Construing Couples: The Challenges of Marital Therapy

Many therapists report that working with couples is very difficult and stressful. In this article 1 offer a few evolving thoughts on working with couples, based on Kelly's Sociality corollary and the field of hermeneutic inquiry. The primary task of marital therapy is to work together with couples in coauthoring (or coconstructing) a story that (a) is specific to the concerns of each spouse, (b) is meaningful to the two of them as a couple, and (c) provides new options for effective action in the situation confronting them. This coauthoring process, if it is to be successful with couples, must address a number of related issues, including codefining the problem, connecting with the relevant system, codeveloping specific and workable goals, maintaining flexibility, and coconstructing alternatives.     

A Report: Couples with Medical Conditions, Attachment Theoretical Perspectives and Evidence for Emotionally-Focused Couples Therapy

This brief report examines the contribution of Emotionally-focused Therapy for distressed couples, particularly in the context of medical illness. An attachment theoretical framework is provided to assist in understanding individual differences in the experience of both the ill and the care-giving partner.     

Therapists' Perspectives on Working with Interracial Couples

SUMMARY

This paper is based on interviews with seven marriage and family therapists (AAMFT Clinical Members) on their experiences of providing therapy to interracial couples in the course of their private practices. The interviews were conducted by the author as part of a masters thesis project. Interracial couples may frequently present for therapy with a variety of generic couples' issues and concerns. However, therapists often find that underlying these more generic concerns are issues related to the ethnic, racial, and cultural differences that the partners bring to the relationship. This paper focuses on the historical context of intermarriage, specific concerns and issues that interracial couples experience in their relationships, and on the experiences of therapists providing therapeutic services to this diverse and challenging client population.     

Personality Traits and Relationship Satisfaction in Intimate Couples: Three Perspectives on Personality

Personality traits are important predictors of relationship satisfaction. However, the majority of previous study findings are based on self‐perceptions of personality. Thus, by means of the self‐, partner‐, and meta‐perceptions of personality, the present study focused on three different perspectives on the Big Five personality traits to examine dyadic associations with relationship satisfaction of intimate couples. The study was based on the first measurement occasion of the Swiss longitudinal study ‘Co‐Development in Personality: Longitudinal Approaches to Personality Development in Dyads across the Life Span’ and included data of 216 couples. The main analyses were based on Actor‐Partner Interdependence Model. Three general findings emerged. First, the three personality perspectives represented related, albeit distinct, constructs, and showed incremental validity with respect to relationship satisfaction. Second, neuroticism was negatively related to relationship satisfaction, whereas agreeableness and conscientiousness were positively related to relationship satisfaction across all perspectives. Third, substantial associations between e xtraversion and relationship satisfaction were exclusively evident in terms of the partner‐ and meta‐perception. The present results contribute to the literature by showing that each perspective is essential for the understanding of the role of personality for relationship satisfaction. Copyright © 2014 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Benefits and Challenges of Conducting Psychotherapy by Telephone

Telephone-delivered psychotherapy has increased utility as a method of service delivery in the current world, where a number of barriers, including economic hardships and limited access to care, may prevent people from receiving the treatment they need. This method of service provision is practical and has the potential to reach large numbers of underserved people in a cost-effective manner. The aim of this paper is to review the state-of-the-art of telephone-delivered psychotherapy and to identify improvements and possible solutions to challenges. Results of randomized controlled trials indicate high client acceptance and positive outcomes with this method of delivering psychotherapy. Nonetheless, psychotherapists wishing to deliver psychotherapy by telephone face a number of challenges, including a lack of control over the environment, potential compromises of privacy and confidentiality, developing therapeutic alliance without face-to-face contact, ethical and legal issues in providing psychotherapy by telephone, handling crisis situations at a distance, and psychotherapist adjustment to conducting psychotherapy in an alternative manner. There remains a need for further research, including direct comparisons of face-to-face psychotherapy with telephone-delivered psychotherapy and feasibility of telephone delivery of psychotherapies other than cognitive behavioral therapy.     

Perspectives on Marital Love and Satisfaction in Mexican American and Anglo-American Couples

Aspects of intimacy and satisfaction were explored for a volunteer sample of 54 Mexican American (classified as either Hispanic-oriented or bicultural) and 30 Anglo-American married couples. Data were collected by questionnaire through network sampling. Measures included the Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans, a background inventory, the Love Attitudes Scale, and the Dyadic Adjustment Scale. Ethnic differences occurred for 3 love attitudes and 2 sex attitudes (e.g. Hispanic-oriented respondents were more pragmatic about love and less idealistic about sex). Passionate love was correlated with marital satisfaction for Anglo-Americans and both groups of Mexican Americans. Partner similarity was evident in all 3 groups, and marital satisfaction was best predicted for all groups by passionate love scores. Implications for counseling are discussed.     

Human Participants Challenges in Youth-Focused Research: Perspectives and Practices of IRB Administrators

The purpose of this research was to understand institutional review board (IRB) challenges regarding youth-focused research submissions and to present advice from administrators. Semistructured self-report questionnaires were sent via e-mail to administrators identified using published lists of universities and hospitals and Internet searches. Of 183 eligible institutions, 49 responded. One half indicated they never granted parental waivers. Among those considering waivers, decision factors included research risks, survey content, and feasibility. Smoking and substance abuse research among children was generally considered more than minimal risk. These findings are consistent with those from a study conducted by Mammel and Kaplan (1995), which investigated IRB practices concerning protocols involving adolescent participants. IRBs and investigators need to become aware of regulations' flexibility to ensure adequate participant protection. Investigators need to limit jargon and assumptions about participants' understanding of research objectives.     

Perceived Benefits and Challenges of a Multiethnic-Racial Identity: Insight From Adults With Mixed Heritage

The purpose of this inquiry was to explore the lived experiences of multiethnic-racial individuals (i.e., individuals with parents from different ethnic-racial groups). In-depth interviews were conducted with 29 adults from the United States with mixed ethnic-racial backgrounds ranging in age from 18 to 52 (female n = 20, male n = 9). We identified a number of themes related to perceived benefits (e.g., pluralistic world views, stronger sense of self) and challenges (e.g., identity tensions, communal concerns) of having a mixed heritage. Findings are discussed in terms of four considerations for ethnic-racial identity of individuals with mixed ethnic-racial backgrounds: emphasizing constellations of experiences, life-span and developmental considerations of identity, (mixed) ethnic-racial identity as constituted in interactions, and the potential promise of pluralistic world views.     

Gay and Lesbian Couples in Italy: Comparisons with Heterosexual Couples

Assessing couple relationships across diverse languages and cultures has important implications for both clinical intervention and prevention. This is especially true for nontraditional relationships potentially subject to various expressions of negative societal evaluation or bias. Few empirically validated measures of relationship functioning have been developed for cross‐cultural applications, and none have been examined for their psychometric sufficiency for evaluating same‐sex couples across different languages and cultures. The current study examined the psychometric properties of an Italian translation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory – Revised (MSI‐R), a 150‐item 13‐scale measure of couple relationship functioning, for its use in assessing the intimate relationships of gay and lesbian couples in Italy. Results for these couples were compared to data from heterosexual married and unmarried cohabiting couples from the same geographical region, as well as to previously published data for gay, lesbian, and unmarried heterosexual couples from the United States. Findings suggest that, despite unique societal pressures confronting Italian same‐sex couples, these relationships appear resilient and fare well both overall and in specific domains of functioning compared to heterosexual couples both in Italy and the United States.     

Challenges and Opportunities for Intervening with Couples in the Aftermath of the Global War on Terrorism

The unique culture of the military family in the early part of the twenty-first century will be examined, including the high operational tempo, frequent geographic moves, high rates of service among women, and the unique constellation of deployed troops from Active Duty, National Guard and Reserve components. Challenges faced by these couples are described, followed by key issues for clinicians to assess. Several developing couple-based interventions will be described, followed by a vignette which will highlight the issues and opportunities for these couples. In addition to reviewing common difficulties among military families, the authors will highlight strengths inherent to the military culture that clinicians can utilize in helping families develop resiliency.     

Toward Mapping Daily Challenges of Living with ADHD: Maternal and Child Perspectives Using Electronic Diaries

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has an impact on the family as well as the affected child. This study developed and tested an electronic diary for mapping the challenges of everyday family life in a sample of children with ADHD being treated with pharmacotherapy. Across 7 days, mothers and children (27 ADHD; 25 non-ADHD) independently reported their moods, behaviors, and social contexts every 30 min during nonschool hours. Symptomatic behaviors and negative moods were elevated in the ADHD group, combined with maternal perceptions of lower parenting effectiveness and quality of life. Differences in the contexts of maternal anger were salient, with mothers in the ADHD group more often angry when with their children and comparison mothers more often angry when not. Although mothers' diaries were more informative, children's diaries also distinguished the two groups, especially during mornings and weekends. The need for family-wide interventions, the utility of child self-reports, and the promise of electronic diaries are discussed.     

The Perspectives and Challenges of Primacy and Synodality in the Orthodox Church Today

The Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church in 2016 should be perceived and received as a genuine manifestation of synodality at the beginning of the 21st century. It has reminded us that it is within the exercise of primacy and synodality at the universal level that the unity and the orthodoxy of the church is guaranteed. Its message referred to the proposal for the Holy and Great Council to become a regular institution to be convened every seven or ten years. By saying this, the Holy and Great Council has perhaps inaugurated a new era of synodality in the Orthodox Church on the universal level. This is perhaps the greatest contribution of the Holy and Great Council in an era of globalization, when the pastoral problems encountered by each local autocephalous church, due to a growing secularization of the world, are very similar and need a common synodal response.     

Measuring Empathy in Couples: Validity and Reliability of the Interpersonal Reactivity Index for Couples

Aboriginally probably equivalent, following divergent acculturative patterns, the perceptual and cognitive techniques of the Chiricahua and Mescalero Apaches differed. Today, half of Apache children (the learners) adjust to ordinary expectations in grammar school: their Rorschach patterns resemble those of aged Chiricahuas; half (the nonlearners) fail to adjust: their responses are those of the less-acculturated Mescaleros:

It was hypothesized that the learners would have identified with the techniques of the more-acculturated Chiricahuas. Adults influential in the early lives of the children were tested. The hypothesis as stated was not verified. What was consistent in the responses of learner influentials was a more balanced approach to Rorschach stimuli than was shown by nonlearner influentials.