Reconstruction of the self: Life-span-oriented group psychotherapy

Abstract

Traumatic events affect the individual at many levels of functioning. They can have profound and lingering consequences for self-identity. Affective, cognitive, and behavioral components of the functioning of the self are experienced as disjointed, producing at times a sense of a lack of control of the self and a feeling of schism between the pre- and posttrauma identities. Therapeutic interventions drawing on constructivist theory and integrative techniques are useful in helping the traumatized individual regain self-understanding and mastery. The design and operation of a life-span-oriented group developed for work with individuals who have posttraumatic stress disorder are described. Guidelines for the structure and process of the group are provided, as are principles for technique selection and use within a structured, self-reflective group format.     

Whichever way you choose to categorize, working memory helps you learn

There has been growing interest in the relationship between the capacity of a person's working memory and their ability to learn to categorize stimuli. While there is evidence that working memory capacity (WMC) is related to the speed of category learning, it is unknown whether WMC predicts which strategies people use when there are multiple possible solutions to a categorization problem. To explore the relationship between WMC, category learning, and categorization strategy use, 173 participants completed two categorization tasks and a battery of WMC tasks. WMC predicted the speed of category learning, but it did not predict which strategies participants chose to perform categorization. Thus, WMC does not predict which categorization strategies people use but it predicts how well they will use the strategy they select.     

Clustering in artificial categories: An equivalence analysis

Category clustering is a robust finding in the free recall of familiar category members, but has rarely been studied with artificial categories. In the present study, college students learned artificial categories via stimulus-equivalence methodology. Arbitrary match-to-sample training with nonsense syllables established three interrelated conditional discriminations, and, for most subjects, unreinforced test trials revealed the emergent stimulus-control relations considered to be evidence of equivalence classes. Free-recall tests revealed evidence of significant within-class clustering both before and after equivalence testing, but was more pronounced after the equivalence tests. These findings confirm that classic phenomena like clustering in free recall can be studied with stimulus-equivalence methodology, thus allowing for experimental control over relevant variables.     

Involuntary and voluntary recall of musical memories: A comparison of temporal accuracy and emotional responses

Comparisons between involuntarily and voluntarily retrieved autobiographical memories have revealed similarities in encoding and maintenance, with differences in terms of specificity and emotional responses. Our study extended this research area into the domain of musical memory, which afforded a unique opportunity to compare the same memory as accessed both involuntarily and voluntarily. Specifically, we compared instances of involuntary musical imagery (INMI, or “earworms”)—the spontaneous mental recall and repetition of a tune—to deliberate recall of the same tune as voluntary musical imagery (VMI) in terms of recall accuracy and emotional responses. Twenty participants completed two 3-day tasks. In an INMI task, participants recorded information about INMI episodes as they occurred; in a VMI task, participants were prompted via text message to deliberately imagine each tune they had previously experienced as INMI. In both tasks, tempi of the imagined tunes were recorded by tapping to the musical beat while wearing an accelerometer and additional information (e.g., tune name, emotion ratings) was logged in a diary. Overall, INMI and VMI tempo measurements for the same tune were strongly correlated. Tempo recall for tunes that have definitive, recorded versions was relatively accurate, and tunes that were retrieved deliberately (VMI) were not recalled more accurately in terms of tempo than spontaneous and involuntary instances of imagined music (INMI). Some evidence that INMI elicited stronger emotional responses than VMI was also revealed. These results demonstrate several parallels to previous literature on involuntary memories and add new insights on the phenomenology of INMI.     

Still another confounded face in the crowd

Experiments using schematic faces developed by Öhman (Öhman, Lundqvist, &; Esteves, 2001) seem to document an anger-superiority effect, although we have come to question these experiments. Our work shows that the low-level features of these schematic faces interact with the face’s surround to produce effects that have been attributed to facial affect. Using relatively neutral faces that preserved the feature and surround spatial relationships of angry and happy schematic faces, we produced reaction times (RTs) that were indistinguishable from those found with angry and happy faces. We also found that the target face’s position within the crowd determined the magnitude of the advantage for angry faces as well as for relatively affect-neutral faces. Removing the facial surround reduces the advantage for angry faces, largely by improving performance on happy faces. There was an apparent small advantage for angry features without a surround. öhman faces avoid the problems associated with modified grayscale faces only to introduce an equally troubling confound.     

Differentiating Hostile and Benevolent Sexist Attitudes Toward Positive and Negative Sexual Female Subtypes

Expressions of hostile and benevolent sexism toward a female character whose behavior was consistent with either a positive (i.e., chaste) or negative (i.e., promiscuous) sexual female subtype were examined. Consistent with the theory that benevolent and hostile sexism form complementary ideologies that serve to maintain and legitimize gender-based social hierarchies, men expressed increased hostile, but decreased benevolent,sexism toward a female character who fit a negative subtype, whereas they expressed increased benevolent, but decreased hostile, sexism toward a female character who fit a positive subtype that was consistent with traditional gender roles. Furthermore, men’s sexual self-schema moderated expressions of hostile sexism across subtypes, whichsuggests that men who think of themselves in sexual terms (i.e., those who are sexuallyschematic) may be predisposed to (a) interpret information about women in sexual terms and categorize women into positive or negative sexual female subtypes on the basis of limited information, which leads to (b) increased hostile sexist attributions when womenare perceived as fitting a negative sexual subtype. These findings emphasize the role of both social dominance motives and the more subtle sociocognitive processes underlyinggender stereotyping in the expression of ambivalent sexism.     

Entrevista con Klaus R. Scherer

RESUMEN

El profesor Scherer es uno de los Psicólogos Sociales más importantes de la actualidad, un importante investigador en temas de psicoacústica o de la conducta no verbal no vocal (como a él le gusta llamar a su campo). La contribución del profesor Scherer a la investigación del análisis psicológico de la voz y de las relaciones entre personalidad y los sitemas vocales no verbales de la comunicación ha sido muy importante para el desarrollo de la investigación en la dimensión no-verbal de la conducta. En esta entrevista Scherer reflexiona sobre el pasado y presente de la psicología alemana, refleja los hitos principales de su área de estudio y plantea el problema de la responsabilidad del investigador en la aplicación de sus hallazgos y productos. Se presenta, en esta entrevista, un ejemplo esclarecedor de la importancia de los factores interdisciplinarios en la génesis y apertura de nuevas áreas para la investigación.     

Review of Clinical Medicine and Religious Practice

The purpose was to evaluate faith-based studies within the medical literature to determine whether there are ways to help physicians understand how religion affects patients’ lives and diseases. We reviewed articles that assessed the influence of religious practices on medicine as a primary or secondary variable in clinical practice. This review evaluated 49 articles and found that religious faith is important to many patients, particularly those with serious disease, and patients depend on it as a positive coping mechanism. The findings of this review can suggest that patients frequently practice religion and interact with God about their disease state. This spiritual interaction may benefit the patient by providing comfort, increasing knowledge about their disease, greater treatment adherence, and quality of life. The results of prayer on specific disease states appear inconsistent with cardiovascular disease but stronger in other disease states.