Gender Bias on the Thematic Apperception Test

Thirty male and 30 female college students generated stories to a set of nine Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) cards with either male or female stimulus characters. The Fine scoring system was factor analyzed to produce seven factor clusters plus three outcome variables. Multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA) revealed a main effect for type of card. The female TAT cards elicited significantly more responses on the General Concerns scale than did the male TAT cards. A main effect for subject gender showed the females gave more responses than males on the Interpersonal Relations scale. No differences were found on the outcome variables.     

The Beck Anxiety Inventory–Trait (BAIT): A Measure of Dispositional Anxiety Not Contaminated by Dispositional Depression

If aesthetic aspects of art are objective and reside in the art. as Arnheim (1954) argues. then perceiving them may be akin to any other kind of reality testing. Further, if neurosis impairs reality testing, it would also impair aesthetic judgment, especially if aesthetic cues are vital and relevant to the human experience as Arnheim maintains. This hypothesis was investigated by administration of personality tests to measure neuroticism, especially Cattell's Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF), and art judgment tasks, especially Child's slide comparisons, to 105 University of Michigan undergraduates, The hypothesis was supported by a high negative correlation between the 16PF's neuroticism scale and art judgment, r = -.48; t (103) = -5.61 ,p < .0001. The results are discussed in terms of growth versus adjustment models of mental health, and the possible inhibiting role of verbalization over visualization in aesthetic perception.     

Relationship enhancement with premarital dyads: A six-month follow-up

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess the short-term and longterm effectiveness of relationship enhancement on the self-disclosure and empathy skills of premarital dating couples. Nineteen couples were given the Guerney Relationship Enhancement Program over an eight week period, while 18 other couples were given a lecture/discussion program on relationship development. Behavioral assessments of self-disclosure and empathy skill levels were taken prior to training, immediately following training, and six months after training. Results indicated that from both pretest to posttest and pretest to follow-up, the relationship enhancement couples, relative to the lecture/discussion couples, demonstrated a significant increase in both self-disclosure and empathy skill levels. Discussion centers on the implications of the durability of the skills learned as well as on suggestions for future research on skill generalization to social interactions with others.     

A Prime Time for Marital/Relational Intervention: A Review of the Transition to Parenthood Literature with Treatment Recommendations

The transition to parenthood is a near universal experience for individuals and families, yet there is a severe lack of applied research and clinical treatment guidelines. Justification for a greater clinical emphasis on this transition is made through a review of the common changes experienced by new parents. Intervention guidelines are offered in the areas of client/participant recruitment, assessment, and clinical areas of focus. Specific topics that should be addressed in treatment include the parents' family-of-origin influences and individual personality characteristics, changes experienced in the couple relationship, and important contextual issues.     

Establishing partial limits on children's behavior: Use of strategic,structural, and cognitive-behavioral approaches

Abstract

Playful wrestling, splashing, fidgeting, chair-tilting, and a number of other behaviors by children often result in injuries, tantrums, or conflicts in families. Unlike most behaviors of children which can be specified by parents as acceptable or unacceptable, each of these behaviors is only partially acceptable and the limits of acceptable behavior are impossible to specify in verbal terms; these limits can only be determined by the child after the limits have been exceeded. Exact limits can be established in these instances with an intervention which integrates strategic, structural, and cognitive-behavioral approaches. Two case examples are presented and the ingredients which appear essential to the intervention are discussed.     

Written Language Is as Natural as Spoken language: A Biolinguistic Perspective

A commonly held belief is that language is an aspect of the biological system since the capacity to acquire language is innate and evolved along Darwinian lines. Written language, on the other hand, is thought to be an artifact and a surrogate of speech; it is, therefore, neither natural nor biological. This disparaging view of written language, even though propounded by some renowned linguists and biologists, has not gained universal acceptance. Dissenters such as linguists from the Prague circle who claim that written language is an independent system that deserves a status equivalent to that of spoken language have developed their argument along linguistic parameters. The present article also endeavors to show that written language is as natural as spoken language but does so from a biolinguistic perspective. Biolinguistics defines language as a product of biological adaptation in the Darwinian sense (Givon, 2002 Givon, T. 2002. Bio-linguistics, Philadelphia: John Benjamins.  [Google Scholar]) and considers language to be innate and species specific (Jenkins, 2000 Jenkins, L. 2000. Biolinguistics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [Crossref] , [Google Scholar]). The present article presents evidence to show that, similar to spoken language, written language has adaptive value, evolved over time, and is relatively independent of spoken language. The Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, which has a history of about 4,000 years, is used for examining the proposition that written language evolved along Darwinian lines as much as spoken language did. It is concluded that written language is yet another manifestation of the natural endowment of the human mind and may not be treated as a proxy for speech. The educational implication is that, in literacy instruction, written language should be given as much importance in today's schools as elements of spoken language, such as phoneme awareness and phonological awareness.     

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Current Views

Obsessive-compulsive disorder has been of central interest to psychoanalysis since Freud's early papers, most particularly in the “Rat Man” case. This early literature spelled out with great clarity the presumed development, psychodynamics, and meaning of obsessional and compulsive symptoms. Unfortunately, since Anna Freud's 1969 review of the subject, virtually nothing has appeared in the psychoanalytic literature that has added to our understanding of the disorder or enhanced the very limited therapeutic influence of psychoanalysis in such cases. Meanwhile, there has been an avalanche of contributions from biological psychiatry and behavioral psychology that have propounded different theories of pathogenesis and have laid claim to significant therapeutic effectiveness. If psychoanalysis is to have credibility in this field, it will have to enlist itself in multidisciplinary research efforts directed toward enriching our knowledge about the psychodynamics and the biological substrate of this illness (more common than once believed) and the efficacy of our efforts to treat it.     

Why so confident? The influence of outcome desirability on selective exposure and likelihood judgment

Previous studies that have directly manipulated outcome desirability have often found little effect on likelihood judgments (i.e., no desirability bias or wishful thinking). The present studies tested whether selections of new information about outcomes would be impacted by outcome desirability, thereby biasing likelihood judgments. In Study 1, participants made predictions about novel outcomes and then selected additional information to read from a buffet. They favored information supporting their prediction, and this fueled an increase in confidence. Studies 2 and 3 directly manipulated outcome desirability through monetary means. If a target outcome (randomly preselected) was made especially desirable, then participants tended to select information that supported the outcome. If made undesirable, less supporting information was selected. Selection bias was again linked to subsequent likelihood judgments. These results constitute novel evidence for the role of selective exposure in cases of overconfidence and desirability bias in likelihood judgments.     

Addressing Parent–Child Conflict: Attachment‐Based Interventions With Parents

This article describes the use of attachment theory to address parent–child conflict. The authors propose that parent–child conflict is attributable to the unmet attachment needs of both children and parents and that attachment insecurity results in problematic patterns of attachment in parent–child relationships. Three conversational frames are presented as a model for applying attachment theory to assist parents in resolving parent–child conflict.