Some developmental characteristics of adult psychotherapy groups

This paper highlights some developmental characteristics of adult psychotherapy groups and the relationships among them. It argues that members of a therapy group will experience and have an opportunity to resolve within the group itself normal developmental conflicts of adult life such as learning to establish intimate relationships. In addition, members will reexperience unresolved developmental conflicts of childhood and adolescence that frequently prevent adequate resolution of adult developmental tasks, and have an opportunity to rework them. Lastly, because of the essential isomorphism of therapy groups, members' developmental conflicts will be experienced and dealt with when the group-qua-group is dealing with parallel developmental struggles in its own life.     

Develocracy vs democracy

In a sequence of contributions in Developmental Review,(Moshman, 1990a, Moshman 1990b; Commons & Rodriguez, 1990), researchers have recently applied a developmental approach to constitutional policy. In particular, they discussed whether student religious groups in public schools should be permitted in light of the potentially conflicting constitutional principles of religious freedom on the one hand and of the ban against the establishment of a religion by the government on the other hand. Although they differed in important respects, Moshman as well as Commons and Rodriguez made the permissibility of student religious groups fully or partly contingent on the students' developmental stage. Because newer developmental theories differentiate several stages of adult development, such linkage of constitutional rights with developmental stages raises the specter of “develocracy.” Develocracy is a term I suggest to characterize a constitutional system in which a substantial number of rights and duties of adults depends on their developmental stage.     

Group Therapy, 1976: An Overview

This article discusses short-term group psychotherapy with individuals suffering from an adjustment reaction or reactive depression precipitated by genital herpes. The authors describe their experience in conducting and supervising six such therapy groups and describe several therapeutic factors that emerged as central in the treatment of this population. Among these factors are relief from isolation, the exchange of information, a challenge to defensive denial, exposure to new ideas and behaviors, an opportunity to explore the developmental issues that typically emerge, and the discussion of ethical issues.     

Picture naming deficits in developmental dyslexia in German

Recent research with English developmental dyslexics comparing the picture naming performance of these children to the picture naming performance of non-dyslexic (‘garden variety’) poor readers, reading age matched controls and chronological age matched controls has suggested that a selective difficulty in retrieving the phonological codes of known names on demand underlies the picture naming deficit found in developmental dyslexia (Swan & Goswami, Picture naming deficits in developmental dyslexia: the phonological representations hypothesis, Brain and Language, 56 (1997), 334–353). If the underlying causal factors in dyslexia are independent of the orthography that the child is learning to read, then a difficulty in retrieving the phonological codes of known names on demand should also be found in developmental dyslexics who are learning to read other languages. We therefore set out to replicate Swan and Goswami’s study with a group of German developmental dyslexics. We were interested to see whether a phonological deficit is characteristic of dyslexia in all orthographies, even those, such as German, in which high orthographic transparency means that dyslexic children read with considerable accuracy.     

Multiple causality in developmental disorders: methodological implications from computational modelling

When developmental disorders are defined on the basis of behavioural impairments alone, there is a risk that individuals with different underlying cognitive deficits will be grouped together on the basis that they happen to share a certain impairment. This phenomenon is labelled multiple causality. In contrast, a developmental disorder generated by a single underlying cognitive deficit may nevertheless show variable patterns of impairments due to individual differences. Connectionist computational models of development are used to investigate whether there may be ways to distinguish disorder groups with a single underlying cause (homogeneous disorder groups) from disorder groups with multiple underlying causes (heterogeneous disorder groups) on the basis of behavioural measures alone. A heuristic is proposed to assess the underlying causal homogeneity of the disorder group based on the variability of different behavioural measures from the target domain. Heterogeneous disorder groups are likely to show smaller variability on the measure used to define the disorder than on subsequent behavioural measures, while homogeneous groups should show approximately equivalent variability. Homogeneous disorder groups should show reductions in the variability of behavioural measures over time, while heterogeneous groups may not. It is demonstrated how these predictions arise from computational assumptions, and their use is illustrated with reference to behavioural data on naming skills from two developmental disorder groups, Williams syndrome and children with Word Finding Difficulties.     

Publication patterns in developmental psychology: Trends and social networks

Interest in publication patterns has been steady. Journals have instituted policies in an effort to curb bias and provide globally representative research. This study aimed to examine if publication patterns were present in two developmental psychology journals. It also explored the social networks of prominent authors and the prevalence of informal author–editor relationships, searching for any potential power groups. Data were taken from empirical articles published between 2005 and 2014 in Child Development (CD) and The International Journal of Early Childhood (IJEC) data points were geographical authorship affiliation, informal author relationships as established by co‐publishing, and connections to journal editors via identical affiliation. Results confirmed the previously established North American dominance in published research. In CD a strongly interlinked social network was identified between authors over the 10 years, with 15 chief influentialists binding groups of authors together. Results suggest that patterns are still present in published research in the realm of developmental psychology. To conclude, the potential implications of these patterns within developmental psychology are presented.     

Differences in the use of autobiographical memory across the adult lifespan

Current research distinguishes between self, directive and social function of autobiographical memories (AMs). To date, only few studies have investigated these functions across adulthood. The comparison of different age groups requires that the functions of AM are measured in the same way across groups (measurement invariance, MI). Additionally to the average use of AM, the factor variances and factor covariances among the three functions were examined across adulthood. In the present study, 1290 adults (aged between 17 and 93 years) completed the Thinking about Life Experiences Questionnaire (TALE), which measures the overall use of AMs for self, directive and social purposes. The sample was divided into five age groups and partial strong MI was established using multigroup confirmatory factor analysis. The results showed an increase in the factor associations as well as a decrease in the factor mean levels of all three functions across age groups. Both findings could be adequately described by linear functions of age. The factor variances were on most parts equal across age groups. These results strengthen the assumption that—from a lifespan developmental perspective—the use of AM may be aligned with relatively normative developmental tasks in a given society.     

A developmental typology of adolescent personality

The purpose of the current study is to examine whether Block's personality types (i.e. Resilients, Undercontrollers and Overcontrollers) are replicable as developmental trajectories. We applied a Latent Class Growth Analysis (LCGA) framework to five‐ annual‐wave data on a sample of early to middle adolescents (n = 923). Our results showed that Block's Resilients, Undercontrollers and Overcontrollers are indeed replicable as developmental trajectories across adolescence. These developmental types were related to problem behaviour in a similar way as types found in studies using cross‐sectional data. As such, Resilients reflected low levels of problem behaviour, Undercontrollers had high levels of delinquency and Overcontrollers had high levels of depression. Implications and suggestions for further research are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Developmental Science and Counseling

Developmental counseling is a promising model integrating theory and practice. A. E. Ivey's (2000; A. E. Ivey & O. F. Goncalves, 1988) work is discussed as a template for proposing a more comprehensive developmental perspective. Where A. E. Ivey's model renders a case for cognition, the current article encompasses other developmental systems driving cognitive processes, such as attachment, self, and affect. A developmental systems theory is advanced as one possible solution to the limitations of available models. Application to case vignettes and a rethinking of style shift are offered.     

Children’s Life Satisfaction: Developmental Trajectories and Environmental and Personality Predictors

Life satisfaction is a key indicator of children’s healthy development. Although the developmental changes of life satisfaction during adolescence have been investigated, the developmental trajectories of life satisfaction and related predictors during childhood remain unclear. Thus, the current study aimed to identify the developmental trajectories of life satisfaction covering the period from middle to late childhood as well as to examine the predictive roles of environmental factors (i.e., family dysfunction and basic psychological needs satisfaction at school), personality factors (i.e., neuroticism and extraversion), and their interactions in these developmental trajectories. An accelerated longitudinal design was used with Chinese elementary school students (N?=?1069, 45.8% girls, M _age?=?9.43, SD?=?0.95) of 3 cohorts (grade 3, grade 4, and grade 5) on 4 occasions at 6-month intervals. Growth mixture modeling analyses revealed three distinct trajectories of life satisfaction: “High-Stable” (88.8%), “High-Decreasing” (6.8%), and “Low-Increasing” (4.4%). Multivariate logistic regression analyses revealed that family dysfunction and neuroticism served as risk factors for adverse developmental trajectories of life satisfaction; whereas basic psychological needs satisfaction at school served as a protective factor. Furthermore, the interaction between family dysfunction and extraversion suggested that higher levels of extraversion buffered children against the negative effect of family dysfunction on the development of life satisfaction. The identification of three heterogeneous trajectory groups of children’s life satisfaction and key personality and environmental predictors associated with the trajectories suggests that specific interventions need to be tailored to the unique characteristics of the relevant trajectory groups.

     

Behavior Problems in Toddlers With and Without Developmental Delays: Comparison of Treatment Outcomes

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of an in-home parent management program for toddlers with behavior problems and developmental delays by comparing outcomes for a group of toddlers with developmental delays (n = 27) and a group of toddlers without developmental delays (n = 27). The majority of children lived in single parent, low-income homes. Results suggest that the parent management program is equally effective for children with and without developmental delays. Parents from both groups reported clinically significant improvement in their children's behavior and parenting practices. Clinical implications regarding the importance of these findings for improving outcomes for toddlers with behavior problems and developmental delays living in poverty were discussed.     

A shortened version of Raven’s standard progressive matrices for children and adolescents

Numerous developmental studies assess general cognitive ability, not as the primary variable of interest, but rather as a background variable. Raven’s Progressive Matrices is an easy to administer non-verbal test that is widely used to measure general cognitive ability. However, the relatively long administration time (up to 45 min) is still a drawback for developmental studies as it often leaves little time to assess the primary variable of interest. Therefore, we used a machine learning approach – regularized regression in combination with cross-validation – to develop a short 15-item version. We did so for two age groups, namely 9 to 12 years and 13 to 16 years. The short versions predicted the scores on the standard full 60-item versions to a very high degree r = 0.89 (9–12 years) and r = 0.93 (13–16 years). We, therefore, recommend using the short version to measure general cognitive ability as a background variable in developmental studies.     

Is the child ‘father of the Man’? Evaluating the stability of genetic influences across development

This selective review considers findings in genetic research that have shed light on how genes operate across development. We will address the question of whether the child is ‘father of the Man’ from a genetic perspective. In other words, do the same genetic influences affect the same traits across development? Using a ‘taster menu’ approach and prioritizing newer findings on cognitive and behavioral traits, examples from the following genetic disciplines will be discussed: (a) developmental quantitative genetics (such as longitudinal twin studies), (b) neurodevelopmental genetic syndromes with known genetic causes (such as Williams syndrome), (c) developmental candidate gene studies (such as those that link infant and adult populations), (d) developmental genome‐wide association studies (GWAS), and (e) DNA resequencing. Evidence presented here suggests that there is considerable genetic stability of cognitive and behavioral traits across development, but there is also evidence for genetic change. Quantitative genetic studies have a long history of assessing genetic continuity and change across development. It is now time for the newer, more technology‐enabled fields such as GWAS and DNA resequencing also to take on board the dynamic nature of human behavior.     

Human nature and cognitive–developmental niche construction

Recent theories in cognitive science have begun to focus on the active role of organisms in shaping their own environment, and the role of these environmental resources for cognition. Approaches such as situated, embedded, ecological, distributed and particularly extended cognition look beyond ‘what is inside your head’ to the old Gibsonian question of ‘what your head is inside of’ and with which it forms a wider whole—its internal and external cognitive niche. Since these views have been treated as a radical departure from the received view of cognition, their proponents have looked for support to similar extended views within (the philosophy of) biology, most notably the theory of niche construction. This paper argues that there is an even closer and more fruitful parallel with developmental systems theory and developmental niche construction. These ask not ‘what is inside the genes you inherited’, but ‘what the inherited genes are inside of’ and with which they form a wider whole—their internal and external ontogenetic niche, understood as the set of epigenetic, social, ecological, epistemic and symbolic legacies inherited by the organism as necessary developmental resources. To the cognizing agent, the epistemic niche presents itself not just as a partially self-engineered selective niche, as the niche construction paradigm will have it, but even more so as a partially self-engineered ontogenetic niche, a problem-solving resource and scaffold for individual development and learning. This move should be beneficial for coming to grips with our own (including cognitive) nature: what is most distinctive about humans is their developmentally plastic brains immersed into a well-engineered, cumulatively constructed cognitive–developmental niche.     

Group psychotherapy with alcoholics: Interface with self-help groups

This paper addresses recovering alcoholics' concurrent involvement in psychotherapy groups and self-help groups. A developmental model of alcoholism group psychotherapy is presented, differentiating between early and advanced sobriety. Psychotherapy and self-help groups are compared and contrasted. Multiple group membership entails various areas of compatibility. Divergence and conflict result from differences in underlying conceptual framework and approach. Clinical implications of members' involvement in partially discrepant group settings are explored with an emphasis on transference and countertransference reactions. Multiple group membership is identified as a salient factor in alcoholism group psychotherapy at all levels of recovery.She is also in private practice.This paper was presented at the American Group Psychotherapy Association Annual Conference, Boston, February 1990.     

Long-term group psychotherapy for children with pervasive developmental disorders: evidence for group development

This article highlights the clinical progress of three long-term psychotherapy groups for children with pervasive developmental disorders. Unique aspects of working with such children are addressed as well as their movement through the phases of group development. Clinical observations suggested that these groups did in fact pass through observable phases of cohesion, differentiation, and intimacy. Further, these children demonstrated noticeable social development both inside and outside the groups. They identified strongly with their groups, and after the settling-in period, there was remarkably little resistance to participation, especially given the children's tendencies for social avoidance. Vignettes are provided to illustrate both group developmental phases and noteworthy psychological experiences of the clinical process with children who have been diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders.     

Decision Development in Small Groups V Test of a Contingency Model

This study tested a model of the factors that influence groups to follow various paths as they make decisions. Three panels of contingency variables, which indexed the nature of the group's task and group structure, were used to predict properties of the group's developmental path. The decision path properties included type of decision path, the complexity of the path, the amount of disorganized behavior the group engaged in, and the relative emphasis on various types of decision activity, such as orientation, problem analysis, and solution development. The contingency variables were quite effective in predicting decision paths and their properties. Group structure variables were stronger predictors than were task variables. Results suggested that significant revisions in the original contingency model were necessary. Most notably, the groups appeared to be much more rational in adapting their paths to the contingencies than we had originally supposed they would be.     

Testing the Adult Development Tower of Babel Hypothesis: Homogeneous by Perry Position Collaborative Learning Groups and Graduate Student Satisfaction

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to investigate what appears to be a grounding assumption in some adult developmental and educational research: persons of differing epistemologies who are grouped together will understand one another less well than persons who are grouped homogeneously. A robust effect is discussed within the context of adult development theory, research on collaborative learning groups, and Bruffee's social constructionist challenge (K. A. Bruffee, 1993) to Perry and to cognitive development theory. Collateral research questions relating to covariates of developmental position (according to the Perry scheme) are entertained; confirmatory qualitative data are presented.