Toward the re‐enchantment of psychotherapy: Stories as container

Abstract

Storytelling by a therapist to clients may serve to increase clients’ ability to bear pain, to increase self‐complexity, and expand clients’ senses of the allowable. A model delineating the therapeutic impact of therapist storytelling in psychotherapy is proposed. Stories may change clients’ selves so that they may accommodate traumatic experiences and internal complexity. Stories increase clients’ capacity to tolerate painful experience and therefore serve as a container of tragic life experiences. The artistry of therapeutic story selection is defined as choosing stories consonant with clients’ strengths, rather than with the nature of the trauma. The power of story‐listening to alter consciousness in pleasant ways (storystoned) increases its usefulness as an intervention that is neither anxiety provoking nor re‐traumatizing.     

Improved training of football referees and the decline in home advantage post-WW2

ObjectivesResearch has identified a decline in home advantage (HA) in a number of professional leagues since World War 2 (WW2). The purpose of the current study was to identify whether the decline in HA in English and Scottish Professional Football Leagues is mirrored by the radical transformation in the training of referees post-WW2, thus providing a new insight into the cause of HA.DesignA longitudinal quasi-experimental design.MethodsHA was calculated for each team at the end of every season for the four English and the Scottish Premier League post-WW2. We also compiled a list of events, statements and quotations to illustrate the dramatic change in the way referees have been trained (physically and psychologically), and assessed over the same period.ResultsWe observed a systematic decline in HA in professional English and Scottish leagues post-WW2, but with the steepest decline observed in lower divisions with smaller crowds. Of the factors thought to influence HA, crowd support appears the most consistent with these observations. Crowds are known to influence referees' decisions to favour the home side. However we argue that improved training of referees since WW2 has contributed to an improved ability to make objective decisions and a greater resilience to crowd influence, which explains the decline in HA but also accounts for the steeper decline observed with smaller crowds.ConclusionsThe continued existence of HA, and the less steep decline observed in top leagues suggests that referees' judgements are still not immune to the influence of larger crowds.     

Disgust sensitivity and fear of animals: Effect of exposure to violent or revulsive material

Subjects were asked to rate their fear of four categories of animals both before and after viewing one of three brief video films. Subjects watched either (a) a video depicting extreme violence, (b) a video depicting revulsive scenes from a hospital operation, or (c) a video showing neutral landscape scenes. The results suggested that exposure to violent material produced an increase in fear ratings for animals in the Hi Fear/Hi Predatory category (e.g., lion, tiger, shark) which was significantly different from a decrease in fear ratings recorded for all other categories of animals. However, exposure to revulsive material produced an increase in fear ratings to animals in both the Hi Fear/Lo Predatory category (e.g., rat, spider, snake) and the Hi Revulsion category (e.g., slug, maggot, snail) which was significantly different to the decrease in fear ratings recorded for animals in the remaining categories. The neutral landscape scenes produced a decrease in mean fear ratings for all categories of animals. These results are considered further support for a disease-avoidance model of common animal fears, and suggest a causal link between disgust sensitivity and fear of certain fear-relevant animals.     

In search of a surrogate for touch: The effect of haptic imagery on perceived ownership

Previous research has shown that individuals value objects more highly if they own them, a finding commonly known as the endowment effect. In fact, simply touching an object can create a perception of ownership that produces the endowment effect. In this paper, we extend this line of research in several ways. First, we show that haptic imagery, or imagining touching an object, can have the same effect on perceived ownership as physical touch. We then demonstrate that haptic imagery can lead to perceptions of physical control, which in turn increase feelings of ownership. Moreover, the more vivid the haptic imagery, the greater the perception of control and the feeling of ownership. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.     

Body size dissatisfaction and avoidance behavior: How gender,age, ethnicity,and relative clothing size predict what some won’t try

Sixty-eight percent of U.S. adults are overweight/obese, and this epidemic has physical, psychosocial, and behavioral consequences. An internet sample of adults (N = 2997) perceiving themselves as larger than ideal in clothing size reported their body mass index (BMI), relative clothing size (RS; discrepancy between current and ideal size), and avoidance behaviors. Exploratory factor analysis of 10 avoidance items produced social avoidance and body display avoidance factors. A relative importance analysis revealed RS as a better predictor than BMI for avoidance. A hierarchical multivariate analysis of covariance found RS to predict both avoidance constructs. The relationship between RS and both avoidance constructs was stronger for women than men, and for younger as compared to older participants. Caucasians reported more body display avoidance than African Americans. This suggests that personal dissatisfaction with body size may deter involvement in varied life events and that women are especially avoidant of activities that entail displaying their bodies.     

‘The Ostrich Problem’: Motivated Avoidance or Rejection of Information About Goal Progress

Monitoring one's current standing with respect to goals can promote effective self‐regulation. However, the present review suggests that there is an ostrich problem such that, in many instances, people have a tendency to “bury their head in the sand” and intentionally avoid or reject information that would help them to monitor their goal progress. For example, people with diabetes avoid monitoring their blood glucose, and few people monitor their household energy consumption, check their bank balances, keep track of what they are eating and so on. While situational constraints can explain some problems with progress monitoring, we use a self‐motives framework to posit that the decision to avoid monitoring often represents the product of an interaction between different motives. For example, the desire to accurately assess progress may conflict with the desire to protect or enhance the self. The present review collates evidence pertaining to the ostrich problem, identifies different motives that underlie the decision to monitor versus not monitor goal progress, illustrates how the ostrich problem might be integrated into models of self‐regulation, and provides suggestions for future research. In so doing, the review advances our understanding of the nature and determinants of intentionally deficient monitoring.     

A Voice Cursing in the Wilderness

Book reviewed in this article:
John Berkman and Michael Cartwright (eds), The Hauerwas Reader     

Expectancy priming of smoking cessation messages enhances the placebo effect of tailored interventions.

OBJECTIVE: Previous research (Webb, Simmons, & Brandon, 2005) suggested that smokers' reactions to self-help materials were more positive if they believed that the materials had been personally tailored to their individual characteristics and if they held expectancies that tailored interventions are superior to standard, or generic, interventions. The authors' objective in the current study was to replicate and extend this research by testing the efficacy expectancy priming before intervention delivery. DESIGN: In a 2 x 2 factorial experiment, 210 smokers (M = 23 cigarettes/day) recruited from the community (62% female; 92% Caucasian; mean age = 49) were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: placebo-tailored intervention/no priming, placebo-tailored intervention/priming, standard intervention/no priming, or standard intervention/priming. The tailoring-related expectancies of participants' in the priming conditions were primed before they were presented with the respective intervention booklets. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Content evaluations, readiness to quit smoking, cessation self-efficacy, smoking-related knowledge, and progress toward quitting (behavior changes). Assessments occurred by mail at baseline and at 1-month postintervention. RESULTS: Similar to the earlier study, the placebo-tailored booklets produced superior evaluations and smoking-related cognitive and behavioral changes. Moreover, the pretreatment expectancy priming successfully altered participants' tailoring-related expectancies and also produced superior evaluations and outcomes. CONCLUSION: Findings support a causal role of tailoring-related expectancies on the efficacy of tailored interventions and suggest that interventions can be enhanced via expectancy priming.