Sex-Dimorphic Color Preference in Children with Gender Identity Disorder: A Comparison to Clinical and Community Controls

The present study was designed to assess sex-dimorphic color preferences in children with gender identity disorder (47 boys, 18 girls), clinical controls (65 boys, 35 girls), and community controls (65 boys, 35 girls). The mean age of the children was 7.63 years (range?=?3–12 years). Children were shown a hexagon-shaped display of 144 colors extracted from PowerPoint?. Each child was asked to choose his or her three favorite colors (Trials 1–3) by pointing to them, naming them, and then to provide a justification for each choice. From the entire array, children labeled a total of 11 different colors: black, blue, brown, gray, green, orange, pink, purple, red, white, and yellow. For three of the colors (blue, pink/purple, and red), there was evidence for normative sex differences in color preference, and, for the colors blue and pink/purple, the gender-referred children showed inverted patterns of color preference. For the color blue, luminance values showed that the gender-referred boys and control girls preferred lighter shades, whereas the gender-referred girls and control boys preferred darker shades. Qualitative analysis indicated that gender-specific justifications were uncommon, even for the sex-dimorphic colors. Gender-referred children showed inverted gender-stereotyped color preferences, which are likely related to their more general pattern of cross-gender identification. Principles of gender-differentiated development derived from gender-schema theory are used to explain the group differences in color preferences.     

The Value of Integration: Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy Meets Ego Psychology in a Psychotherapy Group for Children

ABSTRACT

Psychotherapy integration requires us to look beyond the confines of a particular theoretical or technical approach towards other perspectives. Integrative work with children, in particular, meets the socio-emotional needs of the child while simultaneously modeling behaviors and skills. This paper presents an explicitly integrative approach to child group psychotherapy: Relationships. Individuals. Skills. Engagement (RISE) Group. We begin with an in-depth discussion of the RISE group structure illustrated by clinical examples (the “what”) followed by a review of the theory and treatment modalities that inform the approach (the “why” and “how”). The RISE group is grounded in two theoretical perspectives (psychoanalytic principles and ego psychology) and draws upon clinical techniques from multiple treatment modalities (including cognitive behavior therapy, psychodynamic play therapy and dialectical behavior therapy). Combined, the merger of these perspectives results in a multilevel intervention that forges pathways to mastery and competence within the child. Finally, we discuss the value and limitations of integration as applied to group psychotherapy for children.     

Renegotiating Identity: A Phenomenological Investigation of the College Transition for Former High School Athletes No Longer Engaged in Varsity Competition

A breadth of research has examined the influence of athletic identity on college student-athlete experiences (e.g., Harrison et al., 2011; Lally & Kerr, 2005). In addition, scholars have investigated role transition among college student-athletes at the end of their eligibility (e.g., Taylor & Ogilvie, 2001; Wylleman & Lavallee, 2004). However, despite that 97% of high school athletes will not participate collegiately (National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2016), little attention has been paid to identity renegotiation among college students who discontinued sport participation after high school. The present study was designed to fill this gap by addressing the impact of sport disengagement on former high school athletes no longer engaged in varsity competition during the first year of college. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 university freshmen at three time points: the end of the first month, the end of the first semester, and the end of the first year. Commonalities among participants’ transition experiences were identified. Findings yielded three major themes, role transition, identity renegotiation, and reflection and projection, each being facilitated by the building of camaraderie. Findings deepen current understanding of role transition and identity renegotiation and offer directions for future research related to sense of self during the college transition.     

Comparisons Between Patients Diagnosed with PTSD in Primary Care Versus Mental Health Care in Five Large Civilian Health Care Systems

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a serious mental health disorder that may not be adequately detected or treated in primary care (PC)....     

Evidence for the abstractive encoding of superficial position information in visual patterns

When presented a series of patterns inside a frame, subjects unintentionally retained information concerning the frame-relative location of the elements composing the patterns; they could use this superficial information to estimate the frequency with which the elements occurred at various locations within the frame. There were two aspects of the results that supported the hypothesis that this superficial element-location information was abstractively encoded and, therefore, retrievable independent of the patterns comprising the elements: (1) Correlations between actual and estimated frequency remained significant after the effects of pattern recall were partialled out, and (2) correlations were enhanced by assuming that the frequency estimate for each location was affected by the imprecise coding of position for elements falling in surrounding locations. Additional experiments indicated that an orienting task emphasizing pattern recall resulted in very inaccurate estimation of element-location frequency, and intentional instructions improved the precision of position coding for individual elements.     

Hospitalized psychiatric and medical patients and the clergy

Earlier research suggested that persons in a community with significant psychiatric disorders seek relief from their clergy as often as from trained mental-health professionals. In this research, contacts with clergy about current hospitalization by matched samples of inpatient psychiatric (N=51) and medical/surgical (N=50) patients were compared, as were responses to structured interviews about the importance of religion, religious affiliation, and participation, spiritual needs, and spiritual well-being. The findings suggest that the two groups were similar in demographics, the degree to which religion was a source of strength and comfort in their lives, and percentages reporting as having a clergy person; the group of hospitalized psychiatric patients was significantly less likely, however, than the sample of medical/surgical patients to have discussed their current hospitalization with their clergy persons. Possible causes for this difference as well as areas of further research are discussed.