Under the volcano: varieties of anger and their transformation

This paper seeks to illustrate the ambiguity of the affect of 'anger' which masks a number of subtly different emotions observable in clinical work. The author differentiates between anger, rage and hatred in terms of the dialectical relationship between ego and self and pays particular attention to why it is that for some patients, experiences of anger may be harnessed creatively into development, whereas for others, they remain self destructive. Using illustrations from work with two patients in analysis, the author describes how a persistent grievance originating in the earliest stages of life is linked with hatred and can lead to a defensive self structure. It is suggested that the clues to the presence of a grievance and to its potential transformation are likely to be observable first in the analyst's countertransference in the form of an all-embracing emotional strait jacket. Analysts' capacity to tolerate their own hatred is crucial to the transformation of a patient's grievance.     

The McMaster family therapy outcome study: an overview of methods and results

A multifaceted outcome design was used to investigate the results of brief, system-oriented family therapy. The present report describes the methods used and provides an, overview of clients' status on a variety of outcome measures. Treatment was brief and involved the entire family in most cases. Therapists varied in discipline (psychiatry, social work, psychology or nursing) and experience (students to very senior status). A variety of measures were obtained at the beginning of treatment, at treatment closure, or after a six month follow-up. Independent interviewers conducted the six month follow-up. Measures were obtained regarding the parents' and children's level of intellectual functioning, children's academic achievement, and disruptive school behaviour. Therapists' ratings of the families' change in treatment and prognosis were also obtained at treatment closure. At follow-up, measures of the children's academic achievement and disruptive school behavior were repreated and the interviewers determined the family's satisfaction with the services they received. The results indicate that the majority of families did well on most of the measures considered. No significant change was found in terms of the children's academic performance, but there was a significant decline in their disruptive school behaviour.This project was funded by grants from the Medical Research Council of Canada, and Health and Welfare Ministry, Canada.     

How do people evaluate social sexual conduct at work? A psycholegal model

The authors tested a psycholegal model of how people evaluate social sexual conduct at work with videotaped reenactments of interviews with alleged complainants, perpetrators, and other workers. Participants (200 full-time male and female workers) were randomly assigned to evaluate the complaints with either the reasonable person or reasonable woman legal standard. Participants answered questions about sexual harassment law and completed the Ambivalent Sexism Inventory. Participants who took the reasonable woman perspective, as compared with those who took the reasonable person perspective, were more likely to find the conduct harassing; this was especially the case among participants high in hostile sexism. Medium-sized gender effects were found in the severe case but were absent in the weaker, more ambiguous case. The implications of these findings for hostile work environment law are discussed.     

Empathy and Social Perspective Taking in Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

This study explored empathy and social perspective taking in 8 to 12 year old children with and without Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The sample comprised 92 children, 50 with a diagnosis of ADHD and 42 typically developing comparison children. Although children with ADHD were rated by their parents as less empathic than children without ADHD, this difference was accounted for by co-occurring oppositional and conduct problems among children in the ADHD sample. Children with ADHD used lower levels of social perspective taking coordination in their definition of problems, identification of feelings, and evaluation of outcomes than children without ADHD, and these differences persisted after the role of language abilities, intelligence and oppositional and conduct problems were taken into account. Girls were more empathic and had higher overall social perspective taking scores than boys. Implications for research and practice are discussed. This research was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).     

Planning paths to multiple targets: memory involvement and planning heuristics in spatial problem solving

For large numbers of targets, path planning is a complex and computationally expensive task. Humans, however, usually solve such tasks quickly and efficiently. We present experiments studying human path planning performance and the cognitive processes and heuristics involved. Twenty-five places were arranged on a regular grid in a large room. Participants were repeatedly asked to solve traveling salesman problems (TSP), i.e., to find the shortest closed loop connecting a start location with multiple target locations. In Experiment 1, we tested whether humans employed the nearest neighbor (NN) strategy when solving the TSP. Results showed that subjects outperform the NN-strategy, suggesting that it is not sufficient to explain human route planning behavior. As a second possible strategy we tested a hierarchical planning heuristic in Experiment 2, demonstrating that participants first plan a coarse route on the region level that is refined during navigation. To test for the relevance of spatial working memory (SWM) and spatial long-term memory (LTM) for planning performance and the planning heuristics applied, we varied the memory demands between conditions in Experiment 2. In one condition the target locations were directly marked, such that no memory was required; a second condition required participants to memorize the target locations during path planning (SWM); in a third condition, additionally, the locations of targets had to retrieved from LTM (SWM and LTM). Results showed that navigation performance decreased with increasing memory demands while the dependence on the hierarchical planning heuristic increased.     

The More You See It, the More You Know It: Memory Accessibility and Sexual Harassment Judgments

The influence of the availability of personally known and media known sexual harassment victims and harassers on perceptions of social sexual workplace conduct was examined. Male and female full-time workers evaluated two videotapes that depict sexual harassment in the workplace. Results indicated that perceived likelihood of harassment and discrimination increased as participants recalled more examples of harassment victims whom they personally knew. In some instances, recall of victims in the media had a similar influence. As predicted, the influence of availability was stronger for men than for women. Similar findings resulted from the analyses of the unwelcomeness, severity, and pervasiveness of the conduct; however, legal standard, gender, or case often moderated this relationship. The implications of these findings are discussed.     

Insights into Moral Injury and Soul Repair from Classical Jewish Texts

Pastoral Psychology - This article explores how Jewish biblical, rabbinic, and liturgical texts can be used to broaden and deepen an understanding of moral injury. To date, the literature on moral...