Mirroring patients – or not. A study of general practitioners and psychiatrists and their interactions with patients with depression

For mentalization theorists, implicit mentalization is a key component of all forms of therapy. However, it has been difficult to grasp and to describe precisely how implicit mentalization works. It is said to take place partly by mirroring others in posture, facial expression and vocal tone. Based on studies of imitative behaviour within linguistics and psychology, we argue that interactional mirroring is an important aspect of displaying implicit mentalization. We aimed to explore if, and in that case how, mirroring is displayed by general practitioners (GPs) and psychiatrists in consultations with patients with depression. We wanted to see how implicit mentalizing unfolds in physician–patient interactions. Consultations were video-recorded and analysed within the framework of conversation analysis. GPs and psychiatrists differed substantially in their propensity to mirror body movements and verbal and acoustic features of speech. GPs mirrored their patients more than psychiatrists in all modalities and were more flexible in their interactional behaviour. Psychiatrists seemed more static, regardless of the emotionality displayed by patients. Implicitly mirroring and attuning to patients could signify enactment of implicit mentalization, according to how it is described by mentalization theorists. We discuss reasons for the differences between GPs and psychiatrists, and their implications.     

Intercultural Therapy with Latino Immigrants and White Partners

SUMMARY

Interethnic and interracial marriages of Latinos and White Americans are on the rise and will continue to reshape the identities of individuals, couples, families, and communities. Clinicians working with these intercultural couples find no systematic training to address what is becoming a significant segment of our society. Couple therapists, however, cannot be culturally competent and effective based solely on knowledge of some dimensions of a couple's cultural backgrounds. Using clinical and theoretical ideas, the author defines clinical work with these couples as an explicit intercultural exchange. Our task as clinicians requires a rethinking of our conversations with these couples. It involves a caring therapeutic approach that is sustained on relational and systemic levels, and intercultural conversational skills inspired by clinical and other literatures that are explicitly dedicated to work with cultural difference and the “other.”     

资源保存理论在组织行为学中的应用：演变与挑战

资源保存理论(conservation of resources theory, COR)是组织行为学研究近30年中被引最高的理论之一。COR的提出源自Hobfoll对临床应激障碍的观察与思考,历经了多次修订后该理论逐步由一个压力–反应模型发展成了一个以个体资源存量及其动态变化解释行为动因的动机理论,形成了一个具有较广泛外延的理论体系。组织行为学是资源保存理论标志性文献的施引文献的核心来源。大量组织行为学研究对COR中的资源损失漩涡、获得螺旋等核心过程进行了实证检验,涉及广泛的研究议题,使COR成为了理解员工心理与行为动因的最具影响力的理论之一。COR在组织行为学中的应用面临一定的挑战,其中有来自认知评价理论、适应理论的观点挑战,也有其作为一个\"跨界理论\"带来的挑战。组织行为学研究在应用COR时应充分尊重其理论要义,避免削足适履。     

医患会话不同研究方法进展

医患会话研究是研究医患矛盾和医患关系的关键,从社会学和语言学的视角,对国内外的医患会话研究进行了梳理。社会学和语言学视角对会话的分析有很大的差异。社会学家是研究如何进行会话,认为会话能透视社会生活,而语言学家则研究语言如何建构以产生会话,认为作为社会生活资源的会话可以帮助发现语言的本质。医患会话研究还应该拓展到认知神经科学、心理学和医学领域。只有更好地开展医患会话的研究才能指导医生的会话策略,提高医患沟通能力,改善医患关系。     

Philosophy and Cross-Cultural Conversation: Some Comments on the Project of Comparative Philosophy

This paper seeks to highlight the East-West asymmetry in philosophical exchanges. It draws attention to the absence of Eastern thought in the curriculum of philosophy in the West and suggests that cliches and stereotypes about cultures in general and thought-traditions in particular are perpetuated in this manner. The aim of the paper is to encourage 'cross-cultural conversation' among philosophers. A critical review of the project of 'comparative philosophy' is made to disclose the fact that despite the difficulties of such an endeavor, it is an attempt to bring thought-traditions together and is thereby useful for promoting intercultural understanding.     

A Rightness-Based Theory of Communicative Propriety

We express and communicate many attitudes beyond belief, such as amusement, joy, admiration, hatred, and desire. I consider whether there are any general norms that would cover all of these cases. The most obvious generalisation of the most popular norms for assertion, fittingness-based theories, fail in part because it is sometimes an intrinsic good to have certain kinds of mental states (amusement, say). I develop an alternative, rightness-based, approach, according to which it is appropriate to communicate a mental state to an interlocutor when it is right to make the interlocutor have that mental state because of the speech act. This view arises naturally from conversational participants’ common interests, and it helps to make sense of linguistic phenomena like expressives.