Intuiting the Process of Another: Symbolic,Rational Transformations of Experience

In experiential personal construct psychotherapy (Leitner, 1988) the establishment of a ROLE relationship between the therapist and client is of primary importance. This is done through -approaching the process that is the other. In this article the meaning of “approaching the process” is examined in terms of S. K. hanger's concept of nondiscursive, or presentational, symbolism. Patterns of behavior in relationships are seen as symbolic transformations of experience. Observing and experiencing these patterns of behavior are mays therapists can intuit the process of the other and enhance the creation of a ROLE relationship.     

Maternal distress and women's reentry into family and community life

This paper advances conceptualization of maternal distress following incarceration. We utilized a multiple case study methodology based on interviews with 10 mothers who demonstrated various permutations of "the triple threat" (depression, domestic violence, and substance abuse; Arditti & Few, 2006). Findings suggest that depressive symptomology persisted and worsened for mothers in our study and that maternal distress was indicative not only of women's psychological state, but also a relational and situational construct that embodied women's core experience. Maternal distress was largely characterized by health challenges, dysfunctional intimate relationships, loss related trauma, guilt and worry over children, and economic inadequacy. Further, maternal distress seemed to be intensified by the punitive traumatic context of prison and lessened by rehabilitation opportunities as well as support by kin and probation officers after reentry. Recommendations for clinicians and professionals who work with reentry mothers center around the need to alleviate maternal distress and better address women's emotional and physical health needs during incarceration and reentry.     

Imageability ratings for 3,000 monosyllabic words.

Imageability ratings made on a 1-7 scale and reaction times for 3,000 monosyllabic words were obtained from 31 participants. Analyses comparing these ratings to 1,153 common words from Toglia and Battig (1978) indicate that these ratings are valid. Reliability was assessed (alpha = .95). The information obtained in this study adds to that of other normative studies and is useful to researchers interested in manipulating or controlling imageability in word recognition and memory studies. These norms can be downloaded from www.psychonomic.org/archive/.     

Muscularity versus leanness: an examination of body ideals and predictors of disordered eating in heterosexual and gay college students

The aim of the current study was to add to the growing body of research on men with eating disorders by examining the association between different types of body dissatisfaction (muscularity and body fat) and disordered eating in heterosexual and gay men. Two hundred four participants (over one-third were gay) completed measures assessing disordered eating, muscularity and body fat dissatisfaction, and sexual orientation. Body fat dissatisfaction, but not muscularity dissatisfaction, predicted disordered eating, dietary restraint, and concerns about weight and eating in gay and heterosexual men. These findings were consistent across all measures of body fat and muscularity dissatisfaction, providing stronger evidence that body fat dissatisfaction may be a greater risk factor for disordered eating in both gay and heterosexual college aged men than muscularity dissatisfaction.     

A comparison of methods for teaching receptive labeling to children with autism spectrum disorders

Many early intervention curricular manuals recommend teaching auditory-visual conditional discriminations (i.e., receptive labeling) using the simple-conditional method in which component simple discriminations are taught in isolation and in the presence of a distracter stimulus before the learner is required to respond conditionally. Some have argued that this procedure might be susceptible to faulty stimulus control such as stimulus overselectivity (Green, 2001). Consequently, there has been a call for the use of alternative teaching procedures such as the conditional-only method, which involves conditional discrimination training from the onset of intervention. The purpose of the present study was to compare the simple-conditional and conditional-only methods for teaching receptive labeling to 3 young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. The data indicated that the conditional-only method was a more reliable and efficient teaching procedure. In addition, several error patterns emerged during training using the simple-conditional method. The implications of the results with respect to current teaching practices in early intervention programs are discussed.     

Intertrial pellets influence the acquisition and expression of timed appetitive responding in rats

Two experiments examined temporally based changes in the conditioned magazine-entries of rats when a target food pellet arrived at a fixed time before the termination of a conditioned stimulus. Both experiments found that increasing the rate of intertrial pellets systematically interfered with the rate of acquisition. When intertrial pellets were featured in acquisition, their omission on test trials also resulted in a very poorly expressed conditioned response. On test trials preceded by intertrial pellets, however, peak times in groups trained with intertrial pellets were shifted in a rightward direction under a long but not short interstimulus interval. This rightward shift was accompanied by a smaller standard deviation. Our key findings are best accommodated by real-time associative models.     

Do Provocateurs’ Emotion Displays Influence Children’s Social Goals and Problem Solving?

The social goals and social problem-solving of children who varied in social adjustment were examined in the context of hypothetical ambiguous provocation situations in which provocateurs’ emotion displays were systematically manipulated. Children rated the importance of six different social goals and explained how they would solve the problems. Social adjustment was measured with rating and nomination sociometric procedures. Rejected-aggressive, rejected-nonaggressive, average-nonaggressive, and popular-nonaggressive children showed both commonalities and differences in rating the six social goals, the relative importance of the six social goals, and social problem-solving depending on the provocateur’s emotion display. When provocateurs were happy, there were few group differences, but when provocateurs were angry or sad, rejected-aggressive children: a) rated hostile/instrumental goals more positively; b) rated prosocial goals less positively; and c) made problem-solving responses that were less friendly than those of other children. Results are discussed in relation to Lemerise and Arsenio’s (2000) model of emotion and social information processing.     

Preliminary Outcomes of an Incentive-based Parent-training Intervention

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Substantial evidence supports the effective reduction of child behavior problems and increase of positive parenting skills in behavioral parent-training (BPT)...