Personality factors and cervical premalignancy

The purpose of the study was to attempt a discrimination between stages of cervical premalignancy in terms of the four Eysenckian dimensions. It consisted of a quasi-prospective design applied to the presumed continuum of cervical premalignancy. The Ss were 88 women addressed by a physician or self-addressed for Pap smear examinations. Prior to the Pap smear they completed a demographic questionnaire and the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire providing scores of extraversion (E), neuroticism (N), psychoticism (P) and lie (L). By the Pap smear results there were four groups of women: healthy, suffering from vaginal or cervical inflammations, suffering from human papillomaviruses (HPV), and suffering from dysplasias or cervical intraepithelial neoplasms (CIN). ANOVA and discriminant analyses showed that the Eysenckian dimensions discriminated correctly with above chance significance between the groups, mainly between the healthy and inflammatory, on the one hand, and the HPV and CIN, on the other hand (on the basis of N and E scores), and less well between the healthy and inflammatory (on the basis of L scores), and least between the HPV and CIN (on the basis of P scores). As expected, in the healthy and inflammatory groups as compared with the HPV and CIN groups, N and P scores were higher whereas E and L scores were lower. The results indicate the correspondence between physiological and psychological characteristics and suggest especially the alternating relation between neuroticism and physical pathology.     

LONELINESS,CLOSENESS AND SHARED RESPONSIBILITY IN SUPERVISION

This paper examines the meaning of stepping in and out of the formal supervisory roles and allowing relational unbidden experiences in the supervisory space. Such episodes evolve the supervisory relationship because they help to relieve the supervisees of their sense of aloneness in bearing a burdensome clinical responsibility: they change the supervisees’ perspective on therapeutic processes from first person singular to first person plural. Despite their evaluative function and the professional community that they share with supervisees, supervisors can facilitate the emergence of these episodes with the widely accepted practice of imagining therapeutic interactions. Such activity changes the hierarchy and reduces the tension in the supervisory space, and allows unbidden relational experiences to emerge. Thus, challenging the supervisory framework and temporarily stepping out of the formal roles not only strengthens the supervisees’ ethical clinical position but also allows for productive and creative processes in supervision.     

The Impact of Perceptions of Health Control and Coping Modes on Negative Affect Among Individuals with Spinal Cord Injuries

A wide range of demographic, medical, and personality and coping variables have been implicated as predictors of psychosocial outcomes following the onset of spinal cord injuries (SCI). The primary purpose of this study was to examine the role that perceptions of health control (internality, chance-determined, and other persons-determined) and coping strategies play in predicting respondents’ negative affect, namely, reactions of depression and anxiety [i.e., posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD)], as outcomes of psychosocial adaptation to disability. A second purpose was to investigate the potential role that time since injury (TSI) plays in moderating the influence of coping on psychosocial outcomes related to SCI. Ninety five survivors of SCI participated in the study by completing a battery of self-report measures. Two sets of multiple regression analyses were employed to address the study’s goals. Findings indicated that after controlling the influence of gender, age, time since injury, and number of prior life traumas: (a) the use of disengagement coping successfully predicted both respondents’ levels of depression and PTSD; (b) none of the perceptions of control of one’s health significantly influenced psychosocial reactions to SCI, as indicated by depression and PTSD, although perceptions of chance control showed a moderate positive trend; and (c) time since injury did not moderate the relationships between coping and negative affect related to the onset of SCI. The implications of these findings to rehabilitation professionals are discussed.     

Psychosocial Adaptation to Chronic Illness and Disability: A Preliminary Study of its Factorial Structure

This study examined the factorial structure of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability in a sample of 313 individuals who sustained spinal cord injury (SCI). Three models were examined. The first model tested the hypothesis that psychosocial adaptation is composed of a single, global factor, in which positive (adaptive) and negative (nonadaptive) reactions define two opposing poles of the same dimension. The second model tested the validity of two distinguishable factors, representing adaptive and nonadaptive dimensions. The third model examined the relationship between the 2-factor model and a third dimension, that of denial. The data from the instruments measuring psychosocial adaptation to trauma and disability (the Reactions to Impairment and Disability Inventory and the Purdue Posttraumatic Stress Disorder-Revised) were submitted to a series of confirmatory factor analyses, and the results from the goodness of fit tests and fit indices provided strong support to the validity of the latter two models. The findings indicated that the structure of adaptation to SCI can be best conceptualized as representing two, moderately linked but clearly distinguishable, factors and that the construct of denial of disability further elucidates our understanding of the structure of adaptation to loss of body integrity.

On paradoxes and the experience of duality

Abstract

Opposing attitudes, emotions, or perceptions of self and other that set the stage for experiences of duality influence our interactions and self–other schemas. The experience of duality that has been conceptualised as “conflict,” “self state,” and “paradox" in psychoanalytic theory has been extensively considered, particularly in terms of its manifestation in transference–countertransference relations and in the analytic material from patients' experiences. They have not, however, been compared and contrasted as entities that lead to similar kinds of experience. Scant attention has been paid, moreover, to paradox as a mental organisation that underlies certain experiences of duality. The concept of paradox has thus been emphasised and developed in this paper.     

Internet Safety and the Silver Surfer: The Relationship Between Gist Reasoning and Adults' Risky Online Behavior

Currently, fewer older adults are online compared with younger generations. However, with many new initiatives aiming to significantly increase the number of older internet users, they will increasingly be exposed to potential victimisation from internet fraud, a fundamental issue affecting all adult internet users. Despite this, little research has examined online risk‐taking across the adult lifespan or adults' reasoning about risky online behaviors. Using fuzzy trace theory, we investigated adults' online risk‐taking behavior and intentions, and whether these behaviors were related to different ways of reasoning about risk, namely, gist reasoning (using qualitative, intuitive knowledge) and verbatim reasoning (using quantitative, specific knowledge). Participants (326 adults, 18–79 years old, M_age = 49.54 years) reported their past risk‐taking behavior, future online risk intentions, gist and verbatim reasoning about online risk, sensation seeking, and time spent online. Age was negatively correlated with past risk‐taking, time online, future risk intentions, and sensation seeking. However, time spent online was positively related to future risk intentions, suggesting that spending more time using the internet could lead individuals to take more risks. Increased verbatim reasoning predicted increased intentions to take online risks, while gist reasoning predicted reduced intentions to take risks online. Our findings extend online risk research applying fuzzy trace theory to adolescents and young adults and suggest that online safety training incorporating gist‐based reasoning strategies could benefit all adults and, in particular, older generations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychosocial Adaptation to Chronic Illness and Disability: A Primer for Counselors

In this article, the authors discuss 3 broad domains of psychosocial adaptation to chronic illness and disability. These include the dynamics (basic concepts, psychosocial responses, and coping strategies) typically associated with the process of adaptation to disabling conditions, assessment of adaptation as evidenced by 6 commonly used measures, and intervention strategies applied to facilitating coping with and adaptation to chronic illness and disability.     

A CRITIQUE OF FREGE ON COMMON NOUNS

Frege analyzed the grammatical subject‐term ‘S’ in quantified subject‐predicate sentences, ‘q S are P’, as being logically predicative. This is in contrast to Aristotelian Logic, according to which it is a logical subject‐term, like the proper name ‘a’ in ‘a is P’– albeit a plural one, designating many particulars. I show that Frege’s arguments for his analysis are unsound, and explain how he was misled to his position by the mathematical concept of function. If common nouns in this grammatical subject position are indeed logical subject‐terms, this should require a thorough reevaluation of the adequacy of Frege’s predicate calculus as a tool for the analysis of the logic and semantics of natural language.     

Effects of the Gulf War: Identifying dangers to integrity of the psychoanalytic process

This paper deals with aspects of psychoanalytically-oriented psychotherapy taking place during a period of political and dangerous military events in the Gulf War. The situatiOn threatened the physical existence of the civilian population, including the therapist and the patient. Presented are number of potential dangers to the integrity of the therapeutic process. These military-oriented dangers produce in therapists an occasional inability to contain their own feelings. This may lead to therapists' unconscious use of patients for their own intrapsychic needs, and harm their patients. Another source of danger is the vagueness and ambiguity of the objective reality of the outside world. This may disrupt the ability to help the patient differentiate between inner and outer reality. Moreover, discussed are the ways in which therapy may facilitate personal growth in both the therapist and the patient. These external events may also serve to accelerate the course of therapy, as patients identify with their therapist' coping ability. Similarly, therapists may also gain and benefit by perceiving their patients' healthy growth and development.