The influence of emotional conditions on imilarity estimations of emotional terms

Abstract.— Twenty-four male university students made similarity estimations whilst under the influence of five strongly contrasting emotional inducing situations and in a neutral situation. Intra- and interindividual comparisons between the results indicate that a high degree of stability was maintained by each individual over time whereas differences appeared between individuals. The results suggest that subjects are well able to produce about the same result in spite of heightened levels of emotional state.     

The counselor is a man and a woman

Recent research portrays the counselor as not only tender, gentle, loving, and passive-receptive in a Farsonian sense but also active and assertive, and able to confront and interpret immediacy when appropriate. Functional definitions of masculinity and femininity would suggest that the counselor initiates communication and is action-oriented as well as responsive and facilitative. Those counselors who offer the highest levels of facilitative dimensions also offer the highest levels of action-oriented dimensions.     

Dyadic Adjustment Processes in Divorce Counseling

This article reviews nine stage models of divorce adjustment, all but one of which define adjustment to divorce in terms of the individual experience. As an alternative to these models, the authors describe the Dyadic Divorce Adjustment Processes Model, which depicts the divorce process as a journey traveled by two persons, experiencing parallel, but not necessarily simultaneous progression, and which presents the transition from married to divorced as both a linear and dynamic phenomenon. In addition, the authors introduce the concept of experiential levels or states in the adjustment process, accounting for the dynamic aspect of divorce. Four different levels and concomitant therapeutic issues for each level are presented and described in relation to divorce adjustment counseling.     

Psychoanalytical teamwork in a day hospital: Revisiting some preconditions for patients' subjective appropriation

Psychoanalytical 'teamwork' may be recommended for dealing with a particular kind of transference that characteristically occurs during the institutional treatment of young patients presenting psychotic or behavioural symptoms. In such cases, the degree of alienation is such that repetition is usually induced in other people (the therapists), fi lling in for fantasy construction that seems to be lacking in the patient's psyche. A case like that of 'Angel' can give some idea of this phenomenon, wherein several caregivers have to harbour fragmented and incompatible elements of the case's particular history, which are in need of more mental representation. Any subjective restitution and appropriation of these elements by the patient would require a sort of detour (often a trying one!) by way of the psychical space of caregivers whose initial task will be to 'work it through' among themselves.     

Exposure to the social sharing of emotion: Emotional impact,listener responses and secondary social sharing

In line with evidence showing that emotion involves a social sharing process in which the subject communicates about emotional experience, this article examines the impact of being exposed to such communications. First, it was predicted that being exposed to the social sharing of an emotion is emotion-inducing. Second, it was reasoned that if this holds true, then the listener should later engage in socially sharing with other persons the emotional narrative heard. Thus, a process of ‘secondary social sharing’ was predicted. In two independent studies subjects recalled a situation in which someone had shared an emotional experience with them. They then rated emotions felt while exposed to the narrative, responses adopted toward the sharing person, and extent of secondary social sharing. The predictions were supported. Exposure to a social sharing situation was confirmed as itself emotion-inducing. Secondary social sharing was recorded in 66 per cent of the cases in Study 1 and in 78 per cent in Study 2. Both studies also showed that exposure to the sharing of highly intense emotional episodes elicited more repetitive secondary social sharing and a superior number of target persons than exposure to episodes of low or of moderate emotional intensity. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.