The Bears Family Projective Test: evaluating stories of children with emotional difficulties

The aim of this study was to describe and analyze the storytelling of children with emotional difficulties. Forty children with emotional and relational difficulties (inhibited and impulsive), ages between 5.5 and 9.4 years old, were assessed by a multiaxial procedure and the bears family projective test. The bears family test is a constructive-thematic-projective method based on an anthropomorphic family of bears that children can manipulate to tell a story. The stories of 40 children without emotional difficulties (matched by IQ, socio-economic status, and gender) and 322 typically developing children, aged between four and 10 years old, were used as a reference for comparisons. Results indicated that the stories of children with emotional difficulties showed many unsolved problematic events, unclear characters, negative relationships, and negative behaviors. Unlike the stories of children without emotional difficulties, positive contents didn't prevail over negative, and there wasn't a positive compensation for negative elements.     

Low motor performance scores among overweight children: Poor coordination or morphological constraints?

This study examined whether lower motor performance scores can be full attributed to poor coordination, or whether weight related morphological constraints may also affect motor performance. Data for 666 children and adolescents from the longitudinal Western Australian Pregnancy Cohort (Raine) Study were grouped into normal weight, overweight and obese categories based on the International Obesity Task Force cut points. Participants completed the 10-item McCarron Assessment of Neuromuscular Development (MAND) at the 10 and 14 year follow-up. The prevalence of overweight and obese participants classified with mild or moderate motor difficulties was not different from the normal weight group at 10 years (χ² = 5.8 p = .215), but higher at 14 years (χ² = 11.3 p = .023). There were no significant differences in overall motor performance scores between weight status groups at 10 years, but at 14 years, the normal weight group achieved better scores than the obese group (p < .05). For specific items, the normal weight group consistently scored higher than the overweight and obese groups on the jump task at 10 (p < .001) and 14 (p < .01) years but lower on the hand strength task at both ages (p < .01). Our findings raise the question as to whether some test items commonly used for assessing motor competence are appropriate for an increasingly overweight and obese population.     

Instruction of Research-Based Comprehension Strategies in Basal Reading Programs

Research supports using research-based comprehension strategies; however, comprehension strategy instruction is not highly visible in basal reading programs or classroom instruction, resulting in many students who struggle with comprehension. A content analysis examined which research-based comprehension strategies were presented in five elementary school basal readers and how the basals suggest that the strategies be taught. The analysis found that two thirds of instructional recommendations were research-based strategies; several strategies did not appear in basals, and others received minimal attention. Findings suggest that though the state of comprehension instruction in basals is not as dire as previous research suggests, improvements can be made.     

Categorical perception of newly learned faces

Five experiments investigated identification and discrimination of faces. Stimuli were blends of two faces generated with a morphing algorithm. Two same-gender and two different-gender pairs of faces were tested. Experiment 1 (identification) estimated the point of indifference along the morphing sequence, and the associated differential threshold. Experiment 2 (discrimination, ABX) demonstrated that novel faces are perceived categorically. Identity was a more important factor than gender in generating the perceptual categories. Experiment 3 and 4 (identification) demonstrated that categories are generated progressively in the course of the experiment and depend on the range of morphs tested in any one condition. Confidence ratings (Experiment 5) showed that the multidimensional space where faces are represented can be collapsed onto a single dimension. Response probabilities and response times for Experiments 1–4 were predicted simultaneously by a counting model postulating that quanta of discriminal information are sampled independently from the stimuli.     

Is attention necessary for perceiving gaze direction? It depends on how you look at it: Evidence from the locus-of-slack method

Several researchers have studied how we process and perceive gaze direction. However, it is still unclear at which perceptual stage of gaze processing (encoding or/and categorization), attention is required to judge gaze direction. We report a study in which we manipulated the difficulty of gaze perceptual judgements (easy vs. difficult) and used the locus-of-slack method to test the role of different types of attention (spatial and central) in the encoding and categorization of gaze direction. In Experiment 1 we used the spatial cueing paradigm to investigate if gaze direction judgements can be carried out while spatial attention is diverted. In Experiment 2 we used the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm to determine whether judgement of gaze direction involves central attention processes. The findings demonstrate that gaze judgements require input attention (both for the encoding and categorization stage) but not central attention. The implications of the results are discussed.     

Psychotherapy and counselling in Italy: A situation still in the phase of definition

This paper reflects on the state of psychotherapy and counselling in Italy, with specific attention to the situation within the public services. With regard to psychotherapy, several aspects of the current legislative status quo as well as the diffusion of this form of treatment are considered through two studies, one carried out in a region of the north of Italy and the other in a region of the south. After underlining the absence of precise epistemological, practical and legislative recognition of the activities that can be included under the heading of counselling, some of the principal practical areas where counselling is proving valuable in the Italian context are more closely examined.     

We are human,they are not: Driving forces behind outgroup dehumanisation and the humanisation of the ingroup

Mostly invigorated by infrahumanisation theory, our knowledge on processes of dehumanisation in intergroup relations has grown considerably in the last decade. Building on these earlier endeavours, the present chapter reviews some recent empirical extensions that highlight the importance of differentiating between ingroup humanisation and outgroup dehumanisation because they are often moderated by specific variables. The role of these separate processes is discussed as a function of the main structural elements that define intergroup behaviour; that is, the defining boundaries of the groups, the relation between the groups at hand, and the ideologies of its members. Finally, the role of the different senses of humanness is discussed, suggesting that the folk conception of humanness differs between cultures.     

Adult Attachment Styles and Psychological Disease: Examining the Mediating Role of Personality Traits

ABSTRACT

The aim of the present study was to examine differences in anxiety and depression related to differences in attachment models of the self and of others and whether personality traits mediate this relationship. The authors assessed attachment styles, anxiety, depression, and personality traits among 274 adult volunteers. Participants were classified into 4 attachment groups (secure, preoccupied, fearful, and dismissing–avoidant) according to K. Bartholomew's (1990) Bartholomew, K. 1990. Avoidance of intimacy: An attachment perspective. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7: 147–178. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar] model. The present authors found significant differences among attachment groups on anxiety and depressive symptoms with attachment styles involving a negative self-model showing higher scores than attachment styles characterized by a positive self-model. The authors also found that differences between attachment styles in anxiety and depression remained significant when personality factors related to attachment prototypes were entered as covariates. Results indicate that secure attachment in adults was associated with better mental health, while insecure attachment styles characterized by negative thinking about the self were associated with higher depression and anxiety scores. Our findings seem to evidence that attachment and personality are only partly overlapping and that attachment cannot be considered as redundant with personality in the explanation of psychological disease.     

Psychodynamic counselling in a university setting: A space for thinking together over emotional problems

Abstract

The authors describe their experience as psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapists at the Counselling Service for University Students of the Office for Student Affairs, Naples. In this service they have provided, for the last fourteen years, to any student who applies to it, up to four individual sessions, with the possibility of follow-up sessions, should the client ask for them after a few months. Both the procedure and the aims of the interventions are similar to those described by psychotherapists working at the Tavistock Clinic (Copley 1976; Salzberger-Wittenberg 1977) and the Brent Consultation Centre (Hurry 1986; Novick 1987) of London. The technique is an adjustment of the psychoanalytic one and the therapist undertakes a careful listening to the student's verbal and non-verbal communications. The main objective of the intervention is to enter into an alliance with the adult parts of the client in order to examine together his/her personal difficulties. A case report is presented, in order to exemplify both an emotional conflict which can interfere with academic success and the technique of the intervention.     

Ambiguous emotion recognition in temporal lobe epilepsy: The role of expression intensity

The lateralization of emotion processing is currently debated and may be further explored by examining facial expression recognition (FER) impairments in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE). Furthermore, there is also debate in the literature whether FER deficits in individuals with TLE are more pronounced in the right than in the left hemisphere. Individuals with TLE were tested with an FER task designed to be more sensitive than those classically used to shed light on this issue. A total of 25 right- and 32 left-TLE patients, candidates for surgery, along with controls, underwent an FER task composed of stimuli shown not only at full-blown intensities (100 %), but also morphed to lower-intensity display levels (35 %, 50 %, and 75 %). The results showed that, as compared to controls, right-TLE patients showed deficits in the recognition of all emotional categories. Furthermore, when considering valence, right-TLE patients were impaired only in negative emotion recognition, but no deficits for positive emotions were highlighted in left-TLE patients. Finally, only the right-TLE patients’ impairment was found to be related to the age of epilepsy onset. Our work demonstrates that the FER deficits in TLE span multiple emotional categories and show manifestations dependent on the laterality of the epileptic focus. Taken together, our findings provide the strongest evidence for the right-hemisphere model, but they also partially support the valence model. We suggest that current models are not exhaustive at explaining emotional-processing cerebral control, and further that multistep models should be developed.