Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale (GARF): II. Reliability and Validity in a Sample of Families of Bipolar Patients

The companion article by the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) Committee on the Family (see p. 155, this issue) describes the development of the Global Assessment of Relational Functioning (GARF) scale. The present study evaluated the reliability and concurrent validity of a manualized version of the GARF in recently episodic bipolar patients (N = 73 ) participating with family members in laboratory interaction tasks. The GARF was applied with high reliability by raters with little clinical experience. GARF ratings discriminated between families rated high and low in expressed emotion, with families rated as high in emotional overinvolvement showing the lowest relational functioning scores. GARF scores also correlated with affective negativity scores derived from the interactional task-based affective style and coping style coding systems. However, relational ratings were independent of levels of concurrent symptoms or illness chronicity among individual patients. GARF ratings may inform the treatment plans for patients with psychiatric disorders, but the optimal methods of data collection and rater training must be determined.     

INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN INTERVIEWER RATINGS: THE IMPACT OF STANDARDIZATION, CONSENSUS DISCUSSION, AND SAMPLING ERROR ON THE VALIDITY OF A STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

This research investigated empirical issues regarding the validity of individual interviewers'( N = 62) ratings collected after a structured interview. Each interviewer rated an average of 25 interviewees. One hypothesis examined but not supported was that systematic interviewer errors will attenuate interview validity when data are aggregated across interviewers. Also investigated was the validity of ratings averaged across interviewers compared to consensus ratings; consensus ratings were shown to have significantly but probably not practically higher validities. Third, a meta-analysis of individual interviewer validities revealed that all of the variance in validities could be attributed to sampling error. Results and implications are discussed.     

A CROSS-LEVEL INVESTIGATION OF FACTORS INFLUENCING UNSAFE BEHAVIORS AND ACCIDENTS

Several recent reviews of industrial accidents have given increased attention to the role of organizational factors as antecedents to the accident sequence. In the current study, three group-level factors (i.e., group process, safety climate, and intentions to approach other team members engaged in unsafe acts) and one individual-level factor (i.e., perceptions of role overload) were hypothesized to influence the frequency of reported unsafe behaviors using a cross-level research strategy. Data were collected from 21 teams and 222 individuals in a Midwestern chemical processing plant. Both the individual and group-level variables were significantly associated with unsafe behaviors, thereby supporting the cross-level hypotheses. There was also initial evidence suggesting that the group process-unsafe behavior relationship was mediated by intentions to approach other team members engaged in unsafe acts. At the team level of analysis, safety climate and unsafe behaviors were significantly associated with actual accidents. Group process and approach intentions were marginally related to actual accidents ( p < .10). The implications for a cross-level approach to safety and interventions is discussed.     

Confidant support and maternal distress: Predictors of parenting practices for divorced mothers

Following divorce, mothers may seek support for their parenting efforts. This study investigates confidant support from friends, family, and intimate partners, along with maternal distress, as predictors of parenting practices for divorced women. In a multimethod study of 138 mothers and their support confidants, we employed a measure of observed support that included emotional support, supportive behaviors, and likability of the support provider. These qualities were scored from dyadic problem-solving discussions of the mother's personal and parenting problems. Our main hypothesis was supported: Controlling for maternal distress and confidant negativity, observed confidant support predicted higher levels of effective parenting practices. Confidant negativity was associated with maternal distress, and we found a marginal relationship between maternal distress and parenting. Confidant negativity had an indirect association with parenting by predicting lower levels of observed support. Overall, 36% of the variance in parenting practices and 24% of the variance in observed support was explained in a multimethod structural equation model specified with minimal overlap.     

Psyche, Matter and Synchronicity

In 1948, and with Pauli s enthusiastic support, Jung began to write down his thoughts on synchronicity. A two-year correspondence ensued, with a focus on psyche and matter, and the importance of acausality within the frameworks of physics and psychology.
This paper traces the improbable interaction between the physicist and the psychologist, as these great scientists enrich and merge their formative views on acausality. Bolstered by his dreams, Pauli draws a correspondence between psychology and atomic physics, centring on the 'psychophysical problem', including synchronicity. Seminal thoughts are discussed, such as the need to broaden the concept of the archetype, and to recognize that the future of analytical psychology is not to be found primarily in therapy but in a 'unified holistic conception of nature and the status of man within it'. Two world pictures were constructed, identifying a non-causal (non-rational) side to reality, as experienced both in physics and the psyche. Pauli discusses his concept of a 'neutral language', the aim being to bridge the gap between psyche and matter, both of which are seen to rest on a common foundation, known to the alchemists as the unus mundus. The collaboration was highlighted with the publication of their book, The Interpretation of Nature and the Psyche (1952), which emphasizes the archetypal influence of archetype on consciousness.     

Of Families and Other Cultures: The Shifting Paradigm of Family Therapy

This essay proposes that family therapy is currently undergoing a paradigm shift as a result of the ascendance of an epistemological focus absent in the foundational works that gave rise to the field's dominant clinical approaches. While systemic metaphors for the family are based on mechanistic, biological, and linguistic models primarily concerned with how the world is (ontology), postmodernism's social constructionist leanings give primacy to meaning, interpretation, and the inter-subjectivity of knowledge (epistemology). Thus, the metaphor of the family as a system is gradually being subsumed by a metaphor that construes families as interpretive communities, or storying cultures. It is suggested that this largely implicit transformation be made explicit in order to explore more fully the clinical implications of the new epistemology.     

Debriefing the Family: Is Research an Intervention?

The primary focus of this article is to examine the general assumption that families are left largely unchanged by their participation in research, and to question whether family research can have unintended positive or negative effects on participants. The present article reports feedback from families participating in the Nonshared Environment and Adolescent Development project, a longitudinal study of family process and adolescent development. Families differed in their perceptions about whether the research experience was positive, detrimental, or inconsequential. This feedback underscores the researcher's ethical responsibility to detect and remove deleterious effects of participation. Suggestions are made for providing adequate debriefing to subjects and for using debriefing as a research tool to study the interaction between researcher and families.     

Group Work With Catholic Priests Who Have Exited the Clerical World

Currently, a growing number of Catholic priests choose to leave the priesthood. These former priests usually feel guilt ridden, isolated, and confused. They also experience great anxiety about fitting into a secular society and about being a “displaced person.” A group approach designed to help meet the needs of these individuals is described.     

A New Model of Job Training for Economic Rebirth

Many current welfare recipients lack the adequate training and education needed to become self-sufficient. Historically, government administered Job training programs have not been successful in efficiently moving people from government assistance to permanent employment, suggesting the need for a new model of job training. This article presents a resiliency model of job training that emphasizes applicant recruitment, assessment and development. Use of a resiliency model is intended to increase program success rates by using psychological assessment and professional development goals of the individual.