapist; and (3) the shared leadership role within the team of therapists. Case illustrations are included to demonstrate the concepts presented; and other areas for future study are suggested.     

Optimal matching analysis in career research: A review and some best-practice recommendations

Optimal matching is a method for the analysis of sequential data. It allows researchers to detect patterns in career sequences or occupational trajectories. We first give a brief introduction to the method and review the existing career literature that employs optimal matching. To examine which data properties are required for optimal matching analysis, we conducted Monte Carlo simulations of career sequences with varying parameters for sequence length, sample size and missing items. We find that sequence length is the relevant factor for correct results, while sample size does not substantially affect result quality. Another important finding is that sequences with up to 30% elements missing can be used for optimal matching analysis. We also show which settings for the optimal matching procedure deliver the best results.     

Rational-emotive therapy and religiousness: A review

Rational-emotive therapy has often been scrutinized and rejected by religious clinicians. Incompatibilities are frequently cited between rational-emotive psychology and theistic religious philisophies. Religious authors have been most notably oppossed to Ellis' ethical humanism, situational ethics and personal atheism. A review of these criticisms offers no evidence for a fundamental incompatibility between RET and religious faith. Several arguments exist for the application of cognitive-behavior therapy (RET in particular) to explicitly religious clients. The sparse empirical literature suggests that RET is effective with religious clients.W. Brad Johnson, M.A., is a doctoral student in clinical psychology at the Graduate School of Psychology, Fuller Theological Seminary. A commissioned Lieutenant in the United States Navy, he is currently an intern at the National Naval Medical Center.The author wishes to express thanks to Raymond N. Sampson, Albert Ellis, Charles R. Ridley and Siang-Yang Tan for their helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper.The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Navy, Department of Defense nor the U.S. Government.     

Operant techniques used in stuttering therapy: A review

This article reviews research concerning the use of operant conditioning in stuttering therapy, and discusses the clinical implications of this literature. In order to be considered for this review, a report had to treat the findings of research specifically designed to use operant conditioning in the manipulation of speech disfluency. This body of experimental literature clearly indicates that operant management techniques can effectively reduce stuttering with punishment of disfluencies producing more notable results than reinforcement of fluent responses. Operant conditioning is an effective means of modifying stuttering behavior and should be more visible in terms of procedures used by speech therapists.     

Family therapy in israel: A review of therapy done under unusual circumstances

Major issues affecting family therapy practice in Israel are discussed. Issues making family therapy in Israel unique include historical topics such as the legacy of the Holocaust, the emergence of the family therapy movement from the cradle of the kibbutz; and more recent events such as constant wars, the specter of terrorist threat, and coping with the everyday pressures of life in Israel—stress, loss, and bereavement. Future trends in family therapy in the Israeli context include the peace process and the adjustment it requires from families living in the West Bank and the Golan Heights. The advent of peace and normalization will force family therapists to grapple with issues until now not given the attention they require by a country always on the brink of war, including family violence, feminist issues and patriarchal family orientations, single-parent families, and cultural diversity.The authors would like to acknowledge the help of Israel Charny, Yael Geron, Tzipi Glick, Ruth Malkinson, Judith Wertheimer, and Susan Zeidel.     

Choice, matching, and human behavior: A review of the literature

This review concerns human performance on concurrent schedules of reinforcement. Studies indicate that humans match relative behavior to relative rate of reinforcement. Herrnstein's proportional matching equation describes human performance but most studies do not evaluate the equation at the individual level. Baum's generalized matching equation has received strong support with humans as subjects. This equation permits the investigation of sources of deviation from ideal matching and a few studies have suggested variables which control such deviations in humans. While problems with instructional control are raised, the overall findings support the matching law as a principle of human choice.     

Conceptual level and therapeutic responsiveness among counselor trainees

This study examined the relationship between conceptual level (CL) and therapeutic responsiveness (TR) among counselor trainees. It was hypothesized that trainees with high CL’s would be more able to formulate clinical impressions, be aware of their affective states, and make more effective verbal explorations to challenging and provocative client statements than their low CL counterparts. Additionally, it was hypothesized that empathy (EU) could be predicted from TR. Sixty-nine trainees from two master’s level counseling programs were assessed for CL (using the “This I Believe” Test) and for TR (using the Therapeutic Response Measure), and empathy (using the Emphathic Understanding Scale). Consistent with the literature the high CL participants functioned better as counselors on the TR task, although contrary to prediction, neither the high nor the low CL groups functioned well on this task. Significant differences between high CL and low CL’s were found for: awareness of affect p<.05; ability to respond effectively p<.01, and for overall TR, p<.001. Findings support the hypothesis that there is a relationship between CL and TR, and that TR is a predictor of empathic responding p<.05.     

The helping process in group therapy: A review and discussion

The essential activity of group therapy consists of members taking an interest in each other by asking questions, showing concern, and conveying understanding. When members have not done this it has often been taken as a sign of resistance. A review of the research on helping suggests that there are four social factors that affect assistance giving in groups: 1) ambiguity-often people fail to give help because they are uncertain about who should give it, what should be done, and how it should be done; 2) often help is not given because of the way in which problems are presented; 3) the social comparisons that individuals make affect help-giving; and 4) there are costs associated with providing assistance. This discussion suggests that leaders can facilitate interaction among group members as teachers who clarify and as indirect helpers who redirect concerns back to group members.     

Group therapy with Vietnam veterans: A brief review

This paper reviews the benefits and general considerations regarding group therapy with Vietnam veterans. A review of veteran rap groups and traditional therapy groups highlights the similarities and differences between types of groups used to treat this population. The importance of countertransference reactions and the need to consider a variety of treatment approaches is emphasized.     

The Unconscious: A Conceptual Study

Books reviewed:
Alasdair MacIntyre, The Unconscious: A Conceptual Study , Revised Edition (London and New York: Routledge, 1958, 2004). 119 pages + index. ISBN 0-415-33304-0 Reviewed by Louis A. Ruprecht, Jr., Claremont School of Theology Claremont School of Theology 1325 North College Ave Claremont California 91711 lruprecht@cst.edu     

Barren Rorschachs: A Conceptual Approach

A discussion is presented of five Rorschach protocols that appear to meet the criteria proposed by Exner and Weiner (1982, p. 31) for "brief and barren" Rorschach protocols. The protocols were obtained from a social service agency treating abused, neglected, disturbed, and delinquent youths. An attempt is made to bring to bear a conceptual approach to these Rorschachs, so that they may be seen as clinically valuable and revealing, hence not "invalid" diagnostic protocols. Emphasis is placed on the subjects' approach to the task, the subject-examiner interaction, and the meaning of the subjects' ostensibly peripheral comments. Recommendations are offered regarding ways to maximize the clinical utility of such protocols.     

Operant Variability: A Conceptual Analysis

Some researchers claim that variability is an operant dimension of behavior. The present paper reviews the concept of operant behavior and emphasizes that differentiation is the behavioral process that demonstrates an operant relation. Differentiation is conceived as change in the overlap between two probability distributions: the distribution of reinforcement probability as a function of some response property (S distribution) and the probability distribution of the response property itself (R distribution). This concept implies that the differentiation process can be measured only if S distribution and R distribution are both established on the same response property. To determine whether the differentially reinforced behavioral variability fits the proposed concept of operant behavior, I examine the main procedures (lag n and threshold procedures) and the main dependent variable (U value) employed in the studies of operant variability. Because lag n and threshold procedures establish their S distributions on properties distinct from U value, differentiation cannot be measured over the change in U value. I conclude that studies of operant variability have failed to provide a direct demonstration that variability is an operant dimension of behavior. Hence, studies in which measures of variability provide a basis to measure differentiation can better support the claim that variability is an operant dimension of behavior.     

Vagueness: A Conceptual Spaces Approach

The conceptual spaces approach has recently emerged as a novel account of concepts. Its guiding idea is that concepts can be represented geometrically, by means of metrical spaces. While it is generally recognized that many of our concepts are vague, the question of how to model vagueness in the conceptual spaces approach has not been addressed so far, even though the answer is far from straightforward. The present paper aims to fill this lacuna.     

The child's participation in family therapy: A review and a model

A major gap in family therapy, the treatment of children and adults together, is addressed. The literature on the children's participation is reviewed and a model which systematizes their involvement is presented. The full participation of the child necessitates the use of play. To create a context of play without alienating the rest of the family, action-promoting methods are used. These methods are implemented through family activities and role playing, which are followed by discussion. The advantages, the indications, and the contraindications to the use of action in family therapy are presented.     

Conceptual implicit memory: A developmental study

The widely accepted standpoint that implicit memory emerges earlier in development than explicit memory, and is more stable from childhood to adult age, is based on experimental data essentially collected in perceptual tasks. The present study was aimed at investigating whether these findings still hold when a more conceptual task is used. We compared the performance of children at two age levels (2nd and 4th grades) on a category-exemplar generation task. Results showed that performances of the two groups were comparable when the target items were typical of their categories, as in Experiment 2, and for a subset of the items in Experiment 1. However, the older children outperformed the younger children in Experiment 1 when the items selected were atypical of their categories. Interpretations of these findings are discussed.Preparation of this article was supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (URA CNRS 316 and 1838), the Université de Bourgogne, and the Université René-Descartes     

Motivation in Personal Construct Theory: A Conceptual Critique

Kelly's attempt to derive apparently motiwtional phenomena (hostility, guilt, etc.) solely from the confirmation or disconfirmation of personal constructs cannot adequately explain such phenomena. His account of hostility assumes that some beliefs are so resistant to change that the person seeks to compel confirmation of them; however, this resistance is incompatible with Kelly's own Choice Corollary. Anxiety is said to derive from the fact that disconfirmation would leave one's world in chaos, but “chaos” is shown to be an illogical concept. Humor, in turn, cannot be explained just by cognitive incongruity, since incongruity may as well lead to anxiety or hostility. Finally, guilt cannot be explained without reference to underlying fears of punishment and their rationalization in terms of supposedly objective moral concepts. Nevertheless, Kelly's Repertory Grid technique, supplemented by laddering, may be useful in indicating primary needs, moral convictions, and sources of anxiety.