Conception and dream material during psychoanalysis

A dream announcing her conception and describing in symbolic terms physiological processes associated with the early stages of pregnancy was reported by a female analysand 4 days after she and her husband had engaged in intercourse for the purpose of procreation. The manifest content of the dream and the associations to it are described. The assumption that conception, ordinarily a subliminal stimulus, was a somatic stimulus in this situation is explored. It is suggested that three special factors—the patient's exceptional sensitivity to internal sensations, her strong motivation to conceive, and a contributory awakening stimulus— may have made it possible for her to perceive her conception.     

Family Mobilization: Work with Angry Elderly Couples in Declining Health

When elderly angry couples face difficulties in caring for each other, the ability to monitor each other's health problems is reduced, prompting the mobilization of the family. This article presents three sets of questions that examine for patterns of family mobilization: positive wedging, disentanglement failure, positive in-and-out participation, and defensive paralleling. In our clinical impression, these patterns often accompany the health monitoring problems of angry elderly couples. Brief case studies are used to describe approaches for assisting these couples in terms of both health monitoring and marital interactions involving anger during health decline. A procedure of deliberate paralleling for working with couples who display an especially inflexible interpersonal arrangement is outlined. Implications are drawn for therapists' education.     

When multiple identities compete: The role of centrality in self‐brand connections

The current research provides a framework for understanding how centrality impacts people's choice of brands and related brand connectedness. Motivated by the need to validate their self‐image, individuals use brands to express and confirm their identities. The authors hypothesize that greater centrality of the identity to the self strengthens the connectedness an individual has for brands with value‐expressive properties. Three studies using experimental designs examined whether people whose identity is central to their self‐conception leads to stronger self‐brand connectedness than peripheral identities. In study 1, the results showed that people whose shopping identity was central (versus peripheral) to their self‐concept led to stronger self‐brand connections. Study 2 replicated the findings of study 1 employing brand symbolism as a moderator. Brands high in symbolic properties led to stronger brand connections for an individual's central identities compared with their peripheral identities. Study 3 replicated the influence of centrality on brand choice and self‐brand connections by generalizing this effect to reference group identities. Collectively, the studies provide evidence that individuals integrate brand associations into their self‐concept on the basis of both the centrality of the identity and the level of symbolism the brands holds for an identity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Teaching and Learning in High School Reading Classes: Perspectives of Teachers and Students

This qualitative study investigated high school reading programs and participants focusing on the insider perspectives of teachers and their students. The study occurred in two sites, one in a Southern state and the other in an Eastern state. The participants, five high school reading teachers and two to three students in each of their reading classes, were interviewed individually by the researchers. Interview questions focused on reader identity, reading habits, reader strategies, content area reading, and the reading program. Findings indicate a disparity between teachers' and students' understanding about reading, variability in instruction, and need for engaged learning.     

Town vs. gown: a direct comparison of community residents and student mock jurors

The use of students as mock jurors in the majority of legal psychology studies on jury behavior has been criticized (e.g., Bray & Kerr, 1979; Diamond, 1997). This study examined the degree to which student mock jurors' decisions were generalizable to those of real jurors. The participants of the study included 297 jury-eligible university students and 297 volunteers from the venire in the same community as that in which the students resided. All participants viewed one of six versions of a videotaped criminal trial. The defendant testified in English or in Spanish. In addition, the race of defendant was varied. Three bilingual individuals served as defendants with one appearing to be of northern European origin, one of Latino background, and one of African origin. Dependent variables included verdict and, for those who found the defendant guilty, the number of years to which he should be sentenced, and whether he should be fined. Student mock jurors differed reliably from their community counterparts on several demographic characteristics. However, the two groups had mixed results in relation to decision-making tasks. There was no difference in individual verdict preferences, but the students' sentence recommendations were more punitive. These results are interpreted in the context of the generalizability of mock juror studies.     

Assessing Couple Therapy as a Treatment for Individual Distress: When is Referral to Couple Therapy Contraindicated?

In order to better understand the effects of initial level of psychological disturbance on treatment outcome, a retrospective case control study of 95 couples who received couple therapy was conducted by sorting couples into one of four groups based on the degree of distress reported by individuals at intake: Neither distressed; both distressed; male distressed, female not distressed; female distressed, male not distressed. When partners started treatment with similar levels of disturbance both responded well in couple therapy. However, if the female reported clinical levels of disturbance at intake but her partner did not, outcome for the female was especially poor in contrast to outcomes for females receiving individual therapy. Clinically disturbed males showed significant gains in treatment even when their partners were not disturbed. These suggestive results argue for the possible value of conducting controlled studies of treatment assignment decisions that maximize positive outcomes.     

Addressing the Long-term Effects of Maternal Depression Through Early Intervention

Research on Child and Adolescent Psychopathology -