Concepts,structures, and meanings

Concepts are basic elements of thought. Piaget has a conception of the nature of concepts as informational or computational operations performed in an inner milieu and enabling the child to understand the world in which it lives and acts. Concepts are, however, not merely logico‐mathematical but are also conceptually linked to the mastery of language which itself involves the appropriate use of words in social and interpersonal settings. In the light of Vygotsky's work on the social and interactive nature of children's thinking and the nature of language as an essentially public currency of rule‐governed signs, we are led to reconstrue conceptual mastery as the acquisition of an interactive and interpersonal repertoire of tools which introduces the child to the world of those who educate it. In this way we come to see the elements of mind as constitutively involving that activity in which the determinants of meaning constrain and direct the child's linguistic development.     

Assessing Dependency Using Self-Report and Indirect Measures: Examining the Significance of Discrepancies

The present study addressed convergence between self-report and indirect approaches to assessing dependency. We were moderately successful in validating an implicit measure, which was found to be reliable, orthogonal to 2 self-report instruments, and predictive of external criteria. This study also examined discrepancies between scores on self-report and implicit measures, and has implications for their significance. The possibility that discrepancies themselves are pathological was not supported, although discrepancies were associated with particular personality profiles. Finally, this study offered additional evidence for the relation between dependency and depressive symptomatology and identified implicit dependency as contributing unique variance in predicting past major depression.     

The self in the couple relationship: part 1

This paper discusses the importance of the ‘good-enough’ development of the core self in the couple relationship. It argues that difficulties in the development of the self lie behind a significant number of troubled couple relationships. Part 1 focuses on individual psychotherapy and how changes to the core self are often attended by shifts in the marital relationship. It traces how this occurs through clinical material and analyses what kinds of changes to the self are needed for the couple relationship to function well. Psychodynamic theory is used to understand the core changes over time and how these are related to significant second-order change in the couple relationship. The construct of the ‘transitional space’ is used to theorize the couple relationship. Implications for the practice of individual psychotherapy are discussed. In Part 2, the significance of change in the experience of the self of one or both partners for a successful outcome of couples therapy is discussed, along with the place of work with individual partner(s) in the course of conjoint couples therapy.     

Specifying the Neuropsychology of Affective Disorders: Clinical,Demographic and Neurobiological Factors

Neuropsychological research in patients with affective disorders shows heterogeneous results with regard to the severity and profile of cognitive impairments. In this paper we hypothesize that the investigation of clinical (subtypes, comorbidity, traumatization, personality, severity, diurnal swings, course, duration, age of onset, biased processing, rumination, motivation, experience of failure, sleep, suicidal tendencies, computer attitudes), demographic (age, education, gender) and neurobiological factors (structural and functional brain changes, glucocorticoids, medication, ECT) that are related to cognitive performance has specified the understanding of severity and profile of neuropsychological impairments. We reviewed the literature pertaining to clinical, demographic and neurobiological factors following Pubmed and PsychInfo databases using different combinations of general key-terms including “Affective Disorder,” “Depression,” “Mania,” “Neuropsychological,” “Neurobiological,” “Moderator,” and “Review” as well as more specific demographic, clinical and neurobiological search terms. Findings from the literature show that the consideration of these factors has improved knowledge about the severity of neuropsychological impairments in patients with affective disorders whereas the neuropsychological profile is still poorly understood. Despite limited understanding, however, the existent results provide promising suggestions for the development of treatment programs.     

Can a mind have two time lines? Exploring space-time mapping in Mandarin and English speakers

Spatial representations of time are a ubiquitous feature of human cognition. Nevertheless, interesting sociolinguistic variations exist with respect to where in space people locate temporal constructs. For instance, while in English time metaphorically flows horizontally, in Mandarin an additional vertical dimension is employed. Noting that the bilingual mind can flexibly accommodate multiple representations, the present work explored whether Mandarin–English bilinguals possess two mental time lines. Across two experiments, we demonstrated that Mandarin–English bilinguals do indeed employ both horizontal and vertical representations of time. Importantly, subtle variations to cultural context were seen to shape how these time lines were deployed.     

Advanced clinical interpretation of the WAIS-IV and WMS-IV: prevalence of low scores varies by level of intelligence and years of education

Clinicians can use the base rates of low scores in healthy people to reduce the likelihood of misdiagnosing cognitive impairment. In the present study, base rates were developed for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Fourth Edition (WAIS-IV) and Wechsler Memory Scale-Fourth Edition (WMS-IV) using 900 healthy adults and validated on 28 patients with moderate or severe traumatic brain injuries (TBIs). Results indicated that healthy people obtain some low scores on the WAIS-IV/WMS-IV, with prevalence rates increasing with fewer years of education and lower predicted intelligence. When applying the base rates information to the clinical sample, the TBI patients were 13 times more likely to be identified as having a low cognitive profile compared with the controls. Using the base rates information is a psychometrically advanced method for establishing criteria to determine low cognitive abilities on the WAIS-IV/WMS-IV.