A comparison of interview and self-report methods for the assessment of borderline personality disorder criteria

Interview methods are widely regarded as the standard for the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder (BPD), whereas self-report methods are considered a time-efficient alternative. However, the relative validity of these methods has not been sufficiently tested. The current study used data from the Collaborative Longitudinal Personality disorder Study to compare diagnostic base rates and the relative validity of interview and self-report methods for assessing functional outcome in BPD. Although self-report yielded higher base rates of criteria endorsement, results did not support the common assumption that diagnostic interviews are more valid than self-reports, but instead indicated the combined use of these methods optimally identifies BPD criteria.     

How young children and chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) perceive objects in a 2D display: putting an assumption to the test

Object recognition research is typically conducted using 2D stimuli in lieu of 3D objects. This study investigated the amount and complexity of knowledge gained from 2D stimuli in adult chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and young children (aged 3 and 4 years) using a titrated series of cross-dimensional search tasks. Results indicate that 3-year-old children utilize a response rule guided by local features to solve cross-dimensional tasks. Four-year-old toddlers and adult chimpanzees use information about object form and compositional structure from a 2D image to guide their search in three dimensions. Findings have specific implications to research conducted in object recognition/perception and broad relevance to all areas of research and daily living that incorporate 2D displays.     

Neuronal oscillations and visual amplification of speech

It is widely recognized that viewing a speaker's face enhances vocal communication, although the neural substrates of this phenomenon remain unknown. We propose that the enhancement effect uses the ongoing oscillatory activity of local neuronal ensembles in the primary auditory cortex. Neuronal oscillations reflect rhythmic shifting of neuronal ensembles between high and low excitability states. Our hypothesis holds that oscillations are 'predictively' modulated by visual input, so that related auditory input arrives during a high excitability phase and is thus amplified. We discuss the anatomical substrates and key timing parameters that enable and constrain this effect. Our hypothesis makes testable predictions for future studies and emphasizes the idea that 'background' oscillatory activity is instrumental to cortical sensory processing.     

Redemptive Experience in Relational Family Therapy: A Christian Perspective

We all long for relationships with others, because only in connecting with others can we develop our intrapsychic structure and become functional adults. We are psychologically predisposed to have a constant connection with others and are driven toward relationships with others. Our deepest yearnings are therefore devoted to building solid dialogue as the means of becoming fully human. We, therefore, consciously or unconsciously, long for a relationship where we can experience happiness, satisfaction and, above all, redemption or salvation from our dreads, miseries and unhappiness. In this article we presuppose that a therapeutic relationship, demonstrated in a psychoanalytic setting, namely in relational family therapy, can contain redemptive dimensions in which the inextinguishable longing for salvation is always present.

Aspects of psychoanalytic theory: drives, defense, and the pleasure-unpleasure principle

Freud explained certain fundamentally important aspects of mental motivation by assuming the existence of two drives, one libidinal and the other aggressive/destructive. Elements of this theory that seem invalid are identified and discussed, and revisions are proposed that appear to have more validity and greater clinical usefulness.     

An evaluation of psychophysical models of auditory change perception

In many psychophysical experiments, the participant's task is to detect small changes along a given stimulus dimension or to identify the direction (e.g., upward vs. downward) of such changes. The results of these experiments are traditionally analyzed with a constant-variance Gaussian (CVG) model or a high-threshold (HT) model. Here, the authors demonstrate that for changes along three basic sound dimensions (frequency, intensity, and amplitude-modulation rate), such models cannot account for the observed relationship between detection thresholds and direction-identification thresholds. It is shown that two alternative models can account for this relationship. One of them is based on the idea of sensory quanta; the other assumes that small changes are detected on the basis of Poisson processes with low means. The predictions of these two models are then compared against receiver operating characteristics (ROCs) for the detection of changes in sound intensity. It is concluded that human listeners' perception of small and unidimensional acoustic changes is better described by a discrete-state Poisson model than by the more commonly used CVG model or by the less favored HT and quantum models.     

Greater sustained anxiety but not phasic fear in women compared to men

Startle reflex studies in rodents indicate that female are more reactive than rats in experimental models of sustained anxiety but not in models of phasic fear (Toufexis, 2007). This study examined evidence for a similar effect in humans. Participants were exposed to three conditions, (1) predictable aversive shocks signaled by a cue, (2) unpredictable shocks, and (3) no shocks. Acoustic startle stimuli were delivered regularly across conditions. Phasic startle potential to the threat cue in the predictable condition was not affected by sex. In contrast, and consistent with basic research, the sustained increase in startle in the predictable and unpredictable conditions was greater in women compared to men. Animal studies suggest that such an effect may be mediated by the effects of sexual dimorphism in limbic structures, including the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis. However, psychosocial factors may also contribute to this effect.     

The roles of thought suppression and metacognitive beliefs in proneness to auditory verbal hallucinations in a non-clinical sample

In a non-clinical sample (N = 751), we investigated relations among two subscales (self-reported intrusiveness of unwanted thoughts and thought suppression) of the White Bear Suppression Inventory (WBSI), metacognitive beliefs, and proneness to auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs). Both subscales of the WBSI were found to be related to AVH-proneness and strongly positively related to metacognitive beliefs about the uncontrollability and danger of thoughts. Regression analyses were used to test models of the relations among AVH-proneness and a range of metacognitive beliefs. When the WBSI subscale relating to the self-reported intrusiveness of unwanted thoughts was controlled for, the metacognitive style that was the strongest predictor of AVH-proneness was cognitive self-consciousness. Cognitive confidence and beliefs about the uncontrollability of thoughts were also significant predictors of AVH-proneness. These findings are used to revise existing models of the relations between metacognitive beliefs and AVHs. Implications for the management of AVHs are discussed.     

Practical Adaptations of Cognitive Processing Therapy with Bosnian Refugees: Implications for Adapting Practice to a Multicultural Clientele

Recent findings suggest that established psychological treatments for PTSD are effective for diverse populations, including war refugees who have experienced multiple and severe losses, deprivations, hardships, and atrocities. Treating non-English-speaking traumatized refugees requires the clinician to overcome linguistic and various cultural dissimilarities with clients that complicate effective engagement. Examples of clinical adaptations for Bosnian clients are presented along with a discussion of the client’s and therapist’s relationship to the larger service delivery system.     

Klein and Lacan Meet 21st Century Schizoid Man: Fairy Stories for the Modern Era

Melanie Klein invited us into the phenomenology of the schizoid dilemma through her depictions of the paranoid?schizoid position. By inserting his recursive arrows, Bion extended this conceptualization, showing us the folly of believing that we can ever entirely move beyond the frightening fantasies and realities of social exclusion and isolation. The 21st century has brought, along with the explosion of technology, an expulsion from the social order of many children who have found refuge from isolation and humiliation in the more accessible and less terrifying world of media and technological invention. What may look like narcissism can mask a terrible underlying schizoid failure to enter into the human race. This is the realm of fantasy run amok, where desire becomes alien and alienated such that one is haunted and hunted down by its very possibility. In this universe, conceptualizations from Klein, Bion, and Lacan help us to locate the individual who has become caught in a massive psychic retreat such that there is no subject because there are no objects. To illustrate, I describe my work with a young man who is living in a terrible “zombie zone” where people are not real and therefore are incomprehensible and terribly dangerous. The poignancy of his dilemma is heartbreaking. Perhaps that is one lesson we can still take from our old fairy tales: when one’s heart can be broken by another’s plight, then comes the possibility of a healing, an entry through that piercing of what had been impenetrable.