The Future of Training and Credentialing in Group Psychotherapy

High-quality group psychotherapy training is seen as more important than ever in the current health care environment. The training opportunities available at present are assessed. It is argued that there is a body of knowledge about generic group psychotherapy that can and should be taught, and that there are appropriate people to teach it. Credentialing is discussed, and it is suggested that the assessment of actual work in clinical situations must be emphasized if such efforts are to be meaningful.     

Predicting Cognitive and Social Consequences of Emotional Episodes: The Contribution of Emotional Intensity, the Five Factor Model, and Alexithymia

Emotional events are followed by recurrent thoughts (rumination) and talking about the event (social sharing of emotion). Factors that can account for variations in these consequences were examined (emotional intensity, the Five Factor Model, and two factors of alexithymia). In two samples, participants reported the most negative emotional event of recent months and in one sample also reported the most positive one. Results indicated that emotional intensity predicted social sharing and rumination, while neuroticism was positively related to intrusive thoughts about negative events and extraversion to rumination and social sharing about positive events. Difficulty describing feelings was negatively related to social sharing for negative events and reduced fantasy to rumination for positive events.     

A comparison of self-report and interview diagnoses of DSM-III-R personality disorders

A total of 73 psychiatric inpatients, all of whom (but two) fulfilled criteria for at least one specific personality disorder (PD) on SCID-II PQ, were interviewed with the help of PDE. The self-report PD diagnosis was confirmed in 35 (48 per cent) patients. The diagnostic agreement between the two instruments was poor, yielding an overall weighted kappa of 0.22. Levelling off the PD base rates by increasing or decreasing the diagnostic threshold of SCID-II PQ and PDE respectively increased the overall weighted kappa to 0.38 in both instances. 70 per cent of SCID-II PQ but only 29 per cent of PDE personality disorders were of extensive type. Most frequent important co-occurrences occurred between individual PD types within cluster 2. On the whole, the results confirmed the relatively poor agreement between self-report and interview PD diagnoses. The utilization of self-report questionnaires in a clinical practice remains a controversial issue. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Alexithymia and its measurement: confirmatory factor analyses of the 20‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale and the Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire

Alexithymia refers to the difficulties an individual has in experiencing and expressing feelings. The 20‐item Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS‐20) and the Bermond–Vorst Alexithymia Questionnaire (BVAQ) with two parallel versions of 20 items have been constructed to measure it. The present study compared the psychometric properties of these two self‐report questionnaires in English (N=290) and French (N=322) language versions. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine the fit between the hypothesized factors and the data. Results revealed a better fit to the data for the second version of the BVAQ (BVAQ‐20B) for both language versions as compared to the TAS‐20, the whole BVAQ, or the first version of the BVAQ (BVAQ‐20A). Additionally, the factor comparison of both language versions indicated that only the factorial structure of the BVAQ‐20B was replicable across languages. Concurrent validity of the questionnaires is discussed. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Continuous opportunity for reinforcing brain stimulation

The performance of a rat provided with continuous opportunity to obtain reinforcing brain stimulation over a 20-day period is described in detail. The animal averaged 29.2 responses per min during the entire time. Testing session was terminated by experimenters, but a day-by-day analysis of behavior provided no evidence that the animal would have stopped responding.     

Some determinants of task preference and the desire for information about the self

This research examined the influence of task difficulty and diagnosticity (ability information) on task choice and preference. It was found that males preferred diagnostic over non-diagnostic tasks, but among females significant preferences along this variable were not exhibited. Furthermore, the desire to obtain ability-relevant information decreased as a function of prior knowledge about one's ability. Both high and low ability self-perceptions, induced through prior experiences of success and failure, decreased the attraction toward diagnostic in formation. There was no indication that individuals with high ability self-concepts are especially avoidant of further ability-relevant information, as recent literature has suggested. In addition, and contrary to prior findings, difficult tasks were most preferred rather than easy or intermediate tasks, given that diagnosticity is held constant.     

The relation of gender-role orientation to sexual experience among college students

This study examined the relations of gender and three aspects of gender roles — self concept, behavior, and sexual attitudes — to three aspects of sexual behavior — sexual experience, reasons for intercourse, and contraceptive use. Gender was strongly related to all three aspects of sexual behavior. For both men and women, sex role behaviors were related to sexual experience and to reasons for intercourse, but not to contraceptive use, and sex role self-concept was unrelated to any of the aspects of sexual behavior. The results indicate that sexual behavior is influenced both by societal gender role norms and by individual differences in the acceptance of those norms.     

A look at social support patterns

The issue of how to provide support for patients with a life-threatening illness continues to be a problem for pastors and chaplains. The authors discuss the significance and reasons for looking at the present day social support patterns as an unnatural problem. Unless the unnatural nature of support in the modern medical setting is understood pastors and chaplains can miss the target on answering the question of how to provide support. The authors conclude the article by addressing this question from the position of reserving the unnatural nature of providing support.Dr. Bergen is Professor of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH 03755. Dr. Nelson is affiliated with the Chaplain Service, Veterans Administration Center, White River Junction, VT 05001 and Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School.     

Creative Pseudo-Reality as a Defensive Factor in Jewish Wit: A Dialectical Perspective

Theoretical dynamics of ethnic humor are juxtaposed with Jewish wit, showing that there is a distinct factor which operates in the Jewish humor response to oppression. Drawing from Ziv's (1986) rich anthology of research and case studies, this factor is conceptualized as creative pseudo-reality. It is hypothesized that Jewish wit features this element of self-effacing humor besides the factors which it shares with the ethnic humor of other marginal groups. The implicit ability to construct a perceived environment which is bound neither to reason nor to logic, is seen as the last line of defense for an oppressed minority whose other options have been denied. Irony and triumph, suggested as key elements in this factor, are illustrated in annotated stereotypical excerpts of Jewish wit. Throughout the analysis, the dialectic principle—maintaining the co-existence of inconsistent dynamics—is highlighted in contrast to the reductionistic either/or approach commonplace in psychological and sociological discourse.     

Morally Relevant Features

This article summarizes the account of morality presented in Morality: Its Nature and Justification (Oxford, 1998), with emphasis on that aspect of morality that deals with justifying violations of the moral rules. Such justification requires a two-step procedure; the first is describing the situation using only morally relevant features. I list these features, noting how diverse they are, and describe their characteristics. The second step is estimating the consequences of publicly allowing a violation with the same morally relevant features, that is, allowing a violation when everyone knows that it is allowed to violate the rule in the same circumstances, and comparing this to the estimated consequences of not publicly allowing that kind of violation. I then explain why fully informed, impartial rational persons can sometimes disagree about whether a violation should be publicly allowed and note that such weakly justified violations are the controversial cases.