The role of ethnic identity and self-construal in coping among African American and Caucasian American seventh graders: an exploratory analysis of within-group variance

Much coping research has been conducted comparing members of different ethnic groups using discrete racial classifications. However, the past two decades have seen the construct of ethnicity evolve into a complex variable that must be assessed in a more comprehensive way. This study explored how ethnicity, a discrete variable, and the continuous variables of a person's ethnic identity and self-construal contribute to the use of particular coping strategies across various situations. One hundred twelve seventh graders (67 African Americans and 45 Caucasian Americans) from three suburban middle schools completed questionnaires assessing ethnic identity, self-construal, and coping strategies for medical, test, and social criticism stressors. Results supported the hypothesis that ethnicity as a discrete variable is not associated with coping, but that ethnic identity and self-construal are. It was also found that high scores on the ethnic identity and self-construal scales were indicative of more positive psychological adjustment. Implications for future research and methodological considerations are discussed.     

The goal as process: music and the search for the Self

This paper explores and compares the processes of music and analysis from the author's experience as a musician, piano teacher and analyst. It explains how the use of music improvisation in analysis (with simple percussion instruments) can powerfully enhance the dialogue between the unconscious and conscious psyche, as well as deepen the relationship between analyst and analysand. This is connected theoretically to Jung's active imagination and Winnicott's concept of play within the analytic encounter. Finally, the question is raised whether analytic trainings could do more to expose trainees to the possibility of using music within the analytic encounter. This touches on the more basic and controversial issue (which often separates analytical psychology and psychoanalysis) of whether expressive therapy should be used in analysis at all.     

Constraints have different concurrent effects and aftereffects on variability

Three experiments showed that constraints imposed early in learning have different effects on variability when they are in effect and after they are removed. Task constraints, which determine how something can be done, limited the number of possible responses in a computer game. Variability constraints, which specify how differently something must be done, required that each response differ from some number of prior responses. Less restrictive constraints (Experiments 1 and 2) produced higher variability during the constraints. More restrictive constraints (Experiments 2 and 3) led to higher variability after the constraints were relaxed. The authors discuss how these differences reflect strategies acquired during the constraints (default rules) and modified in closely related ways (exception rules) afterward.     

The Infrequency-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder scale (Fptsd) for the MMPI-2: development and initial validation with veterans presenting with combat-related PTSD

Researchers have identified difficulties associated with the use of traditional Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom, Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) validity scales with survivors of traumatic events. A new scale, the Infrequency-Posttraumatic Stress Disorder scale (Fptsd), was created from MMPI-2 items that were infrequently endorsed by 940 male combat veterans presenting for treatment at the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clinics of 2 Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. A variety of statistical methods were implemented that preliminarily established Fptsd's validity with a validation sample of 323 additional PTSD-diagnosed combat veterans. Results indicate that, relative to previously established validity and overreporting scales (F, Fb, and Fp), Fptsd was significantly less related to psychopathology and distress and better at discriminating simulated from genuinely reported PTSD. Clinical implications are discussed concerning the use of Fptsd to assess disability-seeking veterans suspected of overreporting PTSD symptoms.     

contents Volume 108, 2002

Volume Contents

contents Volume 108, 2002     

Integration and representation in rats' serial pattern learning in the T-maze

Rats were exposed to three-trial series consisting of reinforced (R) trials and one nonreinforced (N) trial in a fixed order, RRN and RNR (Experiments 1 and 2) or NRR and RRN (Experiment 3), on extended visually distinct runways in a T-maze. When initially presented with the same sequence on each series in a session (separate presentations) with the same runway on all trials within a series (Experiments 1 and 3), all the rats developed slower running speeds on N than on R trials. When a runway was sometimes changed between the first and next two trials during separate presentations training (Experiment 2) or both sequences were later intermixed within each session in each experiment, only rats exposed to each sequence on a specific runway maintained these serial running patterns. Rats displayed serial running patterns on a test RNN sequence similar to that on the RNR sequence (Experiment 2), as would be predicted by an intertrial association model of serial pattern learning (Capaldi & Molina, 1979), but responded on test RRR and NRN sequences (Experiment 3) as would be predicted by an ordinal-trial-tag/intratrial association model (Burns, Wiley, & Payne, 1986). Results from test series of free-choice trials in Experiments 1 and 2 failed to support a prediction of the intratrial association model that these rats would integrate RRN and RNR sequences. Rather than always selecting a baited runway on both the second and the third free-choice trials, the rats only selected a baited runway on the third trial on the basis of their choice on the second trial, as would be predicted by the intertrial association model. Only after experiencing all possible outcome sequences during forced-choice training in Experiment 3 did these rats predominantly select a baited runway on every free-choice trial.     

Groups to Resolve Conflicts Between Groups: Diplomacy with a Therapeutic Dimension

The group self, an individual's self-perception as a member of a group, is distinguished from the group's self, a personification of the group as a person with a self. The perceived group's self of an opposing other group is often a repository for attributes group members are not ready to recognize in their own group's self. Theoretically, the need for an adversarial other to hold one's own group's unwanted attributes—and thus to complete one's own group's self—contributes, however unconsciously, to the apparent intractability of intergroup disputes. In dealing with these issues, I compare intergroup conflict resolution (ICR) groups with therapy groups, on the one hand, and advocacy groups on the other. All of this sets the stage for a presentation of two ICR projects and their analysis in group-developmental terms.     

Action-based and vision-based selection of input: Two sources of control

In the first part of this paper we review evidence suggesting that there exists a mechanism that selects input on the basis of its similarity to the required action. This response-based input selection differs from the more established space- and object-based input selection in that it is not constrained by the structure of the input. Our evidence suggests that the two-choice Stroop effect is caused by this response-based selection mechanism. By contrast, it is known that the flanker effect is determined by the space- and object- based selection mechanisms. We explore whether the conflict resolution of the Stroop and flanker tasks is different as well by embedding these two tasks in a PRP (Psychological Refractory Period) paradigm. We show that the Stroop and the PRP effects are additive whereas the flanker and the PRP effects are underadditive, suggesting that the processes in charge of the conflict resolution in the Stroop and the flanker tasks are indeed different. We discuss possible reasons for this difference, and discuss possible ways in which the response-based mechanism can be implemented in information processing models.