ANGST. EN PSYKOANALYSES FORLØB

Throughout his adulthood, man weighs the amount and quality of his masculinity in his attempts to accomplish, on his own, what he regards as worthwhile in life. His deeply-rooted ideal is to prove that his capabilities and strength are sufficient in the pursuit of desired satisfactions. His worst fear is that he is incapable in the face of the challenges of the world; that he would become castrated by life when trusting in his own activity. In the beginning of life, the psyche, in its early absoluteness, regards as evil everything that destroys good, or everything that makes it impossible to reach the desired pleasure. The more dominant the derivatives of this ultimate interpretation are in man's life project, the more he is inclined to see the realities of life as a camouflage of the hidden evil, and the more it is thus necessary for him to mobilize his compensatory phallicism as a weapon and fortress for the sake of the security of his self. When the phallicism thus increases, the black side of it, fear of castration, also grows in force, and a vicious circle is created. In this paper, the psychodynamics of captain Ahab and his crew in Herman Melville's Moby Dick are explored in order to illustrate and analyze these phallic-narcissistic layers of masculinity.     

Measuring Sensitivity to Conflicts of Interest: A Preliminary Test of Method

This study presents and develops test methods for assessing sensitivity to conflict of interest (COIsen). We are aware of no study assessing COIsen, but note that some popular methods for assessing ethical sensitivity and related constructs (which include COIsen) are flawed in that their presentation of stimulus material to subjects actually guides subjects to attend to ethical (or related) issues. The method tested here was designed to avoid this flaw. Using adaptations of two existing cases, a quota sample of 12 students was interviewed. Our method used funnel-sequenced, open-ended interviews that were audiotaped and transcribed, then subjected to a form of cognitive mapping. These maps revealed the presence of “indicators” of COIsen. We found that COIsen can be measured and that the global COIsen score generated by our method is able to reveal much variation across subjects, making it a worthwhile candidate for further consideration.     

The Exercise of Information Influence in Legal Advocacy1

The information search and transmission behavior of information-supplying agents was studied using an experimental analog of a legal situation. An experiment was conducted to test the predictions of social psychological theories concerning the use of information influence and to test several assumptions of proponents of the American adversary system in law. In a 2 × 2 × 3 factorial design, first-year law students acted as attorneys under conditions of high correspondence of outcomes with the judge versus high correspondence of outcomes with an involved party; perception that the outcomes of another attorney in the situation were correspondent with the judge versus correspondent with an involved party; and the discovery that the information environment was favorable, ambiguous, or unfavorable. Significantly greater information search was observed for party-oriented subjects relative to judge-oriented subjects only when the information environment was unfavorable. Party-oriented subjects showed greater attempted use of information influence than did judge-oriented subjects. Analyses of the amount and distribution of the information transmitted by pairs of subjects assessed the characteristics of several legal “systems”. The theoretical and applied implications of the study were discussed.     

A semistructured interview with parents-to-be used during pregnancy: Preliminary data

The aim of this paper is to describe The Clinical Interview for Parents during Pregnancy (CGG—Colloquio per Genitori in Gravidanza). The interview was developed in the context of a longitudinal research study, carried out in the first 2 years of the child's life. The study was aimed at investigating fathers' attitudes and behavior toward child care and the possible influence of these attitudes and behavior on the child's current and future development. This was also compared with mothers' attitudes and behaviors. This work provides the background rationale for the content of the CGG and the discussion of the interview. The CGG was administered to 90 middle-class Italian couples expecting their first baby, who were recruited from childbirth classes to participate in the study. The sample did not include women at risk during pregnancy. We chose to investigate three areas: couples' ability to foresee their own function after the child's birth; the activities they expected to share with their baby; their capacity to anticipate their child's physical and psychological characteristics. Responses were subjected to quantitative content analysis. We describe the utility of such analysis. Finally, we review clinical and research meanings and applications of the CGG. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Longitudinal associations between low morning cortisol in infancy and anger dysregulation in early childhood in a CPS‐referred sample

Children who experience early adversity are at increased risk for developing psychopathology, and dysfunction of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis is a possible mechanism conferring this risk. This study sought to characterize the association between morning cortisol during different developmental periods and deficits in children's emotion regulation, a core feature of many psychological disorders. Morning cortisol was collected at two time points (i.e., during infancy, M = 13.0 months old, and during early childhood, M = 36.8 months old) from 120 children with histories of child protective services (CPS) involvement. Children completed a lab visit during early childhood (M = 38.6 months old) that involved an observational measure of anger regulation. Results showed that low morning cortisol during infancy, but not early childhood, predicted increased anger dysregulation during early childhood. These results highlight the importance of developmental timing in assessing the effects of HPA axis functioning and suggest that low cortisol during infancy is a risk factor for later emotion regulation difficulties.     

Family Allocentrism and Adolescent Depressive Symptoms: The Role of Self-Identity Style

Recent research has found that a strong family allocentrism relates to reduced adolescent depressive symptoms. Besides providing continuous support for this relation, this research extended the scope by exploring whether there was a U-shaped association between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms and testing the mediation effect of identity style among Italian adolescents (N?=?387, 183 boys, 204 girls, M_age?=?16.38 years). Result of hierarchical regression model showed that the association between family allocentrism and depressive symptoms was linear rather than U-shaped. More importantly, this linear relation was mediated by normative and diffuse-avoidant style. In sum, the current findings suggest that adolescents who are allocentric toward family tend to follow family members’ expectations to establish self-identity and deal with identity issues more proactively, and thus they are less likely to experience depressive symptoms. Moreover, there is no significant evidence that too much family allocentrism would lead to elevated depressive symptoms.     

Decreasing student behavior problems and fostering academic engagement through function‐based support and fading of token reinforcement

This study examined the effects of function‐based behavior support plans (BSPs) on the persistent behavior problems and lack of academic engagement of three, 7‐ to 8‐year‐old, male students from two public schools in Iceland. Based on the results of functional behavioral assessments, BSPs were created for each participant. Each plan included a token system. The goal for all students was to foster independent functioning. A multiple baseline across participants showed that disruptive behavior decreased by 85% on average and academic engagement increased by 78% on average. Statistical analyses suggest significant positive effects were obtained. Findings suggest that persistent behavior problems can be reduced and independent academic engagement fostered in inclusive school settings through function‐based BSPs with gradual fading of token reinforcement.     

Emotional eating as a mediator between anxiety and cholesterol in population with overweight and hypertension

Although the relationship between cholesterol and mood states (especially anxiety) has been well studied, few researches have included the role of eating styles in this relationship. This study explored the associations among eating styles, negative emotional symptoms, and levels of cholesterol (and other medical variables) in a population with hypertension and overweight or obesity, analyzing the possible mediation mechanisms involved. A cross-sectional study was conducted in 68 adults with hypertension and overweight/obesity, and stepwise multiple regression analysis and mediation analyses were carried out to test the hypothesis that eating styles mediate the relationship between negative emotional symptoms and cholesterol. Several significant correlations among age, anthropometric, medical, and psychological variables (eating styles and negative emotional symptoms) were found. There was a significant indirect effect of anxiety on total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol through emotional eating. Results suggest that emotional eating has a relevant role in the rise in total and LDL cholesterol, acting as a mediator in the relationship between anxiety and cholesterol. This finding could have important implications, since it introduces a new variable in the relationship between emotions and cholesterol and, therefore, changes the way of understanding this relationship, and of treating high cholesterol in a hypertensive sample.     

Parents' representations of their children: an exploratory study using the Osgood Semantic Differential Scales

The results of an exploratory national study carried out in Italy using Osgood's Semantic Differential Scales (Osgood, Suci, & Tannenbaum, 1957) with parents of 100 normal 6- to 11-yr.-old children in mainstream classrooms are reported. The aim was to devise a simple tool to be used to explore parents' perceptions of their children in this age group. Parents were asked to rate "my child" using some of Osgood's Semantic Differential Scales especially adapted for this study. Participants were 97 fathers and 100 mothers. Fathers were 32 to 57 years of age (M = 43.2, SD = 5.4), mothers were 29 to 49 years of age (M = 39.7, SD =4.4). In factor analysis four factors were identified: Activity, Evaluation, Emotions evoked by the child, Personality/Physical contact. Average factor scores were significantly different. There were no significant differences between fathers and mothers on the four factor scores. Children were more positively evaluated the younger they were.     

Rorschach Comprehensive System data for two samples of nonpatient children from Italy: 75 aged 5-7 years and 148 aged 8-11 years

This project provides information on how nonpatient children perform on the Rorschach test, administered and scored following Exner's guidelines (1995). Lis, Parolin, Zennaro, and Mazzeschi (2001) previously reported initial data for 70 nonpatient children living in Italy who were administered this instrument by graduate and postgraduate students in a 2-year research course at the Psychotherapy School of the University of Padua between July 1998 and February 2001. The current study is an extension of that work and includes information on an additional 153 participants gathered between November 2002 and December 2006. The total number of participants includes 223 individuals, 75 5-7-year-old children in the first level of elementary school, and 148 8-11-year-old children in the second level of elementary school. Exclusion criteria are described, and interrater reliability statistics at the response level for scoring segments are reported using percent agreement and iota. Rorschach Comprehensive System (CS) findings are presented.