Am I the typical student? Perceived similarity to student prototypes predicts success

Two studies assessed the relationships between perceived similarity to the college student prototype and academic outcomes. In Study 1, students' similarity to the prototypical good student and their levels of depressed mood were assessed. A year later, students high in depressed mood who did not see themselves as similar to the good student prototype did worse academically. In Study 2, students' perceived favorability and similarity to the prototypical student at their university were assessed along with their levels of neuroticism. Enrollment at their university was then tracked for 5 semesters. Students high in neuroticism who perceived the typical student as both favorable and dissimilar to themselves were less likely to stay enrolled. These findings highlight the importance of perceived dissimilarity in prototype perception, particularly among those high in negative affect.     

Iatrogenic creation of false childhood sexual abuse memories: Controversy,dynamics, fantasy,and reality

This paper examines the phenomenon of False Memory Syndrome (FMS). In the last decade there has been an increase in the number of adult individuals who report childhood sexual abuse only to recant their allegations. Recanters and the falsely accused are specifying that therapeutic interventions by trusted and, at times, well intentioned therapists facilitated their false memories. The theory of repression, reliability of memory, recovery techniques, and characteristics of therapist and clients are explored. This paper also discusses a number of cases that have been filed, and some guidelines for therapists who work or plan to work in the recovery of repressed memories.     

Configurational approach to manifest dream analysis: Possible acceleration of the patient's communication in psychoanalytic psychotherapy

This paper presents an approach to dream analysis utilizing the manifest content of a number of consecutive dreams from the same patient. Following a review of the literature, it is noted that in once-a-week psychotherapy there is often very little time for exhaustive dream analysis to unravel the buried meanings within the latent dream content. Twenty categories have been established for the configurational analysis, which is applied to the analysis of the first eleven dreams of a patient in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. The authors independently analyzed the patient's dreams using each of the 20 categories with high reliability, then combined their contributions. This data was then compared with the treating analyst's independent clinical observations about the twenty categories.     

On the Argument for Divine Timelessness from the Incompleteness of Temporal Life

A promising argument for divine timelessness is that temporal life is possessed only moment by moment, which is incompatible with the existence of a perfect being.
Since the argument is based on the experience of time's passage, it cannot be circumvented by appeal to a tenseless theory of time.
Neither can the argument be subverted by appeals to a temporal deity's possession of a specious present of infinite duration.
Nonetheless, because the argument concerns one's experience of time's passage rather than the objective reality of temporal becoming itself, it is considerably weakened by the fact that an omniscient being possessing perfect memory and foreknowledge, need not find such experience to be an imperfection.     

On fixing and being fixed: Metaphors in psychotherapy

The term to fix is explored with its multiplicity of meanings, and its relevance to such clinical issues as transference and resistance are discussed along with positive and negative denotations and connotations of the term. Cases are also presented to illustrate both positive and negative uses.     

A therapist's ritual of respect

A great deal of attention in systemic family therapy has been given to the process and technique ofdeveloping 'therapeutic' rituals for families. In this paper we address the process of the therapist developing the ritual of practising respect. By practising respect the therapist shifts to a position similar to that of an anthropologist who is attempting to understand another culture and its epistemology. The ritual of practising respect has the potential of changing the therapist's tendency to move toward social control and moralist judgements. A case example is presented in this paper which illustrates the therapeutic ritual of practising respect for the client/family.     

On the psychological reality of a natural rule of syllable structure

If natural rules in phonology, such as the rule which deletes a word final consonant before a consonant, are frequently found in unrelated languages, it must be because they tap universal features of production and/or perception. The present experiment employed a learning task to see whether naive subjects have a predisposition for the natural rule as opposed to its converse (consonant deletion before a vowel). The Ss first learned four novel words (nouns) - two beginning with a consonant, two with a vowel - as paired associates to English ‘translations’. Then three novel adjectives were combined with each of the four nouns, following the natural rule for one group of Ss, the unnatural rule for the other. The twelve phrases were cued by their English translations and the S had to respond to each with the phonologically correct sequence of adjective and noun; confirmation followed each response. The Ss learning the unnatural corpus had a strong tendency to give natural responses, whereas the converse was not true. Consequently they made many more errors en route to mastery than their natural counterparts, even when the operative rule was displayed on the first trial by presenting in turn each adjective with its four following nouns. It appears that our Ss had implicit knowledge of the natural rule, even though it does not operate to any significant extent in English.     

Modifying food purchases in supermarkets with modeling, feedback, and goal-setting procedures

We compared several procedures designed to modify consumer food purchases with the objectives of reducing fat and increasing carbohydrate content, and reducing dollar expenditures on food. Participants were 126 volunteer community households which, after a 7-week baseline period, were randomly assigned to video-modeling, video-modeling-feedback, video-lecture, video-lecture-feedback, participant-modeling, video-modeling-discussion, and control conditions. The main dependent measure was a weekly record of food purchases, convertible to percentages of nutrients and dollar expenditures. Results indicated that modeling-feedback and participant-modeling procedures were most effective (e.g., 6% reduction of total fat consumption, 19% dollar savings). Strategies to refine and automate modeling and feedback in supermarkets that may benefit consumers, corporations, and government are discussed.