Losing a training analyst for ethical violations: A candidate's perspective

The author presents her experience as the analysand of a training analyst who was investigated and expelled for ethical violations with another patient, including sexual-boundary violations, during her analytic training. While boundary violations by training analysts are not uncommon, the particular trauma experienced by 'bystanders' such as candidates and supervisees is not discussed in the literature, nor the response of institutes to the educational problems that are generated. The author illustrates the complications for candidates that arise from the dual roles of training analyst as educator and analyst when he or she faces investigation or censure, including isolation and secrecy, which promote various splits in the candidate, analytic dyad and group, as well as loyalty conflicts. The discussion covers three phases of the author's experience as a candidate-analysand, namely the period encompassing the institute's ethics investigation, the announcement of findings to her and to the institute as a group, and the ensuing individual and group dynamics generated by her analyst's expulsion from the institute and revocation of his medical license. Theoretical perspectives are utilized to understand the group regression, including contamination and contagion fears, which occurred in the wake of the training analyst's expulsion, and the impact of these processes on the candidate, including the pressure to function as a 'container' for projections of the group. Implications and recommendations for candidates and institutes are made for dealing helpfully with trainees who are affected by the process of dealing with a training analyst's ethical violations. Short-term and longer-term outcomes of the experience are considered.     

Longitudinal factor structure of posttraumatic stress symptoms related to intimate partner violence

Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) studies have suggested that a model of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is characterized by 4 factors is preferable to competing models. However, the composition of these 4 factors has varied across studies, with 1 model splitting avoidance and numbing symptoms (e.g., D. W. King, G. A. Leskin, L. A. King, & F. W. Weathers, 1998) and the other including a dysphoria factor that combines numbing and nonspecific hyperarousal symptoms (L. J. Simms, D. Watson, & B. N. Doebbeling, 2002). Using the PTSD Checklist (F. W. Weathers, B. T. Litz, D. S. Herman, J. A. Huska, & T. M. Keane, 1993) and CFA, the authors compared these models with competing models. A model of PTSD with 4 intercorrelated factors of Intrusions, Avoidance, Dysphoria, and Hyperarousal was found superior among 396 medical patients who screened positive for intimate partner violence (IPV) and 405 women seeking services for IPV. Structural invariance testing indicated that this 4-factor model remains stable across service setting and time.     

Demographic Indicators as Predictors of Future Time Perspective

The present investigation examined the relationships between five demographic variables (age, sex, income, marital status, and education) and future time perspective. From a theoretical perspective, these demographic indicators were conceptualized as proxy measures for the social forces that influence the adult expression of this personality dimension. Data were drawn from six investigations in which a brief measure of future time perspective (Hershey and Mowen in The Gerontologist 40:687–697, 2000) had been administered to one thousand four hundred and ninety eight individuals. Higher future time perspective scores (i.e., longer future orientations) were associated with being male, increased age, income, and educational level. These main effects, however, were mitigated by a significant three-way interaction among sex, age, and level of education. These findings suggest that a complex interplay of variables is responsible for the expression of personality traits at the individual level.     

Parent Beliefs about Treatment Credibility and Effectiveness: Assessment and Relation to Subsequent Treatment Participation

We assessed parents’ beliefs about treatment credibility and effectiveness and examined the influence of these beliefs on subsequent treatment participation. Seventy-six parents completed the Credibility/Expectancies Questionnaire—Parent Version (CEQ-P), and subsequently participated in treatment for their child's clinically referred conduct problems. The key findings were that: (a) the CEQ-P is composed of two components that measure parents’ treatment credibility and expectancies; (b) the total scale and each component are internally consistent and have strong test-retest reliability; (c) scores on the CEQ-P are significantly associated with scores on a measure of parent motivation for treatment, supporting the construct validity of this measure; and (d) scores on the CEQ-P at the first clinic visit significantly predict subsequent adherence to treatment procedures above and beyond demographic variables and parent motivation for treatment. This study provides an efficient and psychometrically sound measure of parent beliefs about treatment and demonstrates the importance of such beliefs for subsequent treatment adherence.     

The Blood Brotherhoods

The Jungian concept of archetypes when aligned with a developmental perspective provides an important analytical tool. It allows many terrorist acts to be read as capture by the archetype of the Terrible Father as a rebellion against the anima archetype of civilization.     

Ordinal-list integration for symbolic, arbitrary, and analog stimuli by rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta)

Two numeral-trained monkeys learned to produce 3 5-item lists of Arabic numerals, colors, and arbitrary signs in the correct sequence. The monkeys then responded at above-chance levels when the authors tested them with nonrewarded pair-wise comparisons of items from different lists, indicating their use of ordinal-position information. The authors also tested the monkeys with nonrewarded pair-wise comparisons of an analog quantity and an item from 1 of the 3 learned lists. Although the monkeys were not trained to serially order analog quantities, 1 monkey correctly integrated the analog quantities with the lists of numerals, colors, and signs. The consistent use of an ordinal rule, despite different types of training and varying degrees of experience with the 4 types of stimuli, suggested that the monkey had a robust concept of ordinality.     

Trust

Children rely extensively on others' testimony to learn about the world. However, they are not uniformly credulous toward other people. From an early age, children's reliance on testimony is tempered by selective trust in particular informants. Three- and 4-year-olds monitor the accuracy or knowledge of informants, including those that are familiar. They prefer to seek and endorse information provided by someone who has proved accurate in the past rather than someone who has made mistakes or acknowledged ignorance. Future research is likely to pinpoint other heuristics that children use to filter incoming testimony and may reveal more generalized patterns of trust and mistrust among individual children.     

Adding up the effects of cultural experience on the brain

How does the brain represent number and perform mathematical calculations? According to a recent and provocative study by Tang and colleagues, it depends on which language you learn. They found that the divergent linguistic and cultural experiences of native Chinese and native English speakers are associated with distinct patterns of brain activity during mathematical processing. Their results raise important questions about the cognitive and neural specificity of cultural influences on mathematical processes and the core nature of mathematical cognition.     

The Impact of Self‐Affirmation on Health Cognition,Health Behaviour and Other Health‐Related Responses: A Narrative Review

There is growing evidence that self‐affirmation – the process of reflecting upon cherished values or attributes – may have implications for health. Postulated effects range from reducing the defensive resistance to unwelcome health‐risk information to ameliorating the physiological response to stress. In this, the first detailed review of the literature on self‐affirmation and health, we summarise what is known. Self‐affirming can increase acceptance of unwelcome health‐risk information, especially among those at greatest risk. Self‐affirmed participants typically also report more intention to change behaviour postmessage. There is evidence that certain effects of self‐affirming may endure. Self‐affirmation has also been shown to have beneficial effects on the response to stress. There is, however, currently only limited evidence of actual health‐behaviour change following self‐affirmation. We discuss reasons for this and consider key research questions for the next phase of research.