Short-Term Pastoral Counseling and the Use of Reframing

The purpose of this article is to deal with the advantage of combining short-term counseling with reframing techniques. Short-term counseling states that a) focusing on only one problem, and b) agreeing on a fixed amount of sessions will make the counselee more eager to change before the amount of sessions are spent. The thesis of the paper is that those counselees that engage in short-term counseling will be more resistant to change than the criteria of short-term counseling suggests. Some counselees want to initiate a power struggle with the counselor about the impossibility of change. Rather than giving in to such a struggle, the counselor should use reframing techniques to make the counselee see the problem from a new perspective. Reframing techniques are more likely to make the counselee solve the problem.     

Confirmatory factor analyses of DSM-IV Cluster C personality disorder criteria

Notwithstanding its research and clinical relevance, the dimensionality and validity of the DSM-IV avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders (PDs) criteria is still a largely unexplored topic. The aim of this study was to test the factor structure for DSM-IV Cluster C PD criteria in a sample of 641 consecutively admitted outpatients. Factor analysis results suggested that avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive PDs share a common latent dimension, and supported the three-factor structure of both observer and self-report ratings of DSM-IV Cluster C PD criteria. The pattern of factor loadings, however, was different from the one expected according to the DSM-IV classification.     

Spirituality of Chronic Orofacial Pain Patients: Case–Control Study

The objective of this study was to investigate spirituality and blood parameters associated with stress in patients with facial musculoskeletal pain. Twenty-four women with chronic facial musculoskeletal pain (CFMP) and 24 healthy women were evaluated with a protocol for orofacial characteristics, research diagnostic criteria for temporomandibular disorders and the Spiritual Perspective Scale. Blood samples were collected to analyze blood count, cortisol, ACTH, C3, C4, thyroid hormones, total immunoglobulin, C-reactive protein and rheumatoid factor. The study group was more spiritualized than control group. Individuals with a high score of spirituality had less myofascial pain, less bruxism and fewer complaints. They also had lower levels of ACTH and IgE. Spirituality was higher in the study group and can be considered an important tool for coping with CFMP.     

Visual symmetry perception in early onset monocular blindness

Symmetry detection is impaired by abnormal binocular vision development such as in amblyopia. However, the detection of symmetry has never been investigated in cases where input from one eye is profoundly compromised. Testing monocularly blind (MB) individuals represents a unique opportunity to investigate whether symmetry salience relies on a normally developed binocular visual system. In a visual symmetry detection task using dot patterns, congenitally MB showed comparable accuracy to normally sighted individuals viewing monocularly. This included better detection of vertically than horizontally symmetric patterns. However, the MB were slower than controls in detecting a symmetrical pattern. In a control target-detection task, no significant differences in performance were observed between these groups. Overall, normal developing binocular vision does not appear necessary for the visual system to detect the presence of visual symmetry. However, optimal detection mechanisms may be dependent on binocular summation or other processes dependent on input from both eyes.     

The Perpetrator-Motive Research Design: A strategy for understanding motivations,values, and tactics of criminal offenders

For decades, applied research in the field of behavioral criminology has been successfully utilized to develop theories and training modalities for the purpose of informing practice. One method for conducting this type of research is in-depth interviews of perpetrators. The Perpetrator-Motive Research Design (PMRD) is a 12-step methodological design, which focuses on gaining a thorough understanding of the motivations, values, needs, and tactics of those who commit offenses against others. PMRD has been employed in a pilot study conducted with captive-takers in the FBI's Global Hostage-Taking Research and Analysis Project (GHosT-RAP). Even though global captive-taking is a major domestic and international security problem that affects the interests of the United States, and poses serious challenges abroad, only a modicum of investigative attention has been directed to this problem. This void is addressed through the tripartite mission of GHosT-RAP: (1) to elicit and describe captive-taker values and paradigms, (2) to determine motivations and methods for captive-taking, and (3) to utilize resultant data to improve strategies for mitigation and prevention, preparedness, response, and recovery activities. In addition, GHosT-RAP will serve to formalize and operationalize the PMRD approach into a well-defined, systematic, and replicable process that can be used to better understand a myriad of offenders and their nominal enterprises.     

Monitoring eye movements to investigate the picture superiority effect in spatial memory

Spatial memory is usually better for iconic than for verbal material. Our aim was to assess whether such effect is related to the way iconic and verbal targets are viewed when people have to memorize their locations. Eye movements were recorded while participants memorized the locations of images or words. Images received fewer, but longer, gazes than words. Longer gazes on images might reflect greater attention devoted to images due to their higher sensorial distinctiveness and/or generation with images of an additional phonological code beyond the visual code immediately available. We found that words were scanned mainly from left to right while a more heterogeneous scanning strategy characterized encoding of images. This suggests that iconic configurations tend to be maintained as global integrated representations in which all the item/location pairs are simultaneously present whilst verbal configurations are maintained through more sequential processes.     

What fair procedures say about me: Self-construals and reactions to procedural fairness

Past research has revealed both positive and negative reactions when people receive unfavorable outcomes via fair decision-making procedures. In three laboratory experiments, we reconcile these findings by considering the role of people’s self-identity. Our results suggest that the more that people base their self-identity on their relationships with others—as indexed by a strong interdependent self-construal—the more positively they react to an unfavorable outcome following from fair procedures. Conversely, the more that people base their self-identity on achievement—as indexed by a strong independent self-construal—the more negatively they react to an unfavorable outcome following from fair procedures. Moreover, these results were stronger when the situation primed interdependence and independence, respectively. Our research indicates that people interpret procedural fairness information in a manner that is consistent with defining aspects of the self.