How Psychotherapists Address Hypothetical Multiple Relationships Dilemmas with Asian American Clients: A National Survey

This study examined how psychotherapists address hypothetical nonsexual multiple relationships dilemmas with Asian American clients and identified predictors of conservative decisions and the use of culture-based rationales. This survey of 787 Asian American and non-Asian American psychotherapists revealed that clinicians rely on mostly their personal policies and seldom focus on the clients' cultural backgrounds. Psychotherapists who consider their clients' Asian culture have more cultural knowledge and awareness, have been mental health providers longer, and are Asian American and female. Clinicians who avoid multiple relationships tend to cite formal policies as justification and are less likely to consider clients' cultural worldviews, the therapeutic relationship, or their own values. The results are discussed in terms of specific revisions needed in the American Psychological Association Ethics Code, the benefits of more frequent consultation with colleagues and supervisors about ethical dilemmas, and recommendations for psychotherapists.     

African American Children's Ability to Identify Emotion in Facial Expressions and Tones of Voice of European Americans

This study examined whether African American children's ability to identify emotion in the facial expressions and tones of voice of European American stimuli was comparable to their European American peers and related to personality, social competence, and achievement. The Diagnostic Analysis of Nonverbal Accuracy (DANVA; Now-icki & Duke, 1994) was administered to 84 African American children. It was found that they performed less accurately on adult and child tones of voice and adult facial expressions. Further, girls' ability to read emotion in tones of voice was related to better social competence and achievement, whereas boys' ability to identify emotion in adult tones of voice was related to teacher-rated social competence. Results suggest that more research is needed with ethnic groups to clarify the impact of nonverbal processing skills on social and achievement outcomes.     

Relationships between Early Social Experience and Adult Aggressive Behavior in Inbred Mice

Important methodological problems exist in the measurement of children's ethnic attitudes. Specifically, little information has been generated regarding both the convergent and discriminant validity of the ethnic attitude measures used in this area of research. The present study explores these aspects of validity by examining: (a) the relationships among three measures of ethnic attitude (the Doll Choice, the Preschool Racial Attitude Measure II, and the Katz-Zalk Projective Prejudice Test), and (b) the relationships between these measures and two measures of a second construct, egocentrism (the Role-Taking Task and the Perspective-Taking Task). Results indicated that only one of the three ethnic attitude measures revealed a pattern of correlations suggestive of both convergent and discriminant validity. The findings are interpreted as indicating the possibility that various ethnic attitude measures may be tapping different aspects of the same construct. In addition, the possibility is raised that the Doll Choice, and perhaps other ethnic attitude measures, may reflect aspects of ethnic attitude which are related to a child's more general cognitive role-taking skills.     

Emotional self‐efficacy,graduate employability,and career satisfaction: Testing the associations

Graduate employability has been the subject of little empirical research. There are a number of difficulties in defining and measuring graduate employability, which means that there is a paucity of research that looks at its predictors and outcomes. Previous work has proposed that emotional competence improves graduate employability, and this study further investigates this idea by examining the association between emotional self‐efficacy and employability. Also investigated is the association between employability and career satisfaction. Working graduates (N = 306) completed measures of emotional self‐efficacy, self‐perceived employability, and career satisfaction, and the data were analysed using structural equation modelling. We found emotional self‐efficacy to be an important predictor of graduate employability. Additionally, we found that graduate employability mediates the relationship between emotional self‐efficacy and career satisfaction. Some recommendations, in light of these findings, are discussed.     

The Position of Metapsychology in the Formation of Psychoanalytic Knowledge and the Concept of “I” (Ego)

Psychoanalysis is unique in that competence in the field can be achieved only through applying the method to oneself. Different psychoanalytic schools differ in their understanding of the unconscious, about how to approach it, or how to define the specificity of the psychoanalytic interaction. Consequently, there are differences in the criteria for the definition of the ‘good-enough analysis’. There are many different opinions about how to select candidates, organise the curriculum and length of training. To define psychoanalytic talent is difficult; the uncertainty in the definition of criteria to use for selection is great; the problematic overlap between personal analysis and training is constantly present; to achieve conditions in which learning and creativity can develop is complicated by trainee, supervisor and their relationship to the Institute. Confrontations about training are often heated and divergent, as well as repetitive. Systematic studies about psychoanalytic education are very few. After a short discussion of the different concerns about selection, personal versus training analysis and the ambiguities of the supervisory situation, the author gives a review of three studies on how psychoanalytic education—as viewed by trainers and trainees—is conducted and experienced at the Swedish Psychoanalytic Institute. Training is felt to be well grounded in theory and tradition; nonetheless most do not have a sufficiently clear picture of training as a whole. Both candidates and trainers see the development of a psychoanalytic identity as the goal of training, where the competencies to be acquired are equated with important personality qualities. The candidates have a feeling of “being chosen"; they “wish to belong to a group who share an interest and fascination for psychoanalytic thinking and theory". All praise the warm and open atmosphere, and the mutual and continuous evaluations and the deep involvement of all. The surge to be rooted in an overreaching psychoanalytic ethic, the culture of gratitude within the Institute and the devotion to the task to train psychoanalytic clinicians for the future may preserve an idealised image of psychoanalysis and the fantasy that psychoanalysts are exceptional persons and give a mystifying colour to the psychoanalytic profession. This might also stand in the way of a more radical change in the traditions of training—according to the rather drastically changing climate in which psychoanalysts of the future will have to work.     

The role of sociocultural context for culture competence and depressive symptoms among ethnic minority youths in junior high school

The aim of the study was to examine whether school sociocultural context affects culture competence and its relationship to depressive symptoms. As part of the Youth, Culture and Competence study conducted in the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, questionnaire data was collected from 373 immigrant students in two junior high schools within Oslo. The school contexts were represented in terms of proportion of ethnic minority students, 90% versus 60% referred to as the concentrated and balanced context, respectively. Results showed a relatively low level of depressive symptoms and high level of ethnic and host culture competence regardless of context. Ethnic culture competence showed an inverse relationship to depression in both contexts. Host culture competence was also negatively correlated with depression, but only in the balanced context. In the concentrated context this correlation was unsubstantial. Thus, the sociocultural context was found to moderate this correlation.     

热情与能力的关系及其影响因素

社会认知的两个基本维度热情与能力之间存在一种特殊的关系, 它既可能是晕轮效应所认为的正向关系, 也可能是补偿效应和影射效应所认为的负向关系, 还有可能是受多种因素影响的正交关系。热情与能力的关系受到知觉者自身因素、知觉对象的特点、知觉者与知觉对象的关系以及外部环境等多种因素的影响, 而热情与能力关系的内部机制不明确是学者们对其关系产生分歧的根本原因。今后需要进一步探讨热情与能力的内部机制, 进行跨文化的检验和比较研究, 进一步探索其关系的影响因素, 建构热情与能力的关系模型。     

Predicting dental attendance from dental hygienists’ autonomy support and patients’ autonomous motivation: A randomised clinical trial

Objective: To test the hypothesis that a Self-Determination Theory (SDT) intervention designed to promote oral health care competence in an autonomy-supportive way would predict change in caries competence relative to standard care. Further, to test the SDT process path-model hypotheses with: (1) the intervention and individual differences in relative autonomous locus of causality (RALOC) predicting increases in caries competence, which in turn would positively predict dental attendance; (2) RALOC negatively predicting dental anxiety, which would negatively predict dental attendance; (3) RALOC and caries disease referred to the dentist after an autonomy-supportive clinical exam directly positively predicting dental attendance; and (4) the intervention moderating the link between RALOC and dental attendance.

Design: A randomised two-group experiment was conducted at a dental clinic with 138 patients (M_age = 23.31 yr., SD = 3.5), with pre- and post-measures in a period of 5.5 months.

Results: The experimental model was supported. The SDT path model fit the data well and supported the hypotheses explaining 63% of the variance in dental attendance.

Conclusions: Patients personality (RALOC) and hygienists promoting oral health care competence in an autonomy-supportive way, performance of autonomy-supportive clinical exams and reductions of anxiety for dental treatment have important practical implications for patients’ dental attendance.     

不同胜任力水平下大学生自谦归因对他人评价的影响

从人际吸引力和胜任力评价两个维度探讨大学生自谦归因对他人评价的影响。以120名大学生为样本,采用2*2的组间情景实验设计,让被试观测情景材料中不同胜任力水平个体的自谦归因后作出评价,研究发现,不同胜任力水平下大学生自谦归因对人际吸引力和胜任力评价上存在交互效应,当材料中大学生胜任力水平高时,自谦归因能提高大学生的人际吸引力。然而,当材料中大学生胜任力水平低时,自谦归因不仅不能提高人际吸引力,反而减少了他人对大学生的胜任力评价。     

School competence and emotional/behavioral problems among Norwegian school children as rated by teachers on the Teacher Report Form

Of 1,409 eligible children aged 6-13 years in grades 1 to 7 who were randomly selected from a national sample of Norwegian schools, 858 participated in the present study (60.9%). The sample was stratified by school centrality, region and size of grade cohort. The teachers assessed their children's academic performance, adaptive school functioning, and levels of emotional/behavioral problems using the 2001 version of the Teacher Report Form (TRF). Only one child was randomly selected from each grade cohort. Girls had significantly higher scores than boys in the Working Hard, Appropriate Behavior, Learning, and Total Adaptive Functioning domains. For girls, only the Working Hard domain was of medium effect size. While boys had significantly higher scores than girls on Attention, Thought Problems, Rule-Breaking, Aggression, Externalizing Problems and Total problems, only Attention Problems showed a medium effect size. Significant sex by age interaction effects were also found for Rule-Breaking, Externalizing, Internalizing, Anxious-Depressed and Total Problems. In all these comparisons, 10-13-year-old boys had significantly higher scores than 6-9-year olds, while girls had similar problem levels across age groups. Our mean Total Problems score (17.2) was lower than the grand mean (21.6) reported in a multi-country comparison but higher than in another Norwegian large-scale survey. Overall, our findings indicate that teachers in Scandinavia report, just as do parents, relatively low levels of emotional/behavioral problems among school-aged children.