Use of Self: A Brief Report

One of the effects of crisis in a family is that the members become fixed in rigid attitudes with strong, narrow limits imposed on the free flow of feelings. A way for the family therapist to free up the members of such a system is to introduce his own affect into the structure. A child may be required to help the therapist gain entry.     

A Pilot Study of a Brief Motivational Intervention to Enhance Parental Engagement: A Brief Report

Although research has shown that multi-systemic interventions (MSIs) improve youth psychosocial functioning, MSI dissemination has been hampered by low levels of parent participation. The current pilot project was designed to examine the effectiveness of a brief motivational interviewing (MI) protocol to increase parental engagement in an MSI for youth suspended from middle and high school. Preliminary findings suggest that parents who received brief MI were more likely to attend a parent-training workshop and reported greater satisfaction with the parenting workshops than parents who did not. Parents in the brief MI group also reported a relatively high level of satisfaction with the MI procedures. Implications for future research and MSIs are discussed.     

Effects of Brief Interventions on Internalizing Symptoms and Substance Use in Youth: A Systematic Review

Internalizing problems (e.g., depression, anxiety) and substance use are common among young people and often co-occur. However, youths face myriad barriers to access needed treatment, and existing evidence-based interventions tend to focus on internalizing problems or substance use, rather than both simultaneously. Brief interventions that target both problems may, therefore, be an efficient and accessible resource for alleviating youth difficulties; however, this possibility has been insufficiently evaluated. This systematic review evaluated the intervention characteristics and quality of six studies spanning 2015 to 2019 that examined intervention effects on internalizing and substance use outcomes. Based on independent calculations and author reports (respectively), 3–4 interventions significantly reduced youth internalizing symptoms; 3–5 reduced youth substance use; and 2–3 reduced symptoms in both domains. All six interventions identified substance use as a primary target. Four interventions were administered by interventionists to youths in inpatient, outpatient, primary care, or school settings. The remaining two studies delivered content through voicemail messages or an online design. Interventions ranged from?~?15 to 240 min. Results highlight the sparsity and heterogeneity of youth-focused brief interventions that have evaluated program effects on both internalizing problems and substance use outcomes, suggesting a clear need for integrated supports that are also designed for accessibility. Future investigations of brief youth-focused interventions should assess program effects on both internalizing and substance use outcomes; examine mechanisms driving the varied efficacy of identified interventions; and create, refine, and test interventions with potential to address co-occurring internalizing problems and substance use in young people.

     

Sibling Death and Adult Maladjustment Indices: A Brief Report

While symptoms of grief pose the most immediate psychological concern in the aftermath of sibling death, emerging research suggests that distal correlates may include strained interpersonal relations and externalized forms of psychological distress. College students with a history of Sibling Loss (n = 36), Parental Loss (n = 32), or No Loss (n = 367) were compared on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI-2). Sibling Loss was associated with higher Psychopathic Deviate (Pd; d = .62) and Hypomania (d = .42) scores. The relative risk (RR = 2.96) of a Pd elevation (T > 65) was higher after sibling death.     

浅谈科学精神及其对青少年的培养

科学精神是人类生存和发展的精神支柱,是人类精神中不朽的旋律。它激励着人们驱除愚昧,求实创新,并不断推动着社会的进步。科学精神是科学的本质和灵魂,是一种信仰,一种文化,一种素养,更是一种追求,一种自主自觉的精神向往。     

Psychosocial Influences on Substance Abuse in a Sample of South African Youth: A Qualitative Analysis

This study investigated the lived experience of substance abusers in the South African context. Participants were 10 individuals attending a drug treatment centre in Durban, South Africa. Data were collected using open-ended interviews with data being analysed using thematic analysis. Findings suggest that normative social influences and levels of social support play an important role in shaping, maintaining, and determining the trajectory of drug usage.     

Social Construction of Intimate Partner Violence: A Brief Report on Quantitative Grammatical Analysis

This pilot study uses a quantitative linguistic analysis to assess evidence of agency and control, as well as treatment engagement, in letters written by men (N = 46, 37% Latino) participating in a batterer intervention program. At the program’s conclusion, men were asked to imagine their situation in 5 years and write a letter from their “future self” to their “present self.” Letters were scored for grammatical representations of agency and objectification, and temporal complexity. Results showed that the men tended to grant themselves the subject position (conferring agency) and to grant others the object position (deferring or denying agency) by almost equal margins, both rhetorical maneuvers suggesting an objectifying stance toward others. Moreover, they employed several strategies to address temporality, with more complex strategies suggesting greater treatment engagement. Findings suggest that quantitative linguistic analysis is a promising tool for assessing participants’ progress in and engagement with treatment.     

A Client Perspective on Counselor Disclosure (Brief Report)

Disclosure by counselors and therapists to clients may be most useful when it is desired by clients. This study sought to explore the amounts and types of disclosures desired by actual clients and compared these to responses generated by an undergraduate student sample. The primary instrument employed was the Counselor Disclosure Scale, a newly developed measure assessing amount of disclosure desired by clients or potential clients. The results indicated virtually no differences in disclosure preferences between undergraduate and client participants. Implications of these findings for counseling practice are discussed.     

The Marikana Violence in South Africa: A Brief Psychodynamic Extrapolation

This study applies psychoanalytic concepts in making sense of the individual, group and collective factors that may have contributed towards the Marikana violence. Speculatively, individual factors might include the death instinct, repetition compulsion, and intra-psychic splitting. Related group dynamics such as identification with the aggressor, group and projective identification might be relevant as would the collective psychological influences of history of oppression, severe trans-generational traumatisation, and mystical cultural interpretations in a divided society. Further public truth, reconciliation and forgiveness processes in addition to other integrative forms of healing are proposed.     

A Normative Study of TAT Ambiguity

Type D personality refers to a clustering of 2 stable personality traits, namely negative affectivity and social inhibition. Currently Type D is standardly assessed using the DS14. An experimental Type D personality scale, the DS⁽³⁾, was developed to examine an avenue for assessing Type D more efficiently. The DS⁽³⁾ differs from the DS14 in its use of a 3-point Likert scale to rate responses, use of all negatively worded items, and a rearranged presentation of items. This article examines the psychometric properties of this questionnaire by examining its dimensionality, item and scale properties, and cutoff scores to screen for Type D personality. Data from 2 clinical samples were analyzed using item response theory. The results suggest that the DS⁽³⁾ is a potentially suitable instrument for Type D assessment. It has high reliability, and Type D personality classification based on this scale corresponds well with the current standard Type D assessment based on the DS14.     

Validity of the Overcontrolled-Hostility (O-H) Scale: A Brief Report

Summary: In order to further assess the validity of the MMPI 0-H (overcontrolled hostility) Scale, high and low 0-H youthful offenders were administered the Rosenzweig Picture-Frustration Study and their responses classified as extrapunitive, impunitive or intropunitive. Results indicated that high 0-H subjects were significantly more impunitive than low 0-H subjects and conversely, that low 0-H subjects were more extrapunitive than high 0-H subjects. Such findings are consisteni with the 0-H personality typology and lend further support to the construct validity of the Scale.     

Brief Report : Measures Of Cognitive Structure

Five structural properties of cognition are discussed : domain differentiation, attribute centrality, attribute articulation, affective salience and ambivalence. Several measures of each property are described and convergent validities briefly reported.     

Ministry Demand and Stress Among Korean American Pastors: A Brief Report

This study examined the relationship between ministry demand and three outcome variables among a sample of 194 Korean American pastors. Results showed that the demands of boundary ambiguity and presumptive expectations were negatively associated with well-being and positively associated with symptomatic stress. There was no association with life satisfaction. Exploratory analyses showed significant cultural differences between this sample and a non-Korean sample regarding the construct of boundary ambiguity.