Research in counselling and psychotherapy Post‐COVID‐19

The COVID‐19 pandemic brings to light many areas the field of counselling and psychotherapy may need to address in future research. We outline several issues stemming from or exacerbated by the pandemic and offer suggestions for future research to address the mental health needs of those impacted. Our suggestions focus on five domains: (a) the health and well‐being of helping professionals, (b) the infodemic, (c) discrimination and minority stress, (d) spiritual and existential dynamics in mental health and (e) couple and family stress and resilience. We aim to provide a multi‐systemic perspective of mental health and well‐being in the time of COVID‐19, as well as encourage current and future studies to incorporate these suggestions to advance the health and well‐being of our communities through evidence‐based treatment approaches.     

“A definite feel‐it moment”: Embodiment,externalisation and emotion during chair‐work in compassion‐focused therapy

Chair‐work is an experiential method used within compassion‐focused therapy (CFT) to apply compassion to various aspects of the self. This is the first study of CFT chair‐work and is focused on clients' lived experiences of a chair‐work intervention for self‐criticism. Twelve participants with depression were interviewed following the chair‐work intervention and the resulting data were examined using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Three superordinate themes were identified: “embodiment and enactment,” “externalising the self in physical form” and “emotional intensity.” The findings suggest the importance of accessing and expressing various emotions connected with self‐criticism, whilst highlighting the potential for client distress and avoidance during the intervention. The role of embodying, enacting and physically situating aspects of the self in different chairs is also suggested to be an important mechanism of change in CFT chair‐work. The findings are discussed in terms of clinical implications, emphasising how core CFT concepts and practices are facilitated by the chair‐work process.     

Exploring Wellbeing in Youth with Vision Impairment: Insights for Vision Rehabilitation

Applied Research in Quality of Life - This article explores the discussions of 21 young Australians (aged 12–25) with vision impairment regarding their lived experiences and what it meant for...     

Representation of memory for order of mental operations in cognitive tasks

Recent research shows that people learning a cognitive task acquire a memory for the order of operations applied, independent of the data to which those operations were applied. We designed two experiments to show how this sequence memory is represented. Experiment 1 compared predictions based on 3 possible sequence representation methods: composition, dyad transition, and associative chain. Latency and error results from a simple sequential task supported the associative chain representation. The associative links between operations presumably enhance performance by priming subsequent operations but do not operate in an all-or-none fashion. Experiment 2 explored whether transfer items that matched the first 2 rules and first 3 elements of a training item could bias participants toward executing a composed production learned during training. Latency and undetected error results were consistent with an associative chain representation but not with additional predictions made by the composition representation. These two experiments support the representation of operation sequences in memory as an associative chain.     

GROUP FORAGING SENSITIVITY TO PREDICTABLE AND UNPREDICTABLE CHANGES IN FOOD DISTRIBUTION: PAST EXPERIENCE OR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCES?

The ideal free distribution theory (Fretwell & Lucas, 1970) predicts that the ratio of foragers at two patches will equal the ratio of food resources obtained at the two patches. The theory assumes that foragers have "perfect knowledge" of patch profitability and that patch choice maximizes fitness. How foragers assess patch profitability has been debated extensively. One assessment strategy may be the use of past experience with a patch. Under stable environmental conditions, this strategy enhances fitness. However, in a highly unpredictable environment, past experience may provide inaccurate information about current conditions. Thus, in a nonstable environment, a strategy that allows rapid adjustment to present circumstances may be more beneficial. Evidence for this type of strategy has been found in individual choice. In the present experiments, a flock of pigeons foraged at two patches for food items and demonstrated results similar to those found in individual choice. Experiment 1 utilized predictable and unpredictable sequences of resource ratios presented across days or within a single session. Current foraging decisions depended on past experience, but that dependence diminished when the current foraging environment became more unpredictable. Experiment 2 repeated Experiment I with a different flock of pigeons under more controlled circumstances in an indoor coop and produced similar results.     

Preference and resistance to change in concurrent variable-interval schedules

Pigeons were trained on a multiple schedule in which separate concurrent schedules were presented in the two components of the schedule. During one component, concurrent variable-interval 40-sec variable-interval 80-sec schedules operated. In the second component, concurrent variable-interval 40-sec variable-interval 20-sec schedules operated. After stable baseline performance was obtained in both components, extinction probe choice tests were presented to assess preference between the variable-interval 40-sec schedules from the two components. The variable-interval 40-sec schedule paired with the variable-interval 80-sec schedule was preferred over the variable-interval 40-sec schedule paired with the variable-interval 20-sec schedule. The subjects were also exposed to several resistance-to-change manipulations: (1) prefeeding prior to the experimental session, (2) a free-food schedule added to timeout periods separating components, and (3) extinction. The results indicated that preference and resistance to change do not necessarily covary.     

The boogie-woogie illusion

A grid of vertical and horizontal lines, each composed of light and dark squares, is moved rigidly at 45 degrees to the vertical on a gray surround. When the luminance of the background is set midway between the luminances of the light and dark squares, the squares appear to race along the lines even though they are actually 'painted' on the lines. The effect arises from the unequal apparent speeds of the lines and their textures. The light and dark squares along the lines define a first-order pattern whose apparent speed, parallel or along the line, is close to veridical. The lines themselves have no overall luminance difference from the background so that they are defined by a second-order difference. As reported elsewhere, apparent speed is reduced for second-order motion so that the motion perpendicular to the line is perceived as slower than the motion along the line even though they are physically equal. The imbalance creates the impression that the small squares are moving along the lines rather than moving rigidly with them.     

Sets and Classes as Many

In this paper the view is developed that classes should not be understood as individuals, but, rather, as classes as many of individuals. To correlate classes with individuals labelling and colabelling functions are introduced and sets identified with a certain subdomain of the classes on which the labelling and colabelling functions are mutually inverse. A minimal axiomatization of the resulting system is formulated and some of its extensions are related to various systems of set theory, including nonwellfounded set theories.     

Effects of Stimulant Medication Treatment on Mothers' and Children's Attributions for the Behavior of Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Participants were 55 children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who were receiving ongoing treatment with stimulant medications and their mothers, and 31 children with ADHD who were beginning stimulant medication and their mothers. Mothers and children offered attributions for child behaviors that occurred when the child was medicated and not medicated. Mothers rated child compliance and prosocial behavior as more global and stable when the child was medicated and rated noncompliance, ADHD symptoms, and oppositional behavior as more externally caused, less global and stable, but more controllable by the child when the child was medicated. Children rated both their compliance and noncompliance as more controllable in the medicated condition. On a forced-choice measure, both mothers and children selected ability, effort, and task attributions for compliance more in the not-medicated condition, and pill-taking attributions more in the medicated condition. This was reversed for noncompliance, which was attributed more to effort, task, or ability in the medicated condition and more to not taking a pill in the not-medicated condition. The potential risks and benefits for parent–child interactions and children's self-perceptions of these medication-related differences in attributions are discussed.