A review of: “Constructing the self,constructing america: A cultural history of psychotherapy”

P. Cushman (1995) Constructing the Self, Constructing America: A Cultural History of Psychotherapy, Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, pp. 430, $23.99     

A naturalistic study of the effectiveness of time-limited counselling with low-income clients

The role of counselling and psychotherapy services in relation to the needs of economically disadvantaged individuals has been largely neglected in the recent research literature. Although a small number of theoretical papers and case analyses have been published, there is an absence of studies that examine the effectiveness of counselling with this client group. The present paper reports on a naturalistic outcome study of the effectiveness of time-limited counselling (seven sessions) with low-income clients. Analysis of pre-counselling, postcounselling and follow-up measures of mental health and problem ratings indicated levels of change equivalent to those achieved in controlled studies of counselling and psychotherapy with other client groups. Factors influencing the effectiveness of counselling included gender and employment status. Qualitative client reports suggested that the main benefits experienced by clients were in the areas of self-understanding and self-belief. For illustrative purposes, data from low-income clients are compared with results from employee counselling clients receiving a similar service. The implications of these findings for further research are discussed.     

Knowledge of Need

Some of the duties of individuals and organisations involve responsiveness to need. This requires knowledge of need, so the epistemology of need is relevant to practice. The prevailing contention among philosophers who have broached the topic is that one can know one’s own needs (as one can know some kinds of desires) by feeling them. The article argues against this view. The main positive claims made in the article are as follows. Knowledge of need, in both first‐person and second‐person cases, is a type of knowledge‐that with no basic epistemological source. Needs, like medical conditions, have signs and symptoms. Knowledge of these, with inference, results in knowledge of need. Finally, it is argued that need is akin to, but not a special case of, metaphysical necessity de re. Some implications of this for the epistemology of need are explained.     

Examining the Relation Between the Therapeutic Alliance, Treatment Adherence, and Outcome of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children With Anxiety Disorders

Little is known about the contribution of technical and relational factors to child outcomes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for children with anxiety disorders. This study investigated the association between treatment adherence, the child-therapist alliance, and child clinical outcomes in manual-guided individual- and group-based CBT for youths diagnosed with anxiety disorders. Trained observers rated tapes of therapy sessions for treatment adherence and child-therapist alliance in a sample of 52 children (aged 8 to 12) with anxiety disorders. Self-reported child anxiety was assessed at pre-, mid-, and posttreatment; parent-reported child internalizing symptoms was assessed at pre- and posttreatment. The results showed high levels of treatment adherence and child-therapist alliance in both CBT programs. Neither treatment adherence nor child-therapist alliance predicted traditional measurements of child outcomes in the present study, but a relation between alliance and outcome was found using a more precise estimation of the true pre-post differences. Implications of these findings for expanding our understanding of how treatment processes relate to child outcome in CBT for children with anxiety disorders are discussed.     

Expert and “novice” problem solving strategies in chess: Sixty years of citing de Groot (1946)

In a famous study of expert problem solving, de Groot (1946 de Groot, A. D. 1946. Het denken van den schaker, Amsterdam: Noord Hollandsche.  [Google Scholar]/1978 de Groot, A. D. 1965. Thought and choice in chess, The Hague: Mouton Publishers.  [Google Scholar]) examined how chess players found the best move. He reported that there was little difference in the way that the best players (Grand Masters) and very good players (Candidate Masters) searched the board. Although this result has been regularly cited in studies of expertise, it is frequently misquoted. It is often claimed that de Groot found no difference in the way that experts and novices investigate a problem. Comparison of expert and novice chess players on de Groot's problem shows that there are clear differences in their search patterns. We discuss the troublesome theoretical and practical consequences of incorrectly reporting de Groot's findings.     

Dummett and Frege on sense and Selbständigkeit

As part of his attack on Frege’s ‘myth’ that senses reside in the third realm, Dummett alleges that Frege’s view that all objects are selbständig (‘self-subsistent’, ‘independent’) is an underlying mistake, since some objects depend upon others. Whatever the merits of Dummett’s other arguments against Frege’s conception of sense, this objection fails. First, Frege’s view that senses are third-realm entities is not traceable to his view that all objects are selbständig. Second, while Frege recognizes that there are objects that are dependent upon other objects, he does not take this to compromise the Selbständigkeit of any objects. Thus, Frege’s doctrine that objects are selbständig does not make the claim of absolute independence that Dummett appears to have taken it to make. Nevertheless, in order to make a good case against Frege based on the dependency of senses, Dummett need only establish his claim that senses depend upon expressions: appeal to an absolute conception of independence is unnecessary. However, Dummett’s arguments for the dependency of senses upon expressions are unsuccessful and they show that Dummett’s conception of what it is to be an expression also differs significantly from Frege’s.     

Toward a unified fielder theory: what we do not yet know about how people run to catch a ball.

Linear optic trajectory theory claims that people catch balls by running in a direction that keeps an optic trajectory of the ball linear. The authors show a range of ball trajectories for which departures of the optic trajectory from linearity do not predict which direction people will run, and the direction they choose does not correct these departures. Data from a wide range of ball trajectories show that people run so that the angle of elevation of gaze to the ball increases at a decreasing rate. But it is not yet known why people choose the particular path they do from the many that would achieve this.     

A pluralistic framework for counselling and psychotherapy: Implications for research

Historically, training, research and practice in counselling and psychotherapy have been dominated by unitary theoretical models. Although integrative and eclectic positions have been developed as alternatives, these have not been successful in generating research and have resulted in a further proliferation of competing models. In this paper we introduce a ‘pluralistic’ framework for counselling and psychotherapy and discuss the implications of this framework for research. The basic principle of this pluralistic framework is that psychological difficulties may have multiple causes and that there is unlikely to be one, ‘right’ therapeutic method that will be appropriate in all situations—different people are helped by different processes at different times. This pluralistic framework operates as a meta‐theory within which it is possible to utilise concepts, strategies and specific interventions from a range of therapeutic orientations. The framework is structured around three domains—goals, task and methods—by which therapeutic processes can be conceptualised, critically examined and empirically investigated. These domains, and the relationships between them, are outlined and the collaborative relationship at the heart of the pluralistic framework is discussed. The pluralistic framework provides a means for empirical research directly to inform practice and potential lines of empirical inquiry are outlined, along with findings from a recent study of counselling in schools.