Inappropriate and Excessive Guilt: Instrument Validation and Developmental Differences in Relation to Depression

Inappropriate or excessive guilt is listed as a symptom of depression by the American Psychiatric Association (1994). Although many measures of guilt have been developed, definitional and operational problems exist, especially in the application of such measures in childhood and adolescence. To address these problems, the current study introduces the Inappropriate and Excessive Guilt Scale (IEGS), assesses its validity for use with children and adolescents, and tests its relation to depression across development. From a sample of 370 children between 7 and 16 years old, results provided (1) evidence that items designed to assess inappropriate and excessive guilt converged onto a single underlying factor, (2) support for the convergent, discriminant, and construct validity of the IEGS in a general youth population, and (3) evidence of incremental validity of the IEGS over-and-above other measures of guilt. Results also supported the hypothesis that inappropriate and excessive guilt as well as negative cognitive errors become less normative and more depressotypic with age.     

Child and adolescent development: common mental disorders according to age and gender

Despite the increase in the incidence and prevalence rates of children and adolescents' mental disorders, there are few works performed with large and representative samples of children and adolescents with psychopathological symptoms. The present work analyses 588 participants referred by first care pediatricians to a specialized unit for children and adolescents' mental health. As a result of the study, a statistically significant relation was found between age and diagnosis: a larger incidence of behavioral disorders, communication disorders, elimination disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, impulse-control disorders from 0 to 5 years; behavioral disorders and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were more common from 6 to 11 years, behavioral and anxiety disorders were more likely at 12 to 15 years; and, lastly, behavioral disorders were more prevalent from 16 to 18 years. With respect to gender, there was a significant relationship with diagnosis: boys had more behavioral disorders, whereas girl had more anxiety disorders. To conclude, a relationship between mental disorders and developmental achievements could be indicated in the younger group. Additionally, externalizing disorders in boys and internalizing ones n girls were more prevalent across all ages.     

Working memory capacity and individual differences in the making of reinstatement and elaborative inferences

This study investigated the role of working memory capacity on the making of reinstatement and causal elaborative inferences during the reading of natural texts. In order to determine participants' working memory capacity, they were asked to take the reading span task before they took part in the study. Those participants that were identified as high or low working memory capacity readers were asked to perform a lexical decision task in two conditions: pre-inference and inference. In the pre-inference condition, target words representing reinstatement or causal elaborative inferences were presented immediately before the sentences that were predicted to prompt them. In the inference condition, the target words were presented immediately after the sentences that were predicted to prompt the inferences. Results indicated that, for the high working memory capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations for both types of inferences. In the case of low working capacity readers, lexical decision times were faster at the inference compared to the pre-inference locations only for reinstatement inferences. These findings suggest that working memory capacity plays a role in the making of causal inferences during the comprehension of natural texts.     

Benign and disruptive disturbances of the supervisory field1

Inspired by Baranger, Baranger and Mom’s notion of psychoanalytic bastion, we describe an unconscious collusion between analytic supervisors and supervisees. This collusion’s purpose is to avoid the anxiety inherent in the psychoanalytic field and that enters unprocessed into the supervisory field. The supervisor/supervisee dyad’s emotional experience can be fleeting, with moderate intensity, but can slow down the process. This can happen sometimes in any supervisory situation. Or it can become permanent and with greater intensity and bring the entire process to a standstill and to a disruption of the supervisory field. We call the first situation a ‘benign disturbance of the supervisory field’, the second a ‘disruptive disturbance of the supervisory field’. We illustrate both disturbances using supervisory material. Our purpose is to show how to detect these disturbances, understand them, and manage them.