A therapist's ritual of respect

A great deal of attention in systemic family therapy has been given to the process and technique ofdeveloping 'therapeutic' rituals for families. In this paper we address the process of the therapist developing the ritual of practising respect. By practising respect the therapist shifts to a position similar to that of an anthropologist who is attempting to understand another culture and its epistemology. The ritual of practising respect has the potential of changing the therapist's tendency to move toward social control and moralist judgements. A case example is presented in this paper which illustrates the therapeutic ritual of practising respect for the client/family.     

Appraisal and coping processes in acute time-limited stressful situations: A study of police officers

This study focuses on the appraisal and coping process in acute, time-limited stressful situations in a stress experienced group: 54 Swedish police officers. Each police officer retrospectively reported their thoughts, emotions, and actions during five recent stressful job events. The relations among appraisals of threat and of coping options, seven forms of problem- and emotion-focused coping strategies, and selfrated performance were examined. Compared with previous studies of ordinary people in stressful situations, the police officers felt less threatened, appraised the situations as more solvable, and used considerably more problem-focused forms of coping. Age had a significant effect on appraisal, while organizational position had a significant effect on coping. Using latent profile analysis, four appraisal styles were obtained. Consistency of cross-situational appraisal style amongst individuals was high. The functional relationships among variables, i.e. appraisal, coping, and performance, are discussed.     

Monaural recall and the right-ear advantage

Lists of eight nonsense syllables were monaurally presented to right-handed men and women for free recall, half to each ear on each trial. Results showed a right-ear advantage (REA) in the recall of recency items, but not primacy items and for males only. Among males only that subgroup without familial sinistrality demonstrated the REA. Results offer support for the following: (A) the language mechanisms involved in short-term “echoic” memory are particularly well-lateralized; (B) mechanisms underlying monaural REAs may be similar to those responsible for the asymmetries found in other paradigms; (C) processing demands and strategies inherent to the monaural technique may account in part for its limited reliability in yielding REA and for the present absence of REA among females.     

Book reviews

Sutherland, S. (1989). Macmillan dictionary of psychology. London: Macmillan Reference Books. ISBN -333-38829-1. £ 29.95

Van Toller, S. & Dodd, G. H. (Eds.). (1988). Perfumery: the psychology and biology of fragrance. London: Chapman and Hall. Pp. 268. ISBN 0-412-30010-9. £ 35.00

Watt, R. J. (1987). Visual processing: Computational, psychophysical and cognitive resedrch. Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Ltd. Pp.160. ISBN 0-86377-081-9. £ 14.95/$ 26.95

Caplan, D. & Hildebrandt, N. (1988). disorders of syntactic comprehension. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press/Bradford Books. Pp. 340. ISBN 0-262-03132-9. £31.50     

Analysis of the decision-making process leading to appendectomy: a grounded theory study

The aim was to develop a theoretical understanding of the decision-making process leading to appendectomy. A qualitative interview study was performed in the grounded theory tradition using the constant comparative method to analyze data. The study setting was one county hospital and two local hospitals in Sweden, where 11 surgeons and 15 surgical nurses were interviewed. A model was developed which suggests that surgeons' decision making regarding appendectomy is formed by the interplay between their medical assessment of the patient's condition and a set of contextual characteristics. The latter consist of three interacting factors: (1) organizational conditions, (2) the professional actors' individual characteristics and interaction, and (3) the personal characteristics of the patient and his or her family or relatives. In case the outcome of medical assessment is ambiguous, the risk evaluation and final decision will be influenced by an interaction of the contextual characteristics. It was concluded that, compared to existing, rational models of decision making, the model presented identified potentially important contextual characteristics and an outline on when they come into play.     

Mental rotation under head tilt: Factors influencing the location of the subjective reference frame

We report five experiments on the effect of head tilt on the mental rotation of patterns to the “upright.” In Experiment 1, subjects rotated alphanumeric characters, displayed within a circular surround. Experiment 2 was similar except that the character was an unfamiliar letter-like symbol. In Experiment 3, subjects again rotated alphanumeric characters, but they were displayed within a rectangular frame tilted 60° to the right. Experiment 4 was similar, except that the subjects were instructed to rotate the characters to the “upright” defined by the tilted frame. In all four experiments, the subjects performed the task with their heads either upright or tilted 60°. In Experiment 5, subjects had their heads and bodies tilted 90°, and rotated alphanumeric characters displayed within a circular surround. In all except Experiment 4, analysis of response latencies revealed that the subjective vertical lay closer to the gravitational than to the retinal vertical, although it was somewhat displaced in the direction of the head tilt—more so in Experiments 2 and 3 than in Experiment 1, and more so still in Experiment 5. In Experiment 4, instructions to adopt the axes of the frame land thus of the retina) succeeded in bringing the subjective vertical closer to the retinal than to the gravitational vertical, although the subjective vertical was still some 20° on average from the gravitational vertical. The results show that the subjective reference frame is distinct from both gravitational and the retinal frames, and that the gravitational frame exerts the stronger influence. They also argue against the primacy of a “retinal factor” in the perception of orientation.     

Longitudinal changes in term and preterm infant night wakings: The role of caregiver anxious-depression

Changes in infant night waking during the first year of life are associated with individual (e.g., prematurity) and family (e.g., caregiver psychopathology) factors. This study examined the association between infant night waking and caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms during the first year of life in preterm and term infants. We considered between-person differences and within-person changes in caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms in relation to changes in infant night waking from 2- to 9-months. Racially (30.0% Black, 60.4% White, 9.5% multiracial/other) and socioeconomically (40.0% below median household income) diverse caregivers (N = 445) of full term (n = 258) and preterm (n = 187) infants were recruited from hospitals and clinics in two midwestern states. Caregivers completed measures of anxious-depression and their infant's night waking at four sampling periods (2-, 4-, 6-, and 9-months). Infant night wakings declined from 2- to 9-months. Between-person differences were observed, such that caregivers with higher average anxious-depressive symptoms or infants born full term reported more night wakings. Within-person effects of caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms were not significant. Caregiver anxious-depression is closely associated with infant night wakings. By considering a caregiver's average severity of anxious-depression, healthcare providers can more effectively plan infant sleep interventions. If caregiver anxious-depressive symptoms are ameliorated, night wakings may also decrease.