Memories of mother,complementarity and shame: predicting response to subliminal stimulation with "Mommy and I are one"

A poorly understood finding with potentially wide-ranging implications is that subliminal stimulation with "Mommy and I are one" affects behavior. In this study (n= 62), "Mommy and I are one" lowered implicit mood (p= 0.0015) in comparison with a neutral stimulus ("People are walking"). The effect was most pronounced in shame-prone participants with less positive memories of their mother, and low self-mother complementarity (interaction p= 0.0044). Effects of a potentially shame-inducing stimulus ("I am completely isolated") were not significant (ps > 0.11). The results concerning less positive memories of mother replicate previous findings. We suggest that activation of unconscious associative networks explains the data. Though more research is needed, the cognitive content of these networks may involve representations of self-with-mother; for some, the affective content could involve shame.     

Gender Differences in Value Priorities, Guilt, and Shame Among Finnish and Peruvian Adolescents

Cultural and gender differences in guilt and shame (Tangney’s TOSCA) and value priorities (the Schwartz Value Survey) were studied in samples of Finnish (N?=?156) and Peruvian (N?=?159) adolescents. As expected, the Peruvians were more collectivistic and traditional than the Finns. In line with hypotheses derived from previous research, gender differences were larger and more stereotypical among the Finns than among the Peruvians. Finnish girls were more prone to guilt and shame than boys were, whereas among the Peruvians there was no gender difference in guilt, and boys were more shame-prone than girls. Gender differences in values were smaller for the Peruvians than for the Finns. The results support the view that psychological gender differences are largest in modern, individualistic societies.     

Attachment styles,shame, guilt,and collaborative problem-solving orientations

The present study explored relations among adult attachment styles, shame- and guilt-proneness, and several measures of relationship problem-solving attitudes and behaviors. Participants were 142 undergraduates (32 males, 110 females) who completed both categorical and continuous measures of adult attachment, as well as self-report measures of the other constructs under investigation. Most participants (93%) were currently involved in either exclusive or casual dating relationships at the time of the study. Controlling for respondents’dating status, results indicated that participants’attachment styles were significantly related to both shame-proneness and collaborative problem-solving, Preoccupied and fearful students were more shame-prone than were their secure and dismissive peers, and secure participants reported significantly higher collaboration scores relative to their fearful counterparts. As expected, shame and guilt scores were differentially related to collaborative problem-solving, and participants’attachment security significantly moderated observed shame-guilt correlations. Finally, respondents’guilt and shame scores partly mediated observed relations between adult attachment styles and collaborative problem-solving orientations.     

Self psychology,intersubjectivity, and group psychotherapy

The basic concepts of self psychology are presented. The three self-object transferences of mirroring, idealizing, and twinship are described and applied to group therapy. The therapist's role is: 1) to accept the patient's need to idealize the leader, the group, or the specific members; 2) to receive recognition and admiration; and 3) to understand the patients search for twinship. The group therapist also has the responsibility of teaching group members to have empathy for one another.     

Group therapy for eating disorders: A step-wise approach

Group therapy is emerging as a favored treatment for eating disorders. Open-ended psychodynamic group therapy is an effective treatment for the underlying conflicts in eating-disordered patients, yet these groups are difficult to form. The authors suggest a specific sequence using time-limited psychoeducational groups initially for symptom control, then offering an open-ended group for patients who are ready to address deeper issues in a group therapy setting.     

The correlations of psychological status,quality of life,self-esteem,social support and body image disturbance in Chinese patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus

This study aimed (i) to complement existing research by focusing on body image disturbance issues in Chinese Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) patients; (ii) to investigate how Chinese patients make sense of disease diagnosis and perceived cultural influences within the context of their SLE. A total of 118 SLE patients underwent standardized laboratory examinations and completed several questionnaires. Independent sample t-test, Mann–Whitney U-test, Chi-square test, and multivariate analysis using backward stepwise logistic regression model were used to analyze these data. We found 18.3% SLE patients had BID, which were significantly higher than the control group (.8%). SLE patients are more concerned about their physical changes caused by disease. There were significant correlations among personal health insurance, complication of diabetes, appearance of new rash, depression, anxiety, self-esteem and BID in patients with SLE. Meanwhile, logistic regression analysis revealed that appearance of new rash and high anxiety were significantly associated with BID in SLE patients. In conclusion, it is beneficial to pay attention to the physical and mental health of patients with rheumatic disease from the perspective of body image, to understand their needs and to provide effective and effective service for them.     

Ethnicity, Culture, and Group Psychotherapy

Ethnicity and culture have great therapeutic import in the practice of group psychotherapy, especially given the increasing diversity of the population of North America, and this issue has not received appropriate recognition in the literature. In this paper these terms are defined, and the literature is reviewed. Ethnicity, culture, and psychopathology are discussed, focusing on treatment issues including transference, countertransference, resistance, group cohesion, group process, and multi-ethnic groups. The group therapist must be knowledgeable about ethnic and cultural issues in the lives of the group members in order to promote group cohesion and therapeutic effectiveness. The recognition and exploration of ethnic/cultural differences enhances the work of the group. Recommendations for treatment are discussed.     

Are Categorical Deniers Different? Understanding Demographic,Personality, and Psychological Differences between Denying and Admitting Individuals with Sexual Convictions

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to establish whether there were demographic, personality, or psychological differences between a sample of 40 incarcerated sex offenders in categorical denial and 37 sex offenders admitting responsibility in an Australian minimum-security unit. Categorical deniers had lower IQs, were older, and were more likely to be child molesters. Criminogenically, there were no differences between categorical deniers and those who admitted their offences in relation to Static-99 risk scores. Psychologically, offenders denying their offences were significantly more shame-prone, and likely to use externalization as a method of impression-management. They were also more compulsive than those admitting their offences, but less antisocial and sadistic, when compared on personality indices. The study is limited by the small sample size however implications for further research and the treatment of categorical deniers are discussed.     

Attending to the shame: Working with addicted populations

Shame is a potent emotion that plays a major role in the life of addicted individuals. Shame's ability to penetrate and skew major motivational systems may play a part in the formation of addicted lifestyles. The shame-based or shame-prone individual, such as the addicted client, poses unique problems for the therapist. This paper explicates the processes and consequences of shame and offers guidelines to help clinicians work with addicted clients.Mitchell B. Young, MS, is a third-year doctoral student in the department of counseling and development at Purdue University.The author wishes to express appreciation to Kate Kerr, PhD, for her fine editorial work.     

Clinical,Studies in Psychiatry by H. S. Sullivan

A structured group therapy approach for psychiatric inpatients is presented. After reviewing the literature indicating that insight-oriented approaches are not effective with severely disturbed patients, the data supporting an interpersonal, cognitive, problem-solving approach with such patients is reviewed. A rationale for combining this cognitive problem-solving approach and Yalom's interpersonal approach with psychiatric inpatients is then presented. This structured group therapy approach, called the problem-solving support group (PSSG) is discussed, defining the nature and composition, screening procedures, methods, and techniques of the PSSG. Its use with psychiatric patients is illustrated by therapy protocols depicting the nature of the therapeutic interactions during the group, while also demonstrating what the group appears to be accomplishing for its members.     

Confronting death: Group psychotherapy with terminally ill individuals

A model for group psychotherapy with terminally ill patients is proposed, one in which the group is homogeneous and open-ended. Cancer and HIV infection are used as examples of chronic, terminal illnesses, and the relevant literature on group psychotherapy with these conditions is reviewed. Treatment with both sets of patients has been characterized by considerable variation in the structure, composition, and duration of the group. Being diagnosed with a terminal illness is traumatic and leads to denial, which may be adaptive or maladaptive depending upon its behavioral manifestations. The homogeneous, open-ended group encourages adaptive denial, which fuels hope and the will to live. The mechanism through which this occurs involves the unconscious identification with the group as an entity. This causes the emergence of a fantasy of a mother-infant dyad, within which can occur reworking of the depressive position. Scheidlinger, Turquet and Anzieu are cited to demonstrate this unconscious function of the group. Finally, clinical implications of such a model are highlighted.     

Some comments on the role of cotherapists in group psychotherapy with borderline patients

This paper points out examples of patients in a psychotherapy group who meet DSM-III criteria for the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and who are treated by cotherapists utilizing object relations theory. Interpretations of phenomena shown by borderline patients—splitting, projective identification and denial—are illustrated. How cotherapy lends itself to the recognition and management of the problems these patients bring to group psychotherapy is illustrated.Hope Aspell assisted in the editing of this paper.     

The Simple Copy Task: Detecting Higher Order Visual Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia,Dementia, and Movement Disorder Groups

The Simple Copy Task (SCT) is a figure copying test with inherent appeal due to its short administration time, graded task difficulty, varied stimuli, and potential to eliminate floor effects. Despite this, there is a lack of data regarding its construct validity and diagnostic utility. The present study compared SCT performance of schizophrenia (n = 29), dementia (n = 64), and movement disorder (n = 12) groups with that of unmatched healthy control participants (n = 49). Movement disorder patients committed a high degree of misplacement errors, whereas dementia patients tended to omit items, add extraneous detail, and perseverate. The schizophrenia group was most similar to the dementia group in their performance on the SCT, committing primarily omission and perseveration errors. The SCT was most closely related to the Rey Complex Figure Task (r = 0.68, p < .01) and the Block Design Task (r = 0.62, p < .01). Age (r = ?0.14, p < .01) and education (r = 0.35, p < .01) effects were present; however, there was no impact of gender and handedness. Taken together, these findings provide support for the utility of the task and directions for clinical interpretation.     

Problems in Integrating Traditional Group Therapies with New Group Forms

The authors describe a range of critical issues that are common within homogeneously composed groups for patients suffering from Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) and AIDS Related Complex (ARC). They examine the need for these patients to understand their physical symptomatology, to reconsider life's priorities, and to confront their ethical and moral dilemmas. The authors also highlight special affects, unique group atmosphere and process, and the nature of the group contract that is essential for these patients.     

Cooperative learning in the classroom: Contingencies,group interactions,and students with special needs

Cooperative learning activities play a significant role in the schools. As such, these activities should be of interest to applied behavior analysts concerned with educational interventions. A number of factors appear to contribute to the impact of cooperative group activities, including the level of individual accountability, group contingencies, and the types of interactive behaviors in which students engage during group activities. This paper reviews current research on cooperative learning, focusing on the relationships between student behaviors, contingencies of reinforcement and group outcomes. The social and academic skills with which students enter cooperative learning activities, and the impact of these skills on students' behavior within groups and on the social and academic outcomes of groups is considered. Problems associated with the failure of cooperative groups are also addressed. The research potentials for applied behavior analysts are discussed.     

GROUP ATTITUDE UNIFORMITY AND CONNECTIVITY OF ORGANIZATIONAL COMMUNICATION NETWORKS FOR PRODUCTION,INNOVATION, AND MAINTENANCE CONTENT

Prior laboratory research on group uniformity suggests the general hypothesis that as correspondence increases between the content on which communication networks and attitude-beliefs are defined, increasing group network connectivity is associated with increasing member uniformity. To test derived hypotheses, natural groups from a large organization are identified through communication network analysis on production (n= 17), innovation (n= 16), and maintenance (n= 16) content. As expected, production and innovation groups show relationships between connectivity and attitude-belief uniformity, with production the stronger of the two; maintenance groups show little association, perhaps due to a content definition restricted to interpersonal problems. The predicted positive relationship between connectivity and uniformity occurs for social-emotional variables in the production network. However, unexpectedly in both production and innovation networks personality variables become less uniform as connectivity increases. As suggested, task variables operate differently in association with connectivity in production and innovation networks, although the differences are more pronounced than expected; in production, uniformity on these variables is negatively associated with connectivity, while in innovation they are positively associated.     

Relationships between executive function,working memory,and decision-making on the Iowa Gambling Task: Evidence from ventromedial patients,dorsolateral patients,and normal subjects

The results of previous studies are inconsistent in regard to the relationship between the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), working-memory (WM), and executive tasks, and whether these cognitive processes could be considered as mechanisms underlying a decision-making deficit. Moreover, the relationship between the IGT and executive measures is examined based on a limited number of executive tasks, within different populations showing diffuse damage. In addition, there are fewer studies carried out within control participants, with those studies also being inconclusive. It is also suggested that the association of the IGT performance with executive tasks depends on whether the IGT was running under ambiguity or under risk. In this work, all of these issues are studied. Results showed that both patients with ventromedial (VMPFC, N = 10) and dorsolateral (DLPFC, N = 10) prefrontal cortex lesions are significantly impaired on almost all executive tasks, WM tasks, and the IGT. Furthermore, when the IGT is run under risk, there are significant correlations between executive measures and the IGT for the DLPFC patients and the control participants (N = 34) but not the VMPFC patients. No correlation was found between WM tasks and the IGT for both frontal subgroups and control participants. These findings suggested that the mechanisms underlying the IGT deficit differ according to the lesion locations.     

Addressing disparities: The impact of a lesbian,gay, bisexual,and transgender graduate counselling course

Background: Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals experience serious mental health disparities and treatment inequities. Counsellor education has been identified as both a contributing factor to these problems as well as an ameliorating mechanism to address these inequalities. Aim: The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the impact of an LGBT‐affirmative counselling course. Method: A total of 23 students enrolled in a graduate LGBT counselling course were administered the Sexual Orientation Counselor Competency Scale (SOCCS, Bidell, 2005) and the Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Affirmative Counseling Self‐Efficacy Inventory (LGB‐CSI, Dillon & Worthington, 2003) pre‐ and post‐course. In addition, a comparison group of 23 matched counselling students was obtained from an existing data source in order to make further assessments of the course's effectiveness. Those in the comparison group were not enrolled in the LGBT course, but were administered the SOCCS at analogous time intervals. Results: After completing the LGBT course, enrolled students demonstrated significant improvements regarding their sexual orientation counsellor competency and self‐efficacy. In addition, these students showed significant gains in SOCCS scores versus those in the comparison group. Implications: Results from this study show the positive effect a full‐credit LGBT psychotherapy course can have on graduate counselling students' sexual orientation counsellor competency and self‐efficacy. The findings also indicate that such a course can significantly impact counselling skills, a facet of LGBT cultural competency found to be the most attenuated. Findings are discussed in conjunction with LGBT‐affirmative counsellor training and clinical practice.     

National Identity,Collective Events,and Meaning: A Qualitative Study of Adolescents’ Autobiographical Narratives of Flag Ceremonies in Finland

Although collective events are central to group identity processes, little is known about how young people experience and remember national ceremonies in which they have participated. This qualitative study analyzes 80 autobiographical narratives written by upper secondary school students about flag ceremonies from their past in Finland. The analysis reveals that the narratives fall into three categories ((Dis)honored, Deserved and Loved Flag) according to how the social context, participants’ actions, narrator’s role, and emotions are described, all of which combine to create a dense web of meanings associated with this common national ceremony. The results also indicate that different group contexts—family and peer group networks and the national context—are inextricably linked in the narratives and that the meanings associated with these contexts tend to fuse. The findings highlight the importance of analyzing national collective events and related autobiographical memories to better understand the sources of national identity’s emotional power.