An advanced specialist-level training programme in psychodynamic individual psychotherapy of psychotic and borderline patients: the Finnish approach

Most training programmes in individual psychotherapy, including psychoanalytic training are, in practice, restricted to the treatmentof lessdisturbed patients than those who have succumbed to psychotic or severely borderline-level disorders. This has had a delaying effect on the development of psychotherapy with such patients. Psychotherapy of severely disturbed patients is usually regarded as a difficult domain and is often practised only by psychoanalysts or other psychotherapists specially dedicated to working with patients of this kind. Between 1994 and 1997, an advanced multi-professional training programme in psychodynamic individual therapy with an emphasis on borderline and psychotic-level disorders was organized through the Centre for Extension Studies of the University of Turku, Finland, to close the gap in systematic training for the treatment of the most serious psychic disorders, and also to integrate some of the special requirements of public and private psychiatric health care. Here we briefly describe the main elements of our training programme as well as some of our training experiences. It is important to emphasize that the training was not meant to replace psychoanalytic training. It is a question of a separate multi-professional programme based on psychoanalytic premises but with particular objectives of its own.     

Directed Forgetting and Aging: The Role of Retrieval Processes,Processing Speed,and Proactive Interference

ABSTRACT

The directed forgetting effect obtained with the item method is supposed to depend on both selective rehearsal of to-be-remembered (TBR) items and attentional inhibition of to-be-forgotten (TBF) items. In this study, we investigated the locus of the directed forgetting deficit in older adults by exploring the influence of recollection and familiarity-based retrieval processes on age-related differences in directed forgetting. Moreover, we explored the influence of processing speed, short-term memory capacity, thought suppression tendencies, and sensitivity to proactive interference on performance. The results indicated that older adults' directed forgetting difficulties are due to decreased recollection of TBR items, associated with increased automatic retrieval of TBF items. Moreover, processing speed and proactive interference appeared to be responsible for the decreased recall of TBR items.     

Predictors of student burnout and engagement among university students

This study investigated influences of core self-evaluation traits, career decision-making difficulties and social support on student burnout and engagement. A cross-sectional design was used with a non-probability quota sample. In the multiple regression analyses, self-efficacy, inconsistent information due to internal conflict and (lack of) parental support were significant predictors of exhaustion, cynicism, vigour and dedication. Self-esteem was also a significant predictor for the two engagement dimensions. In addition, lack of information about the self, lack of information about the occupations and inconsistent information due to external conflict predicted cynicism.     

Ontogeny of object permanence in a non-storing corvid species, the jackdaw (Corvus monedula)

The aim of the present study was to investigate the ontogeny of object permanence in a non-caching corvid species, the jackdaw (Corvus monedula). Jackdaws are often presented as typical examples of non-storing corvids, as they cache either very little or not at all. We used Uzgiris and Hunt’s Scale 1 tasks to determine the age at which the certain stages set in and the final stage of this capacity that is reached. Our results show that the lack of food-storing behaviour is not associated with inferior object permanence abilities in the jackdaw, as our subjects (N = 19) have reached stage 5 competence (to follow successive visible displacements) at the average age of 61 days post-hatch and showed some evidence of stage 6 competence (to follow advanced invisible displacements) at 81 days post-hatch and thereafter. As we appreciate that object permanence abilities have a very wide ecological significance, our positive results are probably the consequence of other, more fundamental ecological pressures, such as nest-hole reproduction or prey–predator interactions.     

Expertise effects on decision-making in sport are constrained by requisite response behaviours – A meta-analysis

ObjectivesA quantitative review of the effects of requisite responses and methods of stimulus presentation for assessing decision-making expertise in sport was undertaken.DesignAn electronic literature search was conducted in the online databases: SPORTDiscus with Full Text and ISI Web Knowledge All Databases. Articles for analysis were selected according to prior defined criteria.MethodsWe considered 111 effect sizes in studies involving 882 expert and non-expert participants. Effect sizes were calculated for six common protocols for measures responses: verbalized knowledge, eye movement measures, decision time, response accuracy, movement accuracy, and movement time. Two moderator variables were also considered to assess effects of research protocols on the dependent variables: “the requisite response” and “stimulus presentation”. A random effect model was used to calculate effect sizes.ResultsAnalysis of moderator variables suggested that expertise effects were more apparent for “requisite responses” when participants were required to actually perform sporting actions and for “stimulus presentation” under in situ task constraints than for other conditions.ConclusionsFuture empirical work on expertise and decision-making needs to consider task representativeness in considering requisite responses of participants in simulating performance environment conditions. Use of representative task constraints with performers required to perform sport actions in in situ conditions appeared the most functional empirical protocols to enhance validity of data.     

Sight or smell: which senses do scavenging raptors use to find food?

Animal Cognition - Raptors are usually considered to be mainly visually dependent, and the use of other sensory modalities has rarely been studied in these birds. Here, we investigated...     

The sound of time: cross-modal convergence in the spatial structuring of time

In a new integration, we show that the visual-spatial structuring of time converges with auditory-spatial left-right judgments for time-related words. In Experiment 1, participants placed past and future-related words respectively to the left and right of the midpoint on a horizontal line, reproducing earlier findings. In Experiment 2, neutral and time-related words were presented over headphones. Participants were asked to indicate whether words were louder on the left or right channel. On critical experimental trials, words were presented equally loud binaurally. As predicted, participants judged future words to be louder on the right channel more often than past-related words. Furthermore, there was a significant cross-modal overlap between the visual-spatial ordering (Experiment 1) and the auditory judgments (Experiment 2), which were continuously related. These findings provide support for the assumption that space and time have certain invariant properties that share a common structure across modalities.     

Taxonomy of the psychosocial consequences caused by the violence of persecution of ETA's network

This paper delimits and analyzes the effects of the harassment perpetrated by ETA's terrorist network in the Basque Country. The aim was to provide a taxonomy of the consequences of psychological violence and to validate this taxonomy, by means of a content analysis of 37 testimonies of victims of terrorist violence. The taxonomy of consequences of psychological violence is made up by four components: 1. the effects on the context of the persons affected, 2. on their emotional state, 3. on cognition and 4. on behavior. Results show a predominance of contextual consequences and negative cognitions. Intra-observer and inter-observer reliability analysis showed high stability and reproducibility coefficients. This study shows that harassment and psychological violence have major consequences not only for victims but also for family members, threatened collectives and even the society as a whole.