Psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents: an updated narrative review of the evidence base

While the evidence base for psychodynamic therapy with adults is now quite substantial, there is still a lack of research evaluating the effectiveness of psychodynamic therapies with children and young people. Those studies that have been carried out are also not widely known in the field. To help address the second point, in 2011, we carried out a review of the evidence base for psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and adolescents, which identified 35 studies which together provided some preliminary evidence for this treatment for a range of childhood disorders. The present study is an updated review, focusing on research published between March 2011 and November 2016. During this period, 23 additional studies were published, of which 5 were reports on randomised controlled trials, 3 were quasi-experimental controlled studies and 15 were observational studies. Although most studies covered children with mixed diagnoses, there were a number of studies examining specific diagnostic groups, including children with depression, anxiety and disruptive disorders. whilst the quality of studies was mixed, some were well-designed and reported, and overall indicated promising findings. Nevertheless, further high-quality research is needed in order to better understand the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy across a range of different disorders, and to ensure that services can provide a range of evidence-based treatments for children and young people.     

The Adolescent Psychotherapy Q-Set (APQ): A Validation Study

This article reports the validation of the Adolescent Psychotherapy Q-set (APQ), a newly developed instrument, adapted from the well-established Psychotherapy Q-Set (PQS) and the Child Psychotherapy Q-set (CPQ). The APQ aims to describe the psychotherapy process in the treatment of adolescents in a form suitable for quantitative comparison and analysis. The validation was conducted with the ratings of 70 audio-recorded youth psychotherapy sessions from a range of therapists, patients, and treatment stages, using two therapeutic approaches (Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy). Data analysis included intraclass correlation coefficients, Q-factor analysis, nonparametric mean differences, and Pearson correlations. Results suggest that the APQ has good levels of interrater reliability, is able to identify differences and similarities of two therapeutic approaches, and good convergent and discriminant validity with a widely-used measure of therapist behaviors (the Comparative Psychotherapy Process Scale). The APQ reported good levels of validity and reliability. It is hoped that it will contribute to new ways of investigating the mechanisms of therapeutic change for those working with adolescents.     

Adolescent Patients’ Responses to Interpretations Focused on Endings in Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy

Discussing endings is a crucial part of the work of short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy with adolescents, but there are different views on how best this should be done and whether it is helpful or appropriate to link endings to interpretations of the transference. This study looks at how adolescent patients suffering from moderate to severe depression respond to interpretations around endings in a 28-session long, manualized psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Data come from a randomized clinical trial in which all sessions were audio-recorded. Purposive sampling was used to identify four sessions with four different adolescents in which therapists raised the issue of upcoming endings, explored the patients’ emotional responses, and linked these to the transference. The four extracts were transcribed and analysed using conversation analysis. Findings show that patients either emphasized or diminished the importance of their relationship to the therapists and the consequences of the separation from them in response to transference interpretations. They managed the conversational exchange by either “trouble-telling” or “story-telling.” The authors reflect on the implication of patients’ responses for treatment technique and consider whether transference work with adolescents should be paced and adapted more flexibly in short term psychoanalytic psychotherapy.     

A Genome‐Wide Scan for Eysenckian Personality Dimensions in Adolescent Twin Sibships: Psychoticism,Extraversion, Neuroticism,and Lie

ABSTRACT We report the first genome‐wide scan of adolescent personality. We conducted a genome‐wide scan to detect linkage for measures of adolescent Psychoticism, Extraversion, Neuroticism, and Lie from the Junior Eysenck Personality Questionnaire. Data are based on 1,280 genotyped Australian adolescent twins and their siblings. The highest linkage peaks were found on chromosomes 16 and 19 for Neuroticism, on chromosomes 1, 7, 10, 13 m, and 18 for Psychoticism, and on chromosomes 2 and 3 for Extraversion.     

Frame Based Formulas for Intermediate Logics

In this paper we define the notion of frame based formulas. We show that the well-known examples of formulas arising from a finite frame, such as the Jankov-de Jongh formulas, subframe formulas and cofinal subframe formulas, are all particular cases of the frame based formulas. We give a criterion for an intermediate logic to be axiomatizable by frame based formulas and use this criterion to obtain a simple proof that every locally tabular intermediate logic is axiomatizable by Jankov-de Jongh formulas. We also show that not every intermediate logic is axiomatizable by frame based formulas. Presented by Johan van Benthem     

Immigration from the perspective of hosts and immigrants: Roles of psychological essentialism and social identity

Implicit person theory research can be conceptualized within the framework of psychological essentialism. Essentialist beliefs are associated with entity theories and both predict phenomena such as stereotyping. The present research extended previous work on the links between implicit theories and social identity processes, examining how essentialist beliefs are associated with social identification and processes related to prejudice and intergroup perception. After developing a new measure of essentialist beliefs in Study 1, Study 2 showed that these beliefs were associated with negative bias towards immigrants, particularly when participants were primed with an exclusive social identity. In Study 3, essentialist beliefs among immigrants moderated their adoption of Australian identity as a self-guide during acculturation. Essentialist beliefs therefore play a significant role in the psychology of social identity.     

Human Natures: Psychological Essentialism in Thinking about Differences between People

‘Psychological essentialism’ is the belief that members of a category share deep‐seated properties that determine their identity. In the case of social categories, such beliefs have a variety of important implications. We review recent research that shows a central role for essentialist thinking in stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Special attention is paid to beliefs about race and ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, mental disorder, and personality. Lingering questions about essentialist thinking are discussed, and several directions for future research are suggested.     

Identity,practice and dialogue

Identities are constructed and contested. This means they may be re‐worked to support more inclusive visions of who belongs and on what basis. However, identity construction does not take place in a vacuum, and social psychological analyses of change need to address the contextual dynamics that shape the processes and outcomes of dialogue. This requires attention to processes of power. Furthermore, we need to consider minority group members' understandings of these processes. From the perspective of the disadvantaged, dialogue may be experienced as disempowering because it is viewed as compromising group members' capacities to organize themselves to pursue strategies of social change. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.