Fatherhood: How Differentiation and Identity Status Affect Attachment to Children

Fathers have often been misrepresented in studies evaluating the father's role and the father's relationship to his children, due to being evaluated by theories that were originally intended to study the relationship between mothers and children. The current study evaluates fathers' differentiation and identity status as predictors of their attachment to their children. We used structural equation modeling and multiple regression to evaluate the relationships among the variables. We found that differentiation predicted identity status but that neither differentiation nor identity status predicted attachment. Further, commitment significantly predicted parent attachment, relationship avoidance, and relationship anxiety, whereas crisis significantly predicted only relationship avoidance. The implications of these results for therapists are discussed.     

Effect on Mood of Thinking About Extreme Emotional Terms

The hypothesis that being asked to think about extreme emotional terms influences mood in the direction of the polarity of the terms was tested in three experiments. Subjects answered items about their mood before and after being asked to think about nine extreme, positive emotional terms (e.g., ecstatic) or nine extreme, negative emotional terms (e.g., wretched). It was found that when subjects were asked to think about extreme, positive emotional terms, mood changed in a positive direction, and when they were asked to think about extreme negative emotional terms, mood changed in a negative direction. The effect on mood of being asked to think about extreme emotional terms did not depend on whether the subjects were asked just to think about the terms(Experiment 1), to think about the terms in relation to the self (Experiment 2), or to think about the meaning of the terms (Experiment 3).     

The language of worry: Examining linguistic elements of worry models

Despite strong evidence that worry is a verbal process, studies examining linguistic features in individuals with generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) are lacking. The aim of the present study is to investigate language use in individuals with GAD and controls based on GAD and worry theoretical models. More specifically, the degree to which linguistic elements of the avoidance and intolerance of uncertainty worry models can predict diagnostic status was analysed. Participants were 19 women diagnosed with GAD and 22 control women and their children. After participating in a diagnostic semi-structured interview, dyads engaged in a free-play interaction where mothers' language sample was collected. Overall, the findings provided evidence for distinctive linguistic features of individuals with GAD. That is, after controlling for the effect of demographic variables, present tense, future tense, prepositions and number of questions correctly classified those with GAD and controls such that a considerable amount of the variance in diagnostic status was explained uniquely by language use. Linguistic confirmation of worry models is discussed.     

A Dialogic Account of Sense-Making in Scientific Argumentation and Reasoning

This article identifies aspects of argumentation in scientific practice that are key for scientific sense-making and articulates how engagement in these aspects happens both inter-mentally (between people) and intra-mentally (an individual's reasoning). Institutionally, peer review exerts critique on new knowledge claims in science and is comprised by a search for errors, which can be expressed as generation and evaluation of alternative possibilities that contrast with the new knowledge claim. Critique influences construction of claims, and this interplay motivates progress in sense-making. A classroom experiment is presented in which a high school physics class simulated the social interactions between authors and reviewers. These students’ subsequent ability to engage in various forms of sense-making is contrasted with a control class that did the same activity but without simulating the relevant social interactions. The results suggest important support for a principled, practice-based way to simulate scientific discourse in classrooms to support sense-making.     

Mass psychology of the led and the leaders

Abstract

Some salient features of a Sullivanian perspective are given as a background for a discussion of the case of Anna. Lived experience is mentioned as of equal importance as fantasy. Technically, analytic inquiry in the form of questions is stressed. In his review of the case presentation, the author observes that too much emphasis is given to content, compared to form. He notes that the therapist does not report key transference and non-transference interactions with the patient and further suggests that the patient still has significant narcissistic problems. He suggests that it is time to confront the patient with her characterological ways of relating to the analyst.     

Pre-Entry Expectations,Attitudes, and Intentions to Join Predict Military Tenure

The objective of this study was to examine pre-entry expectations, attitudes, and intentions as predictors of tenure among military members. Data from nationally representative (U.S.) samples of youth on attitudes toward military service, expectations about the effect of joining the military on quality of life, and intentions to join the military were linked to tenure among those who later joined the military as adults. Results from survival analyses indicate that those who initially had no desire to join the military and did not expect military service to have positive effects on their quality of life, but ultimately joined the military nonetheless, tended to have shorter military careers. Explanations for these findings are offered along with implications for military staffing.     

Life events and psychological well-being in old age

Abstract

Although life event research has burgeoned in recent years, little attention has been paid to the prevalence of events among the elderly or their relationship to psychological well-being. This paper presents data from a three-wave longitudinal study of community elderly in Aberdeen. Negative life events were highly prevalent among both survivors [N=349) and non-survivors [N=108], but the relatively small differences between the groups indicate that attrition does not seriously affect longitudinal findings. Longitudinal analysis of survivors' data was performed using LISREL and yielded a model with a goodness of fit index of 0.918, demonstrating a close fit between the data and the model. The model parameters indicate that those in poor psychological state were more likely to report serious non-health events than health events, although the latter were more likely than the former to result in a decline in psychological well-being, even after prior psychological state was taken into account. While elderly people with low social integration experienced more severe reactions to life events in the short term than those with high social integration, there were no significant long term effects, even for those reporting highly stressful events. There was no evidence of a sub-group of elderly people lacked into a cycle of serious life events. However life events were not random occurrences; serious health events were more often reported by those with low education while women and those in lower social classes were more likely to report serious non-health events. Overall, long term disruption, directly attributable to life events, was minimal when viewed within the context of the community elderly's stable psychological state.     

“Getting to Know”: Exploring How Urban African American Women Conceptualize Safer and Risky Sexual Behaviors

The surge in the rate of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) cases continues to be most prevalent for African American women between the ages of 18 and 29, with heterosexual transmission remaining the primary cause of HIV spread for this population. The high rates of HIV/AIDS among African American women continue to emphasize the need for understanding how members of this population conceptualize sexual safety and risk. A qualitative research study using grounded theory methods was conducted to explore how African American women define safer and risky sexual behaviors. Interviews were conducted with 14 African American women between the ages of 18 and 29. The study findings suggest that African American women’s definitions of safer and risky sexual behaviors, while in a consensual sexual relationship, are consistently influenced by sex partner type. The information garnered from this study can help inform the development of HIV prevention strategies, health education, counseling and reproductive health services that support African American women’s wellness.