The effect of contingent reinforcement on target variables in outpatient psychotherapy for depression: a successful and unsuccessful case using functional analytic psychotherapy

The current study investigated a behavior-analytic treatment, functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP), for outpatient depression utilizing two single-subject A/A+B designs. The baseline condition was cognitive behavioral therapy. Results demonstrated treatment success in 1 client after the addition of FAP and treatment failure in the 2nd. This study highlights the challenges in measuring treatment progress and outcome idiographically in this population.     

Looking deathworthy: perceived stereotypicality of Black defendants predicts capital-sentencing outcomes

Researchers previously have investigated the role of race in capital sentencing, and in particular, whether the race of the defendant or victim influences the likelihood of a death sentence. In the present study, we examined whether the likelihood of being sentenced to death is influenced by the degree to which a Black defendant is perceived to have a stereotypically Black appearance. Controlling for a wide array of factors, we found that in cases involving a White victim, the more stereotypically Black a defendant is perceived to be, the more likely that person is to be sentenced to death.     

A test of engagement versus disengagement in catastrophe models

The present study explored the interactive effects of self‐efficacy and increasing/decreasing task difficulty upon engagement and disengagement within a cusp‐catastrophe model framework. Using a closed motor skill aiming task participants (N=60) were required to compete in conditions where task difficulty increased and then decreased (or vice versa) where they were rewarded for good performance but penalized for bad. Participants who reported low levels of self‐efficacy disengage at an earlier level of task difficulty than their high self‐efficacy counterparts. Furthermore, this group did not re‐engage with the task until task difficulty had significantly decreased. Although task disengagement occurred with high difficulty in the high self‐efficacy group, this group re‐engaged in a similar manner in which they disengaged. Findings support and extend those of previous tests of catastrophe models by directly allowing for task disengagement.     

Analytical Psychology after Jung with Clinical Case Material from Stephen Mitchell's Influence and Autonomy in Psychoanalysis

This discussion focuses on the contributions of Drs. Loew and Richman, both children of Holocaust survivors and hidden children in the Holocaust, and the transformation of their traumatic experiences of loss and disconnection through sculpture and memoir writing. The influence of the analyst's disclosure of his or her personal self exploration on clinical work is also explored.     

Out of the Blue: Reflections on a Shared Trauma

Richard Almond’s paper challenges us to think deeply about the analyst’s impactful desires on the patient. My discussion considers different aspects of this impact: phallic, maternal, ethical. Specifically, I assert that Almond’s position in relation to the female patients he describes is more maternal, or “matricial,” than phallic. Chetrit-Vatine’s concept of matricial space is used to elucidate this point. Further, Almond’s paper asks us to consider seriously psychoanalysis as an ethics regarding responsibility for desire as it relates to countertransference and enactment. The specific desire I focus on is Almond’s desire for his patients’ love. Such as desire involves inherent clinical difficulties.     

My Enfant Terrible is Twenty: A Discussion of Slavin's and Gentile's Retrospective Reconsideration of “Love in the Afternoon”

The following is a response to papers by Jonathan H. Slavin, Ph.D., ABPP, and Jill Gentile, Ph.D., which both discuss my 1994 paper “Love in the Afternoon: A Relational Reconsideration of Desire and Dread in the Countertransference,” almost twenty years after its original publication in Psychoanalytic Dialogues. I begin with some retrospective thoughts of my own about this controversial paper, and then respond to interpretations of the paper offered by Slavin and Gentile. I conclude with my own thoughts about their original ideas and elaborations on the subject of erotic countertransference.     

When you fail to see what you were told to look for: Inattentional blindness and task instructions

Inattentional blindness studies have shown that an unexpected object may go unnoticed if it does not share the property specified in the task instructions. Our aim was to demonstrate that observers develop an attentional set for a property not specified in the task instructions if it allows easier performance of the primary task. Three experiments were conducted using a dynamic selective-looking paradigm. Stimuli comprised four black squares and four white diamonds, so that shape and colour varied together. Task instructions specified shape but observers developed an attentional set for colour, because we made the black–white discrimination easier than the square–diamond discrimination. None of the observers instructed to count bounces by squares reported an unexpected white square, whereas two-thirds of observers instructed to count bounces by diamonds did report the white square. When attentional set departs from task instructions, you may fail to see what you were told to look for.     

Learning new vocabulary during childhood: Effects of semantic training on lexical consolidation and integration

Research suggests that word learning is an extended process, with offline consolidation crucial for the strengthening of new lexical representations and their integration with existing lexical knowledge (as measured by engagement in lexical competition). This supports a dual memory systems account, in which new information is initially sparsely encoded separately from existing knowledge and integrated with long-term memory over time. However, previous studies of this type exploited unnatural learning contexts, involving fictitious words in the absence of word meaning. In this study, 5- to 9-year-old children learned real science words (e.g., hippocampus) with or without semantic information. Children in both groups were slower to detect pauses in familiar competitor words (e.g., hippopotamus) relative to control words 24 h after training but not immediately, confirming that offline consolidation is required before new words are integrated with the lexicon and engage in lexical competition. Children recalled more new words 24 h after training than immediately (with similar improvements shown for the recall and recognition of new word meanings); however, children who were exposed to the meanings during training showed further improvements in recall after 1 week and outperformed children who were not exposed to meanings. These findings support the dual memory systems account of vocabulary acquisition and suggest that the association of a new phonological form with semantic information is critical for the development of stable lexical representations.     

Socially Desirable Responding and Impression Management in the Endorsement of Love Styles

In 2 experiments, the researcher investigated the social desirability of different love styles (Eros, Ludus, Storge, Pragma, Mania, and Agape). In Experiment 1, the Marlowe-Crowne measure of social desirability (D. P. Crowne & D. Marlowe, 1960) was correlated negatively with possessive, dependent (Mania) love styles in both men and women. In men, social desirability was correlated positively with romantic, passionate love (Eros) and game-playing love (Ludus), but negatively with all-giving, selfless love (Agape). In women, social desirability was correlated positively with Agape, but negatively with Ludus. In Experiment 2, the researcher replicated these findings using an impression management manipulation (good, bad, and honest responding). The gender differences in social desirability of different love styles are explained in terms of traditional and nontraditional gender role socialization.