Psychometric Properties and Norms for the Personality Assessment Inventory in Egg Donors and Gestational Carriers

Although psychological evaluations are an integral element of screening for third-party reproduction and the Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) is commonly used for these evaluations, little is known about the psychometric properties or normative scores on the PAI among egg donors and carriers. We evaluated the PAI among 1,044 egg donors and gestational carriers from various fertility clinics across the United States. PAI scales were generally internally consistent in this population, although range restriction appeared to attenuate reliability on several scales. The PAI profiles of egg donors and carriers had elevated positive impression management and suppressed clinical scale scores relative to the community standardization sample, as would be expected given the contingencies of this assessment context. Scores were similar across egg donors and carriers and were similar whether the carrier or donor was known or not known to the prospective parents. Sample-specific norms are provided for the use of the PAI in this setting.     

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.     

Utilization of Individual versus Family Therapy Among Adolescents with Severe Emotional Disturbance

Service utilization patterns among children with severe emotional and/or behavioral disturbances are described for 89 children and families, interviewed at two time points across a 6-month period. Children received a greater number of individual therapy sessions than family therapy sessions, and children significantly decreased their levels of internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Family therapy was associated with decreases in internalizing behaviors when children reported outcomes. Individual therapy was not associated with changes in either internalizing or externalizing behaviors regardless of reporter. Symptom severity did not dictate whether children were provided individual or family therapy. Recommendations for individualized treatment plans are offered.     

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     

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.