Changeover of a Mental Hospital Unit into a Therapeutic Community

This paper explores some clinical implications of combining individual and group psychotherapy for children functioning at different levels of ego development. More highly structured children are able to observe the continuity and discontinuity that inevitably exist between the two modalities. Bridging of the two therapeutic contexts—integrating split off object representations—enriches the transference and strengthens the therapeutic alliance. In working with ego impaired children the goal in combining treatment modalities is to provide a therapeutic structure capable of containing unintegrated affects and perceptions. The therapist's challenge is to provide the opportunity to regulate emotional distance while at the same time maintaining the experience of a nurturing relationship. While potential hazards exist, with proper precautions taken, combined treatment can provide significant opportunities to establish or strengthen a therapeutic alliance with children, particularly those most in need and yet most resistant to treatment.     

The stimulus prefix is not irrelevant and is redundant in different ways

The present study examined the stimulus prefix effect of immediate recall under conditions in which the prefix element was defined explicitly as being an irrelevant item that should be ignored, or, alternatively, as an item to be remembered and recalled. Memory was poorer in the latter case. Also examined were the effects of three types of redundancy relation between the prefix and target elements; one of these, interstring redundancy (same prefix precedes each target string), was found to improve recall in a relative sense, and another, conceptual redundancy (prefix and target items belong to the same conceptual category), was found to degrade it. Thus, that part of the conventional stimulus prefix effect attributable to redundancy, per se, can be viewed as a composite of at least two opposing factors. Finally, the independent variables of the present study were interpreted to impose different information-processing requirements on the subject, and an account of these requirements was offered.     

Thin-Ideal Media and Women’s Body Dissatisfaction: Prevention using Downward Social Comparisons on Non-Appearance Dimensions

Exposure to thin-ideal media has adverse effects on the body satisfaction of women with higher levels of body image disturbance. In a study involving 109 UCLA female undergraduates, we examined the effectiveness of an intervention that was based on downward social comparison theory and the selection of alternative comparison dimensions. All participants had higher levels of body dissatisfaction and viewed pictures of fashion models; the intervention group compared downward with the models on non-appearance dimensions in writing, whereas the control group described the models in writing. We hypothesized that the intervention group would experience more positive shifts in body and weight satisfaction, anxiety about appearance, and desire to lose weight than would the control group. The results supported our hypotheses.     

Praise or blame? Affective influences on attributions for achievement

Three experiments showed that mood influences achievement attributions and that cognitive processes underlie these effects. In Experiment 1, happy Ss made more internal and stable attributions for success than failure in typical 'life dilemmas'. In Experiment 2, attributions for real-life exam performance were more internal and stable in a happy than in a sad mood. Dysphoric moods resulted in self-critical rather than self-enhancing attributions, contrary to motivational theories, but consistent with cognitive models and the clinical literature on depression. In Experiment 3 this pattern was repeated with direct self vs. other comparisons, and for self-efficacy judgements. The results are interpreted as supporting cognitive rather than motivational theories of attribution biases. The implications of the results for clinical research, and contemporary affect-cognition theories are considered.     

Psychological resources, positive illusions, and health

Psychological beliefs such as optimism, personal control, and a sense of meaning are known to be protective of mental health. Are they protective of physical health as well? The authors present a program of research that has tested the implications of cognitive adaptation theory and research on positive illusions for the relation of positive beliefs to disease progression among men infected with HIV. The investigations have revealed that even unrealistically optimistic beliefs about the future may be health protective. The ability to find meaning in the experience is also associated with a less rapid course of illness. Taken together, the research suggests that psychological beliefs such as meaning, control, and optimism act as resources, which may not only preserve mental health in the context of traumatic or life-threatening events but be protective of physical health as well.     

Remembering information related to one's self

How does memory for an incident vary depending on whether, and how, the person relates the information to himself? Trait adjectives are better remembered if they were judged in reference to oneself rather than judged for meaning or sound. Our first experiment found a similar mnemonic advantage of referring a described episode or object to some event from one's life. Pleasant events were remembered better than unpleasant ones. A second experiment found incidental memory for trait adjectives was equally enhanced by judging each directly in reference to one's self-concept or indirectly by retrieving an episode either from one's life or from one's mother's life. Contrariwise, memory was poorer when traits were judged in reference to a less familiar person. Thus, good memory depends on relating the inputs to a well-differentiated memory structure.     

The “soap opera” effect in story recall

When people learn a series of actions of a character, their memory is strongly influenced, we suggest, by beliefs about that character’s motives. Motives serve as schema for deciding the meaning of the actions, their importance, and their interconnections. In two experiments, subjects read and later remembered some dull activities of a character. Experimental subjects knew what this character was worrying about (e.g., an unwanted pregnancy); control subjects did not. Recall and recognition showed that motive subjects distorted many of the colorless events to be motive relevant. Although the motive schema helped connect the disparate actions, it interfered with accurate recording and recall of the details.