The Unseen Spouse: Pitfalls and Possibilities for the Individual Therapist

Individual therapists often hear a great deal about our patients' spouses or partners, and naturally develop ideas and beliefs about that unseen other and about the causes of any relationship difficulties the patient reports. Not uncommonly, therapists can lose touch with the fact that their impressions of an unseen spouse are constructions that have emerged from the transference/countertransference field, based on only partial or limited information—not veridical truths. They can then talk with the patient about his or her partner or relationship issues in ways that can ultimately do both patient and spouse a significant disservice and perhaps distract from the patient's own issues and analytic goals. This paper discusses several factors that seem to contribute to the development of this problematic dynamic, including various qualities of the transference/countertransference field, and offers suggestions for avoiding or reducing it. Clinical material is used to illustrate key points.     

Some effects of sex-linked clothing and gender schema on the stereotyping of infants

Two predictions were evaluated: first, that given minimal information about an infant, individuals would use sex-related cues (i.e., clothing) to categorize, evaluate, and make attributions about the infant, and second, that gender schematic individuals would be more likely than gender aschematic individuals to use such sex-related cues. On the basis of the Bem Sex Role Inventory, American college students were classified as either gender schematic (masculine or feminine) or gender aschematic (undifferentiated or androgynous). The students categorized, evaluated, and made trait attributions about an infant dressed in male, female, or ambiguous clothing. Both gender schematic and gender aschematic individuals relied on sex-related cues in their perceptions of the infant.     

DIMENSIONS AND CORRELATES OF THE PERSONNEL AUDIT AS AN ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT TOOL

This study analyzes the measurement properties of the personnel audit as an organizational assessment tool and the extent to which audit results relate to important organizational criteria. The findings reported here indicate that nine dimensions can effectively summarize 37 audit measures. The composite factor scores for these dimensions predict executive perceptions of "overall organizational performance" and "overall contribution of Personnel Function," employee "overall satisfaction with personnel services," and to a lesser extent, "profitability per capita." The personnel budget allotted per capita is in turn related to executive perceptions of Personnel's contributions.     

Self-generated attitude change: A person by situation analysis of attitude polarization and attenuation

The potential moderating effects of differences in the need for cognition on the attitude polarization process were explored. Based on putative schematabased differences in information processing, it was predicted that an increased opportunity for thought would result in (a) more attitude polarization for low need for cognition persons than for high need for cognition persons and (b) more attitude attenuation for high need for cognition persons than for low need for cognition persons. Participants completed the Need for Cognition scale and were given either little or ample time to think about issues toward which they previously held moderate attitudes. Attitudes were reassessed following thought about the issues. The results were consistent with the predicted moderating effects of individual differences in the need for cognition on thought-induced attitude polarization. Implications of and alternative explanations for the findings are discussed.     

Components of the Behavioral Activation System and Functional Impulsivity: A test of discriminant hypotheses

It has recently been suggested that the concept of Functional Impulsivity bears some similarity to the sensitivity of the Behavioral Activation System (BAS; Smillie & Jackson, 2006). In the present research we take a closer look at this idea, testing more specific hypotheses on the associations of different BAS-related components with Functional and Dysfunctional Impulsivity. Analyzing a sample of 719, we found that the Drive component was uniquely connected with Functional Impulsivity, and Fun Seeking was linked to both impulsivities, but more weakly so to Functional Impulsivity compared with Drive. Reward Responsiveness was unrelated to Impulsivity. Implications for the conceptualization of Functional Impulsivity and for a complex view of BAS-related functions are addressed.     

The role of postdeployment social factors in linking deployment experiences and current posttraumatic stress disorder symptomatology among male and female veterans

Background and Objectives: The postdeployment social context is likely highly salient in explaining mental health symptoms following deployment. The aim of this study was to examine the role of postdeployment social factors (social support and social reintegration difficulty) in linking deployment-related experiences (warfare exposure, sexual harassment, concerns about relationship disruptions, and deployment social support) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptomatology in male and female veterans.

Design: A survey was administered to 998 potential participants (after accounting for undeliverable mail) who had returned from deployment to Afghanistan or Iraq. Completed surveys were received from 469 veterans, yielding a response rate of 47%.

Methods: Hypotheses were examined using structural equation modeling.

Results: For male and female veterans, deployment factors predicted later PTSD symptoms through postdeployment social support and social reintegration, with lower support and higher social reintegration difficulty both associated with higher PTSD symptomatology. While the final models for women and men indicated similar risk mechanisms, some differences in pathways were observed. Sexual harassment presented more of a risk for women, whereas lower social support was a greater risk factor for men.

Conclusions: Postdeployment social factors appear to represent potentially important targets for interventions aiming to reduce the potential impact of stressful deployment experiences.     

Sensation-seeking and differentially arousing television commercials

The authors predicted (a) that disinhibited consumers would react more favorably to advertising that was high in arousal and (b) that inhibited consumers would react more favorably to advertising that was low in arousal. They tested these predictions by having U.S. college students evaluate both the commercial and the product being marketed in 1 of 2 beer commercials. The prospective buyers then completed a measure of dispositional sensation-seeking tendencies. Although the participants who differed in disinhibition reacted differently to the 2 commercials, the nature of their responses was more complex than predicted.     

The measurement of locus of control: assessing more than meets the eye?

Ambiguities in the conceptions and measurement of locus of control were investigated in this study. Specifically, some psychometric properties of several widely used measures of perceived behavior-outcome contingency, interpersonal power, and social self-efficacy were assessed. To different degrees, the results indicated that all three measures of perceived behavior-outcome contingency lacked convergent and discriminant validity. Implications for interpreting past research, directions for future investigations, and limitations of the present study are discussed.