Humanistic psychology: Saybrook institute graduate school and research center

This article attempts to resolve the apparent tensions between humanistic and positive psychology regarding their respective notions of what constitutes a good life. It argues that an ethic of authenticity provides a unifying normative framework for both traditions, including interpretations of the various dimensions of authenticity and of the moral virtues and principles associated with this ethical ideal. The article provides a working definition of authentic selfhood that draws on both the existential-phenomenological tradition and the communitarian ethical framework associated with positive psychology. It demonstrates how these two very different philosophical traditions contribute to a shared, integrative theory of authentic self-development which, in turn, provides needed clarity to the normative framework of positive psychology.     

Adapting to Context in Community-Based Participatory Research: “Participatory Starting Points” in a Chinese Immigrant Worker Community

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is increasingly being used to better understand and improve the health of diverse communities. A key strength of this research orientation is its adaptability to community contexts and characteristics. To date, however, few studies explicitly discuss adaptations made to CBPR principles and processes in response to community context and partners’ needs. Using data from our CBPR study, the San Francisco Chinatown Restaurant Worker Health and Safety Project, and drawing from literature on immigrant political incorporation, we examine the links between the contexts of the Chinese immigrant worker community, adaptations made by our collaborative, and study outcomes. In particular, we explore the concepts of contexts of reception and participatory starting points, which may be especially relevant for partnerships with immigrant communities whose members have historically had lower rates of civic and political participation in the US. We discuss contextual findings such as worker partner accounts of language barriers, economic and social marginalization, and civic skills and participation, as well as subsequent adaptations made by the partnership. We also describe the relative effectiveness of these adaptations in yielding equitable participation and building partners’ capacity. We conclude by sharing lessons learned and their implications for CBPR and partnerships with immigrant communities more broadly.     

MMPI Configural Interpretation as Applied to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnam Veterans

This study investigated the systems of Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) configural interpretation of Skinner and Jackson (1978) and Kunce (1979) with Vietnam veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). MMPI profiles of four groups differing in combat exposure were compared on four MMPI configural variables from Kunce (1979) and Skinner and Jackson (1978). The four groups were (a) PTSD sufferers, (b) Vietnam combat veterans without PTSD, (c) Vietnam noncombat veterans, and (d) Vietnam era veterans. All groups were further divided into hospitalized versus nonhospitalized subgroups. Dependent variables were Skinner and Jackson's (a) sociopathic modal profile, (b) neurotic profile, (c) psychotic profile, and (d) Kunce's emotional expression (enthusiastic-reserved) dimension. Results indicated that hospitalized PTSD subjects had significantly higher scores on Skinner and Jackson's neurotic profile; both hospitalized and nonhospitalized PTSD subjects had higher scores on the psychotic profile and were more "reserved" on Kunce's emotional expression dimension. Results were interpreted in terms of configural MMPI interpretation systems and the adjustment of Vietnam veterans with PTSD. PTSD was viewed as exhibiting cognitive, somatic, and affective features.     

Cognition and the Planning Process: An Investigation of Stability of Effects and Decision Makers' Insights

According to Hartman, White, and Crino (1986), planning situations differ in environmental volatility, system adaptation, and the nature of planning requirements, different combinations of which can generate 12 distinct planning situations and 8 information processing aids to be used as planning tools. Each information processing aid has been prescribed to be more appropriate for use in some planning situations than in others (Hartman et al.). In the first part of this study, we tested the hypothesis that a planner in a specific situation would prefer to use the information processing aid(s) prescribed for that situation. We developed 12 different cases and used 456 student subjects. Results indicated that preference did not correspond closely to the Hartman et al. theory but that some other form of implicit theory may be operating. The second part of the research replicated the first part and also examined how 57 subjects viewed their planning problems and weighed the factors involved. Part 2 was also designed to determine the nature of any implicit theory the subjects may have used. Results suggest that the pattern of preferences, although not corresponding to available theory, represents a stable phenomenon.     

Treatment of sexual dysfunction

Abstract

This study is based on a statistical analysis of 240 client records. The task of the study was to determine the variables inherent to women with diagnosed sexual problems. Data were secured for 93 variables in four classifications—sociological, sexological, psychological, and counseling. Frequency distributions revealed sociological characteristics which were representative of young, middle-class, well-educated women, except for a greater incidence of divorce and separation. Typical sexual experiences included extramarital relationships, oral and anal intercourse, masturbation, and childhood sexual contacts with adult males who were either a member or friend of the family. Compared to other reports of sexual experience, clients showed greater frequencies of intercourse, homosexual and extramarital experience, and childhood sexual contacts with adult males, but less frequency of orgasm. In addition, mean T-scores were moderately elevated (60–69) for eight of 13 MMPI scales.     

Complexity of referrals to a specialist psychotherapy service

Consecutive referrals to a specialist psychotherapy service were analysed for complexity. Some 71% had a severe enduring mental illness or personality disorder. Two-thirds of the rest had added psychosocial or behavioural complexity. Only 9% had no severe enduring mental illness, personality disorder, or added complexity; nearly half of these had somatoform disorder. Only 2% of the patients had uncomplicated depression or anxiety disorders.

Patients treated in this psychotherapy service are substantially different from those on whom NICE bases its guidance for the treatment of depression and anxiety, and for whom IAPT was conceived, it functions as a de facto complex case service.     

The organisation of emotional experience: Creating links among emotion,thinking, language,and intentional action

Abstract

This paper discusses how emotional experience is interpreted, understood, and represented. Changes in the status of valued goals, and whether or not these goals can be attained or maintained are key conditions in determining the occurrence of an emotional experience. In addition, assessing the certainty with which goals can be maintained is critical as to which emotion is experienced. This small set of dimensions can be used to identify, and differentiate emotions that are considered to be basic. Basic emotion categories share features, and their elicitation is contingent on a number of components coming into conjunction with one another simultaneously. Thus, for any one basic emotion to be elicited, at least three converging components need to be activated. This view of the conditions for emotion is discussed with reference to componential theories of emotion, and to its developmental and cross-cultural implications.     

L'état c'est moi — Except When I Am Not: Commentary on Paper by Orna Guranlik and Daphne Simeon

In this discussion, I situate Guralnik and Simeon's argument about depersonalization and interpellation among ways that different psychoanalytic theorists have understood the interaction of the psychic and social domains. I elaborate on what Guralnik and Simeon mean when they refer to the role of “the State” in dissociation, interpellation, and depersonalization. Upon showing how self-states simultaneously incorporate and resist the State, Guralnik and Simeon provide a clinical rationale to confront interpellation's “discursive instructions.” This leads me to explore the curious status of the term state in psychoanalytic theory and practice.