Going Beyond Certain Limits Together: How Ferenczi's Notion of Elasticity Informs Group Treatment of Traumatized Patients

This paper explores Ferenczi's elasticity techniques, ideas about mutuality, and analyst self-disclosure. It describes the application of Ferenczi's theory of working with traumatized patients to a group comprised of six patients. By exploring Ferenczi's techniques in working with his patients individually, the author hopes to guide clinicians in applying and recognizing the special value of Ferenczi's theory in a group setting. The author's emphasis on promoting an atmosphere of tenderness in the group led members to reveal their experiences of trauma after they had developed sufficient feelings of safety and freedom in the group.     

The Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale: Test-Retest and Inter-Rater Reliability

Two studies are reported addressing the reliability of the Behavioral and Emotional Rating Scale (BERS). The first study investigated test-retest reliability over a two-week period to determine the stability of the measure over time. The second study investigated inter-rater reliability between two teachers or classroom aides who were familiar with a student to determine the consistency with which the measure can be used by different individuals. In each study, samples were drawn from populations of students identified with emotional or behavioral disorders as specified by federal statutes. Reliability coefficients in each study were above .80, the standard recommended for screening tests that are reported individually, and in most cases above .90. Implications for use of the BERS are discussed.     

Characterizing adult cognitive development

A paradigm of adult cognitive development is elaborated that is derived from concepts inherent in the study of consistency and change during the adult years. It is argued that the antecedents and consequences of adult cognition are substantially different from those that pertain to earlier growth-oriented developmental periods and to later decline-oriented periods. Adult cognition and its development are characterized in terms of adaptive competencies in specific domains, elasticity of function within selected domains, and knowledge encapsulation. Another major characteristic of adult development is that knowledge and computation are integrated or encapsulated with experience and use. It is suggested that these characteristics serve to distinguish adult cognitive development from the discontinuous emerging properties of earlier cognitive development and from the general deficiencies of cognitive function that are characteristic of very late life.     

Behavioral economics

Economics, like behavioral psychology, is a science of behavior, albeit highly organized human behavior. The value of economic concepts for behavioral psychology rests on (1) their empirical validity when tested in the laboratory with individual subjects and (2) their uniqueness when compared to established behavioral concepts. Several fundamental concepts are introduced and illustrated by reference to experimental data: open and closed economies, elastic and inelastic demand, and substitution versus complementarity. Changes in absolute response rate are analyzed in relation to elasticity and intensity of demand. The economic concepts of substitution and complementarity are related to traditional behavioral studies of choice and to the matching relation. The economic approach has many implications for the future of behavioral research and theory. In general, economic concepts are grounded on a dynamic view of reinforcement. The closed-economy methodology extends the generality of behavioral principles to situations in which response rate and obtained rate of reinforcement are interdependent. Analysis of results in terms of elasticity and intensity of demand promises to provide a more direct method for characterizing the effects of “motivational” variables. Future studies of choice should arrange heterogeneous reinforcers with varying elasticities, use closed economies, and modulate scarcity or income. The economic analysis can be extended to the study of performances that involve subtle discriminations or skilled movements that vary in accuracy or quality as opposed to rate or quantity, and thus permit examination of time/accuracy trade-offs.     

Connections between caring climate,self-compassion,self-pity,and reactions to an emotionally difficult sport situation

Multiple variables influence athletes’ ability to cope with the challenges of sport participation including self-compassion, self-pity, and emotional regulation. Yet, the role of coach and teammates in nurturing self-compassion (SC), reducing self-pity (SP), and helping to regulate emotions (RESE) has not been fully investigated. Therefore, this study explored the interrelationships between perceptions of the caring climate (CC), SC, SP, RESE, and reactions to an emotionally difficult sport scenario (REs) and specific ways coaches and teammates helped or hindered SC. 224 predominately White (79%), female (69%), male (30%), and non-binary (1%) undergraduate students (M_age = 18.44, SD = 0.66) involved in a high school sport the previous year, participated in an online survey. The survey included measures of CC, SC, SP, RESE, and REs along with four open-ended questions asking participants to reflect on how coaches and teammates helped or hindered development of SC. Correlations revealed CC was positively related to RESE and SC and negatively related to SP. Further, CC was positively associated with constructive REs and negatively associated with deconstructive REs. To test whether RESE, SC, and SP mediated the relationship between the CC and REs, a path analysis was conducted. A partially mediated model emerged, ꭓ²(11) = 22.10, p = .02, CFI = 0.99, TLI = 0.93, RMSEA = 0.07 (CI = 0.02–0.11), SRMR = 0.04, with CC positively predicting positive and negative RESE, positive RESE positively predicting SC, and negative RESE positively predicting SC and negatively predicting SP. Additionally, SC, SP, and RESE differentially predicted REs. Thematic analysis of the open-ended questions revealed higher order themes of emotional, esteem, informational, and conditional support with a variety of supports being used by coaches and teammates. These findings provide insight into how coaches may be able to support athletes’ SC and RESE to navigate challenges within sport.     

Singing together in the park: Older peoples’ wellbeing and the singingscape in Guangzhou,China

The importance of adapting to later life is becoming increasingly apparent to older people as their concerns about health and wellbeing grow. Based on extensive fieldwork between 2020 and 2021 in Guangzhou, China, with older people who consider “singing together in the park” as an essential and popular everyday leisure activity, this article demonstrates how subject (older people), activity (singing), and place (park) integrate into a therapeutic space, the singingscape. Singingscape is presented in three distinct aspects: on the physical level, singingscape indicates an essential embodied experience of the connection between internal body and external environment, from which the older people can relax physically and mentally and acquire a sense of wellbeing; on the social level, singingscape fosters a positive atmosphere, where older people gain a collective sense of belonging and maintain social rhythm and social interactions with their peers; and on the imagined space level, fanciful landscapes and emotional imagination are advantageous to the wellbeing of older people. In the conceptual sense we argue that singingscape is located, experienced and integrated. Lastly, we advocate that attention should be paid to the construction of urban public spaces as vital infrastructure for older people in their everyday leisure activities.     

Does forgiving in a collectivistic culture affect only decisions to forgive and not emotions? REACH forgiveness collectivistic in Indonesia

According to some theorising, in collectivistic societies, forgiveness is mainly enacted to maintain relationships, not engender emotional transformation. This present study was designed to explore whether forgiveness affects decisional and emotional forgiveness in Indonesia, a country categorised as collectivistic. The evidence-based REACH Forgiveness psychoeducational group intervention was adapted to collectivistic culture (REACH forgiveness collectivistic; REACH-FC), and its efficacy was assessed in a randomised controlled trial. Undergraduates in Indonesia (N = 97; 24 male; 73 female; ages 16–21) were randomly assigned within a 2 × 3(S) quasi-experimental repeated-measures design comparing immediate treatment (IT) and waiting list (WL) conditions [Condition (IT, WL) × Time ([S] 3 time points). Harmonious value, a personality variable assessing the strength of participants' desire for group harmony, was the covariate. The condition × time (S) interactions for both decisional and emotional forgiveness were significant, challenging some previous literature. Clearly, not all forms of collectivism have similar effects when individuals and communities deal with transgressions.     

Effects of self-control training for elementary students with emotional and behavioral disorders

Progressive delay training (PDT) has been used to promote self-controlled choices (i.e., selecting a larger, later reward over a smaller, immediate reward) for people with a variety of developmental characteristics. However, the efficacy of PDT has not been evaluated in children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), who often have co-occurring symptoms of impulsivity. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of PDT with a rule-following requirement on the impulsive choices of 6 elementary students with EBD using a modified changing criterion design. Results indicated that PDT alone did not improve self-control, but a modified version of PDT with a rationale and rule for selecting the delayed reward promoted self-control for 3 participants. The remaining 3 participants continued to make impulsive choices despite further modifications to the PDT protocol. We discuss implications of our results and directions for future research on treating impulsivity in children with EBD.     

Emotions running high: Examining the effects of supervisor and subordinate emotional stability on emotional exhaustion

We sought to better understand the impact of leader emotional stability on follower burnout. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, we examined the emotional exhaustion consequences of supervisor-subordinate emotional stability congruence. Study 1 consisted of 299 light construction and maintenance workers and their supervisors. Study 2 was comprised of 294 workers at a city permits office and their supervisors. As hypothesized, both samples revealed that the highest levels of subordinate emotional exhaustion occurred when both supervisor and subordinate emotional stability were low. Our polynomial regression results suggest that the effects of leader and follower emotional stability are not simply a matter of similarity; subordinates low in emotional stability are disproportionately and negatively impacted by a low-emotional stability leader.