Anger Can Help: A Transactional Model and Three Pathways of the Experience and Expression of Anger

Anger is a significant human emotion with far‐reaching implications for individuals and relationships. We propose a transactional model of anger that highlights its relational relevance and potentially positive function, in addition to problematic malformations. By evolutionary design, physical, self‐concept, or attachment threats all similarly trigger diffuse physiological arousal, psychologically experienced as anger‐emotion. Anger is first a signaling and motivational system. Anger is then formed to affirming, productive use or malformed to destructive ends. A functional, prosocial approach to anger organizes it for protective and corrective personal and relational adaptation. In our model, threat perception interacts with a person's view of self in relation to other to produce helpful or harmful anger. Inflated or collapsed views of self in relation to other produce distinct manifestations of destructive anger that are harmful to self, other, and relationship. Conversely, a balanced view of self in relation to other promotes constructive anger and catalyzes self, other, and relationship healing. Clinical use of the model to shape healing personal and relational contact with anger is explored.     

Clinical Guidelines for Working With Stepfamilies: What Family,Couple, Individual,and Child Therapists Need to Know

This article draws on four decades of research and clinical practice to delineate guidelines for evidence‐informed, clinically sound work with stepfamilies for couple, family, individual adult, and child therapists. Few clinicians receive adequate training in working with the intense and often complex dynamics created by stepfamily structure and history. This is despite the fact that stepfamilies are a fundamentally different family form that occurs world‐wide. As a result many clinicians rely on their training in first‐time family models. This is not only often unhelpful, but all too often inadvertently destructive. The article integrates a large body of increasingly sophisticated research about stepfamilies with the author's four decades of clinical practice with stepfamily relationships. It describes the ways in which stepfamilies are different from first‐time families. It delineates the dynamics of five major challenges stepfamily structure creates: (1) Insider/outsider positions are intense and they are fixed. (2) Children struggle with losses, loyalty binds, and change. (3) Issues of parenting, stepparenting, and discipline often divide the couple. (4) Stepcouples must build a new family culture while navigating previously established family cultures. (5) Ex‐spouses (other parents outside the household) are part of the family. Some available data are shared on the impact of cultural and legal differences on these challenges. A three‐level model of clinical intervention is presented: Psychoeducational, Interpersonal, and Intrapsychic/Intergenerational Family‐of‐Origin. The article describes some “easy wrong turns” for well‐meaning therapists and lists some general clinical guidelines for working with stepfamily relationships.     

Couple‐based Intervention for Depression: An Effectiveness Study in the National Health Service in England

This study represents an effectiveness study and service evaluation of a cognitive behavioral, couple‐based treatment for depression (BCT‐D) provided in London services that are part of the “Improving Access to Psychological Therapies” (IAPT) program in England. Twenty‐three therapists in community clinics were trained in BCT‐D during a 5‐day workshop, followed by monthly group supervision for 1 year. The BCT‐D treatment outcome findings are based on 63 couples in which at least one partner was depressed and elected to receive BCT‐D. Eighty‐five percent of couples also demonstrated relationship distress, and 49% of the nonclient partners also met caseness for depression or anxiety. Findings demonstrated a recovery rate of 57% with BCT‐D, compared to 41% for all IAPT treatments for depression in London. Nonclient partners who met caseness demonstrated a 48% recovery rate with BCT‐D, although they were not the focus of treatment. BCT‐D was equally effective for clients regardless of the clinical status of the nonclient partner, suggesting its effectiveness in assisting both members of the couple simultaneously. Likewise, treatment was equally effective whether or not both partners reported relationship distress. The findings are promising regarding the successful application of BCT‐D in routine clinical settings.     

The Partners for Change Outcome Management System: A Both/And System for Collaborative Practice

Systematic client feedback (SCF) is increasingly employed in mental health services worldwide. While research supports its efficacy over treatment as usual, clinicians, especially those who highly value relational practices, may be concerned that routine data collection detracts from clinical process. This article describes one SCF system, the Partners for Change Outcome Management System (PCOMS), along a normative (standardized measurement) to communicative (conversational) continuum, highlighting PCOMS’ origins in everyday clinical practice. The authors contend that PCOMS represents “both/and,” providing a valid signal of client progress while facilitating communicative process particularly prized by family therapists steeped in relational traditions. The article discusses application of PCOMS in systemic practice and describes how it actualizes time‐honored family therapy approaches. The importance of giving voice to individualized client experience is emphasized.     

《周易正义》的刑罚适用原则探源

在严格区别《周易》、王弼《周易注》及《周易正义》三者不同思想的基础上,厘清《周易正义》所蕴含的法律思想是《周易正义》法律视角研究的当务之急。作为《周易正义》法律思想的表征体系,《周易正义》中的刑罚适用原则可简述为:区分故意与过失原则、轻刑原则、重刑原则。这些原则的形成有其特定的哲学基础。     

How category advertising norms and consumer counter‐conformity influence comparative advertising effectiveness

Surprisingly little research examines whether and how category advertising norms influence the effectiveness of comparative advertising. To address this void, the present research investigates if the persuasiveness of a particular comparative advertisement depends on whether or not it is viewed as a typical tactic that conforms to category advertising norms. Results from experiments 1 and 2 indicate that a comparative advertisement used in violation of category norms results in a persuasion penalty that is evidenced by a reduction in the ad's impact on brand attitudes. This effect of category norms on persuasion is shown to be mediated by evaluations of the comparative advertisement's appropriateness in the product category. A final experiment confirms this persuasion penalty with respect to consumers holding conformity-based motives. However, this penalty is found to be reversed for individuals seeking counter-conformity in the marketplace, who respond more favorably to a comparative advertisement when it violates rather than conforms to category norms.     

The Development of Family Alliance From Pregnancy to Toddlerhood and Child Outcomes at 5 Years

This article presents a longitudinal study of the development of “family alliance” from pregnancy to toddlerhood in a community sample, as well as its links with the emotional and cognitive development of the child at age 5 years. Family alliance is defined as the quality of the interactive coordination between family members. We consider that the alliance constitutes a context for the child to learn emotion regulation and to develop an understanding of inner states. Family interactions (N = 38) were observed at the 5th month of pregnancy and at 3, 9, and 18 months after birth in a standardized situation of observation (Lausanne Trilogue Play). Marital satisfaction and child temperament were assessed through self‐reported questionnaires. Several outcomes of the child at age 5 years were measured: theory of mind performances, predominant emotional themes in pretend play, internalized and externalized symptoms. Results show that (a) three patterns of evolution of family alliance occur: “high stable” (n = 19), “high to low” (n = 10), and “low stable” (n = 9); (b) a high stable alliance is predictive of better outcomes in children at age 5 years, especially regarding theory of mind; (c) the temperament of the child is predictive of child outcomes; and (d) an interaction effect occurs between family alliance and temperament. These results highlight the importance of both family‐level and individual‐level variables for understanding individual differences in the social and cognitive development of children.     

The end of analysis for the analyst (Translated by Ann Kutek)

This paper is an account of an analyst's personal exploration to make conceptual sense of the delicate closing stages of an analysis. Jung's theory of complexes provides a model of the functioning of the analytic relationship as an integral whole which itself is the locus of the process that brings an analysis to completion. Clinical vignettes are used to illustrate this.     

Threat to Ethnic Identity: The Experience of White Afrikaans-Speaking Participants in Postapartheid South Africa

Abstract

The dismantling of apartheid and the postapartheid dispensation had far-reaching implications for all the citizens of South Africa. In an urban sample of White Afrikaans-speaking South Africans (Afrikaners) in postapartheid South Africa, the authors investigated perceptions of threat to ethnic identity, as well as correlates of those perceptions. The respondents experienced threat on 2 levels: The 1st was distinctive continuity, the concern that their ethnic group would not continue as a distinctive group in society. The 2nd was the evaluative dimension of ethnic identity (i.e., well-being), the concern that group membership would no longer contribute to positive self-esteem. The respondents experienced greater threat on the 2nd level, reflecting predominantly negative experiences as White Afrikaans-speaking persons in postapartheid South Africa. A high threat perception on the 2nd level was associated with (a) a perception of other groups' negative evaluations of their ethnic group, (b) negative attitudes toward political changes, and (c) perceptions of illegitimacy and instability of the postapartheid political system. The respondents who felt that Afrikaners would not continue as a distinctive group in society had a more positive attitude toward the sociopolitical changes, did not show strong ethnic identification, and had a negative collective self-esteem. They were also politically more liberal. Those findings are discussed in relation to theoretical expectations.