Memory retrieval in treating adult survivors of sexual abuse

Abstract

Therapists working with adult survivors of sexual abuse must be sensitive to the powerful ambivalence such clients have toward addressing their victimization. They fear experiencing the significant emotional turmoil which occurs in therapy and the powerful loyalty conflicts they encounter in their families-of-origin. Establishing rapport and allowing clients to set the pace for disclosing and addressing their abuse are critical components of the therapy process. The authors describe effective Ericksonian approaches for establishing these critical treatment elements. Ericksonian techniques for utilizing the client's internal resources and retrieving repressed memories are also discussed, followed by case examples illustrating specific hypnotic methods.     

Reducing the tendency to self-handicap: The effect of self-affirmation

Self-handicapping, the creating or claiming of obstacles to one’s performance to influence explanations given for subsequent outcomes, has been shown to have a host of attitudinal and behavioral consequences. Given the wide ranging impact of self-handicapping, it is important to understand the conditions under which self-handicapping is more or less likely to occur. Accordingly, the present study tested the hypothesis that people will be less likely to engage in self-handicapping if they have previously engaged in self-affirmation. The results of this study found that self-affirmation was more effective in reducing self-handicapping behavior when individuals experienced non-contingent success than when they experience contingent success. Theoretical contributions to the self-handicapping and self-affirmation literatures are discussed, as are practical implications.     

A computer analysis of serial interactions in spaced responding

Serial dependencies in interresponse times were studied by means of a digital computer. In monkeys exposed to a DRL 20-sec schedule of reinforcement, serial interactions appeared at all stages of training. Early in training the serial effects consisted of trains of relatively long interresponse times interspersed among trains of relatively short ones. Later on, the serial effects appeared to be characterized by a tendency to drift up and down in long wavelength periods around the minimum interval required for reinforcement. After training to a point at which most interresponse times produced reinforcement, serial effects of a still more subtle nature appeared. These effects were made apparent by autocorrelation and power spectrum methods and consisted of both long-term and extremely short-term fluctuations in interresponse times.     

Identifying international assignees at risk for premature departure: the interactive effect of outcome favorability and procedural fairness

Two studies examined factors that predict expatriate managers' tendencies to think seriously about departing prematurely from their international assignments. Previous research (conducted outside of the expatriate context) has shown that individuals' willingness to stay with or leave their positions is an interactive function of outcome favorability and procedural fairness. A conceptually analogous interaction effect was found in the present studies. Whereas expatriates more seriously thought of departing prematurely when they perceived the non-work-related outcomes of their overseas assignments to be less favorable, this tendency was much less pronounced when procedural fairness was relatively high. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as are limitations of the studies and suggestions for future research.     

Drug-onset cues as signals: intraadministration associations and tolerance.

On the basis of a conditioning analysis of drug tolerance, drug-associated cues become associated with the drug effect. These cues elicit conditional compensatory responses and modulate the expression of tolerance. Although there are many findings consistent with the conditioning analysis of tolerance, there also are contrary findings. The results of these experiments suggest that some of the apparently contradictory findings result because interoceptive pharmacological cues, as well as exteroceptive environmental cues, are paired with a drug effect. That is, within each administration, early drug-onset cues may become associated with the later, larger drug effect, and these pharmacological cues may overshadow simultaneously present environmental cues. We demonstrate the contribution of such intraadministration associations to tolerance to the analgesic effect of morphine and to the expression of conditional compensatory hyperalgesia.