Teaching Clinical Psychology Trainees about Weight Bias

Abstract

As an assistant professor who teaches clinical psychology trainees about social aspects of behavior, I devote one week to the topic of weight bias. In this class, I rely on the research literature to challenge common myths about “obesity,” demonstrate the pervasiveness and harm of weight bias, and offer recommendations to trainees to apply to their own professional and personal lives. I encourage trainees to shift focus from weight and weight loss to health and well-being and to engage in self-reflection on the role of weight bias in their interactions with others. Here, I describe my weight bias seminar and outline common questions and my responses to them (e.g., Do you actually believe that “obese” people can be healthy?). Weight bias is a neglected topic in most clinical psychology training programs. Weight bias must be addressed in clinical psychology programs to produce culturally competent graduates who are aware of diversity issues.     

Perspectives on Counseling Psychology: Portugal at a Glance

Les auteurs décrivent le statut actuel et réfléchissent à l'avenir possible de la psychologie du counseling au Portugal, cela à partir de ses forces, de ses faiblesses, de ses opportunités et de ce qui la menace. Le counseling est de plus en plus une aide proactive au développement individuel, plutôt qu'une solution aux situations problématiques. Dans ces conditions, l'une des orientations possibles de la psychologie du counseling est le traitement de la diversité des approches théoriques et techniques pour mettre au point des méthodes d'intervention communes. Les défis que rencontreront prochainement les psychologues du counseling sont analysés à partir des demandes universitaires et autres, la qualité des services et la nécessité d'une réglementation officielle. On propose enfin des recommandations relatives à l'avenir de la psychologie du counseling.
Based on an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats the authors discuss the current status and possible future directions for counseling psychology in Portugal. Counseling is increasingly being viewed as a proactive support to individual development, rather than as a remedial solution to problem situations. In this environment, pursuing diversity in theoretical and techniques approaches to find common intervention methodologies is one possible direction for counseling psychology. The challenges encountered by counseling psychologists in the near future are analysed relative to academic and other demands, the quality of the services, and the need for statutory regulation. Recommendations pertaining to the construction of the future for counseling psychology are proposed.     

Flavour liking and preference conditioned by caffeine in humans

When caffeine consumers repeatedly experience a novel flavoured drink containing caffeine, the rated pleasantness of the drink flavour increases progressively. These results could be interpreted in terms of the flavour acting as a Pavlovian conditioned stimulus (CS) predicting the consequences of caffeine ingestion. However, all studies of this phenomenon to date have used between-subjects designs, and one criticism of this is that changes in pleasantness might have arisen from nonspecific effects. A more rigorous test is to examine changes in pleasantness for two drinks, a CS+ flavour paired with caffeine and CS- paired with placebo. Accordingly, 20 moderate caffeine consumers consumed both CS+ and CS- drinks in counterbalanced order over eight conditioning trials at breakfast, with hedonic and sensory characteristics evaluated on each trial. As predicted, the rated pleasantness of the CS+ drink increased whereas pleasantness of the CS- drink did not change. Despite this, participants did not have an overall preference for the CS+ flavour posttraining. However, both those who chose the CS+ and those who chose the CS- at the end showed the same direction and rate of change in pleasantness for the two drinks during training, but spurious differences in baseline preference obscured this effect in terms of an overall change in preference. Overall these data suggest that changes in pleasantness of drinks paired with caffeine delivery are best explained in terms of Pavlovian associations between drink flavour and the postingestive effects of caffeine.     

Intention matters to make you (im)moral: Positive-negative asymmetry in moral character evaluations

ABSTRACT

Is intention, even if unfulfilled, enough to make a person appear to be good or bad? In this study, we investigated the influence of unfulfilled intentions of an agent on subsequent moral character evaluations. We found a positive-negative asymmetry in the effect of intentions. Factual information concerning failure to fulfill a positive intention mitigated the morality judgment of the actor, yet this mitigation was not as evident for the negative vignettes. Participants rated an actor who failed to fulfill their negative intention as highly immoral, as long as there was an external explanation to its unfulfillment. Furthermore, both emotional and cognitive (i.e., informativeness) processes mediated the effect of negative intention on moral character. For the positive intention, there was a significant mediation by emotions, yet not by informativeness. Results evidence the relevance of mental states in moral character evaluations and offer affective and cognitive explanations to the asymmetry.     

Therapeutic Groundhog Day – exploring the impact of the theory/approach on the self of the therapist

The ‘use of self’ of the therapist is a concept that can be considered from numerous directions. An underrepresented aspect of ‘the self of the therapist’ is the influence of the theoretical orientation and associated skills. As part of a recursive process, the theory and techniques shape the therapist's emergent self in the therapeutic relationship. This teaching event was designed to provide an opportunity for trainee therapists to experience contrasting ‘selves’. This is developed through role play where ‘family’ and ‘therapists’ attempt to reproduce the same episode but each is responded to with a different model and skill.     

A systematic review of studies evaluating diffusion and dissemination of selected cancer control interventions.

With this review, the authors sought to determine what strategies have been evaluated (including the outcomes assessed) to disseminate cancer control interventions that promote the uptake of behavior change. Five topic areas along the cancer care continuum (smoking cessation, healthy diet, mammography, cervical cancer screening, and control of cancer pain) were selected to be representative. A systematic review was conducted of primary studies evaluating dissemination of a cancer control intervention. Thirty-one studies were identified that evaluated dissemination strategies in the 5 topic areas. No strong evidence currently exists to recommend any one dissemination strategy as effective in promoting the uptake of cancer control interventions. The authors conclude that there is a strong need for more research into dissemination of cancer control interventions. Future research should consider methodological issues such as the most appropriate study design and outcomes to be evaluated.     

Acquired Capability for Suicide,Pain Tolerance,and Fearlessness of Pain—Validation of the Pain Tolerance Scale of the German Capability for Suicide Questionnaire

The interpersonal theory of suicide (Joiner, 2005) postulates that for a serious suicide attempt, one has to possess the acquired capability to commit suicide. Acquired capability includes higher pain tolerance, which is further assumed to comprise both an elevated physical pain tolerance and fearlessness of pain. Recently, the German Capability for Suicide Questionnaire (GCSQ) was validated. The aim of this study is further validation of the GCSQ's Pain Tolerance scale by investigating the scale's association with objective pain tolerance and fearlessness of pain in two undergraduate samples (N = 81; N = 76). Both associations were found indicating a strong criterion validity of the Pain Tolerance scale.