The group therapist's absence and the substitute leader.

When a group is led by a single individual the therapist's absence creates a management problem. This article presents several options for the solo leader. The author has used a substitute leader, and this experience is presented and evaluated. Discussion includes selection of a substitute, group preparation, on-going use of the substitute, and benefits of this alternative for the management of the leader's absence.     

Time,quantum mechanics,and tense

The relational approach to tense holds that “the now”, “passage”, and “becoming” are to be understood in terms of relations between events. The debate over the adequacy of this framework is illustrated by a comparative study of the sense in which physical theories, (in)deterministic and (non)relativistic, can lend expression to the metaphysics at issue. The objective is not to settle the matter, but to clarify the nature of this metaphysics and to establish that the same issues are at stake in the relational approach to value-definiteness and probability in quantum mechanics. They concern the existence of a unique present, respectively actuality, and a notion of identity over time that cannot be paraphrased in terms of relations.     

Counselling older adults: Issues and awareness

This paper explores understanding and awareness among counsellors and counselling psychologists, of work with older people. The result of a piece of reasarch on this topic are presented. These tentatively confirm a relative lack of interest and insight into work with this age group and indicate that an age bias may exist among therapists. The reasons for this lack of awareness are explored and it is suggested that issue of the therapists' countertransference is crucial and that work with older persons may raise complex emotional issues for the counsellor. Possible future directions for research are discussed.     

The single parent: Power and the integrity of parenting

I have explored some issues of power and the balance of power in the situation of the single parent and the family. The single parent may need the support of a holding environment to achieve psychological integration as exemplified by my treatment with Ms. B. Without a cooperative mate and with societal prejudice, the psychotherapeutic situation may be the only nurturing environment. The therapist empowers the single parent by providing a supportive, nurturing environment. Parenting is receiving bad press in this decade. More examples of child abuse and the extreme of homicide come to public attention. Children do have power and society needs to support a constructive use of child as well as parental power. At this stage in societal/cultural development the legal system is unfortunately more available to punish than provide lines of protection or guidance to parent or child. The psychoanalytic literature hasn't been kind or supportive to the parent. We must keep in mind that the psychotherapist's lot is simpler, less stressful, and more protected from real life stresses than that of the single parent. I suggest a model of parenting with the establishment of ongoing dialogue between parent and child in which each is receptive to the other. While it is the parental task to set limits and teach about the real world, the goal is to establish an exchange in which parent and child are both teacher and student. This creative relationship produces growth and builds esteem for parent and child alike.     

The effects of ingroup and outgroup homogeneity on ingroup favouritism,stereotyping and overestimation of relative ingroup size

An experiment (n = 61) investigated the effects of ingroup and outgroup homogeneity on ingroup favouritism, stereotyping and the overestimation of relative ingroup size. As predicted, outgroup homogeneity was conducive to ingroup favouritism. Ingroup homogeneity, however, failed to influence ingroup favouritism. Also unexpectedly, asymmetry in group homogeneity — irrespective of whether the ingroup or the outgroup was the more homogeneous group — led to pronounced stereotyping of both groups and to the overestimation of relative ingroup size.     

Means,standard deviations and stability coefficients on the EPI for further education and college of education students

1294 Further Education students and 644 College of Education students were tested with the EPI and subsequently retested after 1 year. Females scored significantly higher than males for Neuroticism, but the converse applied for Extraversion. Stability coefficients for all groups were positive and substantial.     

The functional equivalence of problem solving skills

The tower of Hanoi problem is used to show that, even in simple problem environments, numerous distinct solution strategies are available, and different subjects may learn different strategies. Four major classes of solution strategies are described for the problem. Different strategies have different degrees of transferability, place different burdens on short-term memory and on perception, and require different learning processes for their acquisition. The analysis underscores the importance of subject-by-subject analysis of “what is learned” in understanding human behavior in problem-solving situations, and provides a technique for describing subjects' task performance programs in detail.     

Studies in observational paired-associate learning: Informational,social, and individual difference variables

Four experiments examined the relative importance of informational (proportion of correct responses and kinds of errors emitted by a model), social (model competency, sex of model, video vs. audio taped model), and individual difference (sex of subject, grade) variables in observational paired-associate learning. In Experiments I–III, vicarious subjects received cycles of study-model-test trials, while direct subjects were given the same sequences with intervening test or stimulus familiarization trials. In Experiment IV, vicarious subjects received cycles of study-test-model-test trials, while direct subjects received the cycles with a test trial replacing the model trial. No confirmation was provided on test and model trials. Whereas the effects attributable to social and individual difference variables were generally negligible, mere accuracy of the model's responses repeatedly covaried with performance on the last test trial of each cycle. Conditional analyses established that (1) vicarious facilitation is comparable across cycles and localized in items responded to incorrectly on immediately preceding test trials, and (2) observers learn fewer incorrect than correct model responses. Vicarious groups performed at reliably higher levels than direct subjects on model correct but not incorrect items. The results strongly suggest a close correspondence between direct and vicarious verbal learning principles and mechanisms.     

Modeling strategy shifts in a problem-solving task

A computer simulation model was fitted to human laboratory data for the Missionaries and Cannibals task to explain (1) the effects upon problem performance of giving a hint, and (2) the effects of solving the problem a second time after one successful solution had been achieved. Most of the variance in the relative frequencies of different moves can be explained by positing that the effect of the hint, or of previous experience in solving the problem, is to cause subjects to switch more promptly from a strategy of balancing the numbers of missionaries and cannibals on both sides of the river, to a means-ends strategy.     

Primacy effect in orienting responses to auditory stimuli of tones and music.

This 25 factorial experiment investigated the primacy effect in the orienting response. The type of stimuli (tone or "music"), stimulus intensities (loud or soft), length of adaptation period (same, 5 or 30 sec; or different, 5 min.), interstimulus intervals (5 or 30 sec.), and sex were studied. College students, 32 males and 32 females were randomly assigned to each group. In the same condition, the tone (or music) was soft (or loud) for 5 sec. (or 30 sec.) in adaptation and was then changed alternately without interruption to loud, soft, etc. (or soft, loud, etc.) for 5 sec. (or 30 sec.). The different condition was identical except for the length of adaptation period in which the stimuli sounded continously for 5 min. Analyses of the GSR manifestation of the orienting responses indicated: (a) an over-all primacy effect with the auditory stimuli and (b) the primacy effect occurred in the 5-sec.-same but not in the 30-sec.-same condition as predicted.