The Marriage Contract

This article is intended to serve as an introduction to the concept of the marriage contract, which has proved to be a useful clinical tool for clarification and treatment of troubled marriages. Transactional as well as intrapsychic factors are important aspects of marital dynamics. The contract concept employs both these behavioral parameters and facilitates therapeutic intervention at both levels.     

Comparison of output order in free recall

Two measures of output order in free recall were examined and shown to vary with characteristics of recall unrelated to output order. The output location of a subset of items in recall, using the standard recall rank measure and the “observed minus expected” score, varied both with number of items in the subset and total number of items recalled. A new measure of output order (the relative index of priority or RIP score) was proposed that is invariant with these characteristics of recall, providing an uncontaminated empirical index of the output location of a subset of items in the recall sequence.     

Reflections on trauma,symbolization and psychic pain in a case of neurosis and a case of psychosis

This paper seeks to advance some considerations on trauma, historical reality, its symbolization and the psychic pain generated by the investigation of unconscious processes in psychoanalytic treatment. These themes will be explored by demonstrating the differences arising between traumatic experiences and their expression in phantasy, as they occurred in a case of neurosis and another of psychosis. In each case, the differences in the features of the symbolization and the processes of working through shall also be taken into consideration. Particular attention shall be paid to the specific difficulties encountered by the analyst in the interpretative treatment of the trauma resulting from the amount of psychic pain induced in the patient, which at times proves to be an insurmountable barrier and a destructive distortion of the process.     

The Role of Parental Depressive Symptoms in Predicting Dysfunctional Discipline Among Parents at High-Risk for Child Maltreatment

Parental depressive symptoms are an important public health concern because they have been linked, in numerous previous studies, to negative parenting behaviors including dysfunctional discipline and child abuse and neglect. Taking this into consideration, parental depressive symptoms warrant particular attention among families with child maltreatment allegations—a group at high risk of dysfunctional discipline and future physical abuse. The current study sought to examine relations between parental depressive symptoms and dysfunctional discipline in an ethnically diverse sample of 234 families who were referred for psychological services due to concerns of child maltreatment. Referrals were made by school, medical, or child welfare personnel. 59.8 % of children were male and the average age was 7.05 years. Results indicated that parental depressive symptoms were significantly correlated with dysfunctional discipline including laxness, over-reactivity, and hostility. However, all three relations lost statistical significance after controlling for parental stress. The findings of this study suggest that well-documented relations between parental depression and negative parenting behavior may be driven by elevated parental stress rather than reflecting risks uniquely associated with depressive pathology.     

Building therapeutic relationship in schizophrenic and alcohol-related disorder cases

Current literature on the dual diagnosis in cases of schizophrenia and alcohol dependence has reported how pharmacological treatment has positive effects on the reduction of both disorders. Nevertheless, patients have considerable difficulties in following the prescribed medication. This work aims to build an engagement stage and therapeutic relationship in seven patients with schizophrenic and alcohol-related disorder cases. This result was achieved through the use of the vignette technique and narrative psychodynamic approach during group counselling sessions. Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) and Munich Alcoholism Test (MALT) were applied before and after treatment. A follow-up session was organized. The PANSS and MALT scores indicated there was no reduction of the psychiatric symptoms after treatment. The follow-up session showed positive outcomes in terms of increasing the level of socialisation as well as awareness of their own condition; at the same, an adherence to pharmacological treatment and psychotherapy for all the subjects.     

Ageing and the group-reference effect in memory

The present study examines age differences in the memory benefits from group-referncing. While prior work establishes that the memory performance of younger and older adults similarly benefits from relating information to the self, this study assessed whether those benefits extend to referencing a meaningful group membership. Young and older adult participants encoded trait words by judging whether each word describes themselves, describes their group membership (selected for each age group), or is familiar. After a retention interval, participants completed a surprise recognition memory test. The results indicate that group-referencing increased recognition memory performance compared to the familiarity judgements for both young and older groups. However, the group-reference benefit is limited, emerging as smaller than the benefit from self-referencing. These results challenge previous findings of equivalent benefits for group-referencing and self-referencing, suggesting that such effects may not prevail under all conditions, including for older adults. The findings also highlight the need to examine the mechanisms of group-referencing that can lead to variability in the group-reference effect.     

Punishment of Schedule-Induced Drinking by Lick-Dependent Delays in Food Presented at Different Frequencies

The Psychological Record - Three food-deprived rats (80% of their free-feeding weights) developed schedule-induced drinking after being exposed to a multiple fixed-time schedule (FT 60-s FT 18-s)...     

Parietal ERP Activity and Appetite

Recent research on brain activity suggests that visual attention increases in response to emotional images. This increase is reflected in signs of greater activity, in response to different emotional visual stimuli, in parietal and parietooccipital areas in several studies employing neuroimaging techniques and event-related potentials (ERPs). In the latter case, greater parietal and parietooccipital negativities have been observed. The objective of the present study was to examine the role of a person's level of motivation towards the emotional stimulus with respect to this ERP pattern. Two groups of stimuli were presented to 60 participants: neutral or N (photographs of taps) and appetitive or A (photographs of cakes). The level of hunger was measured via a questionnaire. Recordings were taken at PO3, PO4, P7, and P8. The largest differences, as a function of appetite, were produced between 575 and 625 ms. Multiple regression analyses were carried out to study the relationship between subjects' appetite and their ERP recordings in response to A and N stimuli. There was a significant negative association between appetite and 575–625 mean amplitude in response to stimulus A at PO3 and PO4.     

Effect of Concurrent Visual Feedback Frequency on Postural Control Learning in Adolescents

The purpose was to find better augmented visual feedback frequency (100% or 67%) for learning a balance task in adolescents. Thirty subjects were divided randomly into a control group, and 100% and 67% feedback groups. The three groups performed pretest (3 trials), practice (12 trials), posttest (3 trials) and retention (3 trials, 24 hours later). The reduced feedback group showed lower RMS in the posttest than in the pretest (p = 0.04). The control and reduced feedback groups showed significant lower median frequency in the posttest than in the pretest (p < 0.05). Both feedback groups showed lower values in retention than in the pretest (p < 0.05). Even when the effect of feedback frequency could not be detected in motor learning, 67% of the feedback was recommended for motor adaptation.