Containment in theory and practice

Abstract

This article selects the term ‘containment’ as a vehicle for an exploration of multi-professional work and communication in the general practice setting. The term was selected because of its widespread use by and relevance to the different professionals who work in general practice. It is sufficiently elastic to be applied to one-to-one work between patients and GPs, counsellors, nurses or complementary therapists, and to a multi-professional teamwork process.

The exploration of the concept in use at Marylebone Health Centre is complicated by the multi-professional nature of the team and then-wide range of belief systems and language groups. In the process of exploring the term, members of the team had to cope with their discovery that it was being used in contradictory ways. They decided that a new and more grounded definition in shared and ordinary (nonprofessional) language was needed, if the term were to become a vehicle for inter-professional collaboration and if unhelpful, anti-task social defences were to be minimised.     

Psychologic exploration of neurosis patients as a diagnostic-therapeutic process

A structure of exploration is presented as a hypothetic model of conditions of symptoms. The concept of exploration and difficulties of its realization are illustrated by a practical example.     

建构学生道德自我初探

为对学生的道德自我作一初步探究,借鉴心理学对自我的研究成果,参照了道德心理研究的主题和我国的现实情况,从形式和内容两个维度编制了道德自我问卷。测试结果表明,问卷有较高的信度和效度,但其各部分较高的相关说明其内容尚应进一步研究。     

The Troublesome Concept of the Person

In today'sbioethical debates, the concept of the person plays a major role. However, it does not hold this role justly. The purpose of this paper is to argue that the concept of the person is unsuited to be a central concept in bioethical debates, because its use is connected with serious problems. First, the concept is superfluous. Secondly, it is a confusing concept and it lacks pragmatic use. Thirdly, its use leads to simplifications. Finally, the concept can easily be used as a cover-up concept. Therefore, it is argued that relinquishing the concept of the person could enhance the clarity and quality of bioethical debate. Moreover, the historic origin of much of the present confusion surrounding the concept of the person is clarified. It is demonstrated that three influences resulting from Locke'sideas on the person and personal identity can be determined as contributing factors to the confusion and controversy within the present bioethical debates centering around the person.     

Subjectivity and objectivity in analytic listening.

Analysts use the concepts of subjectivity and intersubjectivity to support many different technical recommendations; this represents a misuse of theory. The dichotomy between subjectivity and objectivity is a false one. Arguing against the notion of objectivity, analysts conflate it with the idealized notion of pure objectivity and then eliminate various technical devices in its name. One cannot have a concept of subjectivity without a concept of objectivity, or an intersubjective perspective that does not include some agreed-upon concept of objectivity. The simplest definition of objectivity is a directional one. Objectivity is the perception or experience of the external; subjectivity is the perception or experience of the internal. Subjectivity and objectivity are both necessary pathways to knowledge and are dependent on each other. Any form of looking or listening does to some extent preclude another, but to speak solely from a subjective or an objective perspective represents a regression in thinking to a form of naive objectivism or naive subjectivism. Clinical examples illustrate how the forming and testing of hypotheses require the cooperation of both subjective and objective listening.     

The Impact of Analogies on Creative Concept Generation: Lessons From an In Vivo Study in Engineering Design

Research on innovation often highlights analogies from sources outside the current problem domain as a major source of novel concepts; however, the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not well understood. We analyzed the temporal interplay between far analogy use and creative concept generation in a professional design team's brainstorming conversations, investigating the hypothesis that far analogies lead directly to very novel concepts via large steps in conceptual spaces (jumps). Surprisingly, we found that concepts were more similar to their preceding concepts after far analogy use compared to baseline situations (i.e., without far analogy use). Yet far analogies increased the team's concept generation rate compared to baseline conditions. Overall, these results challenge the view that far analogies primarily lead to novel concepts via jumps in conceptual spaces and suggest alternative pathways from far analogies to novel concepts (e.g., iterative, deep exploration within a functional space).     

The ethical implications of Sengzhao’s concept of the Sage

This paper is an exploration of the ethical significance of Sengzhao’s concept of the sage as exhibited through a Buddhist practitioner’s expanded understanding and cognition of reality. From a philosophical point of view, I aim to show that the ethical significance of his concept of the sage comprises a shift first from ontology to epistemology, and then from epistemology to ethics. I firstly define Sengzhao’s concept of the sage and present a preliminary account of this concept before elaborating on its philosophical aspects. Next, I attempt to illustrate how ethical implications can be derived from Sengzhao’s ethical shift, and lastly, I shed light on the value and significance of this philosophical standpoint within Buddhist philosophy.     

Grasping the Nature of Pictures

The role of experience in the development of pictorial competence has been the center of substantial debate. The four studies presented here help resolve the controversy by systematically documenting and examining manual exploration of depicted objects by infants. We report that 9-month-old infants manually investigate pictures, touching and feeling depicted objects as if they were real objects and even trying to pick them up off the page. The same behavior was observed in babies from two extremely different societies (the United States and the Ivory Coast). This investigation of pictures occurs even though infants can discriminate between real objects and their depictions. By the time infants are 19 months of age, their manual exploration is replaced by pointing at depicted objects. These results indicate that initial uncertainty about the nature of pictures leads infants to investigate them. Through experience, infants begin to acquire a concept of "picture." This concept includes the fact that a picture has a dual nature (it is both an object and a representation of something other than itself), as well as knowledge about the culturally appropriate use of pictures.     

The regression equation method of determining academic discrepancy

This article discusses the regression equation approach to quantifying academic discrepancy, which is an aspect of most generally accepted learning disability definitions. The concept of regression toward the mean and its relevance to determining underachievement is presented. Variations of the expectancy formula and IQ-achievement difference approaches fail to fully consider regression effects and therefore will produce the serious identification errors of including too many children with above-average IQs and too few with below-average IQs. The parameter estimation variation of the regression equation approach is advocated as the best method for quantifying the academic discrepancy aspect of learning disabilities.     

A Note on Issues Concerning the Measurement of Self-Efficacy1

Self-efficacy has been an important psychosocial construct for more than a decade. However, several different ways of measuring the concept have appeared in the literature, raising questions as to the comparability of approaches. This study is a “first-step” exploration of issues relating to the use of alternate measures of self-efficacy. ANCOVA results raise concerns regarding the comparability of measures of self-efficacy, which are undifferentiated in terms of level of difficulty, and measures that reflect graded levels of task difficulty. These measurement issues hold implications for future research utilizing measures of self-efficacy.     

The Anxious Amalgam of the Wish for “Recognition/Revenge/Reparation”: Discussion of Rina Lazar’s “What Are We Doing There? A Therapeutic Tale”

In this discussion, the clinical utility of Winnicott’s notion of “object usage” is described and applied to Rina Lazar’s clinical material. In the light of this concept, our understanding of trauma and the role of the other in both constituting and ameliorating the effects of trauma are considered. A related area of inquiry is how the realm of intergenerational transmission of trauma might be traced out by the particular conjunction of the object’s availability for use in the face of the subject’s trauma. In weaving together the ideas of “use of the object” and trauma, the question of regression and its manifestations and meanings in clinical work are illuminated.     

自我同一性研究的新模型——双环模型

自Erikson提出自我同一性的概念以来,它一直是发展心理学的重要课题,这方面的实证研究主要基于Marcia提出的同一性状态模型。随后的研究者Luyckx等人不断整合和改进状态模型,并结合自我关注领域对反思型自我关注和沉浸型自我关注的区分,提出了双环模型的理论。双环模型理论认为,广度探索、深度探索、沉浸探索、做出承诺和认同承诺五个维度构成了自我同一性形成和发展的两个环——"承诺形成环"和"承诺评价环",两个环之间不断地发生着动态的交互作用,其结果造成了自我同一性形成和发展的6种状态:达成,早闭,沉浸延缓,轻松混淆,扩散混淆和未分化。     

Relative contributions of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-handicapping in predicting student procrastination

The relative contributions of self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-handicapping student procrastination were explored. College undergraduate participants (N = 138; 40 men, 97 women, one not reporting sex) filled out the Procrastination Scale, the Self-Handicapping Scale-Short Form, and the Self-regulation and Self-handicapping scales of the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire. A hierarchical regression of the above measures indicated that self-efficacy, self-regulation, and self-handicapping all predicted scores on the Procrastination Scale, but self-regulation fully accounted for the predictive power of self-efficacy. The results suggested self-regulation and self-handicapping predict procrastination independently. These findings are discussed in relation to the literature on the concept of "self-efficacy for self-regulation" and its use in the field of procrastination research.     

Regression,Dissociation, Self-States,and the Developmental Dimension in Therapeutic Action

The concept of regression is at the core of psychoanalytic accounts of what goes on in analysis. It is, however, so “in our bones” that we are tempted to overlook it. In its justifiable enthusiasm of theories of self-states and dissociation, Relational psychoanalysis may be underemphasizing how much regression—both to earlier developmental stages and less organized modes of experiencing—is central in our approach to therapeutic activity and mutative action. In responding to Rina Lazar’s analysis with Sheli, I call for enhanced attention to the most powerful Freudian ideas from the new intersubjective perspectives.     

Reclaiming the Idea of Truth: Some Thoughts on Theory in Response to Practice

This paper examines the idea of truth, its place in therapy and in the history of systemic theory. Beginning with some practice fragments, the theory exploration considers the idea of truth in the modernist frame, the paradox of the modernist metaphor in describing the activity of therapy, and the peculiarities of the idea of truth in the earlier systemic therapies. Postmodernist and social constructionist ideas are then explored, and meaning is identified as the concept which currently occupies the place of an idea of truth in systemic discourse. It is argued that meaning as a concept is insufficiently attached to an idea of (external) reality or to an understanding of the relationship of the individual to knowledge of her/his experience of the world. Reclaiming the idea of truth as an emotional and social process has more potential to meet the complexities of human experience in thinking about the process of therapeutic change.     

职业生涯探索的结构、方法及影响因素

职业生涯探索是指个体在探索动机推动下,对于自我和职业发展相关的环境进行探索,形成一定技能、获得相应的认知和情感反馈的过程,其最终目的在于自我的发展和整合。此领域的研究主要集中于职业生涯探索的概念、结构划分、测量方法和影响因素几方面。关于结构的研究有内容和过程两种取向;影响因素的研究主要从家庭和个体两方面展开。明确职业生涯探索结构、进一步完善测量工具及深入了解职业生涯探索的原因机制是未来研究的趋向     

Big-five personality and BIS/BAS traits as predictors of career exploration: The mediation role of career adaptability

Based on career construction theory, the current research examined whether career adaptability mediates the relations of the personality traits (Five-Factor Model personality traits and behavioral inhibition and activation systems (BIS/BAS)) to career exploration behavior. Results from a survey in Chinese university students (N = 264) showed that career exploration correlated negatively with neuroticism, and positively with openness to experience, extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness and BAS. Results of regression analyses further showed that openness to experience, agreeableness, conscientiousness and BAS served as the strongest predictors for career exploration. In addition, career adaptability was shown to be a key mediator for the relationships between personality traits and career exploration behavior. Career concern and career curiosity were the more important dimensions in the mediation model. These findings advance current understandings on how different personality traits predict career exploration behavior.     

“Motivation” and Routine Activities Theory

ABSTRACT

This study examines the motivation aspect of routine activities theory as it pertains to sex offenders. Using logistic regression, data from 163 convicted sex offenders who participated in treatment programs between 1982 and 2000 were analyzed to determine if demographic, abuse histories, sex abuse histories, drug/alcohol use, and other “motivating” variables were predictive of in and out of the home offending. Results indicate abuse and drug use are predictive of home sex offenses while alcohol use is indicative of community offending. While the results and differences were modest, they warrant further exploration of the motivation aspect of routine activities theory.