Can We Talk? Self‐Presentation and the Survey Response

This paper explores how the personality characteristics of individuals affect the answers they give to questions on controversial political topics. In April and May 2000, a random-digit-dial survey of 518 Americans was conducted in the continental United States. This survey included question batteries measuring two psychological concepts related to self-presentation. Respondents were also asked about their opinion on a number of sensitive topics, such as feelings toward blacks and homosexuals and their opinions about spending on popular programs, including schools and the environment. Their responses to these questions varied as a function of their self-presentation personality characteristics. The results presented here suggest that self-presentation measures such as those assessed here can improve our understanding of how the social dynamics of the survey interview affect responses to sensitive questions.     

How Can We Talk about Creativity?

The Psychological Record - In his work Philosophical Investigations, Ludwig Wittgenstein (1953/2009) argues that our language is only clearly communicated by agreement of definitions and judgments....     

Spirituality in Occupational Therapy: Do We Practice What We Teach?

This mixed-method study examined the responses of 97 occupational therapists on the subject of spirituality in occupational therapy practice. The inclusion of spirituality into the Occupational Therapy Practice Framework (2008) implies that clinicians address spirituality as a component of client-centered practice. This research revealed a gap between education, theory, and practice as evidenced in the quantitative and qualitative data. Although occupational therapy is intended to be holistic, therapists require a more complete understanding of what spirituality is and what the role of the occupational therapist is when addressing spirituality in evaluation or treatment. The discussion of this research provides information for future occupational therapy educators and educational programs as they seek to incorporate the construct of spirituality into curricula.     

“Can We Say the N-word?”: Exploring Psychological Safety During Race Talk

Classroom interactions that engender psychologically safe climates have rich developmental potential; these interactions often facilitate engagement in academic risk-taking and exploration (Cooper, 2013). On the contrary, classroom interactions that are threatening to adolescents’ identities send messages of devaluation and can negatively impact feelings of belonging and academic achievement, particularly for youth of color (Sherman et al., 2013). In efforts to help explicate the interrelations between racial-identity linked risks and threats and psychological safety in classroom learning contexts, this exploratory case study examined two 9th grade English Language Arts teachers’ negotiation of attunement, authenticity, and power sharing during race talk. Our in-depth analysis of these classrooms suggested the following teacher moves may be particularly important for psychological safety during race talk: teacher moves that (a) support or inhibit power sharing, (b) indicate high or low levels of teacher attunement, and (c) demonstrate or mask the teacher’s authenticity. These results have implications for understanding the co-construction of psychological safety in classrooms during identity-salient and racialized interactions.     

End of 2016: Can We Save Research from Predators in 2017?

At the beginning of every year, we expect to see worthwhile improvements on the past. The end of 2016 showcased many important issues in the scientific world, ranging from criticisms of research misconduct and fraud to the introduction of new scientometrics. Despite the scientific community’s continuing efforts, predatory journals and publishers are still on the rise, and the Beall’s list calls attention to the need to take a firm action across the board. This short opinion piece highlights research conducted by the scholarly community on research publication predators during 2016, and offers suggestions as to how to bring about future improvements.     

A Review of: “Couple Power Therapy”

Abstract

Events of parental divorce: Stressfulness ratings by children, parents, and clinicians, by S. A. Wolchik, I. N. Sandler, S. L. Braver,&;B. S. Fogas, 1986, 14, 59-74     

Assessing Couple Therapy as a Treatment for Individual Distress: When is Referral to Couple Therapy Contraindicated?

In order to better understand the effects of initial level of psychological disturbance on treatment outcome, a retrospective case control study of 95 couples who received couple therapy was conducted by sorting couples into one of four groups based on the degree of distress reported by individuals at intake: Neither distressed; both distressed; male distressed, female not distressed; female distressed, male not distressed. When partners started treatment with similar levels of disturbance both responded well in couple therapy. However, if the female reported clinical levels of disturbance at intake but her partner did not, outcome for the female was especially poor in contrast to outcomes for females receiving individual therapy. Clinically disturbed males showed significant gains in treatment even when their partners were not disturbed. These suggestive results argue for the possible value of conducting controlled studies of treatment assignment decisions that maximize positive outcomes.     

60 Years of Practice,Research, and Teaching in Family Psychology and Family Therapy

Recent theoretical and empirical evidence as well as experimental and practical highlights from 60 years of clinical practice, research, and teaching in family therapy are summarized. This summary contains recent highlights that remain in my memory more vividly than others. I shall start with selected models of Relational Competence Theory (RCT), including variations on the theme of the Deadly Drama Triangle and their workbook applications.     

Can We Make Sense of the Notion of Trustworthy Technology?

In this paper we raise the question whether technological artifacts can properly speaking be trusted or said to be trustworthy. First, we set out some prevalent accounts of trust and trustworthiness and explain how they compare with the engineer’s notion of reliability. We distinguish between pure rational-choice accounts of trust, which do not differ in principle from mere judgments of reliability, and what we call “motivation-attributing” accounts of trust, which attribute specific motivations to trustworthy entities. Then we consider some examples of technological entities that are, at first glance, best suited to serve as the objects of trust: intelligent systems that interact with users, and complex socio-technical systems. We conclude that the motivation-attributing concept of trustworthiness cannot be straightforwardly applied to these entities. Any applicable notion of trustworthy technology would have to depart significantly from the full-blown notion of trustworthiness associated with interpersonal trust.     

Some Contributions of Empirical Infant Research to Adult Psychoanalysis: What Have We Learned? How Can We Apply It?

The direct links among early development, a model of the mind, and the content of the transference are challenged from two vantage points—empirical infant research and motivational systems theory. A discussion of these contributions and of their application in two case vignettes suggests a new view of therapeutic change—a view involving (a) recognition of the coconstruction of the analytic relationship, (b) contributions of self- and interactive regulations, of their disruption and repair, and of heightened affective moments to the ongoing analyst-patient interchange, (c) emphasis on the analyst's recognition of the patient's communications as developmental strivings, (d) tracking of sequences of disruption and repair, and (e) dialectic between repetition and transformation. These various interactions develop in a patient new expectations of being understood, of being understandable, and of participating in a dialogue that does not, for example, require bolstering the other or sacrificing oneself to the other. These new expectations lead to new themes as well as to the transformation of old themes that organize experience.     

Qualitative Research in Marriage and Family Therapy: Who is in the Interview?

Qualitative interviews are a rich means of gathering information from families. The qualitative interviewer has a choice of interviewing individual family members, multiple family members at the same time, or a combination. The configuration of interviewees is a choice guided by the epistemology of the researcher, research aims, and questions. This article reviews the literature on interviewing different configurations of family members. A content analysis was conducted on articles in the marriage and family therapy literature from 1990 to 2005. Over half of the articles were conducted with individual family members separate from their families. This finding is discussed in the context of the decision regarding whom to interview.     

Can Couple Level Attachment Mediate the Influence of Depressive Symptoms on Health?

This study examined whether couple attachment behaviors, as measured by the BARE (Brief Accessibility, Responsiveness, and Engagement Scale), can mediate the influence of depressive symptoms on health for men and women. Data were gathered from the Relate Institute (www.relateinstitute.com) from 797 couples who were in a romantic relationship. Results showed depressive symptoms negatively predict daily eating habits and activity level and positively predicted total health problems and healthcare utilization for both females and males. For partners, female depression negatively predicated both male physical activity and total health problems, and also positively predicted healthcare utilization for men. Results also suggest that attachment behaviors mediated the association between depressive symptoms and total health problems. Findings are discussed from both a clinical and systemic perspective. It may be that fostering secure attachment behaviors in romantic relationships would be a helpful tool for providers working to address the depressive symptoms patients face.     

A Dialogic Debate on Cavelzani and Tronick’s Essay: Can Research and Clinical Practice Fruitfully Intertwine?

Referring to Alessandro Cavelzani and Ed Tronick’s paper, the authors discuss the problems inherent in the application of theoretical tenets to clinical practice. They propose the idea that theoretical tenets tend to be associated to devotion to the theory of reference or to bedrock epistemic assumptions and that they may often generate self-referential outcomes. In particular, they delve into the issue of change in psychotherapy, starting from some questions about the theoretical tenets and their consequences on change, with special reference to Samantha’s case (presented here).     

Measurement Invariance of the Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire: Can We Compare Across Age and Gender?

The Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire (MBSRQ) is one of the most widely used body image measures and one of the few measures developed with men and women of a wide age range. To make age and gender comparisons, however, measures must exhibit cross-group equivalence. Whether the MBSRQ subscales can be used to make such comparisons was examined in a sample of 1,262 adults (422 men, 840 women) aged 18 to 98 years. The results showed that body image was perceived quite differently across the groups and that not all MBSRQ subscales may be used to make age and gender comparisons. The importance of examining measurement invariance in body image measures is highlighted and recommendations for use of the MBSRQ are offered.     

Research Trails and the Creative Spirit: Can Historical Case Studies Integrate the Short and Long Timescales of Creative Activity?

In the study of scientific creativity, the purposes of cognitive scientists and of historians of science overlap but are far from congruent. Historical cases are only one of many forms of evidence that cognitive scientists bring together to arrive at general conclusions about the creative processes. Historians seek to reconstruct the investigative enterprises of particular scientists. Generalizations about creativity are useful to historians mainly as one of various means to interpret the work of those particular scientists. This article presents the argument that the extent to which these two goals can be complementary depends largely (a) on how large the gap is between the duration of the thought processes that cognitive scientists examine and the limits of resolution to which historians can penetrate in following the temporal progression of a subject's thought and work and (b) on the level of temporal organization of these thoughts and actions most revealing of their creative nature.     

Responsibility and Self-Defense: Can We Have It All?

The role of responsibility in our common-sense morality of self-defense is complex. According to common-sense morality, one can sometimes use substantial, even deadly, force against people who are only minimally responsible for posing a threat to us. The role of responsibility in self-defense is thus limited. However, responsibility is still sometimes relevant. It sometime affects how much force you can use against a threatener: less if they are less responsible and more if they are more responsible. Is there a well-motivated theory that can explain both why the role of responsibility is limited and why it is sometimes relevant? It is hard to see what theory could unify these disparate elements of our common-sense morality, and if one cannot be found then we may simply have to revise some of our pre-theoretic beliefs. But it would be an important advantage of a theory if it could justify those beliefs. I will argue that there is a theory of this kind: surprisingly, the familiar rights theory of self-defense, defended by Judith Thomson, can do so if it is suitably supplemented. Along the way I will survey some alternative theories of self-defense and show why they are not up to the task.     

“The Gift of an Apple or the Twist of an Arm”: Negotiation in Couples and Couple Therapy

This paper explores the role of negotiation in couples and couple therapy from a relational perspective, situated at the interface of psychoanalytic and systems theories, that emphasizes intersubjectivity. We consider the clinical processes through which members of a couple may be helped to develop competence in basic elements of intimate communication and negotiation, including reflective listening, mentalization, and recognition. Clinical examples illustrate therapeutic movement from projective-introjective “transference” repetitions within a couple's relationship toward a growing ability to transcend the intrapsychic “demons” that haunt the couple. Specific technical measures are described, including the use of communication “exercises” and “homework” in the context of analytic couple therapy—what we term working from the outside-in and the inside-out—as well as the potential functions of a cotherapist team for particular couples.