Does the two-chair dialogue intervention facilitate processing of emotions more efficiently than basic Rogerian conditions?

Processing difficult emotions is assumed to be of importance in therapeutic change. In this study, we examine whether a two-chair dialogue in Emotion-focused Therapy (EFT) is associated with a change in emotional processing, measured as changes in emotional arousal and emotional experiencing. In a multiple baseline design, 20 clients in treatment for depression or anxiety first received five, seven or nine weekly sessions of baseline treatment providing Rogerian conditions and affect attunement. In the second phase, two-chair intervention was added for the five consecutive sessions. All sessions were subdivided into 2 min segments which were rated using the Client Emotional Arousal Scale III and the Experiencing Scale. Analyses indicated a significantly higher number of high-arousal segment in the latter phase. Individual clients’ change trajectories were not significantly steeper in the second phase. Experiencing increased throughout both phases of treatment. However, after introducing the two-chair dialogue the Experiencing change trajectory was not significantly steeper than in the baseline phase. Findings suggest that both the two-chair dialogue and the Rogerian conditions with affect attunement focus are effective in facilitating emotional processing. Results are consistent with previous research, suggesting that the two-chair dialogue is an emotionally evocative intervention. Implications and limitations are discussed.     

Cultural complex,death anxiety and individuation during times of populism: a dialogue between Jungian psychology and social psychology

A trend towards political polarization and radicalization is observable in many countries across the world. The rise of populist movements and an increasingly heated polarized discourse in the face of mounting environmental and cultural challenges calls for a multifaceted psychological engagement with these phenomena. C.G. Jung’s vision of individuation remains crucial for understanding, and possibly mitigating, developments towards radicalization and division within and between cultures. This paper considers classic and contemporary depth psychological ideas regarding individuation, shadow work and cultural complexes, and applies these ideas to current socio-political developments. To further elucidate, Jungian thought is brought into conversation with the findings of a body of literature within social psychology called Terror Management Theory (TMT) which points to unconscious death anxiety as amplifying a sense of separation and otherness, as well as judgment and conflict between individuals and groups. This paper aims to deepen the understanding of current cultural polarization phenomena as well as to collective healing and growth by synthesizing ideas from Jung and TMT research, and to rekindle the fire of individuation as a counter to the trend of polarization, alienation and conflict.     

Freud’s Three Theories of Neurosis: Towards a Contemporary Theory of Trauma and Defense

This paper explores the development of Freud’s thinking on the aetiology of the neurosis. It is shown that Freud in the years 1893 to 1897 formulated three distinct and mutually incompatible theories of neurosis centred respectively on (a) psychic trauma and defence, (b) sexual trauma (seduction), and (c) repressed sexuality (libido). For Freud the decisive step was the shift from the first to the second theory, not from the second to the third. It is examined how Freud gave priority to the libido/fantasy theory until he returned in 1926 to a general trauma theory with his second theory of anxiety. The fate of Freud’s theory of neurosis in later psychoanalytic thinking is described as a process of dilution rather than an exploration of what is right and what is wrong in the theory. It is argued that the basic fault common to Freud’s second and third theories is the insistence on an exclusive sexual aetiology of the neurosis. On the other hand, it is argued that Freud’s first theory, centred on emotional trauma and defence, has turned out to be basically right and is therefore well suited to constitute a basis for a contemporary theory of neurosis (non-neurological mental disorders).     

Validation of an ipsative personality measure (DISCUS)

The purpose of this study was to examine the construct validity of an ipsative personality test (DISCUS), and various effects of the ipsative format of the test. Both an ipsative and a normative version of the DISCUS test was administered to a sample of undergraduate students (N = 103), along with an adjective based personality test that measures the Big-Five personality traits (5PFa). The results indicated that the normative and the ipsative version of DISCUS are not equivalent, and caution is needed when using the ipsative version for psychometric evaluations as in validation studies. The four DISCUS dimensions (Dominance, Influence, Stability, and Carefulness) represented combinations of the Big-Five traits rather than independent traits as indicated by the correlations with the Big-Five measure.     

Brain asymmetry and human electrodermal conditioning

Two experiments are reviewed that demonstrate effects of brain laterality on human classical conditioning. Pictures of facial emotional expressions were used as conditioned stimuli (CSs) together with shock as unconditioned stimlus (UCS). Bilateral electrodermal responses were recorded as dependent measures. In the first experiment, one group was conditioned to an angry face, and one group to a happy face. During extinction, the face-CSs were presented to the right hemisphere on half of the trials and to the left hemisphere on the other half of the trials. Results showed that the right hemisphere was superior in showing persisting effects of learning, and especially to the angry CS+. In the second experiment, lateralized presentations of the angry and happy faces were made during acquisition, with foveal presentations during extinction. Once again, the angry face elicited greater skin conductance responses (SCRs) during extinction in the group that had this stimulus presented to the right hemisphere during acquisition. It is concluded that emotional conditioning is differentially regulated by the two hemispheres of the brain.     

Memory for Textual Conflicts Predicts Sourcing When Adolescents Read Multiple Expository Texts

This study investigated whether memory for conflicting information predicted mental representation of source-content links (i.e., who said what) in a sample of 86 Norwegian adolescent readers. Participants read four texts presenting conflicting claims about sun exposure and health. With differences in gender, prior knowledge, and interest controlled for, and with self-reported critical reading strategies also included in a multiple regression analysis, it was found that the better participants remembered that the texts presented conflicting claims on the issue, the more likely they were to include source-content links in their mental representations of the texts.     

Maternal ratings of infant regulatory competence from 6 to 12 months: influence of perceived stress, birth-weight, and intervention: a randomized controlled trial

Mothers’ reports of preterm and term infants’ temperament from 6 to 12 months of age were studied, with intervention and stress as predictors. Preterm infants with a birth weight <2000 g were randomized to an intervention (71) or a control (69) group. A control group of healthy term infants (74) was also established. The intervention was a modified version of the “Mother–Infant Transaction Program”, aimed at sensitizing caregivers to the infants’ individual characteristics. Temperament was measured with the Infant Behavior Questionnaire, and stress with the Parenting Stress Index. There were no group differences in temperament at 6 or 12 months or in change during the same period. There was a strong association between stress and negative reactivity in the preterm control group at 12 months. In the preterm intervention group, there were strong negative correlations between stress and regulatory competence at 6 months. The intervention seemed to change the relationship between stress and temperament. The strength of this association indicates that the intervention sensitized mothers to the temperamental regulatory competence of their preterm infants.     

Visual information processing in the left and right hemispheres during unilateral tachistoscopic stimulation of stutterers

Tachistoscopy was used to investigate 42 stutterers and a corresponding control group for their speech dominance. A bilateral cortical responsibility for speech was equally frequent in the two groups. However, 2.5 times as many stutterers showed a superiority in the information processing in the right hemisphere than did nonstutterers.     

Early drinking onset: A study of prevalence and determinants among 13‐year‐old adolescents in Norway

Early drinking onset is associated with different psychosocial adjustment problems among adolescents. The aim of this study was to assess determinants associated with early drinking and to identify factors predicting early drinking onset among adolescents. The study included 1,550 eighth‐graders with a mean age of 13.5 years from 41 schools. A total of 24% (boys 29%, girls 19%) had ever drunk alcohol, while 14% had drunk some alcohol in the last 30 days. Further, early drinking was associated with gender, religion, school performance, smoking and bullying in the bivariate tests. Predictors of early drinking onset were identified by generalized linear mixed models with two multivariable models created. The first model included social and environmental variables. Entering intentions, expectancies, attitudes and norms into the multivariable analysis resulted in a significant improvement of the model fit constituting 86% in the second model. The percentage correctly classified those (56%) who had been drinking in the second model which was two times higher compared to the first model. Gender, religion and smoking emerged as significant predictors of drinking in both models.