A Pilot Study Implementing Coping Power in Italian Community Hospitals: Effect of Therapist Attachment Style on Outcomes in Children

The study presented the initial report of a project regarding the implementation of the Coping Power Program in Italian community hospitals, and the program’s ability to reduce externalizing behavioral problems in children with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder diagnosis. Usually, interventions for children are implemented by a number of therapists with different personal characteristics, which therefore influence the implementation quality of an intervention. That said, the present study aimed to establish whether the insecure attachment styles of therapists predict unfavorable outcomes for children treated with the Coping Power Program. The sample included 80 children with a Disruptive Behavior Disorder diagnosis and 16 therapists. The results showed that the change in children’s aggressive behavioral problems was significantly related to the levels of the therapist’s preoccupation with relationships. Higher levels of change in aggression (where a higher value means that the aggression at the end of the treatment is higher than aggression at the baseline evaluation) are associated with higher levels of therapist’s preoccupied attachment style (anxious attachment style). This study provided some preliminary evidence that therapists need to be sensitive to their own attachment experiences when delivering therapy for children.     

Identity Statuses and Event-Focused Narratives at University Starting Point in Italy

The purpose of this study was to explore in greater depth the identity formation processes in Italian university students starting from previous studies that have provided support for a “postponed Identity”. Given the particular socio-economic difficulties of the Italian context, especially occupational uncertainty, this study assumes that the years of university for Italian students are rather like a time of standby, a period when students are allowed to remain in moratorium (institutionalized) or diffusion statuses and disengage from tasks related to personal and professional identity consolidation. For this purpose, the study focuses initially on the person-centred approach by measuring identity statuses in students attending the first 2 years of university and in students attending the fourth and fifth years of university. Subsequently, it focuses on the first 2 years of university through an event-focused approach, exploring narrative accounts of memorable daily life events perceived as important for identity construction, and to deepen our understanding of the subjective dimension of personal changes. Based on five identity dimensions, the cluster analysis indicated that six identity statuses could be extracted for both students groups: achievement, foreclosure, moratorium, diffused diffusion, carefree diffusion and undifferentiated. Each of these clusters revealed a distinct profile in terms of narrative universes of meaning. The study explored associations between narratives, reflecting a particular focus on the identity content and identity statuses. Suggestions for future research and limitations are discussed.     

Group psychodynamic counselling with final-year undergraduates in clinical psychology: A clinical methodology to reinforce academic identity and psychological well-being

Educational institutions should ensure that students develop a professional identity, as well as safeguarding their well-being and activating awareness and change processes. The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing academic identity – considered the forerunner of professional identity – and psychological well-being in a group of final-year undergraduates studying clinical psychology. Thirty-three final-year-students of clinical psychology who participated in six group psychodynamic counselling sessions were compared with sixteen final-year students of clinical psychology who had never participated in an intervention of this kind. The results suggested that group psychodynamic counselling made students feel more capable of managing their lives and more open to new experiences as well as encouraging them to perceive their relationships as more positive and satisfying, to believe that their life is meaningful, and to achieve greater self-acceptance. The in-depth exploration also prompted students to consider their commitment to their choice of career. Group psychodynamic counselling also reinforced students’ educational choice, as the likelihood of students becoming less committed to this choice was reduced after the intervention. Thus, the study confirmed the efficacy of group psychodynamic counselling as a means of reinforcing both academic identity and promoting well-being and demonstrated that it is a tool clinical psychologists and university teachers could use to activate self-reflection and change within educational settings.     

Laboratory of functional neuroelectrical imaging and brain–computer interfacing at Fondazione Santa Lucia

The laboratory of functional neuroelectrical imaging and brain–computer interfacing at Fondazione Santa Lucia is based on the joint work of researchers with a bioengineering and clinical neurophysiology background. The activity is mainly devoted to two aims: the non-invasive investigation of the motor cortical function under physiological and pathological conditions, through the development of advanced processing methods of the electroencephalographic signals; the development of a real-time EEG-based brain–computer interface (BCI) and the study of its use as an aid to enhance (or even to allow) the functional independence of persons with different degrees of motor disability.     

Rumination and social problem-solving in depression

We tested the hypothesis that impaired social problem solving in depression is a consequence of state-oriented rumination, which can be ameliorated by improving awareness of mental processes. 32 currently depressed, 26 recovered depressed, and 26 never depressed participants completed the Means Ends Problem Solving Test while randomly allocated to no questions, state-oriented ruminative questions, (e.g. focusing on why you have a problem) or process-focused questions (e.g. focusing on how you decide to solve a problem). In the no question condition, the currently depressed group was significantly impaired at problem solving compared to the never depressed and recovered depressed groups, which did not differ from each other. As predicted, the process-focused questions significantly improved social problem solving in depressed patients, compared to no questions and state-oriented questions, which did not differ from each other. As predicted, compared to the process-focused questions, the state-oriented questions significantly impaired social problem solving in the recovered depressed group. These results are consistent with recent theories and treatment developments which suggest that increased awareness of mental processes can shift people away from ruminative thinking, thereby, reducing depressive relapse.     

Behavioral and emotional response of Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata) mothers after their offspring receive an aggression

The authors of this study investigated the behavioral and emotional response of female Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata) to an aggression received by their offspring to evaluate the existence of cognitive empathic responses in a naturalistic setting. After their offspring received an aggression, mothers did not direct increased affiliative contacts to them. The factors likely to affect the degree of distress in the offspring or the perceived risk for the mother failed to appropriately modulate maternal behavior. Finally, mothers did not increase their frequency of scratching (a behavioral indicator of anxiety) after their offspring had received an aggression. The results suggest Japanese macaque mothers may be unable to understand their offspring's need for distress alleviation after the receipt of aggression.     

Slowly progressive pure dysgraphia with late apraxia of speech: a further variant of the focal cerebral degeneration

We report a longitudinal neuropsychological investigation of a patient with slowly progressive pure dysgraphia. Cognitive analysis of writing errors suggested a selective impairment of the graphemic buffer. After about seven years, the patient developed an apraxia of speech. No other linguistic or generalized cognitive impairment occurred subsequently, so that, twelve years after the beginning of the disease, the patient showed complete independence in daily life and still remained professionally active. Functional neuroimaging revealed hypoperfusion confined to left fronto-temporal lobe. This well-recognizable syndrome does not fit any of the cases described previously in the literature. This report therefore, adds another variant to heterogeneous clinical spectrum of focal neurodegenerative disorders, further suggesting the opportunity of their distinction from pathological processes leading to dementia.     

Task unrelated thought whilst encoding information

Task unrelated thought (TUT) refers to thought directed away from the current situation, for example a daydream. Three experiments were conducted on healthy participants, with two broad aims. First, to contrast distributed and encapsulated views of cognition by comparing the encoding of categorical and random lists of words (Experiments One and Two). Second, to examine the consequences of experiencing TUT during study on the subsequent retrieval of information (Experiments One, Two, and Three). Experiments One and Two demonstrated lower levels of TUT and higher levels of word-fragment completion whilst encoding categorical relative to random stimuli, supporting the role of a distributed resource in the maintenance of TUT. In addition the results of all three experiments suggested that experiencing TUT during study had a measurable effect on subsequent retrieval. TUT was associated with increased frequency of false alarms at retrieval (Experiment One). In the subsequent experiments TUT was associated with no advantage to retrieval based on recollection, by manipulating instructions at encoding (Experiment Two), and/or at retrieval (Experiment Three). The implications of the results of all three experiments are discussed in terms of recent accounts of memory retrieval and conscious awareness.