Interlimb Coordination During Step-to-Step Transition and Gait Performance

Most energy spent in walking is due to step-to-step transitions. During this phase, the interlimb coordination assumes a crucial role to meet the demands of postural and movement control. The authors review studies that have been carried out regarding the interlimb coordination during gait, as well as the basic biomechanical and neurophysiological principles of interlimb coordination. The knowledge gathered from these studies is useful for understanding step-to-step transition during gait from a motor control perspective and for interpreting walking impairments and inefficiency related to pathologies, such as stroke. This review shows that unimpaired walking is characterized by a consistent and reciprocal interlimb influence that is supported by biomechanical models, and spinal and supraspinal mechanisms. This interlimb coordination is perturbed in subjects with stroke.     

Notes on unintegration and disintegration from historical and developmental perspectives

Frances Tustin: Autistic States in Children, Published by Routledge and Kegan Paul Ltd. 1981 Price £12.50.

B.A. Farrell The Standing of Psycho-Analysis Published by Oxford University Press. 1981. Price £3.95.

Helen Featherstone: A Difference in the Family. Life with a Disabled Child. Published by Basic Books Inc. 1980.

Martin Richards: Infancy. World of the Newborn. The Life Cycle Series. Published by Harper &; Row. 1980. Price £2.25 (paperback).

Jerome Bruner: Under fives in Britain. Published by Grant McIntyre. 1980. £10.95 (hardback), £4.50 (paperback).     

A Transconceptual Model of Empowerment and Resilience: Divergence, Convergence and Interactions in Kindred Community Concepts

Resilience and empowerment are widely employed concepts in community psychology and other social sciences. Although empowerment is more closely associated with community psychology, both concepts hone to community psychology’s strengths-based values, recognizing, respecting, and promoting local capacity and positive outcomes. Both concepts also have been critiqued for lacking clear consensus regarding definition, operationalization, and measurement (Cattaneo and Chapman in Am Psychol 65(7):646–659, 2010; Luthar et al. in Child Dev 71(3):543–562, 2000). This deficiency is reflected in the wide ranging applications of each term independently, and is particularly concerning when the terms are used together or interchangeably. Theoretical work on these concepts’ boundaries and interaction is lacking. This paper builds on the authors’ prior work operationalizing the processes and outcomes of each concept (Brodsky et al. in Am J Community Psychol 47(3–4):217–235, 2011; Cattaneo and Chapman in Am Psychol 65(7):646–659, 2010; Cattaneo and Goodman in Psychol Violence, in press) to present a combined transconceptual model illuminating the divergence, convergence, and interactions between the two. Both resilience and empowerment are fueled by unsatisfying states, but are differentiated by, among other things, internally (resilience) versus externally (empowerment) focused change goals. Goal determinants include context, power differentials, and other risks and resources. These concepts have the potential to facilitate each other, and understanding their interaction can better inform community psychologists’ work with marginalized populations.     

Psychological wellbeing and quality of life in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A review

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a fatal neurodegenerative disease with a progressive and rapid course that, so far, cannot be stopped or reversed. The psychological impact of the disease is huge, on both patients and caregivers. This review summarizes studies that have investigated quality of life, depression, anxiety, pain, spiritual and existential issues, hope, and hopelessness in the ALS field, with attention to both patients and their caregivers. Psychological support and the possible role of psychologists in the ALS field are also discussed.     

Does young adults’ preferred role in decision making about health,money, and career depend on their advisors’ leadership skills?

Few empirical data exist on how decision making about health differs from that in other crucial life domains with less threatening consequences. To shed light on this issue we conducted a study with 175 young adults (average age 19 years). We presented the participants with scenarios involving advisors who provided assistance in making decisions about health, money, and career. For each scenario, participants were asked to what extent they wanted the advisor to exhibit several leadership styles and competencies and what role (active, collaborative, or passive) they preferred to play when making decisions. Results show that decision making about health is distinct from that in the other domains in three ways. First, most of the participants preferred to delegate decision making about their health to their physician, whereas they were willing to collaborate or play an active role in decision making about their career or money. Second, the competencies and leadership style preferred for the physician differed substantially from those desired for advisors in the other two domains: Participants expected physicians to show more transformational leadership—the style that is most effective in a wide range of environments—than those who provide advice about financial investments or career. Finally, participants’ willingness to share medical decision making with their physician was tied to how strongly they preferred that the physician shows an effective leadership style. In contrast, motivation to participate in decision making in the other domains was not related to preferences regarding advisors’ leadership style or competencies. Our results have implications for medical practice as they suggest that physicians are expected to have superior leadership skills compared to those who provide assistance in other important areas of life.     

Analytical psychology and the ghost of Lamarck: did Jung believe in the inheritance of acquired characteristics?

Whether Jung was a Lamarckian or not has always been a hotly debated topic, both within the post‐Jungian community and amongst scholars with an interest in Jung in the wider academic community. Yet surprisingly few substantial pieces of work have been dedicated to it and, to my mind, no one has yet managed to do justice to all the subtleties involved. The scholars who have claimed that Jung is a Lamarckian have, for the most part, oversimplified the debate by failing to discuss the passages in which Jung appears to be defending himself against Lamarckism; the scholars who have defended Jung against Lamarckism, however, have as a rule not adequately dealt with the question of whether these passages actually get Jung off the hook. This paper will attempt to correct this imbalance by putting forward four key passages spanning Jung's career that all represent conclusive evidence that Jung was indeed a Lamarckian. After discussing these, it will then deal in detail with the passages in which Jung appears to be defending himself against Lamarckism, making the case that they do not represent a defence against Lamarckism at all and have therefore generally been misinterpreted by many scholars.     

Natural character: psychological realism for the downwardly mobile

Nancey Murphy recently offered a proposal for altruistic self-renunciation as the core theory of a Christian research program in psychology. Her argument intersects with recent concerns in moral psychology that theory should be constrained by the lives of ordinary people, an idea known as psychological realism. This article considers limitations for altruistic self-renunciation through research with L’Arche assistants for the developmentally disabled. Incipient, “natural” character is evident through the ambivalence of these everyday altruists, creating a difficult methodological challenge for the psychological realist. Consequently, a novel approach for the mathematical analysis of subject narrative is explored with the use of a powerful computational linguistics program.     

Psychoanalytic developmental psychology and the supervision of psychotherapy supervisor trainees

While literature on psychotherapy supervision abounds, literature on supervisor supervision (i.e., the actual supervision of a supervisor trainee who is in the process of learning to supervise) is far more scarce. How might the supervision of supervision process be best understood? What is the developmental experience of supervisor trainees? How can supervisors effectively intervene when working with supervisor trainees? Those questions have been addressed in only the most meagre fashion, and guidance on how to engage in the supervision of supervision is sorely lacking. In this paper, a psychoanalytic developmental framework is used to provide a means of conceptualising the supervisor trainee experience and to suggest a programme by which supervisors can best respond to their supervisor trainees' needs. Supervisor trainee ‘unfolding’ and ‘becoming’ are captured within a developmental progression that punctuates separation and individuation processes. The place of the supervisor – in holding and containing, loosening and liberating, buffering and bolstering, and refuelling and reloading – is considered in the facilitation of supervisor trainee development.     

Principles of cultural psychology and the Hindu avatar tradition: A study of Mother Meera through personal narratives

Using principles from cultural psychology, we describe and analyse the senior author's experience of dissonance while visiting Mother Meera, a contemporary Hindu avatara, in order to receive her darshan, the blessing derived from the gaze of a self-realised person. Feelings of love and acceptance were contrasted with the disturbing feelings evinced by the exclusion of emotionally disturbed and physically handicapped individuals. Using the principle of intentional persons and intentional worlds co-constructing each other, socio-organic and role-centred conceptions of personhood found in South Asia are contrasted with separative and individual rights-based conceptions of individuals in North Atlantic cultures. Other theoretical formulations from cultural psychology including those concerning narrative are employed in order to illustrate the felt intensity of dissonance between the experiences of love and that of exclusion.     

The Application of Self Psychology to Therapeutic Camps

Abstract

Camp programs provide children and adolescents with vital opportunities to grow and are recognized as effective social work interventions. Children and adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) are at risk to experience psychosocial difficulties, which may result in difficulty attending regular camps. Self psychology can increase our understanding of these children's camp experiences, because of its focus on the individual's subjectivity and interactions throughout the lifespan and in therapeutic relationships. This paper extends the application of self psychology to therapeutic summer camps with children who have learning disabilities, illustrated through examples. The paper concludes with practice principles.