Countertransference reactions toward specific client populations: a review of empirical literature

Countertransference reactions can either benefit or hinder mental health professionals during the therapeutic process. An awareness of countertransference reactions can aid clinicians in understanding and anticipating their own specific emotional responses toward certain client populations. Recent empirical research suggests that common countertransference reactions may occur in mental health professionals when relating to certain client types. Since a literature review indicated that more numerous and reliable tests have been developed to measure countertransference during the past decade, as well as better research designs, this article reviews and summarizes all empirical research studies on countertransference reactions toward specific client populations during the past 10 years, from 1990 to 2001.     

Eye-hand coupling during closed-loop drawing: evidence of shared motor planning?

Previous paradigms have used reaching movements to study coupling of eye-hand kinematics. In the present study, we investigated eye-hand kinematics as curved trajectories were drawn at normal speeds. Eye and hand movements were tracked as a monkey traced ellipses and circles with the hand in free space while viewing the hand's position on a computer monitor. The results demonstrate that the movement of the hand was smooth and obeyed the 2/3 power law. Eye position, however, was restricted to 2-3 clusters along the hand's trajectory and fixed approximately 80% of the time in one of these clusters. The eye remained stationary as the hand moved away from the fixation for up to 200 ms and saccaded ahead of the hand position to the next fixation along the trajectory. The movement from one fixation cluster to another consistently occurred just after the tangential hand velocity had reached a local minimum, but before the next segment of the hand's trajectory began. The next fixation point was close to an area of high curvature along the hand's trajectory even though the hand had not reached that point along the path. A visuo-motor illusion of hand movement demonstrated that the eye movement was influenced by hand movement and not simply by visual input. During the task, neural activity of pre-motor cortex (area F4) was recorded using extracellular electrodes and used to construct a population vector of the hand's trajectory. The results suggest that the saccade onset is correlated in time with maximum curvature in the population vector trajectory for the hand movement. We hypothesize that eye and arm movements may have common, or shared, information in forming their motor plans.     

Obsessional Thoughts in Postpartum Females and Their Partners: Content, Severity, and Relationship with Depression

Only a few studies have examined the development or exacerbation of obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD) during pregnancy and the postpartum. Although the available literature suggests that OCD symptoms, particularly obsessional problems, develop at higher than expected rates among postpartum females, the overall prevalence of such symptoms in the postpartum remains unknown. Previous findings also suggest that intrusive distressing thoughts related to situational stressors are common in the general population. Therefore, the present study was designed to assess the presence and phenomenology of postpartum obsessive-like intrusive thoughts, images, and impulses in a large sample of parents with very young infants. Surveys were mailed to 300 childbearing women and their partners. Results were obtained from approximately one fifth of the sample; and 65% of respondents indicated the presence of obsessional intrusive thoughts. Intrusions were similar to normal obsessions as reported in previous research. Results are discussed in terms of the content of intrusive thoughts, their relationship to depression, and implications for etiological models of OCD and perinatal education.     

Doing better but feeling worse. Looking for the "best" job undermines satisfaction

Expanding upon Simon's (1955) seminal theory, this investigation compared the choice-making strategies of maximizers and satisficers, finding that maximizing tendencies, although positively correlated with objectively better decision outcomes, are also associated with more negative subjective evaluations of these decision outcomes. Specifically, in the fall of their final year in school, students were administered a scale that measured maximizing tendencies and were then followed over the course of the year as they searched for jobs. Students with high maximizing tendencies secured jobs with 20% higher starting salaries than did students with low maximizing tendencies. However, maximizers were less satisfied than satisficers with the jobs they obtained, and experienced more negative affect throughout the job-search process. These effects were mediated by maximizers' greater reliance on external sources of information and their fixation on realized and unrealized options during the search and selection process.     

Differentiation of self and psychosocial development

This study investigated the relationship between Bowens (1978) concept of differentiation of self and Eriksons (1950/1963) psychosocial stages of development. Three hundred and fourteen university undergraduates completed the Measure of Psychosocial Development (MPD; Hawley, 1988) and the Differentiation of Self Inventory (DSI; Skowron & Friedlander, 1998). Multiple regression analyses indicated that differentiation level is significantly predictive of psychosocial development. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.     

Community violence, family conflict, and preschoolers' socioemotional functioning

This study examined the relations among family conflict, community violence, and young children's socioemotional functioning and explored how children's social cognition and mothers' psychological functioning may mediate the outcomes associated with this exposure. Mothers of 431 Head Start preschoolers completed questionnaires about their family demography, exposure to community violence, family conflict, and children's distress symptoms. Children were administered a social cognition assessment, and teachers rated their behavior. Results showed that mothers' reports of children's co-witnessing of community violence were positively associated with police department crime rates, children's distress symptoms, and teachers' ratings of aggression. A path analysis revealed that children's social awareness and mothers' depressive symptoms partially mediated the effects of community violence and family conflict on outcomes for children.     

Are The Very Happy Too Happy?

Although positive emotions undoubtedly confer benefits, one can have too much of it. There is probably a point beyond which enjoyment interferes with realism, yet it is unclear where that point is. The original States of Mind (SOM) model (Schwartz and Garamoni, 1986; 1989) proposed that a ratio of [positive] to [positive plus negative] affective/cognitive states [P/(P+N)] of about 0.62 is optimal, but previous research indicated that higher ratios may go with good mental health. The revised balanced states of mind (BSOM) model (Schwartz, 1997) suggests a higher cutoff, with ratios above 0.90 being dysfunctional. This paper reports a study of 72 very positive subjects (mean ratio = 0.85) and assessed possible dysfunction by means of questionnaires, role-plays, and physiological responses to induced stress. Signs of dysfunction were no more frequent among the most positive subjects (ratios of 0.90 and above) than among moderately positive subjects. This suggests that there is nothing wrong with the high levels of happiness in present day society. As yet, it is still not established how much more happiness will be too much. One possibility is that standard cognition/emotion measures need to be revised in order to detect truly excessive positivity in a sensitive manner.     

The dyadic nature of social information processing in boys' reactive and proactive aggression

The correlation between boys' social cognitions and their aggressive behavior toward peers was examined as being actor driven, partner driven, or dyadic relationship driven. Eleven groups of 6 familiar boys each (N = 165 dyads) met for 5 consecutive days to participate in play sessions and social-cognitive interviews. With a variance partitioning procedure, boys' social-cognitive processes were found to vary reliably across their dyadic relationships. Furthermore, mixed models regression analyses indicated that hostile attributional biases toward a particular peer were related to directly observed reactive aggression toward that peer even after controlling for actor and partner effects, suggesting that these phenomena are dyadic or relationship oriented. On the other hand, the relation between outcome expectancies for aggression and the display of proactive aggression appeared to be more actor driven and partner driven that dyadic.