Coping Activities in Solitary Confinement of U.S. Navy POWs in Vietnam1

A questionnaire was developed and administered to 137 Navy aviators, who were repatriated prisoners of war (RPWs) from North Vietnam, to investigate the usefulness of specific “time-killing” activities or adaptational strategies for coping with extensive periods of solitary confimement during captivity. Factor analysis of the usefulness scores resulted in the derivation of four factors accounting for 32% of the variance: (1) Captor-Captive Relationship, (2) Reliving the Past, (3) Repetitive Behavior, and (4) Self-development Activities. Factor 1 coping activities were rated as most useful, and Factor 3 as least useful. Factor 2 activities were used by most RPWs during the first few weeks in solitary, while Factor 4 activities were not used until later. In addition, the usefulness of all four factors increased significantly over time. The results were discussed in terms of the personality characteristics of aviators, and theoretical formulations emphasizing the individual's need for optimal stimulation.     

A subset selection technique for scoring items on a multiple choice test

On a multiple-choice test in which each item hask alternative responses, the test taker is permitted to choose any subset which he believes contains the one correct answer. A scoring system is devised that depends on the size of the subset and on whether or not the correct answer is eliminated. The mean and variance of the score per item are obtained. Methods are derived for determining the total number of items that should be included on the test so that the average score on all items can be regarded as a good measure of the subject's knowledge. Efficiency comparisons between conventional and the subset selection scoring procedures are made. The analogous problem ofr > 1 correct answers for each item (withr fixed and known) is also considered.The authors are grateful to M. Aitkin, C. Coombs, F. Lord, and the reviewers for their comments and suggestions.     

On being imitated: Effects on models and observers

Forty first- and second-grade children were imitated by an adult confederate and not imitated by a second adult confederate. For each child exposed to the above treatment, another child observed the imitation and nonimitation. It was found that children tended to be attracted to the confederate who imitated them. More importantly, although the observers were not imitated, they also were attracted to the imitating confederate. The two groups did not differ significantly in subsequent imitation of the two confederates. The results, which were conceptualized within the framework of vicarious reinforcement, have methodological implications for research on the effects of being imitated.     

Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII): development, reliability, and validity of a scale to assess suicide attempts and intentional self-injury

The authors describe the development of the Suicide Attempt Self-Injury Interview (SASII), an instrument designed to assess the factors involved in nonfatal suicide attempts and intentional self-injury. Using 4 cohorts of participants, authors generated SASII items and evaluated them with factor and content analyses and internal consistency statistics. The final measure was assessed for reliability and validity with collateral measures. The SASII assesses variables related to method, lethality and impulsivity of the act, likelihood of rescue, suicide intent or ambivalence and other motivations, consequences, and habitual self-injury. The SASII was found to have very good interrater reliability and adequate validity.     

Feedback in dynamic psychotherapy: Notes on selected clinical issues and practical applications

Conclusion In this presentation of selected clinical issues and applications of feedback in dynamic psychotherapy, I have ranged from metaphor to paradox and the sharing of the therapist’s wisdom; from feedback of silence, empathy, and memories to working through alienation from self; from feedback of the therapist’s psychophysiologic reactions during a session to feedback of the fear of separation and mortality. Believing that all too often the therapeutic process is based on linear feedback, I have focused on the circularity of interactive, interpersonal systems, suprasystems, and subsystems as well as their simultaneous, mutually influencing perception through many equally important channels of communication and levels of awareness. These serve as the ground, frame, and context for constructive feedback between therapist and patient that can promote personality reconstruction and development of human potentials. Revised from a paper presented at a scientific meeting of the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis of the Karen Horney Psychoanalytic Institute and Center on April 22, 1993. Immediate Past-President of the Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis; author of many publications on verbal and nonverbal communications.     

The frame in psychotherapy: Langs and Casement compared

This paper attempts to explore the writings of Robert Langs and Patrick Casement on the therapeutic environment, (the frame). These writers suggest that the frame of psychotherapy or counselling sessions is one of the most important areas that the therapist can pay attention to. This paper will outline the similarities of thought, as well as highlight the dafferent opinions held by these writers as to what the frame should consist of.     

A Missing Dimension of European Influence on English Protestantism: The Heidelberg Catechism and the Church of England, 1563–1663

ABSTRACT

While historians of the early-modern Church of England have become familiar with the influence exerted upon it by Genevan and Zurich theologians, the impact of Heidelberg University and the Rhineland Palatinate was arguably equally important and has hitherto been neglected. That influence is charted here through the impact of the Heidelberg Catechism and the commentaries upon it by the Heidelberg divines Jeremias Bastingius and especially Zacharias Ursinus. While these were almost ubiquitous in the late-Elizabethan and Jacobean churches, Heidelberg divinity nevertheless came increasingly to be viewed with suspicion by churchmen under Charles I because of its alleged (and not entirely illusory) links to puritanism. It is argued here that with the creation of the Westminster Greater and Lesser Catechisms, the Heidelberg Catechism and commentaries on it no longer served a useful purpose even for puritans, and that later churchmen were unfamiliar with the influence that it had exerted in the recent past.