Approach and avoidance relationship goals and couples’ nonverbal communication during conflict

Approach relationship goals are pursued in order to achieve desirable outcomes, whereas avoidance relationship goals are pursued to prevent undesirable outcomes in relationships. We investigated how partners’ approach and avoidance relationship goals are related to their nonverbal communication during conflict. A sequential analysis of observational data from 365 couples (28,470 observations) revealed that individuals with more (vs. fewer) approach goals displayed more positive involvement (e.g., head nods, smiles) and less avoidant withdrawal (e.g., shaking head, folded arms). The reverse pattern emerged for avoidance goals. Furthermore, women (but not men) matched their partner's positive involvement to a greater extent the more approach goals and the fewer avoidance goals they pursued. In contrast, approach/avoidance relationship goals were not associated with how much individuals matched their partner's avoidant withdrawal. Results suggest that relationship goals are related to partners’ nonverbal communication and the extent to which women match their partner's positive involvement during conflict.     

Therapy Expectations of Adolescents with Depression Entering Psychodynamic Psychotherapy: A Qualitative Study

Patient expectations about therapy have been regarded as a common factor affecting the course and outcome of psychotherapy. However, little is known about the expectations of adolescents. We aimed to explore the therapy expectations of young people (YP) with depression prior to psychotherapy. We conducted semi-structured interviews with six YP (5 female, 15–19 years old) entering psychodynamic outpatient treatment. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The careful analysis of the YPs’ accounts yielded the following four key themes: not knowing but being cautiously hopeful; therapy as a long and difficult process; therapy as a place to understand oneself and to develop; and the importance of the professional and interpersonal skills of the therapist. The findings suggest to foster realistic treatment and outcome expectations while at the same time individual therapists should pay careful attention to the specific expectations that YP bring into therapy.     

Getting a Grasp on Children’s Representational Capacities in Pantomime of Object Use

This study examined how 5- and 9-year-old children (N = 40) produce pantomimes of object use on verbal request. The task required participants to enact an action with an imagined object. Results showed that with age, children (a) proceeded from body part as object to imaginary object and (b) incorporated into their pantomimes more distinctive features of the object and its use. While the first result replicated previous findings with more items and a more sophisticated coding procedure, the latter result revealed new insights. Children’s selection of distinctive features in pantomime was related to their performance on a semantic odd-one-out task that requires the abstraction of specific features without situational support. The discussion focuses on the cognitive requirements of the task and the potential of pantomime being a reflection of children’s representational development. We suggest an explanation of the findings within the more general developmental model of Karmiloff-Smith.     

The interplay of intention maintenance and cue monitoring in younger and older adults’ prospective memory

The retention phase of a prospective memory (PM) task poses different challenges, including demands to store or maintain an intended action and to realize the right moment for action execution. The interplay of these processes in younger and older adults has not been explored so far. In this study, the authors examined the impact of maintenance load and task focality on PM in 84 younger and in 83 older adults. Results indicated that PM performance and ongoing task response times were strongly affected by maintenance load and age. However, a focality effect only emerged when maintenance load was low but not when attentional resources were deployed for maintaining a more demanding intention. These findings suggest that maintenance and monitoring requirements compete for similar attentional resources. Furthermore, maintenance load may affect postretrieval processes through its impact on working-memory resources, which can restrain the typical advantage of focal over nonfocal PM tasks.     

Constructing a Jewish Feminist Theology of the Holocaust

The Female Face of God in Auschwitz: A Jewish Feminist Theology of the Holocaust , Melissa Raphael, Routledge 2003 (0-415-23665-7) pp. xii + 228, Pb. £18.99     

Supervision in der psychotherapeutischen Ausbildung in Deutschland

One of the functions of supervision in psychotherapy training is quality assurance. In order to fulfill this function the quality of supervision itself needs to be high and needs to be controlled. Thus in a large survey of psychotherapy training in Germany questions related to the quality of supervision were included in the survey. Answers to those questions from different samples (trainees, alumni, trainers, training institutes, expert organizations) were compiled. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Satisfaction and usefulness ratings with individual and group supervision were high to very high. Supervision amount, group size and frequency were rated as adequate. Criticism pertained to the lack of systematic evaluation, insufficient qualification of the supervisors and lacking integration of supervision into the whole training. As supervision is a very important part of psychotherapy training measures for quality assurance and improvement are necessary.     

The role of strategies in deciding advantageously in ambiguous and risky situations

In decision situations of everyday life, the potential positive or negative consequences of a decision are often specified and the associated probabilities are known or they are principally calculable ("decisions under risk"). On the basis of correlations reported in patient studies, it has been recently proposed that decisions under risk involve strategic components, i.e. calculation of the risk, as well as emotional processes, i.e. processing feedback from previous decisions. However, the potential impact of calculative strategies on decision-making under risk has not been investigated systematically, so far. In the current study, we examined 42 healthy subjects (21 females) with the Game of Dice Task measuring decisions under risk, and a questionnaire assessing strategy application in items comparable to the choices in the Game of Dice Task. In addition, the subjects performed the Iowa Gambling Task, examining decision-making under ambiguity, and a neuropsychological test battery focusing on executive functions. Results indicate that deciding advantageously in a decision-making task with explicit and stable rules is linked to applying calculative strategies. In contrast, individuals who decide intuitively prefer risky or disadvantageous choices in the Game of Dice Task. Applying calculative strategies was correlated with executive functions but not with performance on the Iowa Gambling Task. The results support the view that calculative processes and strategies may improve decision-making under explicit risk conditions.