The Comprehensive Resource Model®: Overview of basic affects in adversity & effective treatment for complex reactions to trauma

Much of the theoretical focus in post‐traumatic stress disorder has been on the role of the amygdala, the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex. Crucially, in unresolved traumatic experiences that underlie clinical presentations, this focus misses the brain areas key to the defence responses of fight, flight and freeze—and the associated affects of anger, fear and grief. The periaqueductal gray in the midbrain, with the hypothalamus, is essential for these somatic and emotional responses to traumatic experiences. We argue that when treatment approaches thought to work at the higher brain levels have been ineffective, it is because they have failed to engage the midbrain and hypothalamic sources of the affective responses to the trauma and to the memory of it. Basic affects have been so overwhelming that dissociation, or a similarly protective neurochemical capping mechanism, has prevented full resolution of the affective content of the adversity. Treatment with the Comprehensive Resource Model^® (CRM) aims to clear the clinically relevant residues of adverse experiences by resolving the emotional responses accessed through the body memories. When the trauma has led to overwhelming distress, and/or dissociation, there is a necessity for robust resourcing to be in place before the emotional intensity of that distress is accessed. Resourcing needs to be as proximal to the re‐experience as possible to promote complete resolution and in some psychotherapy modalities, the supports provided are somewhat remote from the crucial moments of processing. Therefore, we describe how the CRM seeks to have robustly resourced states present concurrently with traumatised states to avoid overwhelming emotional distress. This allows safe entry into the deepest pain residual from the traumatic event so that it is not overwhelming during processing of the memory, and does not lead to further dissociation, allowing the individual to remain fully present throughout. This “stepping into the affect” can then be so rapidly effective that we also argue that CRM is not an exposure treatment; re‐orientation to the deepest content of the experience resolves the residual distress quickly and permanently through memory reconsolidation. Re‐learning at upper brain levels will then follow from the revoking of the affective power, which has previously driven stimulus/context and response learning in the amygdala, hippocampus and prefrontal cortex.     

Reproductive justice and support for young fathers

The current article addresses the interests and contributions of fathers to child development and well-being within a reproductive and social justice framework. We present an overview of research on the role of fathers in the lives of children from the prenatal period through early childhood, with an emphasis on fathers as partners and caregivers in promoting the reproductive health and safety of women and the healthy development of young children. We explore especially the challenges of young, at-risk fathers as well as system and practice opportunities that support their contributions as partners and parents. Our goal of the article is to extend the discourse on reproductive and social justice to include the shared responsibility of all parents and facilitate circumstances whereby children experience the support needed to become nurturing caregivers for the next generation.     

Update: School-age stutterers

Field-test data is reported on 48 school-age stutterers evaluated with the Assessment of Fluency in School-Age Children during the 1980–1981 school year in East-Central Ohio, which is largely rural in character with small industrial cities. The data answers questions proposed in 1977 regarding issues relating to the identification of young stutterers, their awareness of disfluent speech, and management problems in a school setting.     

基于胜任特征模型的人力资源开发

基于胜任特征模型（CompetencyModel）的探索,建立新型的人力资源开发与管理体系,是上世纪70年代以来,组织行为学和人力资源管理理论研究的前沿课题之一。文章主要介绍作者及其领导的课题组自80年代以来,基于我国社会经济转型时期和文化背景的差异,在不同行业的胜任特征模型的建构、及其相关的领导行为研究方面的探索和发现。由于胜任特征模型也是人力资源开发和应用方面的热点问题,文章还介绍了胜任特征模型在国内人力资源开发、管理体系建设实践应用方面的进展。并对于未来开展本领域的理论研究和实践应用提出了建议     

The Structure of Social Exchange in Self-help Support Groups: Development of a Measure

Self-help support groups are indigenous community resources designed to help people manage a variety of personal challenges, from alcohol abuse to xeroderma pigmentosum. The social exchanges that occur during group meetings are central to understanding how people benefit from participation. This paper examines the different types of social exchange behaviors that occur during meetings, using two studies to develop empirically distinct scales that reliably measure theoretically important types of exchange. Resource theory informed the initial measurement development efforts. Exploratory factor analyses from the first study led to revisions in the factor structure of the social exchange scales. The revised measure captured the exchange of emotional support, experiential information, humor, unwanted behaviors, and exchanges outside meetings. Confirmatory factor analyses from a follow-up study with a different sample of self-help support groups provided good model fit, suggesting the revised structure accurately represented the data. Further, the scales demonstrated good convergent and discriminant validity with related constructs. Future research can use the scales to identify aspects of social exchange that are most important in improving health outcomes among self-help support group participants. Groups can use the scales in practice to celebrate strengths and address weaknesses in their social exchange dynamics.     

Development of the Couples Resource Map Scales

Abstract

This article describes the initial phases of development of the Couples Resource Map Scales (CRMS). These scales are designed to assess the degree of support couples receive from various personal, relationship, and contextual resources. The first phase involved the initial item development and an expert review of an extended list of potential items. The second phase involved a survey of university seniors (n = 397) involved in monogamous, intimate relationships to test the psychometric properties of the instrument. The third phase involved an analysis of variance in CRMS scores based on participants' self-reported level of satisfaction with their relationship. The results provide preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the CRMS.     

Exploring the forgetting mechanisms in working memory: Evidence from a reasoning span test

In working memory (WM) span tests participants have to maintain to-be-remembered information while processing other, potentially distracting, information. Previous studies have shown that WM span scores are greater when span lists start with a long processing task and end with a short processing task than when these processing tasks are presented in the reverse order (e.g., Towse, Hitch, & Hutton, 2000). In Experiment 1, we obtained a similar stimulus order effect in a reasoning span test, using reasoning sentences that were equated for length in terms of the number of constituent words, but which differed in processing complexity; span scores were greater when lists began with a complex sentence and ended with a simple sentence than when this stimulus order was reversed. In Experiment 2, the stimulus order effect was not found when processing duration was held constant while sentence complexity was varied using a computer-paced moving window presentation paradigm. These results suggest that duration-based constraints can affect degree of forgetting independently of the load generated during processing phases in WM span performance and therefore imply that time-related forgetting can occur in WM span tests, particularly when the difficulty of the processing component blocks active maintenance of to-be-remembered material.     

Cognitive control and socially desirable behavior: The role of interpersonal impact

The current research reconciles two contradicting sets of findings on the role of cognitive control in socially desirable behaviors. One set of findings suggests that people are tempted by self-serving impulses and have to rely on cognitive control overriding such impulses to act in socially desirable ways. Another set of findings suggests people are guided by other-regarding impulses and cognitive control is not necessary to motivate socially desirable behaviors. We theorize that the dominant impulse is to behave in a socially desirable manner when the interpersonal impact of an action is salient, and that the dominant impulse is to behave in a self-serving manner when the interpersonal impact of an action is not salient. Studies 1–3 found that impairing participants’ cognitive control led to less socially desirable behavior when interpersonal impact was not salient, but more socially desirable behavior when interpersonal impact was salient. Study 4 demonstrates that behaving in a socially desirable manner causes cognitive control impairment when interpersonal impact is not salient. But, when interpersonal impact is salient, behaving in a self-serving manner impairs cognitive control. We discuss the implications of our findings for understanding and managing socially desirable behaviors.     

Spatial correspondence between onsets and offsets of stimuli and responses

The Simon effect denotes faster responses when the task-irrelevant stimulus position corresponds to response position than when it does not. A common explanation is that a spatial stimulus code is formed automatically and activates a spatially corresponding response code. Previous research on stimulus–response (S–R) compatibility has focused on the ability to initiate movements to stimulus onsets. The present study investigates spatial-compatibility effects (i.e., the Simon effect) in the ability to initiate and to terminate actions both to stimulus onsets and to stimulus offsets. There were four major results. Firstly, offset stimuli produced normal Simon effects suggesting that stimulus offsets can automatically produce spatial codes. Secondly, onset stimuli produced larger Simon effects than offset stimuli, which is consistent with the attention-shift account of spatial coding. Thirdly, Simon effects were also observed in action termination. Fourthly, Simon effects in action initiation and in action termination were of similar size.     

The “Sprinter effect”: When self-control and involvement stand in the way of sequential performance

This research examines the joint effect of dispositional self-control and situational involvement on performance in two successive resource-demanding tasks. We demonstrate that being highly involved and having high self-control facilitates high performance in the first task but, contrary to intuition, may jeopardize performance in a second, unexpected task. We term this the “sprinter effect” and demonstrate it in both lab and field settings. We further explore how a “marathon” mindset can debias this effect.