Complicated Grief in Canada: Exploring the Client and Professional Landscape

Complicated grief (CG) is one of the central themes in bereavement research and advanced clinical practice today. Using a mixed-methods approach, we wanted to learn (a) what tools Canadian practitioners used to identify or diagnose CG and (b) what interventions or strategies they used to address CG. Sixty-three professionals responded to our survey. There were no straightforward answers to these questions: the state-of-the art of CG in Canada is, in fact, complicated. Practitioners used a wide assortment of tools and strategies with no consensus on any one approach or tool. Building a Canadian CG community of practice was recommended.     

When deception influences memory: the implication of theory of mind

When deceiving, one should remember to whom a falsified story was previously told; otherwise he or she may include inconsistencies, and the deception will probably be discovered. Bearing this in mind, we investigated the potential relationship between deception and the ability to remember to whom a piece of information was previously told (i.e., destination memory). Forty-one adults were given a destination memory task in which they had to decide to whom proverbs had previously been told. They were also given a questionnaire about deception (e.g., “I sometimes tell lies if I have to) and a cognitive theory of mind task in which they had to predict the behaviour of protagonists who hold a mistaken belief about the state of the world. Results showed a positive correlation between deception and destination memory (p <?.001), a relationship that was further mediated by cognitive theory of mind ability (p?<?.01). Deception requires monitoring and inferring what targets know, suspect, and believe. This monitoring ability (i.e., cognitive theory of mind) results in better processing of the target and consequently better destination memory. By showing the involvement of deception and theory of mind in destination memory, our findings emphasize the memory variations in social and interpersonal interactions.     

Family Therapy in Chinese Culture and Context: Lessons from Supervising Therapists-in-Training in China

Systemic family therapy as an essential paradigm for treating couples and families has gone global since its initial rise to popularity. According to researchers, China has signaled a strong desire for training in systemic family therapy. Even though this mode of mental health service is a foreign import to China, the surge in interest for Western psychotherapy for individuals and families grows by leaps and bounds. However there has been evolving conversations about the transportability of systemic family therapy from the West to the East. Using a qualitative focus group format, this study explored the experiences of sixteen Chinese couple and family therapists on their perspectives in adapting systemic family therapy concepts to the local Chinese context. Results reveal the interplay between the systems of the changing Chinese family structure and of the application of family therapy models that originated from the West must work harmoniously in order to enhance the goodness of the familial system within the evolving Chinese society in the 21st century.     

Emotion Ideology Mediates Effects of Risk Factors on Alexithymia Development

Despite its connection to mental and behavioral health complications, elevated alexithymia tends to be associated with low responsiveness and high resistance to psychological intervention. To further understanding of potential treatment targets for clients with alexithymic traits, the present study explored the (a) independent contributions of various risk factors to statistical predictions of alexithymic trait severity, (b) generalizability of risk factor contributions across two culturally distinct samples, and (c) potential for emotion ideology (i.e., beliefs about emotion and emotional experience) to mediate such contributions. Preliminary results suggest emotion socialization and child abuse may be salient contributors to alexithymia severity, whereas effects of trauma exposure may be limited to samples with high overall exposure to alexithymia risk-factors. Moreover, emotion ideology mediates the relation between risk-factor exposure and alexithymia severity. Thus, psychotherapeutic interventions targeting emotion ideology may be beneficial when working with clients with elevated alexithymia.     

Source memory that encoding was self-referential: the influence of stimulus characteristics

Decades of research suggest that encoding information with respect to the self improves memory (self-reference effect, SRE) for items (item SRE). The current study focused on how processing information in reference to the self affects source memory for whether an item was self-referentially processed (a source SRE). Participants self-referentially or non-self-referentially encoded words (Experiment 1) or pictures (Experiment 2) that varied in valence (positive, negative, neutral). Relative to non-self-referential processing, self-referential processing enhanced item recognition for all stimulus types (an item SRE), but it only enhanced source memory for positive words (a source SRE). In fact, source memory for negative and neutral pictures was worse for items processed self-referentially than non-self-referentially. Together, the results suggest that item SRE and source SRE (e.g., remembering an item was encoded self-referentially) are not necessarily the same across stimulus types (e.g., words, pictures; positive, negative). While an item SRE may depend on the overall likelihood the item generates any association, the enhancing effects of self-referential processing on source memory for self-referential encoding may depend on how embedded a stimulus becomes in one’s self-schema, and that depends, in part, on the stimulus’ valence and format. Self-relevance ratings during encoding provide converging evidence for this interpretation.     

Cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress and abuse history: the role of occurrence,frequency, and type of abuse

Background and objectives: Extreme cardiovascular reactions to psychological stress have been associated with traumatic life experiences. Previous studies have focused on the occurrence or frequency of abuse rather than type of abuse. We examined how occurrence, frequency, and the type of abuse history are related to cardiovascular reactivity (CVR) to acute psychological stress. Design: The study consisted of between group and continuous analyses to examine the association between occurrence, type, and frequency of abuse with cardiovascular reactions to acute psychological stress. Methods: Data from 64 participants were collected. Heart rate, systolic blood pressure, and diastolic blood pressure were measured at baseline and during a standard mental arithmetic stress task. Results: Individuals who experienced abuse showed diminished CVR to acute psychological stress; this was driven specifically by the history of sexual abuse. Frequency of abuse did not relate to stress reactions. Conclusions: These findings accord with previous work suggesting a relationship between traumatic life experience and hypoarousal in physiological reactivity and extend previous findings by suggesting the relationship may be driven by sexual abuse.     

Differentiating Sexual Thoughts in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder From Paraphilias and Nonparaphilic Sexual Disorders

Recurrent sexual thoughts characterize several different psychological disorders, most notably obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), paraphilias, and nonparaphilic sexual disorders (NPSDs). Many clinicians are aware of the rule of thumb that sexual thoughts in OCD are personally distressing, whereas sexual thoughts in paraphilias and NPSDs are not distressing to the individual experiencing these thoughts, and they rely on this heuristic to inform diagnosis. This is problematic because distress alone is not a reliable diagnostic differentiator; as a result, misdiagnosis is common. Given the negative consequences of misdiagnosis, including worsening of symptoms, treatment dropout, and potential harm to individuals experiencing these thoughts or those who are targets of these thoughts, the purpose of this paper is to help clinicians identify and differentiate repetitive sexual obsessions in OCD from repetitive sexual thoughts in paraphilias and NPSDs. A clinical case example is provided along with pivotal areas of questioning to aid in differential diagnosis.     

Connecting with New Audiences: Exploring the Impact of Mobile Communication Devices on the Experiences of Young Adults in Museums

Museums worldwide have embraced digital technology and social media in their exhibitions and marketing, yet many discourage visitors' use of mobile communication devices (MCDs), claiming this detracts from the learning experience. This study was guided by mindfulness theory from social cognitive psychology which provides a framework for studying attention, engagement, and learning. It explored the museum experiences of 58 young adults under three experimental conditions—a control group who visited an exhibition with no instructions, a no-MCD group who surrendered all MCDs on entry, and a directed MCD group given guidance on how to use their MCD including taking photographs. The no-MCD group spent significantly less time in the exhibition and had the lowest scores for mindfulness and perceived learning. The directed MCD group spent significantly longer in the exhibition and at exhibits with more text and had the highest scores for mindfulness and perceived learning. This group also took more and different photographs in the exhibition than did the control group. Implications for museum design and MCD policy are outlined.