Perfectionism and multiphasic personality inventory (MMPI) indices of personality disorder

The present research tested the hypothesis that personal and social aspects of the perfectionism construct are related differentially to indices of personality disorders. A sample of 90 psychiatric patients was examined with respect to their scores on the Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale (MPS) and the personality disorder subscales (PDS) of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. The MPS provides measures of self-oriented, other-oriented, and socially prescribed perfectionism, whereas the PDS assess levels of various personality disorder symptoms. Zero-order and partial correlations indicated that the perfectionism dimensions of the MPS were related to various subscales of the PDS and, perhaps more importantly, that the findings vary as a function of the perfectionism dimension in question. The results are discussed in terms of the importance of perfectionism in personality disorder symptom patterns.     

The impact of body-part-naming training on the accuracy of imitative performances in 2- to 3-year-old children

A series of three experiments explored the relationship between 3-year-old children's ability to name target body parts and their untrained matching of target hand-to-body touches. Nine participants, 3 per experiment, were presented with repeated generalized imitation tests in a multiple-baseline procedure, interspersed with step-by-step training that enabled them to (i) tact the target locations on their own and the experimenter's bodies or (ii) respond accurately as listeners to the experimenter's tacts of the target locations. Prompts for on-task naming of target body parts were also provided later in the procedure. In Experiment 1, only tact training followed by listener probes were conducted; in Experiment 2, tacting was trained first and listener behavior second, whereas in Experiment 3 listener training preceded tact training. Both tact and listener training resulted in emergence of naming together with significant and large improvements in the children's matching performances; this was true for each child and across most target gestures. The present series of experiments provides evidence that naming--the most basic form of self-instructional behavior--may be one means of establishing untrained matching as measured in generalized imitation tests. This demonstration has a bearing on our interpretation of imitation reported in the behavior analytic, cognitive developmental, and comparative literature.     

The effect of an extinction cue on ABA-renewal: Does valence matter?

The present human fear conditioning study examined whether the valence of an extinction cue has a differential effect on attenuating renewal that is induced by removal of the extinction context. Additionally, the study aimed to assess whether such attenuating effect is based on a modulatory or safety-signal role of the cue. In acquisition, extinction, and test stages of the experiment, human participants received pairings of human faces, presented against a particular background color, with the presence or absence of an aversive auditory stimulus. Experimental groups differed in the valence of a cue that was presented during extinction, in whether or not extinction took place against a different background color than present during acquisition and testing, and in whether the extinction cue was present or absent at test. The conditioned response consisted of auditory-stimulus expectancy ratings. It was hypothesized that a positively valued extinction cue yields faster extinction, stronger attenuation of renewal, and better transfer of its inhibitory power to non-extinguished stimuli than a negatively valued cue. All three hypotheses were confirmed, suggesting that the positive, but not the negative, cue had become a safety signal. The results were discussed in the framework of extinction-based exposure treatments.     

Valence-specific laterality effects in vocal emotion: interactions with stimulus type, blocking and sex

Valence-specific laterality effects have been frequently obtained in facial emotion perception but not in vocal emotion perception. We report a dichotic listening study further examining whether valence-specific laterality effects generalise to vocal emotions. Based on previous literature, we tested whether valence-specific laterality effects were dependent on blocked presentation of the emotion conditions, on the naturalness of the emotional stimuli, or on listener sex. We presented happy and sad sentences, paired with neutral counterparts, dichotically in an emotion localisation task, with vocal stimuli being preceded by verbal labels indicating target emotions. The measure was accuracy. When stimuli of the same emotion were presented as a block, a valence-specific laterality effect was demonstrated, but only in original stimuli and not morphed stimuli. There was a separate interaction with listener sex. We interpret our findings as suggesting that the valence-specific laterality hypothesis is supported only in certain circumstances. We discuss modulating factors, and we consider whether the mechanisms underlying those factors may be attentional or experiential in nature.     

The Myth of Closure

Therapies for grief and loss have traditionally focused on the work of grieving. The goal was to reach an endpoint, now popularly called closure. There are, however, many people who, through no fault of their own, find a loss so unclear that there can be no end to grief. They have not failed in the work of grieving, but rather have suffered ambiguous loss, a type of loss that is inherently open ended. Instead of closure, the therapeutic goal is to help people find meaning despite the lack of definitive information and finality. Hope lies in increasing a family's tolerance for ambiguity, but first, professionals must increase their own comfort with unanswered questions. In this article, the authors, one a poet, the other a family therapist and theorist, offer a unique blending of theory, reflection, and poetry to experientially deepen the process of self‐reflection about a kind of loss that defies closure.     

Coping Mechanisms of Unemployed African Men with Dependents

The primary objective of the study was to evaluate the efficiency of the coping mechanisms of 82 unemployed African men with dependents. Results revealed significant relationships between perceived stress and stressful life events, as well as between perceived stress and four groups of coping mechanisms, the strongest relationships being reported for stressful life events, psychological coping resources, and family resources. Only four of the fifteen identified coping mechanisms could reduce the relationship between stressful life events and perceived stress. These were an internal locus of control, extended family social support, mastery and health within the family, and the utilization of community resources.     

Indirect Assessment of Anger Dispositions

Individual differences in aggressive motivation in frustration situations were conceptualized in terms of a frustration-anger association. The strength of this association was seen as being influenced by learning in the individual's frustration history and related to the individual's readiness to respond with anger. Several hypotheses were derived and tested with two groups, institutionalized delinquents and normal high school boys, using an indirect assessment technique. The technique, a set of items in story form, allowed for systematic variations of situational frustration and objective scoring of judged anger responses, but was indirect in that the subject's anger was inferred from his judgment of an imaginary boy's anger in the situation. The hypotheses received strong support from the data and the implications of these results both for the assessment technique and the theoretical statement were discussed.     

Book reviews

Eero Riikonen and Gregory Madan Smith (1997) Re-Imagining Therapy: Living Conversations and Relational Knowing, London: Sage, $14.99

Shulamit Ramon (1996) Mental Health in Europe: Ends, Beginnings and Rediscoveries, London: Mind, $12.99

Re:Public (eds) (1998) Planet Diana: Cultural Studies and Global Mourning, Kingswood, NSW: Research Centre in Intercommunal Studies, University of Western Sydney Nepean, pp. vii + 163, Aus$22

Lucy Yardley (ed.) (1997) Material Discourses of Health and Illness, London and New York: Routledge, pp. 256, $14.99 (pb), $45.00 (hb)

J.H. Berke, S. Pierides, A. Sabbadini and S. Schneider (1998) Even Paranoids Have Enemies, London: Routledge, $15.99

Hans W. Cohn (1997) Existential Thought and Therapeutic Practice, London: Sage, pp. 135, $11.99 (pb), $29.99 (hb)     

Religious coping strategies and spiritual transcendence

People use both positive and negative religious coping strategies, and do so in the context of how they perceive their relationship with God, which means that both require individuals to acquire some degree of self transcendence. This study attempted to show that self transcendence is incorporated in both positive and negative coping strategies. The sample consisted of 190 practising Anglicans and Catholics. They completed RCOPE from which two variables measuring positive coping and negative coping were then constructed, the Self Transcendence Scale (ST) the item content of which is largely positive and the Spiritual Transcendence Scale (STS) of the Temperament and Character Inventory, which acknowledges negative as well as positive experiences. They also completed a scale, God Cares, measuring a person's perception of God as caring. In a series of hierarchical regression analyses, all three variables, the perception of God as caring, and both the positive and negative coping variables predicted ST and all of its subscales except one. The positive coping variable largely predicted STS, the perception of God as caring variable less so and the negative coping variable not at all. The findings were interpreted as suggesting that both perceiving God as caring and using positive coping strategies limit the problematic feelings associated with negative coping strategies, allowing the self transcendence implicit in them to appear.     

Consistent egoists and situation managers: two problems for situationism

According to philosophical “situationism”, psychological evidence shows that human action is typically best explained by the influence of situational factors and not by “global” and robust character traits of the agent. As a practical implication of their view, situationists recommend that efforts in moral education be shifted from character development to situation management. Much of the discussion has focused on whether global conceptions of virtue and character, and in particular Aristotelian virtue ethics, can be defended against the situationist challenge. After several rounds of debate, both sides claim victory, and they seem to have reached a stalemate. In this paper, I refocus the debate on the arguments offered in support of situationism itself. I argue that two serious problems have so far gone unnoticed in the literature. First, the argument in support of situationism is unsound. It is based on evidence that agents’ morally relevant behavior reliably covaries with morally irrelevant situational variables. Using the example of egoism, I show that this evidence does not warrant the situationist inference because the evidence permits a plausible alternative interpretation. Second, I argue that the situationists’ advocacy of situation management is at odds with their core thesis because situation management requires exactly the type of agency they reject as unrealistic.