Considering boundaries when doing therapeutic work with people who are seeking asylum: a reflective case study

People who are seeking asylum often have lived experience of their personal boundaries and human rights being violated. For this reason, it is especially important that we consider the impact of boundaries in therapeutic work with this population. This paper explores work with a woman with a severe trauma history who was seeking asylum in England. Examples of perceived boundary crossings in the therapeutic relationship are examined. Considerations for other clinicians working with asylum seekers are discussed. These include: addressing socio-political factors; being sensitive to cultural differences; the importance of supervision and reflective practice; the personal impact of such work; and using critical thinking and warmth to manage boundaries rather than rigidly following rules.     

Genetic and Environmental Influences on Achievement Goal Orientations Shift with Age

Students engage in learning activities with different achievement goal orientations. Some students pursue learning for learning sake (i.e. mastery goal orientation), some are driven by gaining favourable judgement of their performance (i.e. performance approach goal orientation), and others focus on avoiding negative judgement (i.e. performance avoidance goal orientation). These goal orientations are linked with academic achievement, and troublingly, students report decreasing levels of goal orientations across the school years. However, little is known concerning the mechanisms that drive this decline. In a large (N = 891 twin pairs) cross‐sectional genetically informative sample (age = 8 to 22 years), we found that older students reported lower goal orientations. Then, we identified shifts in the magnitude of genetic and environmental variance in each goal orientation. For example, variance in mastery goal orientation was primarily associated with environmental factors during the elementary school years. As students entered high school, genetic influences increased, replacing shared environmental influences. Finally, we situated these findings in the larger nomological network by testing associations with psychological constructs (e.g. personality and cognitive ability) and contextual variables (e.g. parents, schools, and peers). The development of academic motivation is complex with many interconnecting factors that appear to shift with age © 2019 European Association of Personality Psychology     

Effectiveness of cognitive behavioural group therapy for social phobia in a community clinic: a benchmarking study

This study used a benchmarking strategy to investigate the transportability of cognitive behavioural group therapy (CBGT) for social phobia to a community mental health clinic. The influence of common exclusion criteria on effect sizes was also examined. Patients (N=153) attended seven 4-h sessions of CBGT, which resulted in significant reductions in symptoms of social anxiety and depression. Effect sizes compared favourably to previous efficacy and effectiveness studies of both group and individual treatment. More than half of the treatment completers achieved reliable change. One-third achieved clinically significant change (CSC) on the Social Phobia Scale and the Beck Depression Inventory, but fewer achieved CSC on the Social Interaction and Anxiety Scale. Restricting the sample on the basis of depression symptoms, age above or below 50 years, comorbidity, alcohol problems, or student status did not significantly moderate effect sizes for social anxiety. It is concluded that CBGT is effective within community mental health clinics.     

Categorization in compulsive hoarding

Based on hypothesizing about the role of information processing, and in particular, underinclusive categorization in compulsive hoarding, this study examined categorization processes in people with clinically significant compulsive hoarding problems. Twenty-one participants with primary compulsive hoarding, 21 with OCD without hoarding, and 21 non-psychiatric controls completed three categorization tasks. Hoarding and OCD participants reported significantly more distress prior to each of the three tasks than did controls. On tasks sorting common household items, the groups did not differ on the number of piles created nor on the amount of time taken to sort. However, on a task sorting personally relevant items, hoarding participants took more time, created more piles, and reported more anxiety than non-psychiatric controls. Hoarders also took more time than the OCD group, and tended to create more piles. Hoarding severity was correlated with the number of piles created, but only when the objects were personally relevant. Results support under-inclusive categorizing for people with compulsive hoarding, but the effect was largely confined to objects of personal relevance.     

Neuropsychological impairment associated with compulsive hoarding

A group of patients with compulsive hoarding (n=30) was compared to a mixed clinical group (n=30) and a nonclinical community group (n=30) on laboratory tests of information-processing features hypothesized to be central to hoarding (memory, attention, and decision-making). Hoarding patients demonstrated slower and more variable reaction time, increased impulsivity, greater difficulty distinguishing targets and nontargets, and worse spatial attention relative to comparison groups. Multiple regression analyses demonstrated that slower reaction time and increased impulsivity were significantly related to hoarding symptoms over and above the effect of depression, schizotypy, and other obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) symptoms. There were no group differences on a test of emotion-based decision-making. Results are discussed in terms of previous findings and theoretical models of compulsive hoarding.     

Belief disconfirmation versus habituation approaches to situational exposure in panic disorder with agoraphobia: a pilot study

Exposure therapy and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) are both effective in the treatment of panic disorder with agoraphobia. Cognitive theories suggest that the way in which exposure to avoided situations is implemented in either treatment may be crucial. In particular, it is suggested that clinical improvement will be greatest if opportunities for disconfirmation of feared catastrophes are maximized. In a small pilot study, 16 patients with panic disorder and (moderate or severe) agoraphobia were randomly allocated to either habituation based exposure therapy (HBET) or exposure planned as a belief disconfirmation strategy and accompanied by dropping of safety-seeking behaviours. Both treatments were brief (total of 3.25 h of exposure) and were similar in terms of expectancy of change. Patients in the CBT condition showed significantly greater improvements in self-report measures of anxiety, panic and situational avoidance. They also completed significantly more steps in a standardized behavioural walk, during which they experienced significantly less anxiety. The controlled effect sizes for CBT were substantial (range 1.7-2.7), which suggests it may be a particularly efficient way of managing therapeutic exposure to feared situations in panic disorder with agoraphobia. Further research is needed to clarify the mechanism of change involved.     

Juvenile prostitution and community rehabilitation: an exploratory analysis of beliefs and values

A community, juvenile prostitution rehabilitation programme in Bogotá, Colombia, South America is described; and beliefs and values of the residents were explored. Multiple sorting procedures and multi‐dimensional scaling analysis elicited qualitative, structured, self‐report data, and investigated cognitive constructs. Participants discriminated between belief‐statements along two global dimensions: street‐life and prostitution; and rehabilitation. These were comprised of qualitatively different elements. Clinical implications for interventions with this group and the rehabilitation programme are discussed. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A classmate in distress: schoolchildren as bystanders and their reasons for how they act

Research has shown that bystanders more often fail to or are slower to help a victim in emergency when there are other bystanders than when there are not. The study presented in this paper is a qualitative case study with a focus on students’ own reasons why they do not help a classmate in emergency when there are other children witnessing the emergency situation in the real-life classroom case studied. Grounded theory methods were used to analyse the data. The individual conversations with the students indicated a variety of definitions of the specific distress situation when they recalled and talked about the classroom incident. During the process of the analysis seven concepts of definitions associated with passive or non-intervention bystander behaviour were constructed and grounded in the empirical material: trivialisation, dissociation, embarrassment association, busy working priority, compliance with a competitive norm, audience modelling, and responsibility transfer. Relations between these concepts of definitions were also analysed. However, this study is a first step and a first report from an ongoing study about school children as helper and bystander.     

Weakly aggressive behaviour towards nymphs in the cockroach Schultesia nitor (Blattaria: Zetoborinae)

This paper describes aggressive behaviour in the cockroach Schultesia nitor, a tropical forest species living in bird nests. Young S. nitor nymphs are known to show active dispersal while old nymphs and adults are contrastingly strongly gregarious, a combination of features never observed in other cockroach species. Our laboratory experiments using video recording of confrontations between pairs show that aggressive behaviour towards conspecific nymphs is not exhibited towards nymphs of the species Phoetalia pallida, and thus can be considered species specific in S. nitor. But, it is not kin oriented: the mother and all adults of both sexes in different physiological states exhibit this behaviour as well. Six types of aggressive interactions were discriminated, occurring in age-symmetric pairs of nymphs and adults. Even more frequent aggression was exhibited by adults and last instar nymphs towards younger nymphs of all instars. The frequency of aggressive acts and types of aggressive interactions varied according to sex and size of the two interacting individuals. The possible function and evolution of this behaviour is discussed, with emphasis on the difficulty of interpreting obvious but weak and not kin-biased aggression.