Transference focused psychotherapy: overview and update

This paper describes a specific psychoanalytic psychotherapy for patients with severe personality disorders, its technical approach and specific research projects establishing empirical evidence supporting its efficacy. This treatment derives from the findings of the Menninger Foundation Psychotherapy Research project, and applies a model of contemporary psychoanalytic object relations theory as its theoretical foundation. The paper differentiates this treatment from alternative psychoanalytic approaches, including other types of psychoanalytic psychotherapy as well as standard psychoanalysis, and from three alternative non-analytical treatments prevalent in the treatment of borderline patients, namely, dialectic behavior therapy, supportive psychotherapy based on psychoanalytic theory, and schema focused therapy. It concludes with indications and contraindications to this particular therapeutic approach derived from the clinical experience that evolved in the course of the sequence of research projects leading to the empirical establishment of its efficacy.     

The effects of tact and listener training on the emergence of bidirectional intra verbal relations

We evaluated the effects of 2 types of training on the emergence of bidirectional intraverbal relations with 4 typically developing children. Tact training involved reinforcing foreign-language vocalizations in the presence of visual stimuli, and listener training involved reinforcing selections of visual stimuli following vocal presentations of foreign-language words. Intraverbal relations were tested by instructing participants to vocalize native-language equivalents of foreign-language words or vice versa. Both types of training produced increases in intraverbal responding, but the emergent relations were not always bidirectional.     

Bets and Boundaries: Assigning Probabilities to Imprecisely Specified Events

Uncertainty and vagueness/imprecision are not the same: one can be certain about events described using vague predicates and about imprecisely specified events, just as one can be uncertain about precisely specified events. Exactly because of this, a question arises about how one ought to assign probabilities to imprecisely specified events in the case when no possible available evidence will eradicate the imprecision (because, say, of the limits of accuracy of a measuring device). Modelling imprecision by rough sets over an approximation space presents an especially tractable case to help get one’s bearings. Two solutions present themselves: the first takes as upper and lower probabilities of the event X the (exact) probabilities assigned X’s upper and lower rough-set approximations; the second, motivated both by formal considerations and by a simple betting argument, is to treat X’s rough-set approximation as a conditional event and assign to it a point-valued (conditional) probability. With rough sets over an approximation space we get a lot of good behaviour. For example, in the first construction mentioned the lower probabilities are n-monotone, for every . When we examine other models of approximation/imprecision/vagueness, and in particular, proximity spaces, we lose a lot of that good behaviour. In the literature there is not (even) agreement on the definition of upper and lower approximations for events (subsets) in the underlying domain. Betting considerations suggest one choice and, again, ways to assign upper and lower and point-valued probabilities, but nothing works well. Special Issue on Vagueness Edited by Rosanna Keefe and Libor Bêhounek     

Keeping the Spirit of Community Partnerships Alive in the Scale Up of HIV/AIDS Prevention: Critical Reflections on the Roll Out of DEBI (Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions)

DEBI, or the Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions is the largest centralized effort to diffuse evidence-based prevention science to fight HIV/AIDS in the United States. DEBI seeks to ensure that the most effective science-based prevention interventions are widely implemented across the country in community-based organizations. Thus, this is a particularly timely juncture in which to critically reflect on the extent to which known principles of community collaboration have guided key processes associated with the DEBI rollout. We review the available evidence on how the dissemination of packaged interventions is necessary but not sufficient for ensuring the success of technology transfer. We consider additional principles that are vital for successful technology transfer, which were not central considerations in the rollout of the DEBI initiative. These issues are: (1) community perceptions of a top-down mode of dissemination; (2) the extent to which local innovations are being embraced, bolstered, or eliminated; and (3) contextual and methodological considerations that shape community preparedness. Consideration of these additional factors is necessary in order to effectively document, manage, and advance the science of dissemination and technology transfer in centralized prevention efforts within and outside of HIV/AIDS.     

慢性前列腺炎认识和治疗的困惑与提高疗效的策略

针对我国慢性前列腺炎发病率高、疗效差的困惑,全面系统地分析慢性前列腺炎基础和临床目前所面临的问题,探讨其规范化诊治程序和提高临床疗效的策略。对提高治疗决策因素结合方法论进行探讨,引导医生从减少患者痛苦、减轻经济负担的角度,探索较为合理的治疗方案,以提高治疗决策实施率,促进和谐的现代医患关系形成,提高慢性前列腺炎治疗效果。     

Know Thyself and Become What You Are: A Eudaimonic Approach to Psychological Well-Being

In an effort to strengthen conceptual foundations of eudaimonic well-being, key messages from Aristotle’s Nichomacean Ethics are revisited. Also examined are ideas about positive human functioning from existential and utilitarian philosophy as well as clinical, developmental, and humanistic psychology. How these perspectives were integrated to create a multidimensional model of psychological well-being [Ryff, C.D.: 1989a, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 57(6), pp. 1069–1081] is described, and empirical evidence supporting the factorial validity of the model is briefly noted. Life course and socioeconomic correlates of well-being are examined to underscore the point that opportunities for eudaimonic well-being are not equally distributed. Biological correlates (cardiovascular, neuroendocrine, immune) of psychological well-being are also briefly noted as they suggest possible health benefits associated with living a life rich in purpose and meaning, continued growth, and quality ties to others. We conclude with future challenges in carrying the eudaimonic vision forward.     

中国人的人格特点(VI):人际关系

人际关系人格维度包括宽和与热情两个次级因素,反映的是对待人际关系的基本态度。该研究依据本土化的中国人人格量表对中国人的人际关系人格维度及其两个次级因素的特点进行了分析,发现个体的性别、年龄、职业和婚姻状况均对人际关系产生不同程度的影响。总体上看,女性比男性对人更宽和,男性比女性对人更热情;年龄越大,人际关系分数越高;行政管理者比工人农民与和教科文卫人员人际关系分数更高,而婚姻状况也与年龄和性别一起影响个体的人际关系倾向。     

Demarcating Role Transitions as Indicators of Adulthood in the 21st Century: Who Are They?

The present study examines the transition into adulthood from a Symbolic Interactionism perspective, where people come to define themselves based on cultural influences and established cultural norms. College students (N = 234; mean age 23 years, SD = 6.26; 69.4% White, 14.5% Hispanic, 4.7% African-American) who had placed more importance on role transition markers (e.g., parenthood and marriage) as indicators of the transition into adulthood belonged to a fraternity/sorority were a traditionally aged college student (aged 18–25), were an ethnic minority were of a traditional marital status (i.e., not cohabitating) or belonged to a religious organization (particularly for men). These findings are consistent with the view that people who apparently hold collectivist or more traditional values place more importance on role transition markers as markers of adulthood. It is suggested that research take into account the cultural context when studying developmental periods that are culturally construed (i.e., the transition to adulthood), rather than biologically based.     

A COMPARISON OF FOUR STRATEGIES FOR TEACHING A SMALL FOREIGN‐LANGUAGE VOCABULARY

We compared the effects of tact training, listener training, and two types of intraverbal training on 2 children's acquisition of foreign‐language tact, listener, and intraverbal relations. The children received all four types of training simultaneously with different stimulus sets. Native‐foreign intraverbal training presented the greatest difficulty with acquisition for both children. All types of training generated increases in correct responding on tests for emergent relations, and some emerged to criterion. However, no type of training resulted in criterion‐level performance on all relations.     

ESTABLISHING DERIVED TEXTUAL CONTROL IN ACTIVITY SCHEDULES WITH CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Activity schedules are often used to facilitate task engagement and transition for children with autism. This study evaluated whether conditional discrimination training would serve to transfer the control from activity‐schedule pictures to printed words (i.e., derived textual control). Two preschoolers with autism were taught to select pictures and printed words given their dictated names. Following training, participants could respond to printed words by completing the depicted task, match printed words to pictures, and read printed words without explicit training (i.e., emergent relations).