Learning about Probability from Text and Tables: Do Color Coding and Labeling through an Interactive‐user Interface Help?

Learning from visual representations is enhanced when learners appropriately integrate corresponding visual and verbal information. This study examined the effects of two methods of promoting integration, color coding and labeling, on learning about probabilistic reasoning from a table and text. Undergraduate students (N = 98) were randomly assigned to learn about probabilistic reasoning from one of 4 computer‐based lessons generated from a 2 (color coding/no color coding) by 2 (labeling/no labeling) between‐subjects design. Learners added the labels or color coding at their own pace by clicking buttons in a computer‐based lesson. Participants' eye movements were recorded while viewing the lesson. Labeling was beneficial for learning, but color coding was not. In addition, labeling, but not color coding, increased attention to important information in the table and time with the lesson. Both labeling and color coding increased looks between the text and corresponding information in the table. The findings provide support for the multimedia principle, and they suggest that providing labeling enhances learning about probabilistic reasoning from text and tables. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

COUNTERTRANSFERENCE DREAMING: LIFE IN THE INTERSUBJECTIVE THIRD

In this paper the author asks, “How long is the life of an intersubjective field?” She proposes that it is possible for the field to remain active and instructive even after formal sessions have ended: This occurs in her case of Carla, a young woman who terminates prematurely. Carla enters treatment in a downward spiral of severe trauma symptoms that began subsequent to her rape, a decade earlier. Although Carla’s symptoms diminish and the analysis continues to be productive, it suddenly ends in an impasse, leaving the analyst perplexed and feeling professionally insufficient. Months later, she has three dreams pertaining to Carla and her rape. Largely employing Jessica Benjamin’s recognition theory and her representation of the intersubjective third, as well as contemporary Bionian thinking, the paper depicts how countertransference dreaming is one example of how the intersubjective field can carry on the psychoanalytic function—even outside of formal treatment.     

Facial expressivity to acute pain in cocaine-exposed toddlers

Expressive emotion regulation in response to stress following inoculation was examined in 30 18-month-olds. Fourteen were exposed to cocaine in utero and 16 were drug-free. Findings indicated that the cocaine-exposed group displayed fewer discrete negative expressions of distress and anger and more sadness in response to acute pain. These results suggest that cocaine exposure may exert an influence on the expression of emotion into the second year of life. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health     

Hoarding in obsessive-compulsive disorder: results from the OCD Collaborative Genetics Study

Hoarding behavior occurs frequently in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Results from previous studies suggest that individuals with OCD who have hoarding symptoms are clinically different than non-hoarders and may represent a distinct clinical group. In the present study, we compared 235 hoarding to 389 non-hoarding participants, all of whom had OCD, collected in the course of the OCD Collaborative Genetics Study. We found that, compared to non-hoarding individuals, hoarders were more likely to have symmetry obsessions and repeating, counting, and ordering compulsions; poorer insight; more severe illness; difficulty initiating or completing tasks; and indecision. Hoarders had a greater prevalence of social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder. Hoarders also had a greater prevalence of obsessive-compulsive and dependent personality disorders. Five personality traits were independently associated with hoarding: miserliness, preoccupation with details, difficulty making decisions, odd behavior or appearance, and magical thinking. Hoarding and indecision were more prevalent in the relatives of hoarding than of non-hoarding probands. Hoarding in relatives was associated with indecision in probands, independently of proband hoarding status. The findings suggest that hoarding behavior may help differentiate a distinct clinical subgroup of people with OCD and may aggregate in some OCD families. Indecision may be a risk factor for hoarding in these families.     

Effect of collectivistic cultural imperatives on Asian American meta-stereotypes

The present study explored self-perceptions and meta-stereotypes along two dimensions, individuation and sociability, within a sample of Asian American and European American students. For both ethnic groups, meta-stereotypes in dimensions of individuation and sociability appear to be exaggerated forms of self-perceptions along these dimensions. Both Asian and European Americans distinguish between self-perceptions of sociability and individuation, showing that sociability and individuation are two independent constructs. Asian Americans, however, perceived that others who expect a certain level of sociability from their ethnic group would also expect the same level of individuation. Implications of these findings for the perpetuation of Asian stereotypes are discussed.     

De-Idealizing Relational Theory: A Critique From Within edited by Lewis Aron,Sue Grand and Joyce Slochower,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2018, 239 pp. AND The Unobtrusive Relational Analyst: Explorations in Psychoanalytic Companioning by Robert Grossmark,Routledge, Abingdon and New York, 2018, 207 pp.

The American Journal of Psychoanalysis -     

Chaos, Group Psychotherapy, and the Future of Uncertainty and Uniqueness

This paper explores the application of chaos theory, a new non-linear dynamical theory, to the understanding of psychotherapy groups. Two features of psychotherapy groups that have been insufficiently described or explained, uncertainty and uniqueness, are considered in the light of the chaos theory notion that groups proceed through periods of order and disorder. The recommendation is made that chaos theory be explored further as the field moves into the millennium and a hundred years of its own existence.     

Triggering Safe Attachment Waves to Foster Healing in International Protection-Seeking Environments

ABSTRACT

The present article aims to illustrate how healing for children and families seeking international protection is preceded by the promotion and establishment of safe attachment interactions not only with minors and their caregivers but also with any stakeholder involved in their environment. This is a recognition of both the security chains a therapist can trigger, and how relational safety and trust constitute a necessary condition and are actually interventions – to heal both from past and present trauma derived from the unstable and uncertain pre and post-migration experiences families and children go through. Suggestions are provided on how mental health professionals can repair and enhance such eroded safety and trust by intervening inside and outside the therapy room, and on how Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy may constitute a valuable framework to inform our clinical work in this scenario.