Relationships Between Attachment Security and Self-Construal Orientations

The authors report the results of two studies in which they explored the relationship of related and individuated self-construals, as suggested by the balanced integration—differentiation (BID) model (E. O. Imamo?lu, 2003), with (a) general attachment security in the first study (N = 168 Turkish university students) and (b) relationshipspecific attachment security with the family, peers, and romantic partners in the second study (N = 110 Turkish university students). Results indicated that attachment security tended to be associated with the relational self-orientation; however, when relatedness was complemented with individuation, there was a trend toward enhanced attachment security that reached significance when multiple measures of attachment across relationship contexts were considered. The authors discuss results with reference to their implications for attachment theory and the BID model.     

The Development of a Simple Ballistic Skill with and Without Visual Control

80 randomly selected male Ss discriminated the “effort” required to perform a simple 1-handed ballistic aiming task: aligning a Fletcher’s Trolley with a pointer placed at varying distances adjacent to an inclined wooden track. Groups were aged 5-6, 10-11, 15-16, and 18 or more yr., with 10 Ss able to see both hands and target while the other 10 could see neither. A split-plot factorial design was used. On excluding the 5-6 yr.-old “Nonvision” children, the remaining 7 sub-groups were shown to be homogeneous. Mean absolute error scores increased with Distance, and also with a decrease in Age. In the “Non-vision” condition accuracy was reduced still further for all Ss. Age, Vision, and Distance and the interaction of Age with Vision were all significant, p<.01.     

Motivational Effects of Outcome Feedback on Motor Performance

This study examined the effects of success and failure feedback on subsequent motor performance. Based upon the general motivation (or level-of-aspiration) hypothesis, initial success should lead to better subsequent performance than does initial failure, while the reverse prediction was derived from the cognitive dissonance theory. To test these rival hypotheses, two experiments were conducted on undergraduate male students (n =120) performing a motor maze task. Initial failure improved subjects’ subsequent performance, thus supporting the dissonance theory. However, this effect was observed only under low-ego-involving conditions, thereby suggesting that the effects of dissonance and ego involvement are interdependent. The findings were discussed in terms of motivational and informational/attributional effects of outcome feedback on motor performance.     

The Efficacy of Systemic Therapy for Childhood and Adolescent Externalizing Disorders: A Systematic Review of 47 RCT

Systemic (family) therapy is a widely used psychotherapy approach. However, most systematic efficacy reviews have focused solely on “family‐based treatment” rather than on the theoretic orientation “systemic therapy.” We systematically review trials on the efficacy of systemic therapy for the treatment of childhood and adolescent externalizing disorders. All randomized (or matched) controlled trials (RCT) evaluating systemic/systems‐oriented therapy in various forms (family, individual, group, multi‐family group therapy) with child or adolescent index patients (0–17 years) suffering from mental disorders were identified by data base searches and cross‐references. Inclusion criteria were as follows: index patient diagnosed with a DSM‐ or ICD‐listed mental disorder, and trial published in any language up to the end of 2011. The RCTs were analyzed for their research methodology, interventions applied, and results (postintervention; follow‐up). A total of 47 trials from the United States, Europe, and China, published in English, German, and Mandarin, were identified. A total of 42 of them showed systemic therapy to be efficacious for the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, conduct disorders, and substance use disorders. Results were stable across follow‐up periods of up to 14 years. There is a sound evidence base for the efficacy of systemic therapy for children and adolescents (and their families) diagnosed with externalizing disorders.     

Work and Rest Variables in the Acquisition of Psychomotor Tracking Skill

College students (75 men, 75 women) matched in preliminary performance of 100 sec on the rotary pursuit apparatus were randomly assigned to five experimental groups. Their work/rest ratios, measured in seconds, were: 20/20, 30/30, 60/60, 90/90,120/120. All subjects received 30 min of total practice time after the matching trial. There was a significant practice effect and a significant practice x conditions interaction, but no main effect due to the cycles’ length or number. The decay rate of reactive inhibition (lr) is probably independent of its prior growth level; hence postrest residual lr is proportional to prerest accumulation. Partly because they generated lr in hypothetically greater amounts, women were significantly less proficient on the average than men, and sex interacted with practice. Although males had higher initial and final levels of ability than females, the two sexes’ acquisition curves showed the same rate parameters in our mathematical model.     

The mirroring function of the child analyst

This paper follows the progress of four years of twice-weekly psychoanalytic psychotherapy with a borderline girl aged 4 at the start of treatment. It describes how her early experience with her mother, who was ill, and her subsequent removal from her mother and placement with a foster-family led to her having severe difficulties in relating to others. Using the work of Ekstein as a framework, it follows the changes in the child’s behaviour in the therapy from acting out to playing with toys to role playing to the apparent development of her capacity to phantasize. It focuses on what the dolls’ house represented for her and how it came to be a transitional space where the inner world of the child could be represented. The play in and around the dolls’ house is described to show how she moved from playing on the outside of the dolls’ house to playing in part of the inside to using the whole house and how this seemed to parallel the development of her relationship with her therapist. Furthermore, it presents the views of a number of commentators on the use of the dolls’ house and what it represents for children in therapy and in our culture in general.     

On being dropped and picked up: adopted children and their internal objects

The field of adoption has changed over the past years from one where there were babies available for many adoptive couples to one where increasingly the children who are needing adoption are those who have already suffered deprivations and difficulties in their families of origin, with disrupted attachments and a consequent traumatizing effect of their early history on their internal worlds. Professionals working with these children, who have in effect been 'dropped', face the difficult task not only of placing them appropriately but of supporting their adoptive families. With the new experience of a secure base the original trauma may be reworked, and the new framework tested by these damaged and consequently often damaging children as they replay their feelings of being unwanted and unwantable. In describing once-weekly work with a 6-year-old adopted boy, I suggest that the primary disillusion of his neonatal experience caused an internal catastrophe which was then reworked in his adoptive placement. This child did not experience what Winnicott (1971) called 'gradual disillusion' in terms of his belief that he creates the needed breast, and thus integration of love and hate of the primary object, but remained in a state of hyper-vigilance because of the deficits in his internal world. These deficits have been able partially to be addressed in psychotherapy treatment.     

The conceptual distinction between projective identification (Klein) and container-contained (Bion)

This paper describes the use of play in the psychotherapy of a latency child from a severely traumatised background. It considers the meaning of play in relation to the role of the psychotherapist and to psychotherapeutic technique and explores its functions in terms of the child's development. The paper documents the psychotherapist's learning experience about the difficulty of trying to make the ‘right’ interpretations and her consequent realisation of the intrinsic value of play in psychotherapy. In considering these themes, the author explores how, by placing interpretation secondary to play, the therapy enabled the development of the child's creativity and self-agency, facilitating a movement from primarily paranoid–schizoid defences towards the beginnings of a depressive position.     

A Guide to Women in Management

The majority of occupational therapists are female clinicians who tend to be motivated by human service. They do not tend to be motivated by administrative or managerial responsibilities beyond those essential to local disciplines functions. More occupational therapists may become interested in management once they are aware of sociocultural assumptions and prejudices as well as the specific qualifications and competencies involved. Sex role stereotyping and some roles are reviewed. Assertiveness training and basic management competencies are listed as pertinent skill acquisitions.     

Perceptual Integration of Timing and Intensity Variations in the Perception of Musical Accents

The author investigated the detection of timing and intensity variations in tone sequences within the framework of perceptual independence or integration. The participants listened to sequences of tones that contained variations in timing, intensity, or both. Each participant tried to detect variations in the dimension that was declared relevant, which was either timing or intensity. The irrelevant dimension was held constant, or varied in a manner uncorrelated with the relevant dimension, or varied in a correlated manner. When the variations in the 2 dimensions were correlated, the correlation could be either positive (i.e., timing and intensity created accents in the same sequences) or negative (i.e., timing and intensity created accents in different sequences). Uncorrelated variation in the irrelevant dimension interfered with the detection of variations in the relevant dimension. In the case of a positive correlation between the 2 dimensions, the detection of variations was better than it was with the absence of variation in the irrelevant dimension only for participants who attended to timing. In the case of a negative correlation, the effect was the opposite. The results showed that timing and intensity accents were not processed by completely independent channels. Rather, information from the 2 dimensions combined at a late stage of processing.