Life of the Second-Order Patient: Factors Impacting the Informal Caregiver

Informal caregivers (ICs) are forced to make adaptive lifestyle changes to meet the significant demand of caring for loved ones who are terminally ill. Open-ended questions were administered with 26 ICs who cared for loved ones diagnosed with terminal illnesses whose prognosis was less than six months. The results add substantive information to parsimonious literature and demonstrate a correlation with existing studies that coincide with the debilitating effects that caregiving has on the informal carer. The study clarifies the complexities of the caregiving role characterized by the involvement that may adversely affect socialization, physical health conditions, and marital dynamics, among other areas of the IC’s personal life.     

Protecting Women from the Negative Effects of Body Dissatisfaction: The Role of Differentiation of Self

ABSTRACT

Body dissatisfaction is a prevalent and concerning issue among college age women. Due to its strong association with eating pathology, identification of moderating variables is a crucial line of inquiry. The present study investigated the ability for an intrapersonal differentiation-of-self variable (“I” position) to attenuate the impact of body dissatisfaction on anorexia and bulimia symptoms among college women participants. Study findings indicated that an “I” position moderated the body dissatisfaction-bulimia relationship and the body dissatisfaction-anorexia relationship. These findings signified the protective influence of a high “I” position for women with high levels of body dissatisfaction. Research and therapeutic implications are discussed.     

Evaluation of stimulus intensity fading on reduction of rapid eating in a child with autism

This study assessed the effects of a vibrating pager on reduction of rapid eating. The study also evaluated two strategies for fading the pager, by intensity and by frequency. The pager was successful in decreasing the pace of eating to an appropriate level and the pager prompt was successfully faded. Fading by frequency was ineffective in maintaining an appropriate pace of eating while intensity fading was successful.     

Can we fight stigma with science? The effect of aetiological framing on attitudes towards anorexia nervosa and the impact on volitional stigma

The present study experimentally investigated the way in which exposure to various aetiological explanations of anorexia nervosa (AN) differentially affected stigmatisation and behavioural intention outcomes. University students (N = 161) were randomly assigned to read one of four aetiological vignettes presenting the causes of AN as biological/genetic, socio‐cultural, environmental, or multifactorial. Results indicate that those who received a socio‐cultural explanation made stronger socio‐cultural causal attributions, fewer biological/genetic causal attributions, and were significantly less willing to sign a health insurance petition for AN. Unexpectedly, the multifactorial group considered individuals with AN as more responsible and blameworthy for their condition. Overall, findings were comparative with previous research and partially support the propositions of attribution theory. Results also suggest that by conceptualising the aetiology of AN as biological or genetic, or at least increasing one's knowledge of these contributing factors, it may be possible to decrease the level of blame‐based stigma associated with AN.     

Sources of variability in children’s language growth

The present longitudinal study examines the role of caregiver speech in language development, especially syntactic development, using 47 parent–child pairs of diverse SES background from 14 to 46 months. We assess the diversity (variety) of words and syntactic structures produced by caregivers and children. We use lagged correlations to examine language growth and its relation to caregiver speech. Results show substantial individual differences among children, and indicate that diversity of earlier caregiver speech significantly predicts corresponding diversity in later child speech. For vocabulary, earlier child speech also predicts later caregiver speech, suggesting mutual influence. However, for syntax, earlier child speech does not significantly predict later caregiver speech, suggesting a causal flow from caregiver to child. Finally, demographic factors, notably SES, are related to language growth, and are, at least partially, mediated by differences in caregiver speech, showing the pervasive influence of caregiver speech on language growth.     

进食障碍影响因素的探讨

神经性厌食症和神经性贪食症是主要的进食障碍症状。进食障碍的影响因素有社会文化因素（例如媒体和同伴的影响）、家庭因素（如困惑和冲突）、消极情绪、低自尊水平和对自身的不满及认知和生物方面的因素等。     

‘Translation’ and ‘transformation’ in the analytic situation: Freud – Bion – Laplanche

Following a short introduction to the core theses of Jean Laplanche’s theory of a ‘general seduction’ the author presents the resultant clinical position of the analyst. In the same way that an adult sends ‘enigmatic messages’ to the child, it is the analyst’s task to reopen this primal situation so that the patient can find new ‘translations’ for these messages. Laplanche distinguishes between the function of the analytic frame – which represents and supports attachment – and the ‘sexual’– which is the repressed and constitutes the unconscious. Only the focus on this unconscious facilitates the deconstruction of ‘incorrect’ translations. Accordingly, the analyst, says Laplanche, should not take part in construction – this is a self‐construction of the patient – but only in reconstruction. The author compares this clinical model with Freud’s notions and the ‘transformation processes’ through the alpha function as described by Bion. She illustrates Laplanche’s model and the interpretation strategy with case material.     

Presleep Suggestion Related to a Phobic Object: Successful Manipulation of Reported Dream Affect

Twenty-four female subjects with a strong dislike of snakes slept for four nonconsecutive nights in the laboratory. They were divided into four groups of six, each group receiving a different presleep suggestion on Nights 3 and 4. On Nights 2, 3, and 4, before sleep, the subjects saw but did not have to touch a live snake and their dreams were collected for each REM period. The results showed that, when compared with the subjects who received the negative affect suggestions, subjects who received positive affect suggestions had significantly higher levels of positive emotions in their dreams, rated their own dreams as more pleasant, and had significantly lower levels of anxiety, sadness, and aggression. These results support the hypothesis that presleep suggestion can be an effective technique in influencing the affective dimension of the dream.     

Facial Morphology and Children's Categorization of Facial Expressions of Emotions: A Comparison Between Asian and Caucasian Faces

The effects of Asian and Caucasian facial morphology were examined by having Canadian children categorize pictures of facial expressions of basic emotions. The pictures were selected from the Japanese and Caucasian Facial Expressions of Emotion set developed by D. Matsumoto and P. Ekman (1989). Sixty children between the ages of 5 and 10 years were presented with short stories and an array of facial expressions, and were asked to point to the expression that best depicted the specific emotion experienced by the characters. The results indicated that expressions of fear and surprise were better categorized from Asian faces, whereas expressions of disgust were better categorized from Caucasian faces. These differences originated in some specific confusions between expressions.