Combining experiences over time: the effects of duration,intensity changes and on-line measurements on retrospective pain evaluations

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of various factors on retrospective pain evaluation. The factors examined in Experiment 1 were the rate and pattern of change, the intensity (particularly the final intensity), and the duration of the painful experience. Experiment 2 manipulated these factors and, in addition, examined the effect of continuous (on-line) ratings on the overall retrospective evaluation. The two experiments utilized different pain modalities, heat in the first and mechanical pressure in the second. In addition, all subjects in Experiment 1 experienced stimuli with the same physical magnitude, while in Experiment 2 stimuli were individually tailored to make them subjectively equivalent. In both experiments, subjects were presented with a series of painful stimuli and evaluated the intensity of each stimulus immediately upon its termination. The stimuli themselves were composed of multiple intensity levels that differentially changed over time (Intensity-Patterns). Subjects' on-line ratings in Experiment 2 closely mirrored the physical patterns of the intensities. The main conclusion from both experiments is that the retrospective evaluations of painful experiences are influenced primarily by a combination of the final pain intensity and the intensity trend during the latter half of the experience. In addition, results indicated that duration has little impact on retrospective evaluations for stimuli of relatively constant intensity. However, when the stimulus intensity changes over time, duration does play a role. Finally, the task of continuously reporting the stimulus intensity had a moderating impact on the retrospective evaluations. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The experiences of therapists using a new client‐centred psychometric instrument,PSYCHLOPS (Psychological Outcome Profiles)

PSYCHLOPS (‘Psychological Outcome Profiles’) is a newly developed client‐generated psychometric instrument which can be used as an outcome measure. Uniquely, it asks clients to state their own problems, in their own words. As part of its validation, we used it alongside an existing measure, CORE‐OM (‘Clinical Outcomes Routine Evaluation – Outcome Measure’). Based on a qualitative methodology, we report here on the first‐hand experiences of four therapists using both instruments. The key themes that emerged from therapists’ responses were feasibility, validity and usefulness. Both questionnaires were perceived as complementing each other, the qualitative information from PSYCHLOPS balancing the quantitative information from CORE‐OM and that both could contribute to the therapist‐client interaction. The key features of PSYCHLOPS are likely to prove attractive to therapists and should increase acceptance and uptake of outcome measures.     

Information search and presentation in advisor–client interactions

When making a decision, people often search for more information supporting than conflicting with their preferred alternative. This can be counterproductive because potential risks and liabilities of the intended decision may be overlooked. However, when confronted with a decision problem, people often turn to advisors for help. We examined what kind of information advisors search for when confronted with a client’s decision problem and what information they present to their clients. Experiment 1 suggested that advisors (participants in the role of travel agents or friends) conducted a more balanced information search than personal decision-makers. However, when presenting information to their client, mock travel agents passed on more information supporting their recommendation than conflicting with it, whereas friends presented information in a balanced way. Experiment 2 replicated the balanced information search of advisors and suggested that this effect was partly mediated by the advisors’ increased accuracy motivation. Practical and theoretical implications are discussed.     

Transformations of early infantile experiences: A 6-month-old in psychoanalysis

The aim of the paper is to study the theoretical and technical tools for psychoanalysis adapted to an infantile analysand's requirements. The author presents the case of a 6-month-old boy with his mother in psychoanalytical sessions four times a week; the analysis was terminated after six weeks. After the fi rst two sessions the disturbances between the infant and the mother disappeared from everyday life but continued with increasing intensity as an emotional storm in the sessions during three weeks up to a 12-day break. During and after the break everyday life continued without disturbances. After the break the emotional storm continued in the sessions but abated and was replaced by playing. The infant's creation of a fort-da game with his pacifi er indicated a transformation of the mental functioning. The analysis could then be terminated. The study of the process indicates good reasons to adapt psychoanalytical concepts to the prerequisite of the infantile personality and to use the concepts of unconscious, infantile repression, substitute formation, return of the infantile repressed, infantile transference, splitting, xKy, reverie and containment as some of the theoretical tools for understanding the infantile personality in a clinical psychoanalytical setting.     

Activating a mental simulation mind-set through generation of alternatives: Implications for debiasing in related and unrelated domains

Encouraging people to consider multiple alternatives appears to be a useful debiasing technique for reducing many biases (explanation, hindsight, and overconfidence), if the generation of alternatives is experienced as easy. The present research tests whether these alternative generation procedures induce a mental simulation mind-set (cf. Galinsky & Moskowitz, 2000), such that debiasing in one domain transfers to debias judgments in unrelated domains. The results indeed demonstrated that easy alternative generation tasks not only debiased judgments in the same domain but also generalized to debias judgments in unrelated domains, provided that participants were low in the need for structure. The alternative generation tasks (even when they were easy to perform) showed no evidence of activating a mental simulation mind-set in individuals high in need for structure, as these individuals displayed no transfer effects. Implications of the results for understanding the role of the need for structure, ease of generation, and mental simulation mind-set activation for debiasing are discussed.     

咨访关系中的客观与主观

咨访关系是种特殊的、动态的、治疗性的人际关系,咨访双方互为主体.其间,咨访双方探求的"客观真实",因时空情境、历史文化、价值观念和个体经验不同而各异.建构主义认为真实是多元的,而在涉及心理现象,尤其是心理咨询与治疗的咨访互动的人际关系过程时,实证主义也显得力不从心,使咨访关系中的主观与客观成为很有争议、有价值的探讨点.     

Promising New Developments in the Therapist–Client Relationship: A Philosophy of Science Review and Preview

Two questions were central: What are the current and what were the past new developments in the therapist–client relationship? By means of a “philosophy of science analysis,” what principles may be taken as helping to account for these new developments? Nine principles were identified in a review, including the articles in the present theme issue of the journal. The proposal and invitation are to use these nine principles to generate further, future, promising new developments in the therapist–client relationship.     

Processes of appraisal and coping in the development and maintenance of Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder

This article examines the role of appraisal and coping strategies in relation to women's subjective negotiation of premenstrual changes, drawing on a series of narrative interviews conducted with women who met diagnostic criteria for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD). The major themes that emerged from the interviews were: the PMDD sufferer as split; over‐responsibility is linked to PMDD; PMDD = lack of control; methods of coping; attributions for symptoms; and PMDD as a relational issue. This article draws on each of these narrative themes, in order to illustrate three interrelated psychological processes of appraisal and coping central to the development and maintenance of ‘PMDD’ or ‘PMS’ (Premenstrual Syndrome). The first process is awareness of changes in psychological or physical experiences, ability to cope, or reactivity to others, premenstrually. The second process involves expectations and perceptions of premenstrual changes. The third is women's response and ways of coping. This study thus stands in contrast to research positioned within a positivist epistemological framework, where PMDD is viewed as a fixed entity; and women's subjective experience of premenstrual changes, is marginalized or negated. It is argued that premenstrual changes evolve in the context of an ongoing interaction between internal experiences, perceptions, reactions, relationships, and cultural expectations, that differ between women, across menstrual cycles, and can shift within a specific cycle: described as a material‐discursive‐intrapsychic interaction. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Trainee psychotherapy effectiveness at a psychodynamic training clinic: a practice-based study

The degree to which clinical experience is a significant factor in predicting positive psychotherapeutic outcomes is an open question. Empirical studies comparing experienced and beginning practitioners on differences in client outcomes have yielded mixed results. While multiple sources have indicated that trainees are generally effective therapists, few of these studies have examined the effectiveness of graduate-level therapists in a psychodynamic training program. In this study, conducted in the United States, we use a practice-based research approach to examine the outcomes of clients working with trainees at a community mental health clinic in the northeast United States. The theoretical orientation identified by the clinic and training program is psychodynamic with an interpersonal and/or relational emphasis. Results indicated that clients working with trainees at this clinic demonstrated improvement across several indicators of symptoms and psychosocial functioning over the time they received treatment. Implications for training and service reimbursement are discussed.