The interaction between cohesive systems and dispersive systems: Creating the trigenerational therapeutic context

The author presents a model for research investigation and clinical use that deals with the interaction between cohesive and dispersive family of origin systems as reflected in marital and family interaction in nuclear families.From a paper presented at the tenth annual meeting of the American Family Therapy Association, June, 1988, Montreal, PQ, Canada.     

Commentary on reviews of “outcome” studies of family and marital psychotherapy

Reviews of the outcome literature in family and marital therapy are critically evaluated. The literature is equivocal in regard to the effectiveness of family therapy, particularly in comparison to alternative forms of treatment, so that statements to the effect that family therapy has demonstrated its general efficacy would not appear to be justified. Problems are identified which require solution before the efficacy of family therapy can be demonstrated.Paper presented at the 45th annual conference of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, Chicago, Illinois, October 31, 1987.     

Mood and belief-value correlation

This is an investigation of belief-value distortion as measured by the correlation between sets of beliefs and values for a given attitude object. Correlations were computed for each subject separately. Initial mood levels and mood changes subsequent to ratings of attitudes to nuclear power were investigated in the first two studies. In Study 1 mood changes were positively correlated with attitude. In Study 2, mood levels were positively correlated both with attitude, optimism, and tendency towards extreme belief-value correlations (belief-value distortion). In a third study, attitudes were studied both towards nuclear power and alcohol. There were no clear relations between the two fields of contents. Mood changes were small and inconsistent. However, tendency to act correlated with both optimism and belief-value distortion, also with the level of attitude kept constant. A model relating mood, optimism, belief-value distortion, and action is suggested.     

TEACHING CONSERVATION OF WEIGHT BY MEANS OF VERBAL INSTRUCTIONS

Three groups of preschool children were given verbal instructions as to the invariance of weight in spite of transformations of shape. Instructions were phrased according to the principles of reversibility, decentering, and addition-subtraction, respectively. A fourth group received no verbal information but only external reinforcement. Verbally instructed groups were superior to control and nonverbal groups on a posttest. On transfer and counter-suggestion items the addition-subtraction group had a tendency towards superior performance.     

Intuition in family therapy: A short manual on post-modern witchcraft

Intuition is an important part of a mature clinician's work. Yet, it is a component of clinical work which is looked upon with suspicion, due in part to the Middle-Age's association between intuition and the work of witches. This paper describes a tenuous link between intuition, witches, and Carl Whitaker. Patterns for including intuition in family therapy are discussed.     

The psychological treatment of tinnitus: An experimental evaluation

Disabling tinnitus in 27 patients was treated in an experimental setting with two different types of therapy aiming at the development of coping behaviour. One was focused on behavioural control procedures, while the other aimed at more cognitive control methods such as distraction. The results of the two forms of therapy were compared with each other and with observations of the untreated control subjects. Assessments of subjective loudness, discomfort from tinnitus and controllability were made on analogue scales and at a questionnaire follow-up. Psychoacoustic measures such as personal loudness units (PLU) were used in connection with these self-recordings and for evaluation of treatment effects. The results confirmed favourable reports on behavioural methods in tinnitus. However, no differences were found between therapies. The results are discussed in the light of the coping and adaptation theory.     

THE NEW FUNCTIONALISM

SJÖBERG, L. The new functionalism. Scand. J. Psychol. , 1971, 12, 29–52. – The paper reviews the development of Brunswik's probabilistic functionalism. Brunswik's major contribution is held to be his consistent emphasis of the importance of the ecology. Brief reviews are then given of the many recent applications of probabilistic functionalism in perception, learning, and applied psychology. Finally, a mentalistic approach to psychology is considered as an alternative to functionalism.     

SENSATION SCALES IN THE SIZE-WEIGHT ILLUSION

S joberg , L. Sensation scales in the size-weight illusion. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1969, 10 , 109–112.-The subjects gave magnitude estimations of heaviness of a set of cylinders varying simultaneously in weight and height. The size-weight illusion could be well described by a simple model assuming heaviness to be inversely proportional to a sensation scale of size and directly proportional to a sensation scale of weight. The scale parameters corresponding to weight were a positively accelerated function of weight while the corresponding function for size was negatively accelerated.     

WHEN CAN THE SUBJECT BE TRUSTED NOT TO THINK?

Sjöberg , L. When can the subject be trusted not to think?Scand. J. Psychol., 1968, 9, 274–276.—Many tasks can be approached either in an intuitive or an analytical mode. Hence, problems of interpretation may arise. Such problems are particularly pressing in cases where the results can be explained as the outcome of a trivial, analytic process. Certain recent work is discussed where such a risk appears to be present.     

UNIDIMENSIONAL SIMILARITY REVISITED

It is argued that the use of direct scaling methods to derive the perceptual magnitudes in the similarity function is inadvisable on two grounds. (1) Attention may shift from one way of rating to another and thereby affect the perceptual magnitude so that what is rated may depend on the method of rating. (2) Direct methods of scaling seldom give consistent data and present knowledge of the reason for this is limited. The preferred procedure then is to study solely the structure of the similarity matrices themselves. When this is done on four sets of published data it is found that the similarity mechanism of Eisler and Ekman gives a close fit.