Relational Entitlement,Early Recollections of Parental Care,and Attachment Orientation

The present study examined whether inadequate parental care has a long-term impact on pathological relational entitlement in romantic relations, and whether this impact is mediated by insecure attachment style. Our cohort of 335 Israeli adults completed Sense of Relational Entitlement (SRE), Experience in Close Relationships (ECR), and Parental Bonding Instrument (PBI) questionnaires. The results generally supported our hypotheses. Avoidant attachment style fully and negatively mediated the link between maternal adequate care and SRE total entitlement. Anxious attachment style fully and negatively mediated the link between PBI paternal adequate care and SRE total entitlement. Women were found to report more relational entitlement. These results support the notion that pathological relational entitlement has its roots in recollections of early parental care and attachment experiences. The results of the study are discussed in the context of adult attachment and romantic relationships.     

Developmental differences in risk factors for suicide attempts between ninth and eleventh graders

In order to identify differences in risk factors for suicide attempts throughout adolescence, this study utilized a school-based survey of ninth (n = 1,192) and eleventh graders (N = 1,055). Suicide attempts were associated with cigarette and alcohol use, family violence, and depression for ninth graders and with illicit drug use, school violence, and sexual abuse for eleventh graders, while having friends was protective for both groups. Additionally, having more than one risk factor imparted an exponential risk for suicide attempts (ninth > eleventh graders). The differences detected are consistent with developmental changes of adolescence and represent important information for identification of at-risk youth.     

Social support,negative social exchange,and response to case formulation-based cognitive behavior therapy

We investigated associations between pretreatment social support, negative social exchange, and slope of weekly symptom change for depression, anxiety, and stress over the course of ideographic, case formulation-based, cognitive behavior therapy. Participants were 74 adults treated in a private practice setting. We used self-report measures to assess social support and negative social exchange at intake and to assess symptoms on a weekly basis. At pretreatment, a higher level of social support was associated with lower levels of depression, and a higher level of negative social exchanges was associated with higher levels of depression and stress. Pretreatment social support was not significantly associated with slope of symptom change. However, a higher level of pretreatment negative social exchanges was associated with steeper slope of change in symptoms of depression and stress during treatment. These findings suggest that the association between pretreatment negative social exchanges and subsequent symptoms may be stronger than that of social support and subsequent symptoms. Additionally, we discuss the possibility that having data on negative social exchanges at the start of treatment may benefit the outcome of ideographic, case formulation-based, cognitive behavior therapy.     

RITUAL, TIME, AND ENTERNITY

Abstract. It is argued here that the construction of time and eternity are among ritual's entailments. In dividing continuous duration into distinct periods ritual distinguishes two temporal conditions: (1) that prevailing in mundane periods and (2) that prevailing during the intervals between them. Differences in the frequency, length, and relationship among the rituals constituting different liturgical orders are considered, as are differences between mundane periods and ritual's intervals with respect to social relations, cognitive modes, meaningfulness, and typical interactive frequencies. Periods, it is observed, relate to intervals as everchanging to never-changing, and close relationships of never changing to eternity, eternity to sanctity, and sanctity to truth are proposed. In the argument that ritual's "times out of time" really are outside mundane time, similarities to the operations of digital computers and Herbert Simon's discussion of interaction frequencies in the organization of matter are noted.