Supervisory countertransferences and impingements in evaluating readiness for graduation: Always present,routinely under‐recognized

Utilizing detailed, in‐depth material from supervisory hours from around the world (explored in End of Training Evaluation groups), this paper shows that supervisors are subject to multiple, diverse and, at times, ongoing intense countertransferences and impingements on their ability to evaluate candidates’ progress. Multiple external and internal sources of these impingements are explored. It is suggested that supervisory countertransferences and their manifestation in parallel enactments remain under‐recognized, their impact underappreciated, and the information they contain underutilized. It is argued that the recognition, containment, and effective use of the parallel process phenomena and supervisory countertransferences are essential in order to evaluate candidates’ progression and readiness to graduate. Common signals of such entanglements in the supervisor's evaluative function are identified. Three remedies, each of which provides a ‘third,’ are offered to assist supervisors in making effective use of their countertransference: self‐supervision, consultation, and institutional correctives.     

Is Personality Related to Assessment Center Performance? That Depends on How Old You Are

Despite compelling arguments that performance in the assessment center (AC) should be related to personality, past research has failed to demonstrate a consistent link between personality and AC performance. This study investigated whether managerial candidates’ age could be moderating, and thus obscuring, specific personality–AC performance relations. A large sample of managers (N = 371) participated in an AC and also completed the leadership relevant personality scales of achievement, dominance, and exhibition from the Personality Research Form-E (PRF-E; Jackson, D. N. (1984). Manual for the personality research form. Port Huron, MI: Research Psychologists Press). Consistent with hypotheses, age moderated the relations of dominance and exhibition with AC performance (p < .05), such that dominance and exhibition were more strongly related to AC performance for older as opposed to younger managers. Results were discussed in terms of their implications for the criterion-related and construct validity of ACs.

Compelled authorizations for disclosure of health records: magnitude and implications

Each year individuals are required to execute millions of authorizations for the release of their health records as a condition of employment, applying for various types of insurance, and submitting claims for benefits. Generally, there are no restrictions on the scope of information released pursuant to these compelled authorizations, and the development of a nationwide system of interoperable electronic health records will increase the amount of health information released. After quantifying the extent of these disclosures, this article discusses why it is important to limit disclosures of health information for nonmedical purposes as well as how it may be possible to do so.     

Observations on the utility of couples therapy conducted by a psychoanalyst--transference and countertransference in resistance to analysis.

This paper explores the premise that conviction concerning the therapeutic efficacy of psychoanalysis combined with a flexible attitude toward the structure of the analytic situation and the parameters of its techniques facilitates the acceptance of psychoanalysis in suitable cases as the treatment of choice. Clinical data from therapy with couples are presented in support of this premise.     

Memory scanning for words in visual images

This study attempts to replicate an experiment reported by Seamon (1972). In the present investigation, as in the study by Seamon, the scanning of short-term memory was compared when its contents were rehearsed words vs. a mental image. Memory sets were composed of either one, two, or three words. In the relational imagery group, subjects were required to form a single interactive mental scene of the entities which the memory set words represent. Nonimagery subjects were given instructions to covertly rehearse the memory set. In both groups, the usual memory set size (m) effect was obtained, i.e., reaction time (RT) increased linearly with m. Moreover, the set size effect was the same for both groups. This latter finding stands in marked contrast to the result obtained by Seamon; he found no effect of set size when subjects were given interactive imagery instructions. Because of the failure to replicate Seamon, an additional group of subjects were given imagery instructions. For this latter group, some of the procedural discrepancies between the relational imagery group of the present study and the corresponding group in Seamon’s study were resolved. Also, in this additional group, the set size effect was examined as a function of the subjects’ ratings of the quality of the images which they had formed. The same set size effect was found for this additional group, and the effect was independent of image quality.