“Conversational” coupling of gaze behavior in prelinguistic human development

Mathematical regularities in the gross temporal pattern of infant-adult gaze behavior are identical to those found in adult verbal conversations. Both types of interaction conform to a Markov chain model. Such regularities suggest some universal property of human communication which predates the onset of speech. The present infants were 3.5 months old.This research was supported by the Grant Foundation, the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc., the New York State Department of Mental Hygiene, and the Federal Work-Study program of the City College of New York.     

Beyond the what, when, and how of transference: a consideration of the why.

Transference has generally been discussed in terms of its operating to distort the way in which a current relationship is dealt with and experienced because of one's past. In the present paper, emphasis is placed on that aspect of transference which operates as a defense, and which is called into play in response to signal anxiety associated with a "pathogenic complex" and is based on (1) a traumatic experience of stimulus overload or (2) an intrapsychic conflict stemming from instinctual drive pressure which in turn threatens a repetition of the traumatic experience. Clinical illustrations are presented in which both traumatic experience and drive-conflict forces are prominent, leading to a discussion of the here-and-now versus reconstruction of the past, as well as affective/cognitive and interpersonal/intrapsychic factors.     

Dimensions of assertiveness: factors underlying the college self-expression scale

A total of 447 Israeli students, both males and females, from four educational institutions were administered the College Self-expression Scale, a measure of assertiveness. The obtained responses were factor analyzed using the principal axis solution and the varimax rotation method. The results showed four main factors which included 43 of the 50 items of the original scale. These factors were identified as the willingness to take risks in interpersonal interactions, the ability to communicate feelings, setting rules and rectifying injustices, and the presence or absence of a tendency to invoke a self-punitive attitude. The findings were interpreted as adding support to the validity of the scale as a measure of assertiveness.     

Retaliatory aggression in individuals and groups

Retaliatory aggression in individuals and groups was compared. Physically and verbally attacked males in group or individual conditions were given the opportunity to retaliate against their tormentor by administering him electric shocks in the context of a bogus learning experiment. Groups retaliated much more severely than did individuals. Analysis of the group decision-making dynamics suggested the process of social modelling as a mediator of group aggression. Additional data suggested the mediating influence of diffusion of responsibility as well.     

AVTA: a device for automatic vocal transaction analysis

The Automatic Vocal Transaction Analyzer was designed to recognize the pattern of certain variables in spontaneous vocal transactions. In addition, it records these variables directly in a machine-readable form and preserves their sequential relationships. This permits the immediate extraction of data by a digital computer. The AVTA system reliability has been shown to be equal to or better than that of a trained human operator in uncomplicated interaction. The superiority of the machine was demonstrated in complex interactions which tax the information processing abilities of the human observer.     

Measuring racial essentialism in the genomic era: The genetic essentialism scale for race (GESR)

Current Psychology - Racial essentialism is the belief that races are biologically distinct groups with defining core “essences,” a notion associated with increased social distance and...     

Blending Arendtian Exemplarity with Weberian Ideal-Typic Analysis: Arendt’s ‘Socrates’ as a Vehicle for Social Critique

Arendt uses the exemplary validity of Socrates to think and value the possibilities of joint philosophical and political orientations in our present juncture. In this way Arendt’s ‘Socrates’ is not a mythic, historic, or dramatic individual, but offers an example of the best of the human condition. Unfortunately, because Arendt held the social conditioning and constraining of Socrates’ possibilities at arm’s length, his status as an exemplar is problematic and he ends up referring to a historical rather than contemporary possibilities. While Arendt had resources in her notion of the ‘world’ to better ground her simultaneously analytic and normative construction of ‘Socrates’, the lack of a social grounding makes ‘Socrates’ a significantly unmoored and shifting signifier. After showing the vacillations of ‘Socrates’ in Arendt, I supplement her normatively laden account with a Weberian grounding. With this firmer social grounding, ‘Socrates’ can refer to the possibilities of joint philosophical and political orientations in ancient Athens and thereby highlight how our world makes a contemporary version unlikely or impossible. Yet, this Weberian grounding comes at a cost. The normative dimension essential in Arendt’s ‘Socrates’ is lost due to Weberian value-neutrality. ‘Socrates’ can name a contemporary unlikelihood or impossibility, but if the enveloping social order does not value what it renders impossible, Weberian ideal-types on their own are incapable of offering normative resources for critique. I conclude by blending a Weberian social mooring with Arendt’s value-laden framework for social analysis and thereby recuperate the missing normative dimension. In short, by accepting the relational, necessarily plural, and dynamic root of human action we can, much like Arendt’s intended use of ‘Socrates’, value orientations that best express these norms, and criticize contemporary conditions that constrain their realization.     

Countertransference, supervised analysis, and psychoanalytic training requirements.

Because psychoanalysts have an ever expanding appreciation for the many factors that contribute to the psychoanalytic treatment process, they no longer view themselves simply as the receiver of the patient's transferences. When patient and analyst meet in the consulting room, they bring along with them a blend of intrapsychic and external ingredients--including countertransference--that make up the analytic soup. Candidates in psychoanalytic training must contend with even more sources of indirect countertransference reactions (Racker 1968) than experienced graduate analysts, due to aspects of the training experience itself. The author contends that minimum graduation requirements for supervised analyses are one such source of indirect countertransference. Four clinical examples of control analyses demonstrate this form of indirect countertransference during the assessment, opening, middle, and termination phases. These examples are followed by implications and recommendations for didactic psychoanalytic training curricula, countertransference awareness, supervision of control cases, institute governance policies and procedures, publication of clinical material, and future research.     

The selected response procedure: a variation on Appelbaum's altered atmosphere procedure for the Rorschach

This article introduces the Selected Response Procedure, which is a supplementary technique for expanding the scope of the Rorschach test. The procedure is conducted as follows: After the standard administration of the Rorschach test, patients are asked to look through all of the cards a second time and select one more response from any card of their choice. A rationale for this procedure is developed through a comparison to another supplementary Rorschach technique, the Altered Atmosphere Procedure. The importance of understanding the selected response within a theoretical framework, as well as the clinical context of each selected response, is highlighted by a clinical example using object relations theory. Finally, a number of didactic questions are offered as potential ways to query the possible meaning of selected responses.