Group Treatment of Sexually Abused Adolescent Girls: A Review of Outcome Studies

Abstract

This paper considers factors that make children “at risk” for postdivorce maladjustment. The risk factors include (a) demographic variables of sex, age and socioeconomic status; (b) predivorce family functioning; (c) postdivorce relationship with the ex-spouse; (d) postdivorce parentchild interaction; and (e) social support systems. Treatment programs incorporating these factors are briefly described. Recommendations are provided for the clinician and researcher.     

The Use of a Socially Constructed Genogram in Clinical Practice

This paper discusses the rationale for a socially constructed genogram, allowing for multiple definitions of family to be represented. It describes the role of the problem system and the utility of this genogram in these situations. It describes the set-up of a socially constructed genogram and provides clinical examples.     

Heart Rate and Affective Reactions to State Self-Objectification as a Function of Gender

The purpose of the present study was to examine heart rate (HR) and affective reactions to state self-objectification as a function of gender. We examined negative affect, positive affect, guilt, and HR at 6-second and 5-minute intervals across baseline, control, high objectification, low objectification, and cologne conditions in men (n = 53) and women (n = 57). Mixed factorial MANOVA results indicated a statistically significant Gender × Condition interaction. Both men and women showed a cardiac orienting response to high versus low objectification. Cardiac stress reactions to objectification were higher among women. Negative affective reactions to objectification were more pervasive across conditions among women.     

Working with psychotic processes in art therapy

In this paper the author describes in some detail her work in the art-therapy department of Hill End Hospital. She used not only her understanding of the work of psychoanalytical writers on schizophrenia, particularly Bion and Searles, but, more importantly, her own experience of the patients at the Hospital, to gain an insight into how these very regressed patients think of themselves and their relationship to reality. She illustrates how she used objects and images created by patients from the art materials supplied, during (usually) five two-hour sessions a week, together with conversations (and notes made in the patients' presence of these conversations) about these images at structured weekly individual-therapy sessions, to help patients to develop from a state of meaninglessness to a position in which they can choose to engage in continuing therapy.     

Preschoolers’ emotion knowledge: Self-regulatory foundations,and predictions of early school success

Preschoolers (N=322 in preschool, 100 in kindergarten) were assessed longitudinally to examine the self-regulatory roots of emotion knowledge (labelling and situation) and the contributions of emotion knowledge to early school adjustment (i.e., including social, motivational, and behavioural indices), as well as moderation by age, gender, and risk. Age, gender, and risk differences in emotion knowledge were also examined. Emotion knowledge skills were found to be more advanced in older children and those not at economic risk, and in those with higher levels of self-regulation. Overall, the results support the role of emotion knowledge in early school adjustment and academic success even with gender, age, and risk covaried, especially for boys, older preschoolers, and those at economic risk.     

Book reviews

Recent Books by Division Members The Art of the Psychotherapist. New York: W.W. Norton, 1987. 321 pp. (hardcover). $27.95.

Don Dinkmeyer Sr., Gary D. McKay, Don Dinkmeyer, Jr., James S. Dinkmeyer, and Jon Carlson. PREP for Effective Family Living. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service, 1985. (complete PREP kit). $79.50.

Tom Greening (Ed.). American Politics and Humanistic Psychology. Dallas: Saybrook Publishing, 1984. 223 pp. (paperback). $10.00.

Arthur Freeman and Vincent Greenwood (Eds.). Cognitive Therapy: Applications in Psychiatric and Medical Settings. New York: Human Sciences Press, 1986. 234 pp. (paperback). $16.95.

G. Marian Kinget. On Being Human: A Systematic View (Enlarged Ed.). Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1987. 262 pp. (paperback/ hardcover). $14.50/$26.75.

Jeffrey A. Kottler. On Being a Therapist. San Francisco: Jossey‐Bass, 1986. 169 pp. (hardcover).

Alvin R. Mahrer. Therapeutic Experiencing: The Process of Change. New York: W. W. Norton, 1986. 419 pp. (hardcover). $34.95.

Rollo May. My Quest for Beauty. Dallas: Saybrook Publishing, 1985. 244 pp. (hardcover). $18.95.

Edward L. Murray. Imaginative Thinking and Human Existence. Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1986. 271 pp. (hardcover). $24.00.

William W. Purkey and John J. Schmidt. The Inviting Relationship: An Expanded Perspective for Professional Counseling. Englewood Cliffs, N J: Prentice‐Hall, 1987. 180 pp. (paperbook). S 15.95.

Edward W. L. Smith. Sexual Aliveness. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1987. 126 pp. (hardcover). $16.95.

Judi Striano. How to Find a Good Psychotherapist: A Consumer Guide. Santa Barbara, CA: Professional Press, 1987. 67 pp. (paperback). $8.95.

Florence J. van Zuuren, Frederick J. Wertz, and Bep Mook (Eds.). Advances in Qualitative Psychology: Themes and Variations. Berwyn, PA: Swets North America, 1987. 209 pp. (paperback). $22.00

New dimensions in family therapy

Brief Therapy With Single‐Parent Families, by Anita Morawetz, M.S.W. and Gillian Walker, M.S.W. New York: Brunner/Mazel, Publishers, 1984. 373 pages, (hardcover) $30.00     

On Measuring and Modeling Physiological Synchrony in Dyads

Physiological synchrony within a dyad, or the degree of temporal correspondence between two individuals' physiological systems, has become a focal area of psychological research. Multiple methods have been used for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony. Each method extracts and analyzes different types of physiological synchrony, where ‘type’ refers to a specific manner through which two different physiological signals may correlate. Yet, to our knowledge, there is no documentation of the different methods, how each method corresponds to a specific type of synchrony, and the statistical assumptions embedded within each method. Hence, this article outlines several approaches for measuring and modeling physiological synchrony, connects each type of synchrony to a specific method, and identifies the assumptions that need to be satisfied for each method to appropriately extract each type of synchrony. Furthermore, this article demonstrates how to test for between-dyad differences of synchrony via inclusion of dyad-level (i.e., time-invariant) covariates. Finally, we complement each method with an empirical demonstration, as well as online supplemental material that contains Mplus code.     

Knowledge and the value of cognitive ability

We challenge a line of thinking at the fore of recent work on epistemic value: the line (suggested by Kvanvig in The value of knowledge and the pursuit of understanding, 2003 and others) that if the value of knowledge is “swamped” by the value of mere true belief, then we have good reason to doubt its theoretical importance in epistemology. We offer a value-driven argument for the theoretical importance of knowledge—one that stands even if the value of knowledge is “swamped” by the value of true belief. Specifically, we contend that even if knowledge itself has no special epistemic value, its relationship to other items of value—cognitive abilities—gives ample reason to locate the concept at the very core of epistemology.     

The role of verbal memory in regressions during reading

During reading, participants generally move their eyes rightward on the line. A number of eye movements, called regressions, are made leftward, to words that have already been fixated. In the present study, we investigated the role of verbal memory during regressions. In Experiment 1, participants were asked to read sentences for comprehension. After reading, they were asked to make a regression to a target word presented auditorily. The results revealed that their regressions were guided by memory, as they differed from those of a control group who did not read the sentences. The role of verbal memory during regressions was then investigated by combining the reading task with articulatory suppression (Exps. 2 and 3). The results showed that articulatory suppression affected the size and the accuracy of the initial regression but had a minimal effect on corrective saccades. This suggests that verbal memory plays an important role in determining the location of the initial saccade during regressions.     

Discrepancies Between Parent and Adolescent Beliefs About Daily Life Topics and Performance on an Emotion Recognition Task

Parents and children and adolescents commonly disagree in their perceptions of a variety of behaviors, including the family relationship and environment, and child and adolescent psychopathology. To this end, numerous studies have examined to what extent increased discrepant perceptions—particularly with regard to perceptions of the family relationship and environment—predict increased child and adolescent psychopathology. Parents’ and children and adolescents’ abilities to decode and identify others’ emotions (i.e., emotion recognition) may play a role in the link between discrepant perceptions and child and adolescent psychopathology. We examined parents’ and adolescents’ emotion recognition abilities in relation to discrepancies between parent and adolescent perceptions of daily life topics. In a sample of 50 parents and adolescents ages 14-to-17 years (M?=?15.4 years, 20 males, 54 % African-American), parents and adolescents were each administered a widely used performance-based measure of emotion recognition. Parents and adolescents were also administered a structured interview designed to directly assess each of their perceptions of the extent to which discrepancies existed in their beliefs about daily life topics (e.g., whether adolescents should complete their homework and carry out household chores). Interestingly, lower parent and adolescent emotion recognition performance significantly related to greater parent and adolescent perceived discrepant beliefs about daily life topics. We observed this relation whilst accounting for adolescent age and gender and levels of parent-adolescent conflict. These findings have important implications for understanding and using informant discrepancies in both basic developmental psychopathology research and applied research in clinic settings (e.g., discrepant views on therapeutic goals).