Treating a Chronically Depressed Adolescent Female Using the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy: A Case Study

A case is presented of an adolescent female with double depression who was treated using the Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP). CBASP is designed to teach a social problem-solving procedure called Situational Analysis (SA). Generalized treatment effects were measured through monitoring of diagnostic status, two administrations of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-Adolescent, weekly administrations of the Child Depression Inventory, and acquisition performance ratings on the SA task. The results showed that CBASP appeared to be an effective treatment. The double depressive disorder remitted, and the patient learned to identify behavioral consequences as well as target and attain her interpersonal goals. CBASP can be effective for adolescents, although modifications of the adult form of the therapy may be necessary.     

Reviews: Books, Art

POLITICS ON THE COUCH: CITIZENSHIP AND THE INTERNAL LIFE. By Andrew Samuels, 235 pp. New York: Karnac (Other Press). $16.00. MARTHA, MARTHA: HOW CHRISTIANS WORRY. By Elaine Leong Eng, M.D. Binghamton, NY: Haworth Press, Inc., 2000. $14.95. SPILT MILK: PERINATAL LOSS AND BREAKDOWN. Edited by Joan Raphael-Leff. 100 pp. London: Institute of Psychoanalysis, 2000. MOTHERHOOD AND SEXUALITY. By Marie Langer, 305 pp. New York: Other Press, 2000. $30.00. BRANCHING STREAMS FLOW IN THE DARKNESS: ZEN TALKS ON THE SANDOKAI. By S. Suzuki. Eds: M. Weitsman and M. Wegner. 193 pp. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. $22.50. RESTORED HARMONY: AN EVIDENCE BASED APPROACH FOR INTEGRATING TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE INTO COMPLEMENTARY CANCER CARE. By Stephen Sagar, MD. xviii + 134 pp. Hamilton, Ontario, Canada: Dreaming Dragonfly Communications, 2001. $19.95 (US); $29.95 (Can.), paperback. (ISBN: 0-9689488-0-4). CHIYO-NI, WOMAN HAIKU MASTER. By Patricia Donegan and Yoshie Ishibashi, 184 pp. Boston: Charles E. Tuttle Co., 1998. $16.95. THE METAPHYSICAL CLUB: A STORY OF IDEAS IN AMERICA. By Louis Menand, 442 pp. New York: Farrrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2001. $27.00. BUDDHISM WITHOUT BELIEFS: A CONTEMPORARY GUIDE TO AWAKENING. By Stephen Bachelor, 127 pp. Riverhead Books, 1997. $21.95. Video Art is Dead, Long Live Video Art     

Acceptability of personal hormone monitoring for contraception: longitudinal and contextual variables

A new contraceptive technology may advance the science of family planning but may do little to affect health if potential users do not deem it an acceptable method. The authors conducted an acceptability study of a newly developed contraceptive method--personal hormone monitoring. A sample of 480 English volunteers present at the 6th month of a 13-month longitudinal study completed surveys regarding their attitudes toward a personal hormone monitor for the purpose of contraception. The authors used the participants' responses to determine (a) the extent to which the participants accepted the monitor, (b) how their ratings of acceptability changed over time, (c) the extent to which contextual variables predicted changes in acceptability over time, and (d) whether those contextual variables predicted final acceptability of the monitor. Results suggested that no single method of family planning is best for everyone and specified the people for whom personal hormone monitoring may be most suitable.     

Effects of manual versus voice-activated dialing during simulated driving

We measured driving performance (lane-keeping errors, driving times, and glances away from the road scene) in a video driving simulator for 24 volunteers who each drove alone on a 10.6-km multicurved course while simultaneously placing calls on a mobile phone subscribed to a voice-activated dialing system. Driving performance also was measured for the same distance while participants manually dialed phone numbers and while they drove without dialing. There were 22% fewer lane-keeping errors (p<.01) and 56% fewer glances away from the road scene (p<.01) when they used voice-activated dialing as compared to manual dialing. Significantly longer driving times in both of the dialing conditions as compared to the No Dialing condition are discussed in terms of the hypothesis that drivers decrease driving speed to compensate for the demands of the secondary phone tasks.     

Beneficial and adverse effects of pets

The beneficial and adverse effects of pets on people with special mental and physical conditions merit inclusion in psychological evaluations and treatments.     

The Cross-Modal Coordination of Interpersonal Timing: Six-Week-Olds Infants' Gaze with Adults' Vocal Behavior

The purpose of this study was to examine the hypothesis that 6-week-old infants are capable of coordinated interpersonal timing within social interactions. Coordinated interpersonal timing refers to changes in the timing of one individual's behavior as a function of the timing of another individual's behavior. Each of 45, first-born 6-week-old infants interacted with his or her mother and a stranger for a total of 14 minutes. The interactions were videotaped and coded for the gaze behavior of the infants and the vocal behavior of the mothers and strangers. Time-series regression analyses were used to assess the extent to which the timing of each of the infants' gazes was coordinated with the timing of the adults' vocal behavior. The results revealed that (a) coordinated timing occurs between infants and their mothers and between infants and strangers as early as when infants are 6 weeks old, and (b) strangers coordinated the timing of their pauses with the infants to a greater extent than did mothers. The findings are discussed in terms of the role of temporal sensitivity in social interaction.     

Repetition blindness has a perceptual locus: evidence from online processing of targets in RSVP streams

Four experiments tested whether repetition blindness (RB; reduced accuracy reporting repetitions of briefly displayed items) is a perceptual or a memory-recall phenomenon. RB was measured in rapid serial visual presentation (RSVP) streams, with the task altered to reduce memory demands. In Experiment 1 only the number of targets (1 vs. 2) was reported, eliminating the need to remember target identities. Experiment 2 segregated repeated and nonrepeated targets into separate blocks to reduce bias against repeated targets. Experiments 3 and 4 required immediate "online" buttonpress responses to targets as they occurred. All 4 experiments showed very strong RB. Furthermore, the online response data showed clearly that the 2nd of the repeated targets is the one missed. The present results show that in the RSVP paradigm, RB occurs online during initial stimulus encoding and decision making. The authors argue that RB is indeed a perceptual phenomenon.     

The Experience of the Holy: A Relational Psychoanalytic Analysis

The title of this paper, The Experience of the Holy is a direct reference to Rudolf Otto's book Das Heilige. The paper begins with Otto because he lays out many of the important issues involved in a psychological investigation of the experience of the holy, especially the question of whether the sacred is a unique object of experience, or a characteristic of our experience of ordinary objects. The paper then discusses three contemporary relational psychoanalysts (D.W. Winnicott, Hans Loewald, and Christopher Bollas), and the ways in which their theorizing illuminates the psychology of the sacred.     

Concurrent-chain performance in transition: effects of terminal-link duration and individual reinforcers

Pigeons responded on concurrent-chain schedules with variable-interval initial links and equal delays as terminal links. The terminal-link delays were 1 sec in some conditions and 20 sec in other conditions. The percentages of reinforcers delivered for responses on the left key were 10%, 30%, 70%, or 90%, and this percentage was switched every five to nine sessions. The rate of change in the pigeons' response percentages after a switch was the same whether the terminal-link delays were 1 sec or 20 sec. Analysis of the effects of individual reinforcers showed that after a response on one key had been reinforced, response percentages on that key were higher for at least the next 100 responses. Small effects of individual reinforcers were evident after eight or nine additional reinforcers had been delivered. The effects of individual reinforcers were about equally large during times of transition and during periods in which overall response percentages were relatively stable.     

The influence of word frequency on recency effects in directed free recall

Leading theoretical explanations of recency effects are designed to explain the reported absence of a word frequency effect on recall of words from recency serial positions. The present study used a directed free-recall procedure (J. J. Dalezman, 1976) and manipulated the frequency composition of the word lists (pure and mixed). Overall, with pure lists, a greater proportion of high-frequency (HF) words were recalled than low-frequency (LF) words, and with mixed lists, a greater proportion of LF words were recalled than HF words. Of importance, this recall advantage for one frequency over the other as a function of list composition was evident across the last three serial positions, indicating an influence of word frequency on recency effects that is dependent on the frequency composition of the lists. These results challenge one of the major assumptions on which several theories of recency effects have been based.