TRANSFERENCE BEFORE TRANSFERENCE

This paper is predominantly a clinical presentation that describes the transmigration of one patient's transference to another, with the analyst functioning as a sort of transponder. It involves an apparently accidental episode in which there was an unconscious intersection between two patients. The author's aim is to show how transference from one case may affect transference in another, a phenomenon the author calls transference before transference. The author believes that this idea may serve as a tool for understanding the unconscious work that takes place in the clinical situation. In a clinical example, the analyst finds himself caught up in an enactment involving two patients in which he becomes the medium of what happens in session.     

Adjustment modes in the trajectory of progressive multiple sclerosis: a qualitative study and conceptual model

Objective: We examined cognitive and behavioural challenges and adaptations for people with progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) and developed a preliminary conceptual model of changes in adjustment over time.

Design: Using theoretical sampling, 34 semi-structured interviews were conducted with people with MS. Participants were between 41 and 77 years of age. Thirteen were diagnosed with primary progressive MS and 21 with secondary progressive MS. Data were analysed using a grounded theory approach.

Results: Participants described initially bracketing the illness off and carrying on their usual activities but this became problematic as the condition progressed and they employed different adjustment modes to cope with increased disabilities. Some scaled back their activities to live a more comfortable life, others identified new activities or adapted old ones, whereas at times, people disengaged from the adjustment process altogether and resigned to their condition. Relationships with partners, emotional reactions, environment and perception of the environment influenced adjustment, while people were often flexible and shifted among modes.

Conclusions: Adjusting to a progressive condition is a fluid process. Future interventions can be tailored to address modifiable factors at different stages of the condition and may involve addressing emotional reactions concealing/revealing the condition and perceptions of the environment.     

Commitment in romantic relationships as a function of partners’ encoding of important couple-related memories

The purpose of the present study was to investigate how significant couple-related events are encoded in the episodic memory of each partner of a romantic relationship and how they relate to each of these partners’ level of commitment in an independent and additive fashion. Each partner of a couple reported a significant couple-related memory and rated their level of need satisfaction experienced during the event of the memory. In addition, each partner was shown his/her partner’s memory and also rated their own level of need satisfaction for this event. Results showed that partners need satisfaction ratings of their own memory positively predicted their own commitment to the relationship directly (for women) as well as through their need satisfaction generally experienced in the relationship (for men). In addition, men’s need satisfaction ratings of their own memory were associated with women’s commitment while controlling for women’s need satisfaction ratings of men’s memory, but no such cross-partner effects were found for women. Overall, the findings shed light on an initial understanding of how a person’s own memory of an event can impact another person’s attitudes even when taking into account this other person’s memory encoding of that same event.     

No thanks! Autonomous interpersonal style is associated with less experience and valuing of gratitude

Gratitude has been promoted as a beneficial emotional experience. However, gratitude is not universally experienced as positive. The current work examines whether an autonomous interpersonal style is associated with differential experience of gratitude. Study 1 found an inverse relationship between trait autonomy and both trait gratitude and positivity of response to receiving a hypothetical benefit from a friend. Study 2 replicated the finding that those higher in autonomy report less trait gratitude, and also demonstrated an inverse relationship between autonomy and valuing gratitude. Study 3 found that those higher in autonomy had more self-image goals and reduced compassionate goals in relationships, and that valuing gratitude mediated the relationship between autonomy and relationship goals. These results show a consistent inverse relationship between autonomy and the experience and valuing of gratitude, suggesting that degree of autonomy is one determinant of whether gratitude is experienced as positive.     

Categories of Large Numbers in Line Estimation

How do people stretch their understanding of magnitude from the experiential range to the very large quantities and ranges important in science, geopolitics, and mathematics? This paper empirically evaluates how and whether people make use of numerical categories when estimating relative magnitudes of numbers across many orders of magnitude. We hypothesize that people use scale words—thousand, million, billion—to carve the large number line into categories, stretching linear responses across items within each category. If so, discontinuities in position and response time are expected near the boundaries between categories. In contrast to previous work (Landy, Silbert, & Goldin, 2013) that suggested only that a minority of college undergraduates employed categorical boundaries, we find that discontinuities near category boundaries occur in most or all participants, but that accurate and inaccurate participants respond in opposite ways to category boundaries. Accurate participants highlight contrasts within a category, whereas inaccurate participants adjust their responses toward category centers.     

Dealing with Big Numbers: Representation and Understanding of Magnitudes Outside of Human Experience

Being able to estimate quantity is important in everyday life and for success in the STEM disciplines. However, people have difficulty reasoning about magnitudes outside of human perception (e.g., nanoseconds, geologic time). This study examines patterns of estimation errors across temporal and spatial magnitudes at large scales. We evaluated the effectiveness of hierarchical alignment in improving estimations, and transfer across dimensions. The activity was successful in increasing accuracy for temporal and spatial magnitudes, and learning transferred to the estimation of numeric magnitudes associated with events and objects. However, there were also a number of informative differences in performance on temporal, spatial, and numeric magnitude measures, suggesting that participants possess different categorical information for these scales. Educational implications are discussed.     

Social Anxiety and Social Surrogacy in College Roommate Relationships

The social surrogate hypothesis proposes that people with higher social anxiety (HSA) recruit others to accompany them into social situations. We tested this hypothesis with college roommates using both hypothetical (Study 1) and retrospective (Study 2) measures, while assessing roommate's perceptions of recruitment and how social surrogacy might influence liking between roommates. Across two studies, we found that HSA participants were less likely to enter social situations alone (i.e. higher conditional entry); however, HSA was related to recruitment only when participants considered hypothetical scenarios, not when recruitment was assessed globally or retrospectively. There was little evidence that HSA participants' roommates were aware of these behaviours, although there was preliminary evidence that less social anxiety might increase liking when roommates perceived more conditional entry. We also found preliminary evidence that social anxiety may be negatively related to liking when participants were less likely to recruit an alternate surrogate if their roommate was unavailable. Taken together, these preliminary findings emphasize the importance of studying the surrogacy process from an interpersonal/dyadic perspective and using methods that will differentiate between anticipated (which may be assessed by hypothetical scenarios) and enacted recruitment behaviours. Copyright © 2017 European Association of Personality Psychology     

母亲抑郁对青少年抑郁的影响:亲子关系的中介作用与青少年消极情绪性的调节作用

对1708名八年级青少年（平均年龄14.30±0.48岁,男生852名）及其母亲（平均年龄39.17±2.47岁）的抑郁症状、母子关系和青少年消极情绪性进行测量,考察了母亲抑郁对青少年抑郁的影响机制。结果发现：（1）母亲抑郁能够正向预测青少年的抑郁;（2）母子关系在母亲抑郁与青少年抑郁之间起中介作用,母亲抑郁既能增加母子冲突的强度,也能降低母子亲合水平,进而导致青少年的抑郁;（3）青少年消极情绪性在母亲抑郁影响青少年抑郁的中介机制中起调节作用,仅在高消极情绪性的青少年中,母子冲突能够显著预测青少年的抑郁;但消极情绪性不能调节母子亲合对青少年抑郁的影响;（4）母亲抑郁影响青少年抑郁的有调节的中介模型不存在性别差异。     

父母体罚与青少年焦虑抑郁的关系:同伴侵害的中介效应与亲子关系的调节效应

采用问卷法对1406名初中生进行调查,考察了同伴侵害在父母体罚与青少年焦虑抑郁关系间的中介效应,以及亲子关系对这一中介过程的调节效应。结果发现：（1）在控制了性别、年龄、家庭月收入和父母受教育水平后,父母体罚显著正向预测青少年焦虑抑郁;（2）同伴侵害在父母体罚与焦虑抑郁关系间起着显著的完全中介作用;（3）亲子关系对中介路径"父母体罚→同伴侵害→焦虑抑郁"具有显著的调节效应。     

初中生应对方式、压力对社会适应的影响:纵向中介模型

青春期的适应问题及其影响因素历来是研究者关注的焦点。本研究对369名初中生从初一到初三的应对方式、压力、社会适应进行了四次调查,通过纵向中介模型考察应对方式、压力对社会适应的影响。结果表明：初一时期的积极应对方式能够直接提高初三时期的积极适应水平,直接降低消极适应水平;初一时期的消极应对方式会通过提高后期的压力间接提高初三时期的消极适应水平。