Lightness,brightness, and brightness contrast: 1. Illuminance variation

Changes of annulus luminance in traditional disk-and-annulus patterns are perceptually ambiguous; they could be either reflectance or illuminance changes. In more complicated patterns, apparent reflectances are less ambiguous, letting us place test and standard patchesjnpxsurrounds perceived to be different grays. Our subjects matched the apparent amounts of light coming from the patches (brightnesses), their apparent reflectances (lightnesses), or the brightness differences between the patches and their surrounds (brightness contrasts). The three criteria produced quantitatively different results. Brightness contrasts matched when the patch/surround luminance ratio of the test was approximately equal to that of the standard. Lightness matches were illumination invariant but were not exact reflectance matches; the different surrounda of test and standard produced a small illumination-invariant error. This constant error was negligible for increments, but, for decrements, it was approximately 1.5 Munsell value steps. Brightness matches covaried substantially with illuminance.     

The marital and family therapy examination program

This report is intended to inform the reader—as fully as is compatible with examination security—about the Examination in Marital and Family Therapy used by most of the states licensing marital and family therapists in the United States. The rationale for the examination is given, its development and validation are described, and the knowledge base that it samples is provided. The examination is presented as a necessary and logical component in the development of marital and family therapy and as an essential part of the implicit contract that exists between professionals and the community.Although a great many people labored on the Examination in Marital and Family Therapy, and continue to do so, the National Exam largely was founded and developed under the leadership of Carl F. Johnson of Atlanta, Georgia.     

Countertransference as a corrective emotional experience in existential family therapy

An existential approach to family psychotherapy should be cognizant of both individual human development and family life cycle growth. In Existential Family Therapy a family developmental challenge often occurs when the developmental progression needs of one family member challenge the pace of total family developmental progression. In such a situation intervention by the therapist should occur in a way that facilitates both individual and family developmental growth. Such interventions often best occur through the creative and controlled use of the family therapist's countertransference feelings in a way that helps the family accept and master its developmental challenges. Case material is provided to illustrate the described intervention approach.     

Treating jealousy as a system dynamic in recovering alcoholic families: An application of the social network model of recovery

Jealousy often interferes with the recovery process for alcoholic families. Recovery for such families requires that external boundaries shift from rigid and closed to open and more permeable. Jealousy often erupts as families struggle with shifting boundaries. When jealousy is recognized as a system dynamic, necessary to the process of recovery, it is manageable. The key to the treatment of jealousy in recovering families is recognizing the crucial role of boundaries in both the development and recovery processes.     

Learning symbolic-experiential therapy: One approach

This paper is intended to serve as a stimulus to the thinking of students regarding ways in which they might better organize their symbolic training experiences. It illustrates how one supervisee derived a conceptual framework from the literature that made it easier to track process events and organize her training experiences. The authors believe it is important to discover ways to facilitate the learning process without operationalizing the approach.director of training and research and professor of family therapy in the same department.     

Learning to be possessed as a form of pathogenic relating and a cause of certain delusions

A form of pathogenic relating observed frequently by the author in family interviews is described in which it is communicated that a member has acted as if possessed by evil forces. This form of pathogenic relating is termed learning to be possessed. A number of illustrations are provided of the way this learning takes place beginning in childhood; how the so-called victim can gain insight into the process so that he or she is spared the worst penalties for impulsive, aggressive, or irrational behavior; but how the insight may be a cause of delusions, particularly persecutory or paranoid delusions, that become fixed. A comparison is made with the psychoanalytic theory of paranoid delusion, because that appears to be the only extant theory with which a comparison can be made.     

Dysfunctional isolation in the elderly: Increasing marital and family closeness through improved communication

Unique developmental crises in old age may lead to social withdrawal that negatively affects the individual and his/her marital and family relationships. Without an awareness of these aging dynamics, the therapist can inadvertently perpetuate these distancing behaviors which can exacerbate marital and family conflict. This paper discusses certain developmental crises which can result in increased isolation for the older adult, and suggests therapeutic interventions to facilitate increased closeness among family members.     

Measurement of adolescents' life events: The junior high life experiences survey

The first of these two studies examined the relationship between adolescents' scores on a social desirability questionnaire and scores of negative, positive, and total life events. Only number of positive events was significantly related to social desirability. The second study compared various scoring strategies with respect to their intercorrelation and their ability to predict adolescents' maladjustment (depression, anxiety, and number of missed school days). The results demonstrated that (a) total number of events and readjustment-weighted life change scores were equally predictive of the maladjustment criteria; (b) negative events, but not positive events, however scored, were significantly related to the maladjustment criteria; (c) indices based on psychologist-judges' ratings of event desirability were not more predictive of the maladjustment criteria than were indices based on the adolescents' self-reports; and (d) uncontrollable negative events and controllable negative events were equally predictive of the maladjustment criteria.     

Temperament,classmate likability,and social perspective coordination as correlates of children's parent-rated type A behaviors

Parents of 58 boys and 62 girls from grades three through eight completed the Matthews Youth Test for Health (MYTH), a measure of Type A behavior. Normative and reliability data were similar to those obtained from teachers as reported in the literature, but a factor analysis of parents' ratings revealed four factors (Competitiveness, Irritability, Impatience, and Leadership) as opposed to the two factors (Impatience/Aggression and Competitiveness) that have been derived from teacher ratings. Boys had higher total MYTH scores than girls, but correlations with age were not significant. No grade or gender effects were obtained for any of the four MYTH factor scores. Correlates of the MYTH scores were computed separately for boys and for girls. For boys, Irritability was related to Reactivity, a Difficult Temperament, low classmate Likeability, and poor performance on two social cognitive tasks (compromising and friendship understanding). For girls, Leadership was related to Classmate Likeability and good performance on the two social cognitive tasks. For boys only, total MYTH scores were related to low Attention Span, high Reactivity, a Difficult Temperament, and low Friendship Understanding scores. Findings are related to the gender differences found in the study of both ego control and cooperation/ competition.