Editorial

With the aim of increasing knowledge about processes of change in psychodynamic individual child psychotherapy, sessions that could be called turning points were analysed.     

To be in touch

This study examined the constellation of interaction structures – repetitive patterns of interactions between patient and therapist over the course of treatment – that emerged in the psychodynamic therapy (PDT) of a child diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and treated by two doctoral student therapists. Identification of these interaction structures can inform therapists of what might be expected from patients with particular symptom or behaviour patterns and how interactions change over time. This study also examined each session’s adherence to three session prototypes: PDT, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and reflective functioning (RF) process. The Child Psychotherapy Q-Set (CPQ) is a 100-item instrument that assesses the processes within a single psychotherapy session. Items reflect a wide range of therapist attitudes and behaviours, patient attitudes and behaviours and interactions between therapist and patient. Experts used the CPQ to define PDT, CBT and RF process session prototypes. The results suggested that four distinct interaction structures could be identified and that their constellations differed between the two therapists and also differed over time within each treatment. Therapists were more structured and accommodating early on in their treatments and more interpretive later. Prototypical PDT process was more prominent in the sessions than RF process, which in turn was more prominent than CBT process. Unique therapeutic processes are at work in every dyad, despite holding the patient and theoretical orientation constant. An effective treatment in one dyad might not work in another due to therapist-specific and dyad-specific effects.     

Adolescents’ movement towards cessation of smoking: Role and relative value of the processes of change and nicotine dependence

The present study addresses the applicability of the Transtheoretical Model's processes of change in explaining adolescents’ readiness to quit smoking. Furthermore, the association between nicotine dependence and readiness to quit was assessed both directly, as well as indirectly through the processes of change. A cross-sectional survey was conducted, identifying 1547 weekly smokers aged 14–18 years. Structural equation modelling showed that the processes of change were only marginally associated with readiness to quit. Adding nicotine dependence to the model showed a direct association between nicotine dependence and readiness to quit. Only one process of change, self-liberation (i.e. choice/commitment to change and belief in the ability to change), was found to mediate this association. Nicotine dependence appeared to be highly important in adolescents’ readiness to quit.     

Risk perceptions,worry, and attitudes about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility

This study assessed the unique associations of risk perceptions and worry with attitudes about genetic testing for breast cancer susceptibility. Women (general practitioner clinic attenders, university students, and first-degree relatives of breast cancer survivors; N?=?303) read information about genetic testing and completed measures assessing perceived cancer risk, cancer worry, and genetic testing attitudes and beliefs. Worry was associated with greater interest in genetic testing, stronger beliefs that testing has detrimental emotional consequences, and positive beliefs about benefits of testing and risk-reducing surgeries. Perceived risk was unrelated to interest and associated with more skeptical beliefs about emotional consequences and benefits of testing and risk-reducing surgeries. At low worry levels, testing interest increased with more positive beliefs about testing benefits; at high worry levels, interest was high regardless of benefits beliefs. The findings support Leventhal's Common-Sense Model of self-regulation delineating interactive influences of risk-related cognitions and emotions on information processing and behavior.     

Explaining adolescents’ cigarette smoking: A comparison of four modes of action control and test of the role of self-regulatory mode

The present study compared how well four modes of action control (intentional, habitual, reactive and stereotype activation) explain adolescents’ cigarette smoking, and examined whether individual differences in self-regulation (locomotion and assessment tendencies; Higgins, Kruglanski, & Pierro, 2003 Higgins, ET, Kruglanski, AW and Pierro, A. 2003. Regulatory mode: Locomotion and assessment as distinct orientations. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 25: 293–344.  [Google Scholar]) moderate the behavioural impact of the respective modes. Findings from a prospective questionnaire survey showed that (a) willingness, prototype perceptions and past behaviour–but not intention–predicted smoking behaviour, and explained 63% of the variance, and (b) the assessment mode of self-regulation moderated the past behaviour–future behaviour relation such that past behaviour had less impact on future smoking behaviour at high levels of assessment. These findings suggest that adolescents’ smoking is controlled by stereotype activation, habitual and reactive processes. Implications of the results for designing effective adolescent smoking cessation programmes are considered.     

Reconsidering the aims of analysis in a probabilistic universe: Containment and coniunctio

Abstract

This paper explores the relationship between our attempts to define the aims of analysis and the acceptance of probability in New Physics. It draws attention to the influence of physicists on both Jung and Bion, which is well documented. It presents an argument for process-based aims rather than the recognition of innate knowledge as an aim. Two processes from different traditions (Jungian and Kleinian) are suggested as central to the aims of analysis: containment and coniunctio. The coniunctio/disiunctio axis in Jung's writing is paralleled with the axis PS<->D of the post-Kleinians. Clinical material is presented supporting the necessity of differential aims and illustrating development/stasis along this axis. A case is made for analysis to embrace the reality of uncertainty and to work with the psychic obstacles in patients, and in analysts, that result from coming to terms with probability.     

杏仁核对感觉刺激的情绪性加工:自动化过程和注意调控过程的整合

利用有限的认知资源应对多变的环境刺激,选择性注意和情绪加工一个重要的共同机制是优先化关键信息的加工。尽管情绪性刺激(特别是威胁刺激)能够影响注意资源的分配,但一些关键脑区(如杏仁核)的对情绪性刺激的加工是自动化过程还是受到注意调节一直是个有争议的问题。最新的结合高时间分辨率和高空间分辨率的神经生理记录研究表明,情绪加工的重要核团,杏仁核,对情绪性刺激的加工包含早期快速的不依赖于注意资源和认知加工负荷的自动化加工成分和晚期受到额-顶叶皮层自上而下的注意调控成分,这种功能整合证实杏仁核情绪性加工存在并行的皮层下和皮层通路。     

A behavioural experiment in virtual reality to verify the role of action function in space coding

Neurophysiological data indicate that the reachable peripersonal space and the unreachable extrapersonal space are represented in segregated parietofrontal circuits and that when the unreachable space becomes reachable because of tool use, it is automatically coded by the network selective for peripersonal space. Here we directly tested the role of action's consequences in space coding. Thirty-eight participants bisected lines at either a reachable distance (60 cm) or unreachable distance (120 cm) using either a laser pointer or laser cutter. The laser cutter but not the laser pointer had an action consequence; the line broke into two pieces. The results showed that distance moderated the effect of action. At an unreachable distance, the mean bisection point was closer to the centre when participants used the laser cutter compared to when they used the laser pointer. There were no differences at a reachable distance (60 cm). This result suggests that the space in which the individual may determine a physical consequence is categorized as peripersonal space, independently from its actual distance from the individual's body.     

How people think “if only …” about reasons for actions

When people think about how a situation might have turned out differently, they tend to imagine counterfactual alternatives to their actions. We report the results of three experiments which show that people imagine alternatives to actions differently when they know about a reason for the action. The first experiment (n = 36) compared reason – action sequences to cause – effect sequences. It showed that people do not imagine alternatives to reasons in the way they imagine alternatives to causes: they imagine an alternative to an action more than an effect, and to a cause more than a reason. The second experiment (n = 214) and the third experiment (n = 190) both show that different sorts of reasons have different sorts of effects on how people imagine alternatives to actions. People imagine an alternative to an action (the protagonist went to a ball) less often when they know the reason for the action was an obligation (he had to participate in fundraising) compared to when they know about a weaker reason (he wanted to meet a famous violinist) or no reason. The second experiment shows the effect for a social obligation and the third experiment replicates and extends it to a health obligation. We interpret the results in terms of the possibilities that people keep in mind about actions and their reasons.     

Towards an Understanding of Nurturing and Restraining Relational Patterns in School Communities

This study aimed to understand the nature of nurturing and restraining relationships in a school communiy. The inquiry entailed a single instrumental case study of a selected school community in a semi-urban context in South Africa. Participants were learners (n=720), teachers (n=33) and administrative and terrain staff members (N=8) as well as two parents. Data on participants' perceptions of relationships in the school community were collected using work sessions/nominal group techniques, visual representations, and focus group interviews. Thematic analysis of the data revealed connectedness, respect, care and transparent communication as aspects that nurture relationships. Limited connectedness between people, the abuse of power, shifting of responsibility and disrespect for one another were revealed as aspects that restrain relationships.