Marriage guidance counselling in general practice in London

People with marital difficulties are more likely to contact their GP for help than any other social service. In recent years, a number of attachments of marriage guidance counsellors to general practice have been set up to encourage doctors to refer patients directly. This paper describes the results of a postal survey of general practitioners and counsellors in attachments in the area covered by the London Marriage Guidance Council. While the results were very positive, with few disadvantages mentioned, it must be remembered that the majority of GPs involved were a highly self-selected and atypical group, usually with a special interest in psychotherapy.     

Using the Past to Enhance the Present: Boosting Happiness Through Positive Reminiscence

Two studies explored relations between positive reminiscing and emotional experience – a survey of naturally occurring reminiscence (Study 1) and a field experiment testing the affective consequences of two styles of reminiscing (Study 2). In Study 1, frequency of positive reminiscing predicted perceived ability to enjoy life, and students who reminisced using cognitive imagery reported a greater ability to savor positive events than those who reminisced using memorabilia. In Study 2, students were randomly assigned either to reminisce about pleasant memories using cognitive imagery, reminisce about pleasant memories using memorabilia, or think about current concerns (control condition) for 10 min twice daily for a week. Both reminiscence groups reported greater increases in the percent of time they felt happy over the past week than the control group; and happiness increased more in the cognitive imagery group than in the memorabilia group.     

Acculturative Stress of Hispanics: Loss and Challenge

This article defines acculturative stress, addressing loss of social support, self-esteem, and identity. Six distinctive differences between immigrants who are White, Protestant, and northern or western European and immigrants who are Hispanic are outlined. Suggestions are given for counseling practice that consider these differences.     

Predictors of Maternal Bonding and Responsiveness for Mothers of Very Preterm Infants

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - Identify predictors of maternal bonding and responsiveness for mothers of very preterm infants (<?32 weeks gestational age) at 6...     

Are parenting interventions effective in improving the relationship between mothers and their preterm infants?

Aim

To systematically review the efficacy of parenting interventions in improving the quality of the relationship between mothers and preterm infants.

Method

Randomized or quasi-randomized controlled trials (RCT) of parenting interventions for mothers of preterm infants where mother–infant relationship quality outcomes were reported. Databases searched: The Cochrane Library, PubMed, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Web of Science.

Results

Seventeen studies met the inclusion criteria, 14 with strong methodological quality. Eight parenting interventions were found to improve the quality of the mother–preterm infant relationship.

Conclusions

Heterogeneity of the interventions calls for an integrated new parenting program focusing on cue-based, responsive care from the mother to her preterm infant to improve the quality of the relationship for these mother–preterm infant dyads.     

Skilled Observation and Change Blindness: A Comparison of Law Enforcement and Student Samples

Some evidence suggests that expertise and observational skills training can reduce attentional errors, such as change blindness. Laypeople typically assume that law enforcement officers possess acute observational skills, but no research to date has compared law enforcement and lay samples on their susceptibility to change blindness. In the present study, student and law enforcement samples completed a change blindness task and attempted to identify the target(s) from four line‐ups. Law enforcement officers and students were equally susceptible to change blindness regarding the switch in the target's identity, but students were more likely than officers to detect changes in the target's clothing. Students also performed better on the line‐up task, overall, than officers. Additionally, whereas students' confidence was positively correlated with identification accuracy under some circumstances, officers' confidence was either uncorrelated or negatively correlated with accuracy. We discuss the implications of these findings and suggest some factors accounting for law enforcement officers' relatively poor performance on these tasks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.