Subjektive Einschätzung der eigenen Gesundheit und gesundheitsrelevantes Verhalten bei niedergelassenen Psychologischen Psychotherapeuten

From June until August 2004 we asked 488 established psychological psychotherapists in selected German federal states for a subjective evaluation of their own health, their utilization of the health care system and their health-related behavior. It turned out that the psychotherapists mainly reported a good state of health although their reported state of health was more negative than in the general population with equal age and level of education. This finding is surely connected with specific mental, physical and existential burdens of their profession as well as with specifics of the “psychotherapist personality”. The psychotherapists’ evaluations highly depend on age, but not significantly on sociodemographical criteria like gender and place of establishment (East/West Germany). Also the affiliation to a therapy school (psychoanalysis, depth psychological funded psychotherapy, behavior therapy) is irrelevant for the subjective evaluation of one’s own health. Concerning the annual number of consultations and disability days the psychotherapists are clearly below average. They report a lot of attentiveness about their health and practice a health-benefical behavior. In this case they make higher demands on themselves than the general population.     

Researching psychotherapy integration: A heuristic approach

Moustakas argues that questions and methodology in heuristic research flow out of inner awareness, meaning and inspiration. The approach might arguably embrace a combination of qualitative research methods, and constitute a kind of bricolage. This paper describes a heuristic enquiry into psychotherapy integration that used such a combination of methods – an interpretative phenomenological approach, case studies, reflexive action, and writing. It demonstrates how each of these methods contributed to the six phases of heuristic enquiry, from the initial engagement with psychotherapy as a trainee to the creative synthesis of published works and a PhD thesis, together with some reflection on the enquiry's limitations and rigour. Published texts, training, clinical practice and reflexivity constituted the material from which a new organizing framework for understanding psychotherapy integration was formulated. The author reflects on how the research design allowed deep engagement with this material, and changed his perspective of psychotherapy integration. In conclusion, this paper suggests that both psychotherapy integration and heuristic enquiry can only be conducted on an individual and personal basis, and that it is the quality of the relationship, with the client, or the research material, that produces results.     

New job market entrants' future work self,career adaptability and job search outcomes: Examining mediating and moderating models

Based on career construction theory and the model of proactive motivation, the current research examined the mediating and moderating models for the relations among future work self, career adaptability, job search self-efficacy and employment status. A survey study was conducted among Chinese university graduates (N = 270). The results showed that future work self (measured at wave 1) had positive effect on employment status (measured at wave 3), with this relationship partially mediated by career adaptability (measured at wave 1) and job search self-efficacy (measured at wave 2). In addition, the results further revealed that the positive effect of future work self on job search self-efficacy was stronger among the graduates who had a higher level of career adaptability. In support of the hypothesized moderated mediation model, for individuals with a higher level of career adaptability, the indirect effect of future work self on employment status through job search self-efficacy was stronger. These findings carry implications for research on job search behavior, career education and career counseling.     

The Role of Irrelevant,Class-Consistent,and Class-Inconsistent Intraverbal Training on the Establishment of Equivalence Classes

The Psychological Record - The current study evaluated whether college students’ performance on visual–visual matching-to-sample (MTS) tasks were differentially affected by learning to...     

Die verwundbare Analytikerin

The withdrawal of acceptance lies at the centre of the traumatic experience and the disastrous consequences are overwhelming feelings of anxiety and shame relating to the individual’s own existence. Intense feelings in traumatised individuals are accompanied by fundamental shame as they fear once again being inundated by their own emotions and thus yet again becoming helpless and defenceless. Further, the emergence of emotions inevitably demonstrates their roots in the individual personality and it is precisely the withdrawal of recognition as a separate, autonomous being which these individuals have experienced. “When I experience myself as an individual with feelings, then I am but I am not allowed to be” seems to be what these people are unconsciously thinking. Recognition, in the true sense of the word, can only be achieved by the performative act of recognition both of the subjectivity and of the trauma. Such acts of recognition can be performed in the psychoanalytical process when the analyst shows herself as being involuntarily vulnerable and at the same time as a survivor of that vulnerability. This means, however, that the dialectic tension must not only be endured but under certain circumstances also admitted; the tension between the wish to keep all emotions within oneself and the simultaneous unavoidable failure to do so. Only an analyst who is actively alive can, in the last resort, help the traumatised to establish contact with the world of living objects and to feel themselves as being alive.     

Gender Role Beliefs and Attitudes toward Lesbians and Gay Men in Chile and the U.S.

We compared the relationship between gender role beliefs and antigay prejudice in Chile and the United States. Participants were Chilean and American university students. In Study 1, Chileans were more prejudiced than Americans, and men were more prejudiced than women. In Study 2, gender role beliefs mediated cultural and sex differences in prejudice. Chileans held more traditional gender role beliefs and were more antigay than Americans. Men were more prejudiced than women, particularly in their attitudes toward gay men. Further, sex differences in attitudes toward lesbians and gay men were completely mediated by gender role beliefs. Nationality differences in attitudes toward lesbians were completely mediated, and nationality differences in attitudes toward gay men were partially mediated, by gender role beliefs.     

An evaluation of crisis hotline outcomes. Part 1: Nonsuicidal crisis callers

The effectiveness of telephone crisis services/hotlines, examining proximal outcomes as measured by changes in callers' crisis state from the beginning to the end of their calls to eight centers in the U.S. and intermediate outcomes within 3 weeks of their calls, was evaluated. Between March 2003 and July 2004, 1,617 crisis callers were assessed during their calls and 801 (49.5%) participated in the followup assessment. Significant decreases in callers' crisis states and hopelessness were found during the course of the telephone session, with continuing decreases in crisis states and hopelessness in the following weeks. A majority of callers were provided with referrals and/or plans of actions for their concerns and approximately one third of those provided with mental health referrals had followed up with the referral by the time of the follow-up assessment. While crisis service staff coded these callers as nonsuicidal, at follow-up nearly 12% of them reported having suicidal thoughts either during or since their call to the center. The need to conduct suicide risk assessments with crisis callers and to identify strategies to improve referral follow-up is highlighted.     

Coercive and precocious sexuality as a fundamental aspect of psychopathy

Sexual behavior is closely associated with delinquency and crime. Although psychopaths, by definition, have many short-term sexual relationships, it has not been shown that sexuality is a core aspect of psychopathy. A Darwinian view of psychopathy led to the hypothesis that psychopaths have a unique sexuality involving early, frequent, and coercive sex. Our subjects were 512 sex offenders assessed on the Hare Psychopathy Checklist (PCL-R). Five variables reflecting early, frequent, and coercive sex loaded on the same principal component in exploratory factor analysis on a subset of the sample, whereas PCL-R items pertaining to adult sexual behavior did not. Confirmatory factor analysis of the remaining subjects yielded a measurement model containing three inter-correlated factors - the traditional two PCL-R factors, and coercive and precocious sexuality. Taxometric analyses gave evidence of a natural discontinuity underlying coercive and precocious sexuality. Coercive and precocious sexuality yielded statistically significant associations with other study variables predicted by the Darwinian hypothesis. The present findings are consistent with prior empirical findings and support the hypothesis that psychopathy has been a nonpathological, reproductively viable, alternate life history strategy.