Using psychodramatic techniques in structural family therapy

This article describes how psychodramatic techniques can be used in structural family therapy sessions. After a preliminary discussion of the therapist's spontaneity and role functions in both psychodrama and family therapy, specific action techniques are then discussed using case examples. Auxiliary Ego, Role Reversal, Double, Use of Space, Physicalization, Warm-up, Soliloquy, Surplus Reality, and Future Projection are illustrated.     

Sexual tensions in a remarried family

The remarried family is vulnerable to sexual tensions between adults and children because of the weakness of generational boundaries and because the emotional tasks confronting the new couple can result in the detouring of conflict through a child. The case presented here demonstrates the use of structural family therapy which included several therapeutic tools not usually associated with a structural approach. These included family and marital history, individual and subsystem work, education, and modeling. Unspoken sexual tensions between stepfather and stepdaughter were interwoven with the structural problems that the family was experiencing. Following three months of therapy, significant shifts were made in the family structure that resulted in clearer and more appropriate boundaries between parents and the identified patient.Appreciation is expressed by the author to David Abelson, MA, Karlotta Bartholomew, PhD, and Joellyn Ross, PhD, for their support.     

Spouse abuse: An ecosystemic approach

This paper provides a perspective on spouse abuse from an ecosystemic approach suggested by second order cybernetics. An attempt is made to demonstrate the interactional basis for an understanding of spouse abuse and to suggest that the failure to use an ecosystemic perspective may result in therapists and other helpers inadvertently exacerbating the problem. Borrowing from the work of Keeney and Bateson, an analysis of the relational aspects of the problem of spouse abuse is provided which illustrates the similar nature of typical intervention strategies to the problem.The ideas discussed in this paper were developed while the author was a therapist at the Family Therapy Clinic at Texas Tech University. Appreciation is expressed to Monte Bobele, Bradford Keeney, and Thomas Conran for the helpful comments and ideas provided during the preparation of this paper.     

A neglected triangle: Grandmother,mother, and daughter

This paper reports on exploratory research and therapeutic work with a neglected but highly important family triangle, the grandmother-mother-daughter triangle. Some characteristic relationships are described from a clinical sample of 18 daughters for whom such a triangle was important. The triangle may signal both problems and strengths for therapy and the daughters.     

The role of faith in the psychotherapeutic context

The focus of this article is the role of faith in psychotherapy. It is suggested that the psychotherapeutic endeavor may be fruitfully informed by insights from other disciplines. The theologian Paul Tillich's view of faith is discussed as it applies to the psychotherapeutic endeavor. The relation between faith and anxiety is explored in the context of the problem of resistance and change in psychotherapy. The work of theorists from various perspectives (existential, analytic) is discussed in the light of Tillich's view of faith.     

Quantitative Analysis of IRT Variability During the First Training Stages of a Variable-Interval Schedule in Rats

Five rats were reinforced under variable-interval schedules with different average interreinforcement intervals (30 seC., 1 min, 2 min, and 4 min). Each animal was run only two sessions of each schedule. The interresponse times (IRTs) were recorded and analyzed. The autocorrelation function of the IRT series and of the IRT time series (number of responses per time interval) were calculated, and absence of periodicity in the subject’s behavior was demonstrated. Frequency distribution of IRTs showed in all cases a similar shape and could be fitted to a gamma probability density function in 60% of cases with a signification level of .01 (Kolmogorov-Smirnoff test). The frequency distributions of the IRT time series were distributed as a Poisson process with a .05 significance level. These results suggest that during variable-interval schedules the responses of the animal can be modeled as a random process characterized by a gamma distribution, as a first approximation.

     

Scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for children in a longitudinal study of pubertal Spanish youth.

Changes in scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for Children for a sample of 534 pubertal adolescents were longitudinally studied over a period of 4 years. Biological development and other variables were investigated. For the 310 boys, A-trait scores decreased significantly with age. The 224 girls showed significantly higher scores than boys in all years of the study. No significant relationship was found between anxiety and pubertal maturity. The year-to-year persistence in symptomatology of anxiety ranged between 55.6% and 66.1% for girls and between 48.5% and 53.1% for boys. Girls showed bi- and tri-annual persistence between 31% and 50%, and boys between 13% and 27%. Neuroticism scores formed the best predictor of A-trait scores. Symptomatology of anxiety is not transient during early adolescence, so personality may provide a risk indicator in the development of anxiety.     

Factor analysis for clustered observations

Classical factor analysis assumes a random sample of vectors of observations. For clustered vectors of observations, such as data for students from colleges, or individuals within households, it may be necessary to consider different within-group and between-group factor structures. Such a two-level model for factor analysis is defined, and formulas for a scoring algorithm for estimation with this model are derived. A simple noniterative method based on a decomposition of the total sums of squares and crossproducts is discussed. This method provides a suitable starting solution for the iterative algorithm, but it is also a very good approximation to the maximum likelihood solution. Extensions for higher levels of nesting are indicated. With judicious application of quasi-Newton methods, the amount of computation involved in the scoring algorithm is moderate even for complex problems; in particular, no inversion of matrices with large dimensions is involved. The methods are illustrated on two examples.Suggestions and corrections of three anonymous referees and of an Associate Editor are acknowledged. Discussions with Bob Jennrich on computational aspects were very helpful. Most of research leading to this paper was carried out while the first author was a visiting associate professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.     

The circle as a model for the interpersonal domain of Swedish trait terms

Swedish interpersonal traits were assumed to have the structure demonstrated by Wiggins for the Interpersonal Adjective Scales in English. Positive and negative interpersonal trait terms were rated for accuracy when describing people. The ratings were used to construct 16 eight-item scales which were ordered relative to two principal components and labelled A to P. The evaluative meaning of each scale item was rated by a second group. The ranks of the mean ratings for the scales followed expectations. The 16 scales were combined into eight scales PA, BC, DE, etc., to NO. From a new group of subjects (N = 159) self-ratings were obtained. The correlations between the eight scales were used to obtain maximum-likelihood estimates of population coefficients of a hypothetical circulant matrix. A circumplex model fitted the data well and the two equally large orthogonal components ordered the PA to NO variables within a circular semantic space. The model was interpreted as a structural representation of basic-level categories for interpersonal attributes of personality in the natural language.     

Distance and fusion in Robinson Jeffers' “the purse-seine” and other poems

Distance and fusion are fundamental ideas in Bowenian thinking, especially as expressed in the dynamic of distancing and pursuing. In this paper I have used these ideas as a means to briefly examine a short selection of Robinson Jeffers' poetry, which provides us with a literary example of these concepts in action.My thanks to M. K. Lane and the anonymous reviewers of an earlier draft of this article for their many suggestions, especially to the reviewer who helped me better distinguish between distance and fusion, and intimacy and autonomy.