Characteristics of male partners of adult female incest survivors

The interpersonal style of male partners of adult female incest survivors was investigated. Two groups of men (partners of incest survivors, n=30; and a control group, n=30) completed the Narcissistic Personality Inventory and the Depressive Experiences Questionnaire. A multivariate analysis of variance failed to support clinically-based hypotheses (a) that partners of incest survivors would exhibit a greater sense of entitlement in interpersonal relationships and (b) that a larger number of men abused in childhood would be in relationship with incest survivors than those not abused. Results point to a need for further controlled quantitative studies of the characteristics of male partners of female incest survivors. This article is based on the Master's Thesis of the first author submitted to the Graduate School of Texas Woman's University.     

A follow-up study of cognitive bias in generalized anxiety disorder

Patients with generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) without concurrent depression (n = 11) and normal controls (n = 17) were tested twice, about 2 months apart, on a modified Stroop colour-naming task, which presented anxiety-related, depression-related and neutral words in masked and unmasked exposure conditions. GAD patients received cognitive behaviour therapy in the test-retest interval, and were also retested at follow-up, about 20 months after initial testing. GAD patients showed interference in colour-naming negative words across both masked and unmasked conditions before treatment, but not post-treatment, compared with controls. Reduced interference effects of masked threat words over time correlated with reduced ratings of anxious thoughts at post-treatment, and at follow-up, in GAD patients. Thus, the preconscious bias for threat information in GAD appears to vary over time in association with changes in anxious thoughts and worries.     

Poetry in Existential Psychotherapy with Couples and Families

The use of poetry during the process of existential psychotherapy with couples and families is described and illustrated. In this approach, poems can be utilized to help the couple and/or family notice meaning potentials in the future, actualize and make use of such meaning potentials in the here and now, and re-collect and honor meanings previously actualized and deposited in the past.     

Four dialogue systems

The paper describes four dialogue systems, developed in the tradition of Charles Hamblin. The first system provides an answer for Achilles in Lewis Carroll's parable, the second an analysis of the fallacy of begging the question, the third a non-psychologistic account of conversational implicature, and the fourth an analysis of equivocation and of objections to it. Each avoids combinatorial explosions, and is intended for real-time operation.     

The impact of school emotional climate on student psychopathology

Reports of differences among schools in emotional and social climate were related to changes in behavioral and emotional problems and alcohol use in students who remained in these schools over a 2-year interval. Four dimensions of school climate were examined. School conflict and social facilitation were shown to be related to increases in childhood psychopathology, whereas student autonomy was not. Effects of academic focus were even stronger than those of conflict, in the sense of being independently related to more syndromes. School climate effects were examinedfor conditionality on student characteristics and for synergism, It was concluded that intervention to alter the school climate may promote the emotional and behavioral well-being of children and adolescents.This research was supported by NIMH Grants MH36971 and MH30906. The authors wish to thank Robert Ouellette for his assistance.     

On knowing when to quit: Task failure, self-esteem, advice, and nonproductive persistence

Past research has found the performance of persons with high self-esteem to improve after failure, especially on tasks for which persistence correlates positively with performance. However, persistence may be nonproductive in some situations. Experiment 1 used a task for which persistence and performance were uncorrelated; subjects high in self-esteem persisted longer but performed worse than did those with low self-esteem, particularly after prior failure feedback. Experiment 2 tested whether differential sensitivity to advice about the efficacy of persistence mediates nonproductive persistence. High self-esteem subjects who received explicit advice against nonproductive persistence on a puzzle-solving task still tended to persist longer on unsolvable puzzles than did low self-esteem subjects. The implications of high self-esteem subjects' tendency to engage in nonproductive persistence are discussed.     

The training of telephone crisis intervention volunteers

Telephone crisis intervention services are growing at a very rapid rate. A review of the literature reveals that there are very few references to this new phenomenon and even fewer that deal with evaluating the effectiveness of telephone crisis training. Herein 7 articles are reviewed which deal with volunteer selection and training. These articles demonstrate that no consistent rationale for volunteer selection or training exists. Selection of volunteers typically consists of a gross screening to eliminate any obviously unsuitable persons, with training serving as a further sorting procedure where volunteers who are uncomfortable with the role of a crisis interventionist can be encouraged to drop out. The authors suggest that a training model be built around crisis intervention theory using principles of social learning as the methodology for training.