Does trauma memory play a role in the experience of reporting sexual assault during police interviews? An exploratory study

A recent study indicated that 94.4% of reported sexual assault cases in the UK do not result in successful legal prosecution, also known as the rate of attrition (Kelly, Lovett, & Regan, 2005 Kelly, L., Lovett, J. and Regan, L. 2005. A gap or a chasm? Attrition in rape cases, London: Home Office.  [Google Scholar]). Scant research has examined the role of trauma-related psychological processes in attrition. Victims of sexual assault (N =22) completed questions about peri-traumatic dissociation, trauma memory fragmentation, account incoherence during police interview, and likelihood of proceeding with legal cases. Higher levels of dissociation during sexual assault were associated with participants reporting more fragmented trauma memories. Memory fragmentation was associated with participants indicating that they provided more incoherent accounts of trauma during police interview. Importantly, people who viewed themselves as providing more incoherent accounts predicted that they would be less likely to proceed with their legal cases. The findings suggest trauma impacts on memory, and these trauma-related disruptions to memory may paradoxically contribute to attrition.     

Enhanced counselling for women undergoing BRCA1/2 testing: Impact on knowledge and psychological distress–results from a randomised clinical trial

This randomised controlled trial evaluated the impact of an enhanced counselling (EC) intervention on knowledge about the heritability of breast and ovarian cancer and distress, as a function of BRCA test result, among high-risk women. Before deciding about whether or not to undergo genetic testing, participants were randomly assigned to the EC intervention (N = 69), designed to promote cognitive and affective processing of cancer risk information (following the standard individualised counselling session), or to the control condition (N = 65), which involved standard individualised counselling followed by a general health information session to control for time and attention. Women in the EC group exhibited greater knowledge than women in the control group, 1 week after the intervention. Further, at the affective level, the intervention was found to be the most beneficial for women testing positive: specifically 1 week after test result disclosure, women in the intervention group who tested positive experienced lower levels of distress than women in the control group who tested positive. The findings suggest that the design of counselling aids should include a component that explicitly activates the individual's cognitive–affective processing system.     

Perceiving and Wanting to Be Valued by Others: Implications for Cognition,Motivation, and Behavior in Romantic Relationships

Two studies examined implications of two individual differences—perception of being valued by others and desire to be valued by others—for romantic relationships. Study 1 included 171 participants involved in romantic relationships (59 males, 112 females) and examined attributions and behavioral intentions in hypothetical scenarios. Study 2 involved 160 heterosexual couples who completed daily reports and/or an observed conflict discussion. Perception of being valued by others and desire to be valued by others independently predicted more pro‐relationship responses and reduced relationship‐destructive responses, including more care, commitment, and regard for partners; more responsive and ingratiating behavior; less negative behavior; and more positive perceptions and behavioral intentions. Perceived and desired interpersonal value were related to attachment anxiety, attachment avoidance, and trait self‐esteem. However, perceived and desired interpersonal value were superior predictors of relationship outcomes, even in replications of foundational attachment studies. Individual differences in believing that one is valued by others and wanting to be valued by others independently predict relationship maintenance, and these dimensions may be at the core of many effects of attachment dimensions and self‐esteem. These individual differences appear to be important aspects of personality that guide cognition, motivation, and behavior in interpersonal relationships.     

The Long and Winding Road: An Autobiographic Study of an Elite Athlete Mother’s Journey to Winning Gold

Within sport psychology, researchers have explored elite athlete mothers’ experiences. More work is needed to understand the nuanced psychosocial aspects of their athletic journeys. Studying autobiographical narratives is useful toward understanding the psychosocial nuances of motherhood and athletics in sociocultural context. Within the present study we sought to extend this understanding through studying one elite athlete’s—British runner Jo Pavey—journey as an athlete mother within her autobiography This Mum Runs (26 chapters totaling 253 pages). Thematic narrative analysis of key chapters focusing on pregnancy and motherhood in relation to training and competition allowed for the identification of a central theme—discovery narrative–reconfiguring the performance narrative—along with two subthemes: go with the flow and best of both worlds. The subthemes are used to illustrate the navigation of tensions in relation to an athlete mother identity grounded in family relationships to facilitate training and competition goals, within a discovery narrative. Applied sport psychology recommendations are made using narrative theory in relation to key findings. Recommendations focused on athlete stories and narrative resources as concrete entry points to encourage compatible athlete mother identities and sport career engagement. This study adds to sport psychology work that has used autobiography as theoretical, analytical, and applied resources to expand understanding of marginalized and/or hard to access topics in elite sport. This is the first autobiographic study to focus on elite athlete mother identities, furthering understanding of nuanced identity negotiation and experiences over time.

Lay Summary: Understanding of elite athlete mother's negotiation of identity and athletic career is expanded through studying published/public autobiographical narratives. A discovery narrative grounded in personal growth and family relationships facilitates strategies that facilitate training and competition goals.     

Evidence for recovery of fear following immediate extinction in rats and humans

Fear responses can be eliminated through extinction, a procedure involving the presentation of fear-eliciting stimuli without aversive outcomes. Extinction is believed to be mediated by new inhibitory learning that acts to suppress fear expression without erasing the original memory trace. This hypothesis is supported mainly by behavioral data demonstrating that fear can recover following extinction. However, a recent report by Myers and coworkers suggests that extinction conducted immediately after fear learning may erase or prevent the consolidation of the fear memory trace. Since extinction is a major component of nearly all behavioral therapies for human fear disorders, this finding supports the notion that therapeutic intervention beginning very soon after a traumatic event will be more efficacious. Given the importance of this issue, and the controversy regarding immediate versus delayed therapeutic interventions, we examined two fear recovery phenomena in both rats and humans: spontaneous recovery (SR) and reinstatement. We found evidence for SR and reinstatement in both rats and humans even when extinction was conducted immediately after fear learning. Thus, our data do not support the hypothesis that immediate extinction erases the original memory trace, nor do they suggest that a close temporal proximity of therapeutic intervention to the traumatic event might be advantageous.     

Central executive involvement in children's spatial memory

Previous research with adults found that spatial short-term and working memory tasks impose similar demands on executive resources. We administered spatial short-term and working memory tasks to 8- and 11-year-olds in three separate experiments. In Experiments 1 and 2 an executive suppression task (random number generation) was found to impair performances on a short-term memory task (Corsi blocks), a working memory task (letter rotation), and a spatial visualisation task (paper folding). In Experiment 3 an articulatory suppression task only impaired performance on the working memory task. These results suggest that short-term and working memory performances are dependent on executive resources. The degree to which the short-term memory task was dependent on executive resources was expected to be related to the amount of experience children have had with such tasks. Yet we found no significant age-related suppression effects. This was attributed to differences in employment of cognitive strategies by the older children.     

Saints and Sinners: Training Papua New Guinean (PNG) Christian Clergy to Respond to HIV and AIDS Using a Model of Care

Papua New Guinea has experienced a growing HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Christian Churches have played a vital role in responding to HIV, through community support, encouragement and social change. Strong, effective Church leadership can help create safe environments of care and support for those infected and for prevention of HIV. Method A series of trainings in capacity development for clergy were undertaken by the National AIDS Council Secretariat (NACS)/National HIV/AIDS Support Project (NHASP). Results A model “Church’s Response to HIV and AIDS in a Care Continuum” was developed to assist the training. This paper discusses the model and the lessons learned.

Scientific Meeting of The American Institute for Psychoanalysis

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Discussion of the Articles by Goodman,Schwartz and Aronson Panel Entitled “Are the Times Changing”

The authors ask what analysis would be like if Freud had started as a child analyst. They examine each of the presentations and suggest that each illustrates child techniques that can usefully be applied to work with adults with the goal of a unified “life cycle analysis.”