Book review

Bruner, J., Cole, M. and Lloyd, B. (Eds.). The Developing Child. London: Fontana/Open Books. 1977. (1) MacFarlane, A. The Psychology of Childbirth. Pp. 128. £1.00. (2) Garvey, C. Play. Pp. 128. £1.00. (3) Schaffer, R. Mothering. Pp. 128. £103. (4) Dunn, J. Distress and Comfort Pp. 128. £1.00. (5) Bower, T. The Perceptual World of the Child. Pp. 128. £1.00. (6) Goodnow, J. Children'sDrawing. Pp. 128. £1.00. (7) Tucker, N. What is a Child? Pp. 128. £1.00. (8) Stern, D. The First Relationship. Pp. 128. £1.00.

Mandler, G. Mind and Emotion. New york: Wiley. 1975. Pp. 280. Hardback £7.65; paperback £3.70. ISBN 0471 56690 X.

Elcock, E. W. and Michie, D. (Eds). Machine Intelligence 8. Chichester: Ellis Horwood. 1977. Pp. 630. £24.00. ISBN 85312 058 7.

Griffin, D. R. The Question of Animal Awareness: Evolutionary Continuity of Mental Experience. New York: The Rockefeller University Press, 1976. Pp. viii + 133. $8.95. ISBN 87470 020 5.

Drucker-Colin, R. R. and McGaugh, J. L. (Eds). Neurobiology of Sleep and Memory. New York: Academic Press. 1977. Pp. 456. £13.85. ISBN 0 12 222350 0.

Elkind, D. Child Development and Education: A Piagetian Perspective. New York: Oxford University Press. 1977. Pp. 274. HArdback £8.95. ISBN 0 19 502068 5; paperback £3.75. ISBN 0 19 502069 3.

Tyrer, P. The Role of Bodily Feelings in Anxiety. Londn: Oxford University Press. 1976. Pp. 128. £6.50. ISBN 0 1971 2145 4.

Desmedt, J. E. (Ed.). Progress in Clinical Neurophysiology. Vol. 2. Auditiory Evoked Potentials in Man. Psychopharmacology. Correlates of Evoked Potentials. Basle: KArger. 1977. £37.75. ISBN 3 8055 2629 6.

Snow, C. E. and Ferguson, C. A. (Eds). Talking to Children. Cambridge.: Cambridge University Press. 1977. Pp. 369. £8.00. ISBN 0 521 21318 5.

Lerner, R. M. Concepts and Theories of Human Development. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. 1976. Pp. 324. £9.10. ISBN 0 2010 4342 4.

Gesell, A., Ilg, F. and Ames, L. The Child from Five to Ten. Revised edition. New York: Harper & Row. 1977. Pp. 461. £7.95. ISBN 06 011501 7.

Bergling, K. The Development of Hypothetico Deductive Reasoning in Children. IEA Monograph studies No. 3. New York: John Wiley. 1975. Pp. 127. £7.50. ISBN 0470 06972 2.     

Psychological and Socio-cultural Adjustment during Cross-cultural Transitions: A Comparison of Secondary Students Overseas and at Home

The study further explores the distinction of psychological and socio-cultural adjustment during cross-cultural transitions. One hundred and seventy-eight New Zealand American Field Service (AFS) students residing in 23 different countries completed questionnaires which contained assessments of the following: Personality (extraversion and locus of control); life changes (Social Readjustment Rating Questionnaire); homesickness, cultural distance, acculturation (cultural identity and cultural integration—separation); attitudes toward host country; language ability; amount of contact with host and co-nationals; relationship satisfaction with co-nationals, host nationals and host family; and outcome measures of socio-cultural (social difficulty) and psychological adjustment (Profile of Mood States). Stepwise regressions revealed that homesickness, external locus of control, life changes, and social difficulty accounted for 55% of the variance in psychological adjustment. In contrast, cultural distance, language ability, satisfaction with host national contact, cultural separation and mood disturbance explained 52% of the variance in socio-cultural adaptation. In the second part of the research, psychological and socio-cultural adjustment of AFS students was compared with a sample of 142 home-based New Zealand secondary school students. Although there were no significant differences in psychological adjustment between the two groups, the students who were resident abroad experienced greater socio-cultural difficulties than the students resident in New Zealand (P < 0.0005), and, as hypothesized, the correlation between psychological and socio-cultural adjustment was significantly greater in the home-based students compared to the AFS group (P < 0.0001).     

Cynical Hostility: A Risk Factor in HIV-1 Infection?1

The aims of this study of HIV-1 positive and HIV-1 negative gay males without disease were (a) to determine whether cynical hostility in these groups (measured by the Cook-Medley Ho scale) is associated with psychosocial deficits that potentially could influence the course of HIV infection; and (b) to examine the construct validity of the sum of three Ho subsets in this sample. Correlational analyses on the full samples, and multivariate analyses of high- and low-hostility groups (formed using Ho scale cutoffs from previous research), examined person variables (traits, coping style), environmental variables (social support, stressors), and affect. In all domains other than stressors (traits, coping styles, social support, and affect), cynical hostility was associated with psychosocial deficits, with results generally stronger for the full Ho scale than for the subset sum. Results support previous research on psychosocial deficits of the cynically hostile, extend findings to HIV-infected gay males, and enlarge our understanding of the trait and coping style correlates of cynical hostility. Implications of these findings for HIV infection are discussed.     

Temporal experience as metaphysically lightweight

Experience is the most primitive kind of intentional contact with reality. Metaphysical inquiry is one of the heights of human thought. It would not be surprising if experience was often silent on metaphysics, failing to offer support to one metaphysical disputant over the other, forcing them to fall back on nonexperiential considerations. I argue that the dispute between A- and B-theorists about time is a dispute about which experience is silent. B-theorists have typically conceded that the manifest image of time conflicts with how time turns out to be, on their own view of time. They have offered an array of accounts of why that conflict should not worry us. I argue here that these accounts are unconvincing. I also argue that they are unnecessary. Nothing about how time is experienced conflicts with B-theory. An independently plausible method for discovering what properties experience represents—the method of phenomenal contrast—implies that experience does not favor A-theory over B-theory.     

Therapeutic Utility of Discussing Therapist/Client Intersectionality in Treatment: When and How?

The impact of the therapeutic alliance on positive clinical outcomes has been established in the literature; however, literature is lacking on how the intersection of therapist and client identities influences this process. We propose that the relational intersectionality resulting from similarities or differences in therapist and client identities has the potential to impact the bonds, tasks, and goals of treatment (key components of the therapeutic alliance; Bordin, 1979) depending on how it is addressed or avoided in therapy. In this paper, we present a model containing pragmatic steps therapists can follow to navigate these conversations with clients in a way that is therapeutically beneficial and culturally sensitive and attuned. Additionally, we provide suggestions for using the proposed model to train new student therapists (or expose experienced therapists) to ideas of intersectionality and social justice by reflecting on the intersection of their own identities, acknowledging dynamics of power and oppression, and understanding how this could shape their relationship with clients.     

Meaning before grammar: A review of ERP experiments on the neurodevelopmental origins of semantic processing

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - According to traditional linguistic theories, the construction of complex meanings relies firmly on syntactic structure-building operations. Recently, however,...     

Experiences of psychotherapists transitioning to private practice during COVID-19

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to gain insight into the lived experiences of psychotherapists transitioning to private practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. With an ever-expanding need for targeted and accessible mental health care, it is vital to understand this phenomenon and how it impacted patient access and care, and the providers themselves. Eighteen licensed psychotherapists were interviewed and their responses highlighted meaningful professional and clinical implications. As a result of the participant interviews, three major themes were identified: (1) the unknown related to COVID-19, (2) ease of transition and (3) work–life balance. Eleven additional subthemes emerged. Results suggested that psychotherapists had various personal and professional stressors exacerbated by the pandemic, along with a desire to balance work and life, manage the changes brought on by the pandemic, and gain or retain autonomy in their professional careers. Ultimately, the results of the study point to some shared experiences among psychotherapists, potential issues of access to psychotherapy, issues related to career satisfaction among psychotherapists, as well as some important areas for future research.     

Reflections on the process of psychotherapeutic change as applied to medical situations

This article takes the basic ideas on the process of changing implicit knowledge put forward in this special issue, and extends them beyond psychotherapy to include other therapeutic relationships that occur in medicine. One vignette, from an encounter between a medical student and a dying patient, illustrates how a “moment of meeting” changes the student as well as the patient. The second shows how therapeutic interventions for new mothers with their newborn infants involve “moments of meeting” that alter the mother's implicit knowledge of her baby and of herself as a mother. © 1998 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health