Strengthening Connectedness in Close Relationships: A Model for Applying Contextual Therapy

This article presents a model for conducting contextual therapy with the aim of contributing to the further development of contextual therapy. Its founder, Ivan Boszormenyi-Nagy, introduced the core of this approach, relational ethics, as a new paradigm for family therapy, which has been received well. The authors presume that the training of (upcoming) contextual therapists and conducting contextual therapy itself can benefit from more concrete guidelines and a phased structure. It can also enhance the further development, research, and accountability of this approach. Therefore, using a design-oriented method, the authors developed a model that helps to shape a contextual therapy process and the applicable contextual interventions. It is based on strengthening connectedness in close relationships, using relational ethics as its compass. The framework of the model consists of three phases: exploring connectedness in close relationships, modifying connectedness in close relationships, and reinforcing connectedness in close relationships, whereby the goals of each of these phases are defined as process elements and expanded into guidelines for 19 interventions. The ingredients for these interventions are derived from two recent studies on the practice of Nagy and on the practice of current contextual therapists. The model is explained and substantiated based on contextual theory and therapy. Final remarks are presented in the conclusion.     

Increasing parenting self-efficacy: The Fussy Baby Network® intervention

High levels of infant crying place families at risk for disrupted relationships, parenting stress, and even for child maltreatment. We conducted an evaluation of the Fussy Baby Network^® (FBN), a program supporting families struggling with infant crying and related concerns. The study contrasted 29 families who sought help from FBN with 27 families with excessively crying infants who did not seek services. Researchers measured parenting self-efficacy, depression, and stress in each group before and after the intervention. Results from hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated greater improvements over time in parenting self-efficacy for parents receiving FBN services. Furthermore, the greater improvements in parenting self-efficacy in the intervention group were not directly attributable to reductions in infant crying. These findings provide preliminary evidence that the FBN approach may be effective at boosting the confidence of parents struggling with caring for their infants. Future research with larger samples with baseline equivalence and stronger research designs should explore this intervention further. This study also suggests that interventions for families with excessively crying infants should move beyond the focus of reducing infant crying to a broader strategy of supporting parents and strengthening relationships between parents and their infants to build parenting capacity.     

Does forgiving in a collectivistic culture affect only decisions to forgive and not emotions? REACH forgiveness collectivistic in Indonesia

According to some theorising, in collectivistic societies, forgiveness is mainly enacted to maintain relationships, not engender emotional transformation. This present study was designed to explore whether forgiveness affects decisional and emotional forgiveness in Indonesia, a country categorised as collectivistic. The evidence-based REACH Forgiveness psychoeducational group intervention was adapted to collectivistic culture (REACH forgiveness collectivistic; REACH-FC), and its efficacy was assessed in a randomised controlled trial. Undergraduates in Indonesia (N = 97; 24 male; 73 female; ages 16–21) were randomly assigned within a 2 × 3(S) quasi-experimental repeated-measures design comparing immediate treatment (IT) and waiting list (WL) conditions [Condition (IT, WL) × Time ([S] 3 time points). Harmonious value, a personality variable assessing the strength of participants' desire for group harmony, was the covariate. The condition × time (S) interactions for both decisional and emotional forgiveness were significant, challenging some previous literature. Clearly, not all forms of collectivism have similar effects when individuals and communities deal with transgressions.     

Clash of the climates: Examining the paradoxical effects of climates for promotion and prevention

Organizations often communicate seemingly paradoxical strategic imperatives to their employees that reflect a focus on promotion (take risks) and prevention (be prudent), as outlined by regulatory focus theory. When consistently emphasized and reinforced in an organization, these strategic inclinations can emerge as divergent climates for promotion and prevention that cloud the organization's perceived identity and reduce collective organizational commitment among employees. With a coherent organizational identity acting as both a sensemaking tool and a means of potential self-enhancement for employees, we use social identity theory to hypothesize that similarly emphasized promotion and prevention climates are negatively related to employees’ collective organizational commitment and indirectly, negatively related to organizational productivity. We test our hypotheses in a sample of 107 manufacturing organizations, using polynomial regression with response surface analysis to examine how similarly emphasized promotion and prevention climates relate to collective commitment and organizational productivity. Our analyses reveal that as organization-level promotion and prevention climate scores became more similar, collective organizational commitment decreases. Furthermore, we find that similarly emphasized promotion and prevention climates are negatively related to organizational productivity via collective commitment. We reconcile these findings with the organizational paradox and ambidexterity literatures and implicate promising avenues for future research.     

Support networks of adolescent mothers: Effects on parenting experience and behavior

The relation between social support and lower-income African-American adolescent mothers' parenting experience, parenting behavior, and psychological symptoms was studied. Larger support networks were associated with better maternal adjustment unless individuals providing support were also providers of conflict. The young women's own mothers were their most prominent providers of support, and the number of different types of support the grandmother provided was related positively to quality of the adolescent's parenting behavior, but negatively to her experience of parenting. Having more friends in the network was related to better parenting behavior, but having more siblings in the network was related to poorer parenting behavior as well as more psychological symptoms. Although most of the young women relied on male partners for support, no variables related to provision of support by male partners were correlated with maternal adjustment.     

Social anxiety and problematic cannabis use: evaluating the moderating role of stress reactivity and perceived coping

Despite epidemiological reports indicating an association between social anxiety disorder (SAD) and cannabis use disorders (CUD), there is a paucity of research exploring the nature of this relationship. The present investigation examined potential moderators of this relationship that are consistent with a tension-reduction model of addiction. Specifically, physiological reactivity to stress and perceived coping with stress were evaluated as moderators of the relation between symptoms of SAD and CUD. Physiological (SCR) and subjective (perceived coping) responses to unpredictable white noise bursts were collected from non-clinical participants (n=123). Lifetime symptoms of CUD and anxiety disorders were assessed using a structured diagnostic interview. CUD symptomatology was associated with symptoms of SAD but not with symptoms of any other anxiety disorder. Only perceived coping to unpredictable stimuli moderated the relationship between SAD and CUD symptoms. Findings are discussed in the context of tension-reduction models of co-occurring social anxiety and problematic cannabis use.     

Differential effects of safety in extinction of anxious responding to a CO2 challenge in patients with panic disorder

Safety-relevant parameters are hypothesized to be important to the maintenance of pathological anxiety. The authors examined the effects of safety information and safety cues on anxious responding to a repeated 35% CO2 challenge in 31 patients with panic disorder. Patients were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) safety information, (b) safety information plus a safety cue, or (c) no safety information. In the safety information group, patients received accurate information regarding the benign effects of the CO2 challenge. In the combined group, patients also received a safety cue that is salient for many patients with panic disorder (i.e., access to an anxiolytic pill during the challenge). The experimental manipulations did not differentially affect anxious responding following an initial challenge. However, after access to the anxiolytic was removed and the challenge procedure was repeated, those in the safety information alone condition showed lower subjective anxiety compared to those in the combined safety information/safety cue group. Findings suggest that safety information facilitates extinction of anxiety but only in the absence of safety cues.     

The race model inequality: interpreting a geometric measure of the amount of violation

An inequality by J. O. Miller (1982) has become the standard tool to test the race model for redundant signals reaction times (RTs), as an alternative to a neural summation mechanism. It stipulates that the RT distribution function to redundant stimuli is never larger than the sum of the distribution functions for 2 single stimuli. When many different experimental conditions are to be compared, a numerical index of violation is very desirable. Widespread practice is to take a certain area with contours defined by the distribution functions for single and redundant stimuli. Here this area is shown to equal the difference between 2 mean RT values. This result provides an intuitive interpretation of the index and makes it amenable to simple statistical testing. An extension of this approach to 3 redundant signals is presented.