Adolescent Focused Psychotherapy for Adolescents with Anorexia Nervosa

The paper describes a manualized specific form on individually based developmentally oriented therapy for Anorexia Nervosa (AN) in adolescents. Adolescent focused psychotherapy for AN is derived from a self-psychology model and is designed to address key deficits in development associated with AN. Adolescents with AN are viewed as using food and weight to avoid negative affective states associated with adolescent developmental issues that they perceive as intolerable. To develop a more constructive coping style and improve self-efficacy, adolescent patients need to first learn to identify and define their emotions, and later, to tolerate emotions, particularly negative ones. In withdrawing from the environment and situations which provoke distress through self-starvation and preoccupations with food and weight, emotional and psychological development is arrested. Learning to identify and cope adaptively with emotions and developmental challenges presented by the environment form the key therapeutic targets of treatment. Specific therapeutic procedures, a case illustration and discussion of therapeutic rationale are also provided.     

Coloring Within the Lines: Gender Stereotypes in Contemporary Coloring Books

Extensive research on print media for children such as storybooks reveals that gender stereotypes are prevalent; however, no systematic analysis of coloring books has been conducted since 1974. We analyzed 889 characters in 56 contemporary coloring books published in the United States and selected through stratified random sampling from one region of California, coding for prevalence of each gender, stereotypic gender roles, activity level, type, and age of character. As hypothesized, males were more active; gender stereotypes were common. Gender neutral behaviors were more likely to be done by males. Females were more likely to be depicted as children and humans; whereas males were mostly depicted as animals, adults, and superheroes. Results are discussed in terms of gender schema theory.     

Fault Lines in the Great EST Debate

Three fault lines traverse inquiries into empirically supported therapies, along which pro and contra positions can be taken. First, failure to distinguish scientific from artistic properties of therapy has lead to neglect of pervasive personological and cultural variables that are implicated in this field of inquiry. Second, scientific anomalies result from focusing more on what ESTs are than on how they effect change. Psyche is portrayed as a humanistic Cartesian place-holder for an encroaching neuro-endocrinological and systemic understanding of human experiencing. Third, the EST movement is seen as a socio-political and business model, confounded with and eroding scientific objectives.     

Psychosocial correlates of substance use behaviors among African American youth

Cross-sectional data were collected on substance use behaviors and potential correlates in 1,494 African American students enrolled in grades 5-12 in eight schools in a central Alabama school district. Using a risk and asset framework, self-reported recent alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use were analyzed by identifying and measuring levels of influence, including individual, family, and school. For alcohol and marijuana use, recurrent risk factors were age, being hit by a parent, affiliation with gangs, and a tolerant attitude of peers toward drug use. For cigarette use, risk factors were peer-oriented: associations with gangs or cohorts holding lenient attitudes about substance use. For all substances, salient asset factors were academic achievement and parental monitoring. Findings suggest that efforts to reduce substance use behaviors should be directed at adolescents in terms of academic achievement and grade level as well as their social environments. For the latter, peer/family risks and family/school assets should be the foci for programs to minimize the short- and long-term consequences of these behaviors. Hence, the emphasis should be placed on modeling attitudes, preventing gang and family violence, encouraging parental supervision, and building positive teacher-student interactions.     

Being a mother with anorexia: A phenomenological study of seeking and receiving professional support for white heterosexual women in the UK

Mothers are currently under-represented in the literature on anorexia, including research on treatment, with most research focussed on female adolescents. This raises questions about how adult women and particularly those who are mothers, experience eating disorder treatment. This study provides a phenomenological exploration of lived experiences of seeking and receiving professional help and interactions with health professionals for six white heterosexual mothers who experienced anorexia while raising their children. Four themes are reported that capture the women's diverse experiences of seeking and receiving support for anorexia: (1) conflict between mothering and seeking help; (2) experiences of feeling blamed, poorly treated or misunderstood by health professionals; (3) positive experiences of seeking and receiving support; and (4) the importance of ongoing support. The women's experiences suggest that healthcare professionals should adopt a more holistic approach that acknowledges the subjective reality of the client (including their mother status) when working with mothers experiencing anorexia.     

Sibling rivalry,separation, and change in Austen's Sense and Sensibility

The paper explores a process of growth represented in the interplay of Jane Austen's characterizations of Marianne and Elinor Dashwood in Sense and Sensibility, approaching the text through the lens of psychoanalytic theories on oedipal sibling rivalry, separation, and processes of change. A close reading of Sense and Sensibility tracks Marianne Dashwood's repudiation of any ‘second attachment’ as the surface of an unconscious fantasy, denying a rival for the mother's love. A psychoanalytic view contrasts Marianne's lack of separation from her mother, her use of denial and projection, and her near death after losing the man she loves, with her older sister Elinor Dashwood's capacities for depression, reflection, and greater acceptance of loss and separation. The narrative portrays Mrs. Dashwood's identification with and idealization of her daughter Marianne, which contribute to her oedipal sibling ‘victory’. In the language and structure of the novel, the projections, identifications, aggressions, and separations (conscious and unconscious) of the sisters in the vicissitudes of their adolescent loves and rivalries constitute a process of growth. Austen's novel brings to life, with the vividness and coherence of great literature, forces and fantasies in oedipal sibling rivalries, inspiring renewed attention to their subtle presence in the transference and countertransference of the psychoanalytic process.     

Patient-therapist boundary issues: an integrative review of theory and research

Boundary issues, which regularly arise in therapy, can present dilemmas for clinicians. The purpose of this article is to help clinicians resolve these dilemmas by integrating some of the theoretical positions with empirical evidence reported in the literature on boundary issues in counseling and psychotherapy. The authors review the concept of treatment boundaries and the ethical principles that underpin them. They also review common boundary violations and provide recommendations to attenuate harm done to clients when such boundary violations occur in therapy.     

Five personality factors and sex: preliminary findings

This study assessed the relationships between the Big Five personality domains, attitudes to sex, and three specific sexual behaviours. Respondents were 123 undergraduate students (51 males; 72 females). Men were found to score significantly higher than women on measures of sexual curiosity and sexual excitement, while women were higher on sexual satisfaction. Neuroticism (N) and Extraversion (E) appeared to be the most important predictors of attitudes to sex, although Conscientiousness (C) and Openness to experience (O) were also implicated. N, C, and Agreeableness (A) were implicated in sexual behaviours. Some suggestions for future research are made.     

Deliberative Democracy,Critical Rationality and Social Memory: Theoretical Resources of an ‘Education for Discourse’

This article brings interconnects three debates to show what this might imply for the ‘redemocratisation’ of UK society and for pedagogical reform. One debate concerns deliberative types of democratic reform, arguing in favour of a ‘creative agnosticism’ towards the two philosophical frameworks which dominate this literature. This leads into a discussion of education and critical rationality, arguing for an aptitude-based account of moral agency, one which relates to the sociocultural resources we inherit from the past. The final debate therefore concerns social memory. I do not offer a theory of social memory but critique various commentators in arguing for what I call a ‘multipolar analysis’. This both describes the analytical method adopted in this article and the skills and capacities which a system based upon ‘education for discourse’ would need to facilitate. The article therefore proposes that democracy, education and memory—deliberativeness, critical rationality and social remembering—be brought closer together for the mutual benefit of each debate.