Frieda fromm-reichmann,loneliness and deafness

Abstract

This paper explores the rôle that Fromm-Reichmann's parents' adult-onset severe familial deafness may have played in the development of Fromm-Reichmann's career choice and of her charismatic style. She, too, became deaf. Her final paper, “Loneliness” is perhaps her most emotionally evocative work. Perhaps her own increasingly severe experience of loneliness motivated her writing on this theme. Just as she expected self-honesty from her Chestnut Lodge colleagues, this paper demonstrates that she held herself to this same standard. The author urges the deaf community to seek out the newly deaf and to encourage their learning to sign, thus ameliorating the newly deaf individual's loneliness.     

Predicting Prosocial Behavior Toward Sex-Trafficked Persons: The Roles of Empathy,Belief in a Just World,and Attitudes Toward Prostitution

Human trafficking has been identified as a global human rights violation. This study aimed to investigate the predictors of prosocial behaviors toward sex-trafficked persons. Participants were 223 undergraduates randomly assigned to read a vignette and answer follow-up questions along with measures of empathy, just world belief, attitudes toward prostitution, and proactive behavior. Empathy was highest for trafficked women, regardless of citizenship status. Trafficked foreign women received the highest empathy, and U.S. prostitutes received the least. Path analysis results indicate just world belief, beliefs about prostitutes, and family values relating to prostitution had direct effects on empathic concern; in turn, empathic concern had a direct effect on proactive behavior. Explanations for the results are discussed, along with educational and clinical implications.     

Intimate partner violence and preschoolers' explicit memory functioning.

This research examines whether parents' intimate partner physical violence (IPV) relates to their preschoolers' explicit memory functioning, whether children's symptoms of hyperarousal mediate this relation, and whether mothers' positive parenting moderates this relation. Participants were 69 mothers and their 4- or 5-year-old child (34 girls). Mothers completed measures of IPV, children's hyperarousal symptoms, parent-child aggression, and positive parenting. Measures of explicit memory functioning were administered to preschoolers. As expected, IPV correlated negatively with preschoolers' performance on explicit memory tasks, even after controlling for parent-child aggression and demographic variables related to preschoolers' memory functioning. Preschoolers' hyperarousal symptoms did not mediate the relation between IPV and explicit memory functioning, but mothers' positive parenting moderated this relation. Specifically, the negative relation between IPV and preschoolers' performance on 2 of the 3 explicit memory tasks was weaker when mothers engaged in higher levels of positive parenting. These findings extend research on IPV and children's adjustment difficulties to explicit memory functioning in preschoolers and suggest that mothers can ameliorate the influence of IPV on preschoolers' memory functioning via their parenting.     

Age,Emotion Regulation Strategies,Temperament, Creative Drama,and Preschoolers' Creativity

Based on Yeh's (2004) Ecological Systems Model of Creativity Development, this study investigated the effects that age, the use of emotion regulation strategies, temperament, and exposure to creative drama instruction have on the development of creativity among preschool children. Participants were 1164‐ to 6‐year‐old preschool children. This study categorized the emotion regulation strategies used by preschool children and developed a creativity test which includes the measurement of usefulness, an indicator of creativity that has, until now, been ignored. The main findings are that (a) 6‐year‐olds outperform 4‐ and 5‐year‐olds in terms of creativity; (b) emotion regulation strategies as well as a positive temperament have positive effects on children's creativity; (c) creative drama instruction contributes to children's creativity; and (d) age group, emotion regulation strategies, temperament, and creative drama instruction can collectively predict children's creativity.     

Searching for and finding meaning in collective trauma: results from a national longitudinal study of the 9/11 terrorist attacks

The ability to make sense of events in one's life has held a central role in theories of adaptation to adversity. However, there are few rigorous studies on the role of meaning in adjustment, and those that have been conducted have focused predominantly on direct personal trauma. The authors examined the predictors and long-term consequences of Americans' searching for and finding meaning in a widespread cultural upheaval--the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001--among a national probability sample of U.S. adults (N=931). Searching for meaning at 2 months post-9/11 was predicted by demographics and high acute stress response. In contrast, finding meaning was predicted primarily by demographics and specific early coping strategies. Whereas searching for meaning predicted greater posttraumatic stress (PTS) symptoms across the following 2 years, finding meaning predicted lower PTS symptoms, even after controlling for pre-9/11 mental health, exposure to 9/11, and acute stress response. Mediation analyses suggest that finding meaning supported adjustment by reducing fears of future terrorism. Results highlight the role of meaning in adjustment following collective traumas that shatter people's fundamental assumptions about security and invulnerability.     

Initial Reliability and Validity of the Life Satisfaction Scale for Problem Youth in a Sample of Drug Abusing and Conduct Disordered Youth

Responses to Life Satisfaction Scale for Problem Youth (LSSPY) items were examined in a sample of 193 substance abusing and conduct disordered adolescents. In responding to the LSSPY, youth endorse their percentage of happiness (0 to 100%) in twelve domains (i.e., friendships, family, school, employment/work, fun activities, appearance, sex life/dating, use of drugs, use of alcohol, money/material possessions, transportation, control of one's life). Results indicated that the LSSPY yielded three factor structures (i.e., Social Satisfaction, External Obligations Satisfaction, Substance Use Satisfaction), demonstrated good initial psychometric properties, and appears to be a useful instrument in the evaluation of treatment outcome in problem youth. Males were more satisfied in the Social and External Obligations domains than females, although no gender differences were indicated in Substance Use Satisfaction. Caucasian, African-American, and Hispanic youths responded to LSSPY items similarly. Future directions are discussed in light of these results.     

A Community Responds to Collective Trauma: An Ecological Analysis of the James Byrd Murder in Jasper, Texas

The brutal murder of James Byrd Jr. in June 1998 unleashed a storm of media, interest groups, high profile individuals and criticism on the Southeast Texas community of Jasper. The crime and subsequent response—from within the community as well as across the world—engulfed the entire town in a collective trauma. Using natural disaster literature/theory and employing an ecological approach, Jasper, Texas was investigated via an interrupted time series analysis to identify how the community changed as compared to a control community (Center, Texas) on crime, economic, health, educational, and social capital measures collected at multiple pre- and post-crime time points between 1995 and 2003. Differences-in-differences (DD) analysis revealed significant post-event changes in Jasper, as well as a surprising degree of resilience and lack of negative consequences. Interviews with residents conducted between March 2005 and 2007 identified how the community responded to the crisis and augmented quantitative findings with qualitative, field-informed interpretation. Interviews suggest the intervention of external organizations exacerbated the severity of the events. However, using strengths of specific local social institutions—including faith based, law enforcement, media, business sector and civic government organizations—the community effectively responded to the initial threat and to the potential negative ramifications of external entities.     

Predicting outcome of insanity acquittees released to the community

This research developed a model for forensic release decisions that incorporated actuarial and psychiatric predictors. The model was based on research that compared 127 insanity acquittees in the State of Maryland with a matched control group of 127 convicted felons and a comparison group of 135 mentally disordered prison transfers. The three cohorts were followed for an average of 10 years after release from hospital or prison. Findings on two outcome indicators are reported in this article: rearrests within 5 years after release and overall functioning in the community during 2½ years after release. Discriminant analysis was performed on the outcome variable of rearrest; it was found to accurately predict the outcome of 75% of the subjects with the following six variables: adjustment in hospital, clinical assessment of hospital staff, Global Assessment Scale score at release, functioning prior to instant offense, heroin addiction, and birth order. A second discriminant analysis identified seven variables that accurately predicted the overall functioning of 80.4% of the insanity acquittees.     

Suicide-related behavior after psychiatric hospital discharge: Implications for risk assessment and management

Suicide-related behavior (SRB), including suicide attempts and instrumental SRB, occurs far more often than completed suicide and exacts a toll on patients, their loved ones, and society. Nevertheless, few prospective studies of SRB have been conducted. In this study, 954 patients were interviewed in a psychiatric hospital and then followed for one year after discharge. During this one-year period, nearly one-quarter of patients (23%) engaged in SRB, with the rate of suicide attempts (18%) three times greater than the rate of instrumental SRB (5%). Risk factors for SRB were demographic (White ethnicity, female gender), clinical (past SRB, depression, impaired functioning), and contextual (unemployment, large social networks). In contrast with other studies, there was no "peak" in the risk of SRB shortly after hospital discharge. Instead, patients' rate of SRB was relatively constant over the one-year follow-up. Implications for risk assessment and management in acute inpatient settings are discussed.