Feedback Informed Treatment: Evidence‐Based Practice Meets Social Construction

This article explores the challenges presented by the mandate for evidence‐based practice for family therapists who identify with the philosophical stance of social construction. The history of psychotherapy outcome research is reviewed, as are current findings that provide empirical evidence for an engaged, dialogic practice. The authors suggest that the binary between empiricism and social construction may be unhinged by understanding empiricism as a particular discursive frame (i.e., a particular way of talking, acting, and being in the world), one of many available as a way of understanding and talking about our work. Through a case vignette, the authors introduce the evidence‐based practice of Feedback Informed Treatment as an elaboration of social construction, and as an example of bridging the gap between the discursive frames of empiricism and social construction.     

A Video Recall Study of In‐session Changes in Sentiment Override

This study examines in‐session changes in sentiment override over the first three sessions of couple therapy. Couples viewed a video recording of therapy sessions immediately after each of the first three sessions and continuously rated their level of sentiment override. Ninety‐eight changes were randomly chosen for analysis. Three talk turns prior to each change was coded using the Family Relational Communication Control Coding System. Results show that changes in sentiment override occur frequently. Repeated incidents of communication control were related to negative change in sentiment override for females. Repeated incidents of being left out of the conversation were related to negative changes in sentiment override for females and positive changes for males.     

Gender Role Attitudes across the Transition to Adolescent Motherhood in Mexican‐Origin Families

Using longitudinal data collected at four time points from 191 dyads of Mexican‐origin adolescent first‐time mothers and their mother figures, we examined changes in and socialization of traditional gender role attitudes across the transition to parenthood using latent growth curve modeling and actor – partner interdependence modeling. Longitudinal growth models indicated that, regardless of nativity status, adolescent mothers' and their foreign‐born mother figures' gender role attitudes became more egalitarian across adolescents' transition to parenthood, spanning from the 3rd trimester of pregnancy to 36 months postpartum. Furthermore, actor‐partner interdependence modeling suggested that adolescents' and their mother figures' gender role attitudes during adolescents' third trimester of pregnancy equally contributed to subsequent increases in one another's gender role attitudes at 10 months postpartum. Importantly, this reciprocal socialization process was not moderated by adolescent mothers' nor by their mother figures' nativity status. Findings suggest that it is important to understand the cultural and intergenerational family processes that contribute to the development of gender role attitudes during the transition to parenthood for adolescent mothers and their mother figures in Mexican‐origin families.     

Satisfaction et confort au travail. L’apport de la démarche implicative

A large body of research has investigated the psycho-organizational variables predicting satisfaction at work, but few studies have so far examined variables in the field of environmental psychology. Our study aims first to identify the impact of variables evaluating comfort at work (satisfaction with the work environment, attachment to the workplace) by comparing them with organizational variables known to be related to job satisfaction, and then to rank the relationships between these variables in a pseudo- implication sequence, based on statistical implicative analysis. The study involved 105 bank employees and confirms our theoretical model, showing that job satisfaction can be explained implicatively by the three other variables [(Comfort/Functionality => Control/privacy) => Workplace attachment] => job satisfaction.     

THE MAGIC OF PLAY: LOW‐INCOME MOTHERS’ AND FATHERS’ PLAYFULNESS AND CHILDREN'S EMOTION REGULATION AND VOCABULARY SKILLS

Using data from a diverse sample of low‐income families who participated in the Early Head Start Research Evaluation Project (n = 73), we explored the association between mothers’ and fathers’ playfulness with toddlers, toddler's affect during play, and children's language and emotion regulation at prekindergarten. There were two main findings. First, fathers’ playfulness in toddlerhood was associated with children's vocabulary skills in prekindergarten whereas mothers’ playfulness was related to children's emotion regulation. Cross‐parental effects were found only for mothers. The association between mothers’ playfulness and children's vocabulary and emotion regulation was strengthened when fathers engaged in more pretend play and when children were affectively positive during the play. These findings show that playfulness is an important source of variation in the vocabulary and emotion regulation of children growing up in low‐income families. They also point to domain‐specific ways that mothers and fathers promote children's regulatory and vocabulary skills, and highlight the importance of children's positive engagement in play.     

Analytical practice: do the new technologies have an impact?

Through commentary on four clinical vignettes, this article focuses on the anthropological transformations taking place in contemporary society, underlining their differences from the anthropologies of reference of the founding fathers of psychoanalysis. Hybridization between man and machine and the speeding up and alteration of communications which the new technologies promote are now crucial issues facing psychoanalysis. Social media and a 24/7 internet connection have produced deep changes in the way people live and perceive relationships. Analytical practice is not exempt from such issues, which can be particularly insidious, often subtle and difficult to recognize, or even underestimated or ignored by psychoanalysts outright, in order to preserve the illusion of a complete understanding of what unfolds in the analytical space. The authors suggest that such transformations, by (partially) rendering inadequate the theoretical and technical corpus on which the various depth psychologies are founded, require personal engagement on the part of psychoanalysts in the search for new strategies to treat their patients, with the consequent abandonment of the ‘certainties’ offered by sclerotic models of clinical procedure.     

God of the hinge: treating LGBTQIA patients

This paper looks at systems of gender within the context of analysis. It explores the unique challenges of individuation faced by transsexual, transgender, gender queer, gender non‐conforming, cross‐dressing and intersex patients. To receive patients generously we need to learn how a binary culture produces profound and chronic trauma. These patients wrestle with being who they are whilst simultaneously receiving negative projections and feeling invisible. While often presenting with the struggles of gender conforming individuals, understanding the specifically gendered aspect of their identity is imperative. An analyst's unconscious bias may lead to iatrogenic shaming. The author argues that rigorous, humble inquiry into the analyst's transphobia can be transformative for patient, analyst, and the work itself. Analysis may, then, provide gender‐variant patients with their first remembered and numinous experience of authentic connection to self. Conjuring the image of a hinge, securely placed in the neutral region of a third space, creates a transpositive analytic temenos. Invoking the spirit of the Trickster in the construction of this matrix supports the full inclusion of gender‐variant patients. Nuanced attunement scaffolds mirroring and the possibility of play. Being mindful that gender is sturdy and delicate as well as mercurial and defined enriches the analyst's listening.     

Ensombrecimiento verbal de la descripción previa en la identificación de personas

Resumen

Este estudio examina los efectos de la descripción del autor de un delito en su identificación posterior, así como las estrategias utilizadas en la decisión y la confianza en la respuesta. Se preparó un vídeo que representaba el robo de un coche. Sólo la mitad de los sujetos realizó una descripción del autor antes de la tarea de identificación, presentada en vídeo mediante una rueda simultánea con 5 distractores y el autor del delito, indicando a los sujetos que el autor podía estar presente o no. La descripción no afectó ni a la exactitud de la identificación, ni a las estrategias utilizadas por los sujetos. Sin embargo, tanto el nivel de elecciones como la confianza disminuyeron considerablemente con descripción, efectos importantes de ensombrecimiento verbal. Por último, mas sujetos utilizaron espontáneamente procesos de eliminación y comparación que identificación automática, pero en este último caso todas las decisiones fueron correctas, mientras los errores predominaron cuando los sujetos utilizaron estrategias más elaboradas. En conclusión, la descripción previa de una persona, al contrario que la verbalización de una cara, no perjudica a la exactitud de la identificación, aunque es determinante para el nivel de elecciones del autor del delito.     

¡Esto es un atraco! Sesgos de la tipicidad en la memoria de testigos

Resumen

En este estudio se analizan los efectos de la tipicidad en la memoria de testigos. Si las personas poseen conocimientos previos de los delitos típicos: guiones para las acciones y estereotipos sobre los atracadores, y los usan para comprender y recuperar un suceso, su memoria puede incluir también información típica, pero falsa. En un estudio normativo previo se determinaron las acciones implicadas en el atraco a un banco y las características de los atracadores y, después, se seleccionó una secuencia de un atraco a un banco. Conjugando los datos normativos y los contenidos del atraco, se elaboró una prueba de reconocimiento con acciones del suceso y características de los atracadores verdaderas y falsas, de tipicidad alta y baja. Se reconocieron mejor las acciones y las características de los atracadores de tipicidad alta que baja, pero al mismo tiempo los contenidos con tipicidad alta generaron una gran proporción de falsas alarmas. Así, los conocimientos previos parecen relevantes para el funcionamiento cognitivo, favorecen, pero también pueden sesgar la memoria de los testigos de un suceso.