Using Dreams in Treating Couples' Sexual Issues

The authors demonstrate use of couples' dreams in couple therapy for problems with intimacy, sexuality, and fidelity. Condensation, symbolization, and projective identification are mechanisms that result in the conversion of emotional and relational pain into sexual symptomatology. Dreams use similar processes to hide and at the same time convey emotional issues, and so dream analysis with couples is particularly useful in exploring and treating dysfunctional sexual relationships. As in individual psychoanalysis and psychotherapy, dreams in couple therapy express the transference. The authors show how dream analysis renders the couple's shared transference for resolution in the treatment process.     

Cognitive processes in psychological adaptation to miscarriage: A preliminary report

Abstract

Twenty-two women who wished to continue their pregnancies were interviewed several months after their first miscarriage. Levels of anxiety and depression showed an extremely high degree of variability. Cognitive processes in the form of a search for meaning, mastery and self-enhancement hypothesised to be important in adaptation to negative events were assessed. Having an explanation for the miscarriage and the experience leading to a general reappraisal of values were associated with lower levels of intrusive thoughts. A belief in a medical cause was linked to lower anxiety. Women believed that neither they themselves nor their doctors could exert much influence over the outcome of future pregnancies. Stronger belief in personal control was associated with higher anxiety levels. There is a need to consider not only the emotional consequences of miscarriage but also the cognitive mediators influencing such responses and although based upon a small sample this study initiates that process.     

A comparison of pain management outcomes for disability compensation and non-compensation patients

Abstract

In this study, 50 men in an in-patient comprehensive rehabilitation program receiving disability compensation were compared with 25 non-recipients with respect to pre-and post-program measures of personality functioning. physical functioning and reported pain. On the pre-program measures. the only significant difference emerging between the two groups was found on the Mf scale of the MMPI, with the compensation group showing a slightly lower mean score. The two groups responded equally well on virtually all outcome measures. One interesting exception was found on the subjective measure of pain. which showed the compensation group reporting a higher level of subjective pain, and the non-compensation group a lower level than would be predicted on the basis of pre-program scores. Overall. and contrary to popular belief. the results suggest that compensation recipients can derive considerable benefit from pain management interventions despite the ostensible reinforcement provided by disability payments.     

Impact of individual differences upon emotion-induced memory trade-offs

After seeing a scene containing an emotional component (e.g., a snake in a forest) people often demonstrate a “trade-off” in memory, where memory for the emotional component (e.g., the snake) is good, but memory for the non-emotional elements (e.g., the forest) is poor. The result is an incomplete memory retaining central emotional information at the expense of neutral background information. Though almost everyone demonstrates the trade-off, there may be individual differences in the magnitude of the effect. We investigated whether differences in the strength of the trade-off would correlate with anxiety levels, working memory capacity, and executive functioning abilities. Sixty-four participants studied scenes comprised of a negative or neutral item placed on a neutral background, and memory was later tested for items and backgrounds separately. The magnitude of the trade-off correlated positively with anxiety and negatively with visuospatial working memory and executive function. These results suggest that greater anxiety, poor visuospatial working memory, and poor executive function may inhibit formation of complete mental representations of these complex emotional scenes.     

Memory for the 2008 presidential election in healthy ageing and mild cognitive impairment

The present study examined memory accuracy and confidence for personal and public event details of the 2008 presidential election in healthy older adults and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Participants completed phone interviews within a week after the election and after a 10-month delay. MCI patients and healthy older adults had comparable emotional reactions to learning the outcome of the election, with most people finding it to be a positive experience. After the delay period, details about the election were better remembered by all participants than a less emotionally arousing comparison event. However, MCI patients had more difficulty than healthy older adults correctly recalling details of public information about the election, although often the MCI patients could recognise the correct details. This is the first study to show that MCI patients' memory can benefit from emotionally arousing positive events, complementing the literature demonstrating similar effects for negative events.     

Mental state decoding in past major depression: Effect of sad versus happy mood induction

Individuals with mild depression show an enhanced ability to read or “decode” others' mental states. The goal of the present study was to investigate whether this pattern of performance is related specifically to the pathology of depression or whether it is simply a feature of the transient dysphoric state. Forty-one undergraduates with a previous episode of major depression and 52 undergraduates with no depression history participated in a mental state decoding task following a sad versus happy mood induction. Previously depressed participants were significantly more accurate in their mental state judgements than were the never-depressed participants, suggesting that enhanced mental state decoding may be a specific feature of depression in remission. Furthermore, previously depressed participants whose positive mood increased in response to the happy mood induction showed a poorer level of performance on the task, similar to that observed in the never-depressed group. Thus, a happy mood may have induced a somewhat less accurate, but perhaps more adaptive, approach to processing social information. These findings were robust after controlling for current level of depression and anxiety symptoms, intensity of response to the mood induction, response times, and performance on a control task.     

Validity Concerns in the Measurement of Women’s and Men’s Report of Intimate Partner Violence

The measurement of intimate partner violence (IPV) has proven to be more complex than originally anticipated and content and construct validity need to be greatly improved for IPV assessment. For measurement of IPV in the United States, these validity issues range from providing the most accurate wording for the content domain to controversies as to when violent actions are counted (e.g., self-defense) or whether to include mild aggression (e.g., psychological conflict tactics) that may be more normative and not harmful. The three major forms of IPV (i.e., physical, sexual, and psychological abuse) have distinct validity issues and may require different modalities for assessment. Gender needs to be considered when establishing construct validity due to differences in the meaning of aggression, impacts of abuse, and even patterns of violence for women and men. External threats to validity include potential bias of self-report and motivations when reporting on a partner, discrepancies in couples’ reports, the influence of response styles, and design issues affecting reporting. Traditional methods used to establish validity for IPV scales are reviewed and critiqued. Recommendations for enhancing validity in IPV assessment are provided.     

Development of a Unified Protocol for the Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Youth

This study evaluated the efficacy of the Mind Reading interactive computer software to remediate emotion recognition deficits in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Six unmedicated children with ASD and 11 unmedicated non-clinical control subjects participated in the study. The clinical sample used the software for five sessions. The control sample was evaluated only on pre- and post-test performance to assess practice effects. Results showed that participants with ASD scored significantly higher on the posttest than on the pretest. As level of emotion difficulty increased, mean scores on the pretest decreased, indicating that difficulty level had a valid effect. The Mind Reading computer software appears to significantly improve the emotion recognition abilities in children with ASD.     

Providing information about diagnostic features at retrieval reduces false recognition

In the following study, participants encoded blocked DRM word lists and we varied whether they received information before test about the utility of mnemonic features that potentially discriminate between veridical and false memories. The results of three experiments revealed that this manipulation successfully reduced false recognition of critical theme words. We also found that this manipulation was effective for younger but not older adults. Furthermore, calling attention to the features in test instructions alone was sufficient for reducing false recognition and its effectiveness was not enhanced by also asking participants to rate their phenomenal experience. We argue that providing diagnostic information before test allows participants to establish more accurate expectations about the task and thus improves the efficacy of retrieval and monitoring processes that are subsequently engaged.     

Dual n-back training increases the capacity of the focus of attention

Working memory (WM) training has been reported to benefit abilities as diverse as fluid intelligence (Jaeggi et al., Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105:6829–6833, 2008) and reading comprehension (Chein & Morrison, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17:193–199, 2010), but transfer is not always observed (for reviews, see Morrison & Chein, Psychonomics Bulletin & Review, 18:46–60, 2011; Shipstead et al., Psychological Bulletin, 138:628–654, 2012). In contrast, recent WM training studies have consistently reported improvement on the trained tasks. The basis for these training benefits has received little attention, however, and it is not known which WM components and/or processes are being improved. Therefore, the goal of the present study was to investigate five possible mechanisms underlying the effects of adaptive dual n-back training on working memory (i.e., improvements in executive attention, updating, and focus switching, as well as increases in the capacity of the focus of attention and short-term memory). In addition to a no-contact control group, the present study also included an active control group whose members received nonadaptive training on the same task. All three groups showed significant improvements on the n-back task from pretest to posttest, but adaptive training produced larger improvements than did nonadaptive training, which in turn produced larger improvements than simply retesting. Adaptive, but not nonadaptive, training also resulted in improvements on an untrained running span task that measured the capacity of the focus of attention. No other differential improvements were observed, suggesting that increases in the capacity of the focus of attention underlie the benefits of adaptive dual n-back training.