The Linguistic Therapy of Evaluation: A Treatment Plan for Silvia

This paper describes the treatment of a depressed woman, Silvia (I. Caro, 2001), treated with the linguistic therapy of evaluation. The linguistic therapy of evaluation is a type of cognitive psychotherapy developed from the theory of general semantics. The theory and the treatment are based on the use of language and the role this plays in the development of emotional problems such as anxiety and depression. We briefly describe the main conceptual and assessment issues of the therapy and the procedure followed in the case of Silvia. The aim of the therapy is to change patients' evaluations, that is, to help them to develop an extensional orientation instead of an intensional orientation, which is assumed to be at the core of emotional problems. The paper ends with a brief review of the process and outcome research that has demonstrated the efficacy and the clinical process of the linguistic therapy of evaluation.     

Psychological consequences of rheumatic diseases in children and adolescents: A first exploratory study

The objective of our study was to make a first exploratory study about the psychological status of children and adolescents with rheumatic diseases exploring, also, the significant differences between girls and boys. A total of 123 children (81 girls and 42 boys) with rheumatic diseases, between the ages of 1 and 19 years old were assessed using different measures for evaluating behavioral and emotional problems. The results showed a picture of a mild or moderate degree of psychological problems in the different measures of anxiety, depression, general distress and behavioral problems. Girls, compared to boys, scored higher in most of the measures used, showing more internalizing than externalizing kinds of symptoms. The results suggest the importance of making a more detailed study of these children, comparing them with matched controls and making prospective, longitudinal studies in order to detect psychological problems, and to explore the influence of predictive variables.     

Assimilation of Problematic Experiences in Linguistic Therapy of Evaluation: A Case Study

In this article the process of assimilation in the problematic experience of tiredness of one patient, María, is shown. María was treated with linguistic therapy of evaluation (LTE), a therapy midway between constructivist and cognitive therapies based on the theory of General Semantics, for 14 sessions. María was one of the most successful cases of LTE. Aims of the study were to show the process of assimilation in a case with good outcome and to explore if this process shows an irregular pattern, with setbacks or jumps between stages. This process is analyzed by the Assimilation of Problematic Experiences Scale (APES), an eight-stage scale that shows the process of assimilation from an experience being warded off, avoided, in vague awareness, clarified, understood, solutions applied, and finally resolved and integrated into the self. Results showed, first, that the process of assimilation reaches APES Stages 5 (application) and 6 (problem solution), and, second, that the process of assimilation showed a clear sawtoothed, irregular pattern.     

The effect of an irrelevant dimension on “same-different” judgements of multi-dimensional stimuli

Subjects made “same”-“different” judgements of simultaneously presented pairs of visual stimuli which could vary either in shape and colour independently, or in shape alone. In both conditions only shape was relevant to the “same”-“different” judgement. In the former condition “same” and “different” reaction times (RTs) were shorter when the states (“same” or “different”) of the relevant and the irrelevant dimension, colour, were the same. This result is interpreted as support for either a perceptual or a response interference hypothesis. The presence of an irrelevant dimension did not appear to affect differentially “same” and “different” judgements. The need for a re-evaluation of the results from other studies of multi-dimensional stimulus discrimination is discussed.     

A walk through time: What you should have read by now or will read soon about psychotherapy

In this paper a five years analysis of psychotherapy is done. The sample, taken from the PsycLIT was composed of 2694 books and book's chapters which deal with psychotherapy from many perspectives. Results are offered about first author's sex, institutional affiliation and country. Besides, the content of each book and chapter is analyzed in terms of the therapeutic approach followed, the pathology and sample treated, and the specific theme or author's work reviewed. The paper ends with a thorough discussion of the most relevant results found and brief comments about the future of psychotherapy.     

Graded modalities. I

We study a modal system ¯T, that extends the classical (prepositional) modal system T and whose language is provided with modal operators M inn (nN) to be interpreted, in the usual kripkean semantics, as there are more than n accessible worlds such that.... We find reasonable axioms for ¯T and we prove for it completeness, compactness and decidability theorems.The authors are very indebted to the referee for Ms consideration and appreciation of their work.     

Graded modalities,II (canonical models)

This work intends to be a generalization and a simplification of the techniques employed in [2], by the proposal of a general strategy to prove satisfiability theorems for NLGM-s (= normal logics with graded modalities), analogously to the well known technique of the canonical models by Lemmon and Scott for classical modal logics.     

Normal predicative logics with graded modalities

In this work we extend results from [4], [3] and [2] about propositional calculi with graded modalities to the predicative level. Our semantic is based on Kripke models with a single domain of interpretation for all the worlds. Therefore the axiomatic system will need a suitable generalization of the Barcan formula. We haven't considered semantics with world-relative domains because they don't present any new difficulties with respect to classical case. Our language will have, as in [1], constant and function symbols, but they will have a rigid interpretation. In this instance the terms will be considered rigid designators, that is, their interpretations will be the same in all possible worlds (cfr. [5]). Nevertheless we will not consider languages with identity: in this way we avoid the problems of identity in modal contexts. On the other hand, we think that in that context would arise essentially the same problems which occur in classical predicative modal logic. Finally we will consider only denumerable languages because the extension to non denumerable ones isn't conceptually problematic.The present work was carried out under a grant of the Foundation U. Bordoni.     

The indirect effect of cognitive reserve on the relationship between age and cognition in pathological ageing: A cross-sectional retrospective study in an unselected and consecutively enrolled sample

Cognitive reserve (CR) allows individuals to maintain cognitive functionality even in the presence of pathologies. The compensation hypothesis suggests that CR plays an indirect role between age and cognitive decline, contrasting the negative effect of ageing on cognition. We test this hypothesis in an unselected and consecutively enrolled sample of memory clinic attendees (n = 134) who completed the CR Index questionnaire and three neuropsychological tests assessing global cognition (MMSE, FAB, CDT). Participants were divided into two groups based on standard diagnostic criteria (DSM-5): those who were cognitively impaired (n = 92) and those who were preserved (n = 42). A principal component analysis was used to extract a composite measure of global cognitive functioning from the three neuropsychological tests, and mediation analysis was used to examine the relationship between CR, age and global cognitive functioning in the two groups. Results revealed that: (i) age had a significant direct negative effect on the global cognitive score in both groups; (ii) the three socio-behavioural proxies of CR together suppress the direct negative relationship between age and global cognitive score in cognitively impaired patients but not in cognitively preserved participants. This study confirms the association between CR, age and cognition and allows us to validate its role in a population with cognitive impairment and extend findings to a low-to-middle educated population. These results hold important implications for public health and wellness promotion, emphasising the beneficial role of maintaining healthy and active physical, cognitive and social lifestyles.