The inner group: Its manifestation in drawings and in the actual group

This article presents an analysis of drawings together with information regarding the person's biography and style of participation in the group. The symbolic rendering in condensed visual form sheds light on our understanding of the specific individual's inner group and related mode of behavior in the real group. The rich clinical material offers a new source of insight into this important realm of group studies.She is Professor at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, founder and first President of the Israeli Group-Analytic Society, honorary Member of the French Group-Analytic Society (Paris); and full Member of Group-Analytic Society (London).     

Verbal and Nonverbal Interactions of Four- and Five-Year-Old Friends in Potential Conflict Situations

Dyads of 4- and 5-year-old friends and nonfriends attending preschools in central Italy were identified by friendship nominations. The 217 dyads of friends and non-friends participated in 2 closed-field tasks designed to simulate real-life situations of potential conflict. In the 4-year-old cohort, there were no significant differences in the behavior of the partners in either of the situations. However, at age 5 years, friends respected the rules of a fast-paced competitive game significantly more than did nonfriends. In discussing how to share a single object (a chocolate egg with a toy inside), 5-year-old friends were more likely to reach agreement than were nonfriends. The results suggest important developmental changes in the processes of negotiation and sharing within the preschool years.     

Parent-adolescent health conversations as action: Theoretical and methodological issues

Abstract

A qualitative research method based on action theory is proposed and illustrated for use in health psychology and health promotion research. Action refers to the goal-directed and intentional behaviors of individual and groups. Action theory has the advantage of using the perspectives provided by manifest behavior, internal processes, and social meaning in the analysis of action. In this article, the actions under consideration are the health-related conversations of parents and their adolescent children. The approach is premised on an understanding of health promotion as a family task constructed through actions such as conversations between family members. Health conversations in two parent-adolescent dyads are used to illustrate the method. The analysis includes the identification of goals, functional steps, and elements and their relation to the family health promotion project. Specific attention is paid to data gathering and analysis issues and their implications for health promotion research.     

The Effect on Coping of Monitoring,Blunting, and the Ability to Achieve Cognitive Structure

The effects of monitoring and blunting on individuals' choices of coping strategies and their effectiveness were examined. In addition, the authors explored the effect of the ability to achieve cognitive structure (AACS), defined as either or both of the following: (a) the ability to avoid information that either cannot be categorized or clashes with the individual's existing knowledge; (b) the ability to organize knowledge to fit an already existing cognitive structure. The results showed that in addition to the main effects of monitoring on problem-focused coping and social support seeking behaviors and of blunting on the use of wishful thinking, AACS was found to moderate blunting's influence on problem-focused coping as well as the effectiveness of distancing and avoidance coping. Finally, the results showed that the combination of high monitoring and high blunting sometimes contributes to coping effectiveness.     

Testing causal models of the relationship between childhood gender atypical behaviour and parent–child relationship

An association between childhood gender atypical behaviour (GAB) and a negative parent–child relationship has been demonstrated in several studies, yet the causal relationship of this association is not fully understood. In the present study, different models of causation between childhood GAB and parent–child relationships were tested. Direction of causation modelling was applied to twin data from a population‐based sample (n= 2,565) of Finnish 33‐ to 43‐year‐old twins. Participants completed retrospective self‐report questionnaires. Five different models of causation were then fitted to the data: GAB → parent–child relationship, parent–child relationship → GAB, reciprocal causation, a bivariate genetic model, and a model assuming no correlation. It was found that a model in which GAB and quality of mother–child, and father–child relationship reciprocally affect each other best fitted the data. The findings are discussed in light of how we should understand, including causality, the association between GAB and parent–child relationship.     

Temporal dissociation between distractors and targets: the impact of residual distractor processing on target responses

The authors manipulated the extent of distractor interference with learned, mapped responses by presenting distractors to participants (N = 16) before, simultaneously with, or after the target. Interference was significantly less when the distractor preceded the target's presentation by 200 ms than when distractor and target were presented simultaneously. Interference decreased progressively with increasing intervals. For both simultaneous and temporally separated distractor-target presentations, incongruent distractors were associated with the greatest interference, and neutral and congruent distractors interfered to a lesser degree. Distractors at fixation had a crucially greater impact on goal-directed responses to the target than did distractors at periphery. The authors discuss the findings in the context of (a) the time course of the processing of all inputs, (b) the subsequent enhancement of target-related information and responses, and (c) the inhibition of distractor-related information and responses.