Why the sunny side is up: association between affect and vertical position

Abstract— Metaphors linking spatial location and affect (e.g., feeling up or down) may have subtle, but pervasive, effects on evaluation. In three studies, participants evaluated words presented on a computer. In Study 1, evaluations of positive words were faster when words were in the up rather than the down position, whereas evaluations of negative words were faster when words were in the down rather than the up position. In Study 2, positive evaluations activated higher areas of visual space, whereas negative evaluations activated lower areas of visual space. Study 3 revealed that, although evaluations activate areas of visual space, spatial positions do not activate evaluations. The studies suggest that affect has a surprisingly physical basis.     

Competition between automatic and controlled processes

We investigated the competition between automatic and controlled processes in a word stem completion task. Prime-display duration and the prime-target interval were manipulated. On each trial a masked prime was displayed briefly, followed either immediately or after a delay by a word stem. The subjects were required to complete each stem with the first word that came to mind, to report any prime they could identify, and not to give as completion any identified prime. By the assumption that automatic processes require less stimulus input and can be completed faster than consciously controlled processes we expected a stronger performance contribution from automatic processes with the shorter prime-display durations and in the immediate stems condition. The results confirmed this expectation. The findings highlight that consciously controlled processes require more time to run their course than unconscious automatic processes.     

Measures of effectiveness in a short-term Interpersonal Cognitive Problem Solving programme

The effects of a classroom-based, short-term Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-Solving programme for 24 7- and 8-year-old children were assessed immediately after a 4-week intervention programme and again after a 4-week follow-up period. A previous study (Erwin & Ruane, Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 7, 305–310, 1993) implementing such a short-term programme relied on sociometric testing to measure the social effectiveness of the training and failed to find any changes in social status. The present study incorporated playground observations and found behavioural improvements immediately after training and after the follow-up period for the experimental group. However, confirming the previous study, no significant differences in sociometric status were found. The results highlight the limitations of sociometry as a measure of the effectiveness of a programme of training in Interpersonal Cognitive Problem-solving.     

Traumatherapy 2001, Part I: “The Reparation of the Self” Revisited on the Way into the 21st Century

This paper highlights the contributions of the article, The Reparation of the Self to trauma practice and science. The article was written almost 20 years ago at a time when little appeared in main stream literature to guide the theory and clinical practice of psychotherapy with trauma patients. At that time the article introduced a post-traumatic developmental theory, and a systematic approach to the treatment of war stress in particular, and, according to contemporary trauma experts, established a general model for the treatment of psychological trauma in general. As the present article reviews the original article, it highlights core trauma responses and treatment principles that are likely to be applicable to traumatherapy far into the 21st Century.     

The Unreal Child1

Unrepresented mental states lead to an impaired ability to feel emotions and trust in oneself, one’s history and in the world. The article explores the question of how representations of oneself and the relevant other, the mother, become possible in the course of therapy when dissociative processes previously made this impossible, and what role unconscious communication plays in the analytic realm. This question will be explored by examining the theories of André Green, Philip Bromberg, and Howard Levine.     

Unstable in more ways than one: reaction time variability and the neuroticism/distress relationship

The authors hypothesized that a greater degree of stimulus-response variability could either serve adaptive or maladaptive control purposes, depending on levels of Neuroticism. Specifically, a more variable relation between stimulus and response may be emotionally beneficial if such flexibility is used to support non-neurotic forms of self-regulation, but costly if it is used to support neurotic forms of self-regulation. To investigate these ideas, the authors asked 232 college undergraduates within three studies to perform several choice reaction time (RT) tasks. On the basis of performance, we could quantify stimulus-response variability in terms of RT variability from trial to trial. Such a measure of stimulus-response variability interacted with Neuroticism in predicting momentary negative affect (Study 1), informant judgments of negative affect (Study 2), and informant judgments of anxious symptoms (Study 3). As hypothesized, greater stimulus-response variability tended to be associated with less distress among individuals low in Neuroticism, but more distress among individuals high in Neuroticism. The results highlight the manner in which Neuroticism may "taint" control functions, in turn reinforcing Neuroticism-linked outcomes.