Managing countertransference: what the experts think

The present study attempted to assess the importance of five factors theorized to play a central role in managing countertransference: Self-integration, Anxiety Management, Conceptualizing Skills, Empathy, and Self-insight. 33 experts provided ratings of 50 characteristics of therapists as to the importance of each in managing countertransference. Analysis indicated that each factor is at least somewhat important to management of countertransference, with two of the factors, Self-integration and Self-insight, rated as playing a particularly important role. Clinical implications are discussed.     

Some clarifications of the CANDECOMP algorithm applied to INDSCAL

Carroll and Chang have claimed that CANDECOMP applied to symmetric matrices yields equivalent coordinate matrices, as needed for INDSCAL. Although this claim has appeared to be valid for all practical purposes, it has gone without a rigorous mathematical footing. The purpose of the present paper is to clarify CANDECOMP in this respect. It is shown that equivalent coordinate matrices are not granted at global minima when the symmetric matrices are not Gramian, or when these matrices are Gramian but the solution not globally optimal.Part of this research has been supported by The Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), PSYCHON-grant (560-267-011).     

Irrelevant thoughts,emotional mood states,and cognitive task performance

In two experiments, we investigated the relationship shared by irrelevant thoughts, emotional mood states, and cognitive task performance. At an empirical level, irrelevant thoughts were defined as thoughts that did not facilitate successful task performance. We used the same general procedure for both experiments: three groups of college students received happy-, neutral-(control), or sad-mood inductions and performed a memory task. The procedure for obtaining thoughts varied between experiments. The subjects in Experiment 1 listed their thoughts after the memory recall task. In Experiment 2, the subjects were tape-recorded while performing a memory task and producing concurrent verbal protocols. The subjects in both experiments then judged their thoughts in terms of frequency, intensity, and irrelevance. We found a similar pattern of results in both experiments: (1) The proportions of irrelevant thoughts and recall performance were negatively related, and (2) happy and sad students produced reliably greater proportions of irrelevant thoughts than did neutral (control) students.     

Affect and performance in simple problems

We investigate the effects of emotional mood states on solving simple pattern comparison tasks. It is assumed that the effects of mood are mediated through response biases as well as effort expenditure. Departing from these assumptions, trend hypotheses are derived for the response biases evaluated by means of a signal detection analysis, for the response latencies, and for an adequate index of the underlying ability. The data support the hypotheses, and in particular, a positive mood state is found to improve performance. The assumption of mood-dependent differences in effort expenditure provides a parsimonious and integrative account of our results, while a reduced-capacity view cannot explain the findings obtained under positive mood induction.     

Ecological interventions and the process of change for prevention: Wedding theory and research to implementation in real world settings

Considers a preventive intervention effort designed to modify the characteristics and regularities of the school environment so as to enhance the expectations conveyed to high risk students. Employing this case effort (Weinstein et al., 1991) as a base, several issues are highlighted that deserve greater attention in the design, implementation, assessment, and reporting of other preventively-focused social interventions. These issues include: (1) the degree of program implementation fidelity, (2) the impact a lack of attainment of program fidelity may have on arriving at erroneous evaluation conclusions about social programs, (3) the ways in which the theory and basic research employed in the program rationale is appropriate to and reflected in the program as designed, (4) issues of program potency and dosage, (5) the ways in which quantitative and qualitative evaluation data can enhance each other, and (6) the import of evaluability assessments of programs prior to moving to outcome evaluations. In addressing these issues, the importance of developmentally- and ecologically-informed program formulations is underscored. Finally, the critical role that program reports such as the Weinstein paper, with its careful discussion of both the process of implementation and outcome assessments, can play in the development of more effective prevention program implementation efforts is highlighted.     

Somatic complaints in anxious children

Although stomachaches and headaches are considered characteristic of children with anxiety disorders, there is converging evidence that a broader range of somatic symptoms may be associated with children's expressions of anxiety. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of somatic complaints in anxious children. The results indicated that children with anxiety disorders endorsed the presence of many different somatic complaints, and that contrary to clinical intuition, stomaches and headaches were not among the most commonly reported symptoms. In addition, the anxious children endorsed significantly more somatic complaints when compared to normal controls. Furthermore, the symptom pattern reported by anxious children indicated the presence of both the somatic and cognitive components usually associated with panic attacks, although none of the children met diagnostic criteria for panic disorder. The results are discussed in terms of the contribution of somatic symptoms to the understanding of anxiety disorders in children.     

Rhythmic motor behavior of preambulatory motor impaired,down syndrome and nondisabled children: A comparative analysis

The developmental course of rhythmic motor behavior was followed longitudinally for three groups of preambulatory children — normally developing, Down syndrome, and those with profound motor impairment. The groups differed in chronological age but were comparable with respect to motor age. The motor impaired subjects displayed significantly less rhythmic motor behavior than the nondisabled and Down syndrome groups. In comparing particular subtypes of rhythmic motor behavior, differences were found in both the average number of bouts and duration of subtypes among the groups. Longitudinal analyses of the data over the entire observation period revealed that the rhythmic motor behavior of the children with Down syndrome was more similar to that exhibited by the nondisabled children than was the rhythmic motor behavior of the children with motor impairment. However, there was considerable variability among the groups in several particular subtypes.This research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD 17650 and HD 07226).The authors acknowledge the assistance of Robert E. Arendt, Grant Youngquist, Michael Hohn, and Charles Lowitzer in obtaining the observational data and thank the families of the subjects for their enthusiasm and dedication to the project.This study was presented at the 23rd Annual Gatlinburg Conference on Research and Theory in Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, April 21, 1990.     

Task dynamics and resource dynamics in the assembly of a coordinated rhythmic activity.

Task dynamics corresponding to rhythmic movements emerge from interactions among dynamical resources composed of the musculature, the link segments, and the nervous and circulatory systems. This article investigated whether perturbations of interlimb coordination might be effect over circulatory and nervous elements. Stiffness of wrist-pendulums oscillated at a common tempo and at 180 degrees relative phase was perturbed through the use of tonic activity about an ankle. Left and right stiffnesses, the common period, and the phase relation all changed. Stiffnesses increased with ankle torque in proportion to the wrist's inertial load. Despite different changes in stiffness at the two wrists, isochrony was preserved. The stability was shown to be consistent with the proportionality of changes in stiffness to the inertial loads. The phase departed from antiphase in proportion to the asymmetry of inertial loads. The size of departures decreased with increasing ankle torque. An account was developed in terms of muscular, circulatory, and nervous functions.     

The enhancement of retention induced by vasopressin in mice may be mediated by an activation of central nicotinic cholinergic mechanisms.

Immediate post-training subcutaneous administration of lysine vasopressin (LVP, 0.003-1.00 microgram/kg) enhanced retention, whereas the vasopressin antagonist AAVP (0.01-0.30 microgram/kg) impaired it, in male Swiss mice tested 48 h after training in an inhibitory avoidance task. Both effects were dose-dependent. Neither LVP nor AAVP affected response latencies in mice not given the footshock on the training trial. The simultaneous administration of AAVP at a dose (0.01 microgram/kg) which had no effect on retention shifted the dose-response curve of LVP to the right. Nicotine (1.0-30.0 micrograms/kg, sc), a central nicotinic cholinergic agonist, also facilitated retention in a dose-related manner without affecting the retention performance of unshocked mice. The effect of nicotine was prevented by the central acting nicotinic cholinergic receptor antagonist mecamylamine (5 mg/kg, sc.). In contrast, neither hexamethonium (5 mg/kg, sc), a peripheral acting nicotinic receptor blocker, nor atropine (0.5 mg/kg, sc) or methylatropine (0.5 mg/kg, sc), two anticholinergic drugs which are known to act on muscarinic cholinergic receptors, prevented the effect of post-training nicotine. The effects of LVP and nicotine were time-dependent, suggesting that both treatments enhanced retention by influencing post-training processes involved in memory storage. Low doses of nicotine (1.50 microgram/kg, sc) or the central anticholinesterase physostigmine (35 micrograms/kg, sc) and LVP (0.003 microgram/kg, sc), which had no effect on retention when administered alone, produced a synergistic interaction when given together following training. The influence of LVP (0.03 microgram/kg, sc) on retention was prevented not only by AAVP (0.01 microgram/kg, sc) but also by mecamylamine (5 mg/kg, sc), whereas the effects of nicotine (10.0 micrograms/kg, sc) were prevented only by mecamylamine. These results suggest that the enhancement of retention induced by vasopressin is probably due to an activation of central nicotinic cholinergic mechanisms which are critical for memory formation.