We‐Language and Sustained Reductions in Drinking in Couple‐Based Treatment for Alcohol Use Disorders

Couple‐based treatments for alcohol use disorders (AUDs) produce higher rates of abstinence than individual‐based treatments and posit that active involvement of both identified patients (IPs) and significant others (SOs) is partly responsible for these improvements. Separate research on couples’ communication has suggested that pronoun usage can indicate a communal approach to coping with health‐related problems. The present study tested whether communal coping, indicated by use of more first‐person plural pronouns (“we” language), fewer second‐person pronouns (“you” language), and fewer first‐person singular pronouns (“I” language), predicted improvements in abstinence in couple‐based AUD treatment. Pronoun use was measured in first‐ and mid‐treatment sessions for 188 heterosexual couples in four clinical trials of alcohol behavioral couple therapy (ABCT). Percentages of days abstinent were assessed during treatment and over a 6‐month follow‐up period. Greater IP and SO “we” language during both sessions was correlated with greater improvement in abstinent days during treatment. Greater SO “we” language during first‐ and mid‐treatment sessions was correlated with greater improvement in abstinence at follow‐up. Greater use of IP and SO “you” and “I” language had mixed correlations with abstinence, typically being unrelated to or predicting less improvement in abstinence. When all pronoun variables were entered into regression models, only greater IP “we” langue and lower IP “you” language predicted improvements in abstinence during treatment, and only SO “we” language predicted improvements during follow‐up. Most pronoun categories had little or no association with baseline relationship distress. Results suggest that communal coping predicts better abstinence outcomes in couple‐based AUD treatment.     

“Here we're all in the same boat” – a qualitative study of group based rehabilitation for sick‐listed citizens with chronic pain

Musculoskeletal pain impacts upon everyday life. A degree of chronicity may pose an increased risk of sickness absence. One of two rehabilitative interventions, “Tailored Physical Activity” or “Chronic Pain Self‐Management Program”, was offered to sick‐listed citizens who experienced pain. The objectives of this paper were to: (1) Assess what factors are experienced as problematic for sick‐listed citizens in everyday life with chronic pain, and (2) Evaluate the significance of two distinct rehabilitative interventions on the future everyday lives of sick‐listed citizens. Seven semi‐structured interviews with sick‐listed citizens were analyzed using a phenomenological‐hermeneutical approach. Results were discussed by applying the theoretical framework of Antonovsky's salutogenetic model and Yaloms principles for group psychology. The potential for development of citizen's coping is evaluated based on Roessler's notion of progression. The analysis revealed four main themes: (1) Living with pain and unemployment; (2) “Putting my foot down” and “asking for help”; (3) Significance of the group, including instructors, and; (4) Aspects significant to progression. Unemployment is a major life event that promotes stress and can be accompanied by problems related to depressed mood, acceptance of the life situation, feelings of not being useful, feelings of losing control and identity conflicts. Group characteristics that gave a significant basis for progression in the self‐management program are both emotional and instrumental, while the physical training program offers a “here‐and‐now”‐experience and motivation to participate. This study indicates that the self‐management program could potentially improve coping while the physical activity program revealed one example of a means of progression.     

Constructing We‐ness: A Communal Coping Intervention for Couples Facing Chronic Illness

Communal coping occurs when relationship partners view a stressful health problem as “ours,” rather than yours or mine, and take collaborative action to deal with it. Although research employing linguistic (we‐talk) and other measures of communal coping demonstrates relevance to a variety of chronic illnesses, the literature offers little about how clinicians can actively promote we‐ness and teamwork to help patients and their partners achieve the health benefits this appears to confer. This paper highlights clinical and supporting scientific features of a narrative intervention designed to foster communal coping by couples in which one partner has a chronic illness. The illustrative illness is diabetes, but with modification the protocol is suitable for other chronic conditions as well. Grounded in systemic and narrative models of problem maintenance and change, the communal coping intervention represents a distillation of research and clinical experience with family consultation over several decades. In contrast to more directive and educational approaches, the intervention consists entirely of questions, with no direct suggestions or instruction about how patients, partners, or couples should change. These questions comprise 8 sequential modules (Coping Challenges, Trajectory and Focus, Illness as External Invader, You as a Couple, Past Teamwork in Overcoming Adversity, Present and Future Teamwork, Obstacles to Teamwork, and Wrap‐Up), described here in manual‐like detail.     

PREDICTORS OF SELF‐REPORTED GAINS IN A RELATIONSHIP‐BASED HOME‐VISITING PROJECT FOR MOTHERS AFTER CHILDBIRTH

We assessed mothers’ self‐reported gains from a postpartum home‐visiting (HV) project in which home visitors are volunteer mothers from the community. Hypotheses were that gains are positively related to (a) mothers’ felt‐closeness with their home visitor, (b) mothers’ level of sociodemographic risk, and (c) the home visitors’ preproject training in support services for families or children (Professionalism). One hundred sixty‐four clients returned written evaluations of the HV project. Items assessing gains were reduced to two factors: Improved Well‐Being (“Self”) and Improved Infant Care (“Infant”). Repeated measures general linear models, with Gains (Self, Infant) as the repeated measure, and multiple regression analyses evaluated the hypotheses. Across the sample, gains on both factors were moderate, although gain scores were higher regarding Self than for Infant. Results show that (a) Mothers’ felt‐closeness with their volunteer was strongly related to mothers’ gains; (b) high‐risk mothers gained more from the project than did mothers of lower risk, particularly regarding Infant Care; and (c) mothers visited by volunteers who were professionals reported more substantial gains than did mothers visited by volunteers who were not professionals. Findings can help explain variance in mothers’ gains from such projects and could be useful in improving their efficacy.     

Parents Don’t (Always) Know Their Children Have Been Bullied: Child‐Parent Discrepancy on Bullying and Family‐Level Profile of Communication Standards

Discrepancy between bullied victims’ experience and their parents’ understanding indicates underutilization of family support system, and thus presents an important risk factor. An online survey (N = 300 child‐father‐mother triads) was conducted to establish a framework that helps distinguish families with different child‐parent discrepancy levels. This family‐level variability was modeled by profiling child‐father‐mother triad’s family communication standard (FCS) orientations. This “FCS profile” indeed distinguished families with different levels of discrepancies. Further, SEM analyses revealed that those discrepancies presented a distinct risk factor vis‐à‐vis effects of bullying reports per se. Finally, FCS profile had an indirect association with victims’ well‐being via mediation by child‐parent discrepancy. These findings are discussed with regard to the role of family communication in bullied individuals’ coping processes.     

Selective copying of the majority suggests children are broadly “optimal‐” rather than “over‐” imitators

Human children, in contrast to other species, are frequently cast as prolific “over‐imitators”. However, previous studies of “over‐imitation” have overlooked many important real‐world social dynamics, and may thus provide an inaccurate account of this seemingly puzzling and potentially maladaptive phenomenon. Here we investigate this topic using a cultural evolutionary approach, focusing particularly on the key adaptive learning strategy of majority‐biased copying. Most “over‐imitation” research has been conducted using consistent demonstrations to the observer, but we systematically varied the frequency of demonstrators that 4‐ to 6‐year‐old children observed performing a causally irrelevant action. Children who “over‐imitate” inflexibly should copy the majority regardless of whether the majority solution omits or includes a causally irrelevant action. However, we found that children calibrated their tendency to acquire the majority behavior, such that copying did not extend to majorities that performed irrelevant actions. These results are consistent with a highly functional, adaptive integration of social and causal information, rather than explanations implying unselective copying or causal misunderstanding. This suggests that our species might be better characterized as broadly “optimal‐” rather than “over‐” imitators.     

“All‐or‐None” Versus “Most‐or‐Some” Options in Risky Choice: Effects of Domain and Handedness

Two methodological variants of Kahneman and Tversky's Asian disease scenario were investigated. One variant involved replacing the “all‐or‐none” outcome scenarios of the risky choice with “most‐or‐some” scenario outcomes, and the second variant involved replacing the negative domain of lives lost with a positive domain of jobs created. In addition, the effects of strength of handedness, a variable related to individual differences in risk perception, were examined. Results indicated that standard framing effects were obtained across both domains, with a decrease in risky choice under the gain domain. Scenario type also interacted with handedness, such that the all‐or‐none scenario yielded framing effects for consistent (strong)‐handers only, whereas the most‐or‐some scenario yielded framing effects for inconsistent (mixed)‐handers only (consistent‐handers are those who use the same hand exclusively for almost all activities). These results demonstrate that framing effects are strongly influenced by the presence versus absence of extreme/absolute outcomes and that individuals (in this case, decision makers with varying degrees of handedness strength) are differentially sensitive to different pieces of information. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Media experiences and associations with mental health among the bereaved of the MH17‐disaster: A latent profile analysis

Research has shown that the amount of media exposure is associated with post‐event mental health problems. Whether bereaved individuals have negative experiences with media reports and whether they are associated with post‐event mental health is unclear. This study evaluated these experiences and associations following the MH 17‐disaster. How media reports were experienced (nine topics, modified MAS ), depression symptoms (QIDS ‐SR ), functional problems (WSAS ) and event‐related coping‐self‐efficacy (CSE ) were assessed about one year post‐disaster (May‐August 2015) among Dutch bereaved (N  = 152). A substantial minority reported negative experiences such as reports made me angry (30%) and made me sad (48%). Latent profile analysis with symptoms, problems and coping self‐efficacy as indicators, identified four classes of post‐disaster mental health: a Well‐functioning^{(class 1)}, 35.1%; a Mild‐problems^{(class 2)}, 30.4%; a Sub‐clinical^{(class 3)}, 27.0%; and a Clinical^{(class 4)}, 7.4%. Differences in symptoms, problems and coping self‐efficacy levels between classes were large according to Cohen's d s. Multivariate logistic regression (MLR ) showed that the Clinical^{(class 4)} compared to the Well‐functioning^{(class 1)}, more often that felt that reports strongly “embarrassed me,” “made me feel sad,” “filled me with fear” and “served as a magnifying glass.” Future research should assess opportunities and effects of limiting media consumption.     

Preference for local or general anesthesia,coping dispositions,learned resourcefulness and coping with surgery

Abstract

People were found to differ in their coping dispositions (as measured with the MBSS, Miller, 1987): those who habitually attend to threatening cues (“monitors”) and those who distract themselves from these cues (“blunters”). However, some people are equally high on both coping dispositions and they were considered to be in a “dispositional conflict”. Furthermore, under certain circumstances people may prefer to act in a way that is inconsistent with their coping disposition; monitors who prefer blunting strategies and blunters who prefer monitoring strategies (labeled here as “disposition-behavior conflict”). Both conflicts were hypothesized to be associated with higher levels of trait anxiety and poorer coping. 59 men scheduled for surgery were assessed as to their coping disposition (monitors or blunters) and their preference for local or general anesthesia, and their learned resourcefulness (selfantrol skills). Monitors who chose general anesthesia (and thus were unable to monitor their own surgery) and blunters who chose local anesthesia (and thus were unable to blunt) were defined as being in a disposition-behavior conflict. Re- and post-surgery measures of anxiety and dysphoria and post-surgery nurses' ratings were used for assessing coping with surgery. Patients who were either high on dispositional conflict or showed a disposition-behavior conflict were higher on trait anxiety and showed poorer post-surgery coping in comparison to patients without such conflicts. Learned resourcefulness was not related to better coping nor to the two conflicts with the exception that patients with a disposition-behavior conflict reported less confidence in their self-control abilities. Overall, preference for local anesthesia predicted better post-surgery coping.     

“Hearing voices”: Auditory hallucinations as failure of top‐down control of bottom‐up perceptual processes

Auditory hallucination is a key characteristic of schizophrenia that seriously debilitates the patient, with consequences for social engagement with others. Hallucinatory experiences are also observed in healthy individuals in the general population who report “hearing voices” in the absence of an external acoustic input. A view on auditory hallucinations and “hearing voices” is presented that regards such phenomena as perceptual processes, originating from speech perception areas in the left temporal lobe. Healthy individuals “hearing voices” are, however, often aware that the experience comes from inner thought processes, which is not reported by hallucinating patients. A perceptual model can therefore, not alone explain the difference in the phenomenology of how the “voices heard” are attributed to either an inner or outer cause. An expanded model is thus presented which takes into account top‐down cognitive control, localized to prefrontal cortical areas, to inhibit and re‐attribute the perceptual mis‐representations. The expanded model is suggested to be empirically validated using a dichotic listening speech perception paradigm with instructions for top‐down control of attention focus to either the right or left side in auditory space. It is furthermore suggested to use fMRI to validate the temporal and frontal lobe neuronal correlates of the cognitive processes involved in auditory hallucinations.     

Another dragon in the kitchen: Psychological experiences of hepatitis C treatment among HIV‐hepatitis C co‐infected gay men

Background: Increasing numbers of HIV‐infected gay men acquire hepatitis C virus (HCV) co‐infection, which causes serious medical consequences. Treatment for HCV is associated with many severe side effects, in some cases psychological, and many patients subsequently fail to adhere, even when psychological services are utilised, to improve treatment adherence. Objective: This qualitative study aimed to explore the experiences of HIV‐infected gay men undergoing treatment for HCV in order to inform psychological services to better meet specific treatment needs of this population. Methods: Thirteen HIV‐infected gay men who had undergone HCV treatment were interviewed and a qualitative analysis was conducted. Participants described HCV and its treatments in the context of their relationships and lifestyles. Findings: Four domains emerged: HCV diagnosis and treatment; HCV treatment education; change in sense of self; and sexual risk‐taking. Adhering to treatment was a significant challenge for all participants and emerged across all domains. Discussion: Psychological services for this population of co‐infected gay men should assist this clinical population not only with adherence to hepatitis C treatment but should also be available at an earlier stage in the process to help patients make informed choices about whether or not to begin a course of treatment. Assessing factors such as coping strategies, treatment readiness and knowledge, self‐awareness, and level of risk‐taking, can guide clinicians in tailoring treatment and adherence planning for HIV/HCV‐co‐infected gay men.     

The Aggregated Extremes Effect: Not All Routes to “Balanced” Bundles are Equally Appealing

Prior research establishes that consumers are averse to extreme options, but what does a “moderate” option look like in the context of choices among bundles of items, such as investment portfolios or product assortment packs? We propose that for bundles, two paths to creating risk and reward balance exist: a “bundle‐of‐pure‐moderation” with all moderate‐risk–moderate‐reward (moderate RR) components and a “bundle‐of‐extremes,” composed of equal numbers of extreme high‐risk–high‐reward (high RR) and low‐risk–low‐reward (low RR) components. We show that consumers have stronger preference for the balanced bundle when composed of a bundle‐of‐extremes rather than a bundle‐of‐pure‐moderation, even when equated on expected value, a phenomenon we term “the aggregated extremes effect.” This effect occurs across different choice set configurations and across multiple domains. Additionally, this effect is eliminated among consumers who view the high RR and low RR components as incompatible, as this undermines the perceived attractiveness of the bundle‐of‐extremes. Finally, this effect is also eliminated by exposing consumers to a depiction of potential outcomes, such that consumers can better perceive the risk reduction upside of a bundle‐of‐pure‐moderation.     

Servicescapes: The role that place plays in stay‐at‐home mothers’ lives

Over the past decade, increasing attention has been paid to gender‐related consumption behaviour. However, a relative gap in our knowledge still exists when it comes to understanding the changes that occur as a result of motherhood and how this may influence their interactions in the retail environment. The purpose of this article is to explore stay‐at‐home mothers’ experiences in the servicescape to gain a better understanding of how they associate with servicescapes during this transitional period, how they use retail space to suit their needs, and how they use retail space to negotiate their role as a stay‐at‐home mother. Five stay‐at‐home mothers with children younger than 5 years were provided with disposable cameras and asked to photograph servicescapes that they visited regularly. Over a 1‐year period, they were interviewed several times, and photo‐elicitation techniques were used throughout the interviewing process. The results of this study suggest that when consumers undergo role or identity changes, certain places can be used to smooth this process. Not only can the retail environment be used as a coping mechanism for stay‐at‐home mothers, it can also be viewed as a “second place” as opposed to a “third place”, thus enabling isolated consumers to feel connected with the outside world. Last, this study highlights the temporal dimensions of place. Throughout one's lifetime, one will form attachments to and patronise different places, which will evolve and change as individuals, accordingly, take on different roles and identities. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examining the effects of group‐based instruction on emergent second‐language skills in young children

The present study evaluated the emergence of second‐language intraverbals in typically developing young children following a small‐group teaching intervention. Choral responding was employed with a group of 6 primary school children (5‐6 years old) to teach first‐language tacts (e.g., “What is this in English?” [“Hospital”]) and related second‐language tacts (e.g., “What is this in Welsh?” [“Ysbyty”]). A multiple‐probe design across stimulus sets was used to evaluate subsequent emergence of untrained first‐to‐second‐language derived intraverbals (e.g., “What is hospital in Welsh?” [“Ysbyty”]) and untrained second‐to‐first‐language intraverbals (e.g.,”What is ysbyty in English?” [“Hospital”]). Data indicated that the choral responding intervention produced robust increases in derived intraverbal relations for 3 of the 6 participants.     

Stress,Coping, and Suicide Risk in Psychiatric Inpatients

The present study investigated the relationship between interpersonal problems, coping styles, and suicide risk. Seventy-one adult psychiatric inpatients completed a suicide risk scale, a measure of interpersonal problems, and a coping scale designed to measure eight coping styles. Patients admitted with a history of suicidal attempts were compared with patients admitted for other reasons. Interpersonal problems were found to be significantly and positively related to suicide risk. The coping style of “suppression” (tendency to avoid threatening or uncomfortable situations) was found to be significantly and positively related to suicide risk [F(2, 68) = 4.54, p < .01]. Several other coping styles were found to be significantly related to suicide risk. These findings are congruent with a “two-stage model of countervailing forces” and have both research and clinical implications.     

Religio-Biography, Coping, and Meaning-Making Among Persons with HIV/AIDS

Recently, quality of life studies among patients with HIV/AIDS have shown high levels of life satisfaction. Spiritual and religious factors may contribute to these positive outcomes. We interviewed 19 patients with HIV/AIDS in order to understand better the role of religious‐spiritual biographies and orientations in quality of life, and found four patterns to describe the ways in which past experiences with religion/spirituality and religious/spiritual meaning‐making help to explain how patients are currently coping with HIV/AIDS. We illustrate each of these patterns with a prototypic patient: (1) the Deferring Believer (“God allows things to happen for a reason.”); (2) the Collaborating Believer (“This is where I'm supposed to be.”); (3) the Religious/Spiritual Seeker (“I'm trying to get my life together.”); and (4) the Self‐Directing Believer (“What else is new?”). The findings support a previously described theoretical model of meaning‐making in response to adversity, and they suggest the value of life course and narrative approaches to understanding religious coping.     

Person‐Centered Counseling: The Culture Within

The variables most related to success in counseling outcome research are the client‐counselor relationship and the personal and situational resources of the client (extratherapeutic variables). When these variables are compromised, a “specificity myth” is endorsed purporting that there are specific treatments for particular groups of people. This myth is a direct result of a shift in focus from the client to the counselor as the expert who focuses on “doing” counseling rather than “being” a counselor. Person‐centered counseling cuts to the core of therapeutic success: the relationship of the counselor‐client and the utilization of the client's resources.     

Feuerbach's theory of object‐relations and its legacy in 20th century post‐Hegelian philosophy

This paper focuses on the way in which Feuerbach's attempt to develop a naturalistic, realist remodeling of Hegel's relational ontology, which culminated in his own version of “sensualism”, led him to emphasize the vulnerability of the subject and the role of affectivity, thus making object‐dependence a constitutive feature of subjectivity. We find in Feuerbach the first lineaments of a philosophical theory of object‐relations, one that anticipates the well‐known psychological theory of the same name, but one that also offers a broader metaphysical basis in which all types of “essential objects” are shown to matter to subjectivity. This Feuerbachian theory of object‐relations, the paper then argues, foreshadows a number of important developments in 20th century post‐Hegelian philosophy. In it can be found an anticipation of Adorno's later theory of mimesis. Equally, this theory already emphasizes the “libidinal” nature of intentionality, in a way that announces Merleau‐Ponty's ontology of the flesh. Finally, the last section of the article proposes a model with which we might reconstruct the way in which object‐relations and self‐relations can be brought together consistently. In this instance, Feuerbach uses concepts that announce Freud's notion of “primary narcissism”. One contemporary philosopher who has proposed a sophisticated model of subjectivity, in which primary narcissism is shown to complement object‐dependence, is Axel Honneth. The last section argues that Feuerbach's full image of subjective identity as reciprocal scaffolding of self‐ and object‐relations reminds strongly of Honneth's core concept of “positive self‐relation”.     

Exploring Thematic Nightmare Content and Associated Self‐Harm Risk

Nightmares have been shown to be robust predictors of self‐harm risk, beyond depressive symptoms and hopelessness at times. However, few studies have investigated associations between nightmare content and increased self‐harm risk. This study explored associations of thematic nightmare content with history of self‐harm, and risk of self‐harm phenomena the morning following a nightmare. A mixed‐method diary study was performed. Prospective nightmare reports were obtained from 72 participants. A total of 47 nightmare reports met inclusion criteria and were analyzed for themes using inductive thematic analysis. Chi‐square and bootstrap Pearson's correlation tests were performed to assess the associations between nightmare themes and self‐harm history, and risk of self‐harm phenomena following a nightmare. “ Powerlessness to Change Behavior” was associated with a history of self‐harm engagement, whereas “Financial Hardship” indicated reduced risk. Themes were not significantly associated with increased risk of self‐harm phenomena following a nightmare. Content may be of use in detecting lifetime history of self‐harm engagement, particularly in populations where disclosure is seen as taboo. However, nightmare symptom severity remains a better indicator of risk. Evidence for the utility of nightmare content in assessing immediate self‐harm risk is presently lacking. Replication with increased power is recommended.