Integrating mindfulness as self-care into counselling and psychotherapy training

Aim: Within the last 10 years, mindfulness has quickly moved into the mainstream of behavioural medicine, psychotherapy, and counselling. This article examines the potential of applying mindfulness practices to the training of counsellors and psychotherapists. Method: Several qualitative research projects conducted over the past nine years are summarised. Findings: Mindfulness training can enhance the physical and psychological wellbeing of trainees. Implications for training: Mindfulness training is a specific way that training programmes can teach students strategies of self-care that can help prevent burnout, compassion fatigue, and vicarious traumatisation.     

Cognitive psychology meets psychometric theory: on the relation between process models for decision making and latent variable models for individual differences

This article analyzes latent variable models from a cognitive psychology perspective. We start by discussing work by Tuerlinckx and De Boeck (2005), who proved that a diffusion model for 2-choice response processes entails a 2-parameter logistic item response theory (IRT) model for individual differences in the response data. Following this line of reasoning, we discuss the appropriateness of IRT for measuring abilities and bipolar traits, such as pro versus contra attitudes. Surprisingly, if a diffusion model underlies the response processes, IRT models are appropriate for bipolar traits but not for ability tests. A reconsideration of the concept of ability that is appropriate for such situations leads to a new item response model for accuracy and speed based on the idea that ability has a natural zero point. The model implies fundamentally new ways to think about guessing, response speed, and person fit in IRT. We discuss the relation between this model and existing models as well as implications for psychology and psychometrics.     

Characterizing the Manifest Probability Distributions of Three Latent Trait Models for Accuracy and Response Time

Psychometrika - In this paper we study the statistical relations between three latent trait models for accuracies and response times: the hierarchical model (HM) of van der Linden (Psychometrika...     

The ISI Change phenomenon: When contradicting one stereotype changes another

When a population is perceived to consist of two mutually exclusive and exhaustive groups, the stereotypes that people form of these groups are likely to be interdependent. We predicted that stereotype-incongruent information about members of one group (target group) may then evoke change in the stereotype of another group (alternative group) even in the absence of any stereotype-incongruent information about members of the alternative group. We demonstrated this Indirect Stereotype-Incongruence Induced (ISI) Change phenomenon in two studies using novel groups (Study 1 and 2). The effect occurred when the incongruent information was about a competent target group (changing the stereotype about the less competent alternative group) but not when it was about an incompetent target group (Study 2). The ISI Change phenomenon implies that stereotypes may change even in the absence of directly stereotype-incongruent information.     

A Taste for Justice: Unpacking Identity Politics in a Nascent Democracy

This article examines attention to justice cues in the novel context of the nascent democracy of Tanzania. Using secondary national survey data, we illustrate Tanzanian citizens' attention to justice cues. We then test two competing hypotheses about the impact of religious identity on attention to justice cues. The first hypothesized model, based on System Justification Theory, predicts that subordinate group members (Muslims) will stay more loyal than dominant group members (Christians) to their government due to a decreased attention to justice cues. The second hypothesized model, based on the relational model of procedural justice, predicts that subordinate group members (Muslims) will dissent more than dominant group members (Christians) from their government due to an increased attention to justice cues. Multiple regression and mediational analyses indicate support for the procedural justice framework, with trust in the dominant political party mediating the relationship between process satisfaction and party identification. Implications for political and psychological theorizing about democratic processes will be discussed.     

Exchange,Balance, and Formal Organization in Psychotherapeutic Interactions*

ABSTRACT: Psychotherapeutic interactions in crisis situations are analyzed in terms of the “sociodynamic” concepts of exchange, balance, and formal organization. It is argued that psychodynamic interpretations of crisis intervention therapy tend to be incomplete and nonsystematic and, thus, fail to produce adequate predictions, explanations, and control of psychotherapeutic outcomes. Small-group principles and methods are applied to selected crisis cases to illustrate gains in prediction and control over psychiatric approaches.     

A MCMC-method for models with continuous latent responses

This paper introduces a new technique for estimating the parameters of models with continuous latent data. Using the Rasch model as an example, it is shown that existing Bayesian techniques for parameter estimation, such as the Gibbs sampler, are not always easy to implement. Then, a new sampling-based Bayesian technique, called the DA-T-Gibbs sampler, is introduced. The DA-T-Gibbs sampler relies on the particular latent data structure of latent response models to simplify the computations involved in parameter estimation. This research was supported by the Dutch National Research Council (NWO) (grant number 575-30-001).