When left hands touch: shadow vows and Jung’s quaternity

Is there a connection between the exchange of vows and the fighting and suffering of couples that are unique to the institution of marriage? This essay introduces the concept of Shadow Vows, the unacknowledged assumptions, agreements, and obligations each partner brings to the relationship, which the authors believe are often responsible for longstanding marital discord and strife. The authors ground the existence of shadow vows in Jung’s quaternity, alchemy, typology, archetypal theory, and depth approaches to couple therapy. The essay concludes with a list of themes indicative of shadow vow enactments in clinical work with couples.     

Envisioning motherhood: Mental-state language in caregiving narratives across the perinatal period

Nancy Suchman's work highlighted the fundamental role of maternal mentalization in maternal addiction, mental health, and caregiving challenges. In this study, we aimed to examine the role of mental-state language (MSL) as a measure of mentalization in prenatal and postnatal narratives and their sentiment in a sample of 91 primarily White mothers from the western United States, followed from the second trimester of pregnancy, through the third trimester, to 4 months postpartum. Specifically, we investigated the use of affective and cognitive MSL in prenatal narratives when mothers visualized caring for their baby and postnatal narratives when mothers compared their prenatal visualization to the current caregiving reality. Results indicated moderate consistency in MSL between the second and third trimesters, but prenatal and postnatal MSL was not significantly correlated. Across all time points, higher use of MSL was related to more positive sentiment, indicating an association between mentalization and positive caregiving representations across the perinatal period. Women used more affective than cognitive MSL in prenatal imagination of caregiving, but this pattern was reversed in their postpartum reflection. Implications on assessing parental mentalization prenatally and considering the relative dominance of affective and cognitive mentalizing are discussed while considering study limitations.     

Vulnerable workers in insecure jobs: A critical meta-synthesis of qualitative findings

Job insecurity is a widespread workplace stressor that has been extensively investigated using quantitative approaches. With the use of a critical organisational psychology framework, we conducted a meta-synthesis of 20 qualitative studies to investigate the experience of job insecurity among vulnerable employee groups (i.e., women and immigrants). The qualitative meta-synthesis results suggest that there are meaningful differences. Specifically, whereas women were more concerned with and exposed to deteriorating working conditions, men experienced job insecurity as a threat to their identity. Among immigrants, the experience of job insecurity is viewed as largely intersecting with the legal system, impacting their ability to remain in their country and making them feel powerless. Thematic evidence also emerged regarding individual actions that participants use to attain security in contrast to corporate strategies that enhance job insecurity. We contribute to the critical organisational psychology literature by discussing how these results test common academic theories and neoliberal assumptions pervasive within the job insecurity literature: We highlight how organisations manufacture job insecurity, question the existence of harmonious social exchanges, discuss the use of job insecurity as a form of worker control, consider the role of the legal context in aiding worker exploitation and argue for an intersectional view of job insecurity.     

A Model for Adapting Evidence-Based Interventions to Be LGBQ-Affirmative: Putting Minority Stress Principles and Case Conceptualization Into Clinical Research and Practice

The mental health field now possesses clinical trials attesting to the efficacy of affirmative practice with sexual minority individuals. With the goal of efficiently moving the results of these clinical trials into real-world clinical practice, this paper offers a model for adapting existing evidence-based practices originally developed for the general population to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, and queer (LGBQ)-affirmative. The adaptation model presented here guides clinicians to incorporate six LGBQ-affirmative transtheoretical principles of change into practice. These principles facilitate raising awareness of the impact of minority stress on sexual minority clients’ mental health and on client self-evaluation while drawing upon sexual minority resilience and intersectional experiences to build empowering coping skills and validating relationships. The adaptation model also provides a transtheoretical approach to case conceptualization that directs clinicians to consider the role of early and ongoing minority stress on sexual minority clients’ cognitive, affective, motivational, behavioral, and self-evaluative experiences that maintain current distress. This case conceptualization approach highlights common associations among these experiences, suggesting clear routes of interventions for many sexual minority client presentations. Case examples from recent clinical trials of LGBQ-affirmative cognitive-behavioral therapy illustrate how these principles and this case conceptualization can be effectively utilized in practice. While the principles and case conceptualization are meant to be transtheoretical and therefore applicable across therapeutic techniques, to date they have been tested only in clinical trials for cognitive-behavioral treatments. Therefore, this paper concludes with a call for future research to determine the effectiveness of implementing this adaptation model across diverse therapeutic modalities and client presentations.     

A French validation of the short Need For Affect scale

IntroductionThe way we interact with our environment depends on our spontaneous tendency to approach or to avoid emotional experiences triggered by that environment. This dimension of the emotional experience is called the need for affect, that is, the tendency of individuals to adopt approaching or avoidance behaviour with regard to emotional stimuli.MethodsThe Need For Affect (NFA) Scale has been the subject of numerous studies since the validation of the original version (Maio & Esses, 2001) and its short version (Appel et al., 2012). However, no validation of the latter scale has been conducted in French. We propose a French version of the short NFA scale on a student sample and a sample from the general population.ResultsWe found the structure of the original scale in a French translation (of the English version). In addition, invariance tests showed that this structure remained the same for both samples.ConclusionWe recommend the use of this version of the short NFA scale for studies conducted on French-speaking samples.     

自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题与父母焦虑的关系:育儿压力的中介作用与领悟社会支持的调节作用

为探讨自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题与其父母焦虑的关系及其内在作用机制,研究采用问卷法对1023名自闭症和智力障碍儿童父母进行调查。结果表明：(1)自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题对父母焦虑具有正向预测作用;(2)育儿压力在儿童行为问题和父母焦虑间起中介作用;(3)儿童行为问题与育儿压力的关系受到领悟社会支持水平的调节,调节作用只在智力障碍儿童父母群体中显著。研究结果有助于揭示自闭症和智力障碍儿童行为问题对父母焦虑的影响及作用机制,对改善自闭症和智力障碍儿童父母育儿压力与焦虑具有一定指导意义。     

Affection deprivation is more aversive than excessive affection: A test of affection exchange theory

Affection exchange theory predicts that both excessive affection and affection deprivation are associated with poorer health, compared with receiving the level of affectionate communication that one desires. A similar yet-untested prediction is that affection deprivation is more aversive than excessive affection. This preregistered study tested both hypotheses on a battery of mental and physical health outcomes, including depression, loneliness, stress, physical pain, frequency of nightmares, and sleep quality, using a Census-matched sample of U.S. American adults (N = 827). As hypothesized, receiving the right amount of affection was associated with more health-supportive scores on all outcomes than either excessive or deficient affection. Similarly, excessive affection was associated with lower depression, loneliness, stress, and pain, and higher sleep quality, than affection deprivation.     

Does authenticity always breed mental health? A cross-cultural comparison between the United States and China

Numerous studies on Western cultures have suggested a strong linkage between authenticity and mental health. However, little is known about whether such an association can be generalized to Eastern cultures. This study aimed to conduct a cross-cultural comparison on the association between three dimensions of authenticity (authentic living, self-alienation, and accepting external influence) and two factors of mental health (negative and positive) across Western and Eastern cultures. Measurement invariance tests were carried out and multigroup structural regression models developed on two college samples from the US (n = 392) and China (n = 281). Results suggested that the associations between authenticity and the negative factor of mental health were consistent across cultures, where both self-alienation and accepting external influence were positively associated with anxiety. However, the associations between authenticity and the positive factor of mental health were different in the US and Chinese samples. Specifically, both authentic living and accepting external influence were significantly associated with life satisfaction in the US sample but not in the Chinese sample. Findings stress that having a nondistorted perception of the true self is critically related to lower levels of anxiety across cultures and highlighted the need to identify culture-specific promotive factors for life satisfaction.     

Understanding physical education teachers’ motivational outcomes and feasibility beliefs to implement motivational strategies: The role of perceived pressures from a variable- and person-centered approach

Work-related pressures perceived by PE teachers have been suggested to affect their motivation and behaviour. This study aims to contribute to the existing literature on this topic. Through two different objectives. First, the role of perceived pressures in the prediction of teachers’ motivation and, in turn, on their feasibility beliefs to implement motivational strategies is tested through a SEM. Secondly, PE teachers’ profiles according to the different types of perceived pressures are established and compared in terms of motivational outcomes and feasibility beliefs. A total of 217 PE teachers completed validated questionnaires. Results showed that, as hypothesized, pressures negatively predicted needs satisfaction, which, in turn, positively predicted feasibility beliefs. Three profiles emerged in the cluster analysis. Regarding to these profiles, teachers who were low on perceived pressures displayed the most adaptive pattern; teachers who reported high time constraints pressures underline the detrimental role that this type of pressure plays on both teacher and teaching outcomes. Implications for educational policy and practice are discussed.