Refining Therapeutic Mandates in Couple Therapy Outcome Research: A Feasibility Study

Using a series of 59 cases of couple therapy, we studied the nature, frequency, and pre-treatment correlates of therapeutic mandates. Following intake, therapists coded mandate and couples completed the Dyadic Adjustment Scale and the Relationship Attribution Measure. The distribution of therapeutic mandates showed that 45.8% wished to improve an overtly conflictual relationship, 28.8% consulted to remedy a lack of love and/or desire, and 25.4% aimed to change a specific aspect of an otherwise well-functioning relationship. Over the course of treatment, in 20% of cases, the therapeutic mandate was revised and adjusted. The results of a logistic regression analysis showed that mandate subgroups, men's marital satisfaction, women's responsibility attributions, and women's income are significantly associated with termination status.     

Competencies for Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (AHCs)

This paper begins by providing the landscape that undergirds the competency-based movement within professional psychology education, training, credentialing, and performance appraisal. Attention is then paid to the relevance of this culture shift for psychologists working as practitioners, educators, researchers, and administrators in AHCs. In this regard, there is an articulation of the essential subcomponents of each of the core foundational and functional competency domains that are salient for AHC psychologists. Implications of the competency-based movement for professional psychologists in AHCs are offered. This paper is based in part on the first author’s plenary address at the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers Midwinter Meeting in Minneapolis, Minnesota, May 2007.     

The Treatment of Histrionic and Narcissistic Personality Disorder Behaviors: A Single-Subject Demonstration of Clinical Improvement Using Functional Analytic Psychotherapy

This article presents single-subject data for the treatment of histrionic and narcissistic personality disorder behaviors using a relatively brief course of an interpersonal therapy, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991). The treatment produced significant changes in these behaviors both statistically and qualitatively. Empirical methods for analyzing the changes across sessions and for determining that the therapist engaged in the proposed mechanism of clinical change are discussed. While these data are for one subject, the results of treatment provide both a method of treating difficult and long-standing client behaviors such as these, and for assessing the progress of therapy.     

The effects of arousal reappraisal on stress responses,performance and attention

Background and Objectives: This study examined the effects of arousal reappraisal on cardiovascular responses, demand and resource evaluations, self-confidence, performance and attention under pressurized conditions. A recent study by Moore et al. [2015. Reappraising threat: How to optimize performance under pressure. Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 37(3), 339–343. doi:10.1123/jsep.2014-0186] suggested that arousal reappraisal is beneficial to the promotion of challenge states and leads to improvements in single-trial performance. This study aimed to further the work of Moore and colleagues (2015) by examining the effects of arousal reappraisal on cardiovascular responses, demand and resource evaluations, self-confidence, performance and attention in a multi-trial pressurized performance situation.

Design and Methods: Participants were randomly assigned to either an arousal reappraisal intervention or control condition, and completed a pressurized dart throwing task. The intervention encouraged participants to view their physiological arousal as facilitative rather than debilitative to performance. Measures of cardiovascular reactivity, demand and resource evaluations, self-confidence, task performance and attention were recorded.

Results: The reappraisal group displayed more favorable cardiovascular reactivity and reported higher resource evaluations and higher self-confidence than the control group but no task performance or attention effects were detected.

Conclusion: These findings demonstrate the strength of arousal reappraisal in promoting adaptive stress responses, perceptions of resources and self-confidence.     

Facial attractiveness biases the perception of eye contact

Attractive faces are appealing: We like to look at them, and we like to be looked at by them. We presented attractive and unattractive smiling and neutral faces containing identical eye regions with different gaze directions. Participants judged whether or not a face looked directly at them. Overall, attractive faces increased participants' tendency to perceive eye contact, consistent with a self-referential positivity bias. However, attractiveness effects were modulated by facial expression and gender: For female faces, observers more likely perceived eye contact in attractive than unattractive faces, independent of expression. For male faces, attractiveness effects were limited to neutral expressions and were absent in smiling faces. A signal detection analysis elucidated a systematic pattern in which (a) smiling faces, but not highly attractive faces, reduced sensitivity in gaze perception overall, and (b) attractiveness had a more consistent impact on bias than sensitivity measures. We conclude that combined influences of attractiveness, expression, and gender determine the formation of an overall impression when deciding which individual's interest in oneself may be beneficial and should be reciprocated.     

Habitual computer game playing at night is related to depressive symptoms

This study investigated whether the amount and circadian time of habitual computer game playing were related to depressive symptoms in adolescents and young adults. We expected that habitual late playing relates to more depressive symptoms beyond the effect of the total time of computer game playing as playing at night may involve short, irregular, and disturbed sleep as well as misalignment of the circadian rhythm. 646 adolescents and young adults (ages 13–30; 90.9% males) who play the internet role-playing game World of Warcraft completed an online questionnaire. Habitual computer game playing between 10 pm and 6 am was related to an increased risk of high depression scores independent of the total amount of playing. Adolescents (ages 13–17 years) were most vulnerable when habitually playing during early night (i.e., 10–12 pm), while emergent adults (ages 18–22 years) showed more vulnerability when habitually playing late at night (i.e., after 2 am). The effect was partly mediated by daytime sleepiness but not by sleep loss or insomnia problems.     

Schizophrenia,psychoeducation and group psychoanalysis: Contributions and limitations

Schizophrenia involves difficulties with aspects of relating that make traditional psychotherapeutic practices more difficult. Drawing on the observation of a psychoeducation group comprising 10 patients with schizophrenia (primarily paranoid schizophrenia) we highlight group processes that help show how the conduct of psychoeducational groups can benefit from a group therapy approach. In the research example discussed, we review a psychoeducation group which took place over a period of one year at a day hospital, facilitated by professionals trained in psychoanalytic group psychotherapy.     

Additive impact of childhood emotional,physical, and sexual abuse on suicide attempts among low-income African American women

This study examines the association between exposures to multiple forms of childhood abuse (emotional, physical, sexual) and adult suicidal behavior in a sample of low-income, African American women. We hypothesized a linear relation between childhood abuse and risk for making a suicide attempt, such that the more forms of childhood abuse to which a woman was exposed, the greater her risk would be to make a suicide attempt. Logistic regression analyses revealed that, compared to women who did not report any experiences of childhood abuse, women who experienced one, two, or three forms of abuse were 1.83, 2.29, or 7.75 times more likely to attempt suicide, respectively (all statistically significant). Furthermore, compared to women who reported one or two types of abuse, women who reported all three types of abuse were statistically more likely to attempt suicide. These findings have implications for clinicians working with African American women who report either childhood abuse or exhibit suicidal behavior.     

The over-claiming technique: measuring self-enhancement independent of ability

Over-claiming is a concrete operalization of self-enhancement based on respondents' ratings of their knowledge of various persons, events, products, and so on. Because 20% of the items are nonexistent, responses can be analyzed with signal detection formulas to index both response bias (over-claiming) and accuracy (knowledge). Study 1 demonstrated convergence of over-claiming with alternative measures of self-enhancement but independence from cognitive ability. In Studies 2-3, the validity of the over-claiming index held even when respondents were (a) warned about the foils or (b) asked to fake good. Study 3 also showed the utility of the over-claiming index for diagnosing faking. In Study 4, the over-claiming technique was applied to the debate over the adaptive value of positive illusions.     

On supervising the pregnant psychoanalytic candidate

The role of the psychoanalytic supervisor is complicated when the psychoanalytic candidate is pregnant. Pregnancy is a special event that brings a unique set of opportunities, as well as problems, into the analysis, though in the past, it was usually regarded only as an impediment. The goal of this paper is to help the supervisor of the pregnant candidate to seize the opportunities and mitigate the problems. The authors make practical suggestions about the handling of maternity leave and the complex theoretical and technical issues surrounding the question of when and how to tell the patient about the analyst's pregnancy.