Positive contrast obtained in reacquisition following interpolation of nonreinforced or partially reinforced trials

Two experiments investigated the effects of shifting from either nonreinforcement or partial reinforcement (PRF) to continuous reinforcement conditions (CRF). In the first experiment, three groups of rats were given food reinforcement under CRF conditions in a runway followed by regular extinction trials (RE), extinction trials where Ss were delayed for 30 sec before entering the empty goal box (DE), or CRF trials where Ss were delayed for 30 sec before entering the baited goal box (DF). Then all Ss were run on the delayed reinforcement condition (DF). In the final delayed reinforcement condition, group DE ran significantly faster than group DF, reflecting positive contrast. In the second experiment, four groups of rats were trained in a runway to receive either 4% or 18% sucrose reinforcers under either PRF or CRF conditions. Then all Ss were transferred to a Skinner box and bar presses were continuously reinforced, with each S continuing to receive the same sucrose concentration as before. The former PRF Ss, regardless of the reinforcer, bar pressed at a significantly higher rate in the Skinner box than the former CRF Ss. The evidence seemed to favor the view that the effectiveness of a reinforcer is not an absolute, unchanging quantity but rather depends on the historical context in which the reinforcer occurs.     

2017: The Quincentennial Celebration of the Reformation in an Age of Secularization and Religious Pluralism

In the last days of October 1517 Martin Luther finished a series of theological theses in which he argued that selling indulgences was theologically wrong; in fact, untenable. Protestants consider Luther's initiative the beginning of the Reformation. But how should we celebrate the memory of these events that took place 500 years ago? What is the lasting value of Luther's message in our time, in an age of secularization and religious pluralism?     

Recognition and Reform in Nordic Fiction: Jonas Gardell and Jussi Valtonen

While contemporary Scandinavian literature continues to discuss the problems of welfare state and social justice, it increasingly turns its attention to minority issues, multiculturalism, and the impact of digitalization. Jonas Gardell's HIV/AIDS trilogy Torka aldrig tårar utan handskar (Never wipe tears without gloves) highlights the family relations in the Swedish gay community. Jussi Valtonen's He eivät tiedä mitä tekevät (They do not know what they do) deals with the dystopias of social media and the power of global software companies. Religion and theology play a significant role in the works of both Gardell and Valtonen.     

An Evolutionary Perspective on Family Studies: Differential Susceptibility to Environmental Influences

An evolutionary perspective of human development provides the basis for the differential‐susceptibility hypothesis which stipulates that individuals should differ in their susceptibility to environmental influences, with some being more affected than others by both positive and negative developmental experiences and environmental exposures. This paper reviews evidence consistent with this claim while revealing that temperamental and genetic characteristics play a role in distinguishing more and less susceptible individuals. The differential‐susceptibility framework under consideration is contrasted to the traditional diathesis‐stress view that “vulnerability” traits predispose some to being disproportionately affected by (only) adverse experiences. We raise several issues stimulated by the literature that need to be clarified in further research. Lastly, we suggest that therapy may differ in its effects depending on an individual's susceptibility.     

Synchronistic mind‐matter correlations in therapeutic practice: a commentary on Connolly (2015)

This commentary adds some ideas and refinements to the inspiring discussion in a recent paper by Connolly ( 2015 ) that makes use of a dual‐aspect framework developed by us earlier. One key point is that exceptional experiences (of which synchronicities are a special case) cannot in general be identified with experiences of non‐categorial or acategorial mental states. In fact, most exceptional experiences reported in the literature are experiences of categorial states. Conversely, there are non‐categorial and acategorial states whose experience is not exceptional. Moreover, the psychodynamics of a synchronistic experience contain a subtle mesh of interacting processes pertaining to categorial, non‐categorial and acategorial domains. We outline how this mesh may be addressed in particular cases of synchronicity described by Connolly.     

Working in the borderland: early relational trauma and Fordham's analysis of ‘K’

This paper outlines a view of early relational trauma as underlying borderline states of mind, and argues that Knox's 1999 paper on internal working models and the complex provides a basis for understanding such states of mind. The author argues that in addition to internal working models, the complex also embodies and contains primitive defences of the core self. He outlines how these apply on the objective, subjective, transference and archetypal levels, and in direct and reversed forms and applies this to the account of Fordham's analysis of his patient ‘K’, which ended in impasse. The paper explores the dynamic that emerged in that analysis and suggests that it could be helpfully accounted for in terms of the co‐construction and re‐construction of early relational trauma in the analytic relationship.     

THE USE OF THE ANALYST AND THE SENSE OF BEING REAL: THE CLINICAL MEANING OF WINNICOTT'S “THE USE OF AN OBJECT”

“The Use of an Object and Relating through Identifications” (1968) represents Donald Winnicott's theoretical and clinical legacy. The author develops this concept from a clinical point of view, through the analysis of a woman with psychotic functioning. He reflects upon the dramatic quality of risks inherent in the processes linked to the use of the object with seriously disturbed patients. He explores different meanings of the analyst's survival, linking it to the analyst's response. The processes of the use of the object—that is, the encounter between the patient's potential destructiveness and the analyst's capacity to respond through his own judicious subjectivity—let the patient experience the analyst's capacity to keep his own subjectivity, authenticity, and creativity alive. It is starting from the traces of this live object that patients gradually form their own personal sense of being real.     

Action and language: Contextual action theory in counselling

Contextual action theory is presented as a conceptual framework useful for grounding the recent work in counselling and career development called Life Design. Based on the premise of the goal-directed nature of human action, this approach has links to language in theories of naive action and attribution, and theory of mind. Contextual action theory has an associated research method that has been used to generate a range of research studies that have described actions and projects in the career development and counselling domains. The link that contextual action theory provides between research and practice allows the identification of five tasks for the counselling practitioner informed by this approach.     

Une comparaison des apports des modèles de la construction de la carrière et de la construction de soi au life designing counseling

Recent developments in Western societies and transformations in work organizations have made the vocational issues that people face more frequent, complex, and puzzling. With the individualization of the life course, people now more than ever before need to reflect and deliberate as they design their lives. To assist individuals cope with difficult issues in life-designing, counselors have devised a new approach to counselling dialogues that differs from traditional information and guidance interventions. This article briefly presents the theoretical model for life designing counseling and then compares two distinct life-designing intervention approaches. Both of them share the epistemology of social constructivism and concentrate on the client and counselor's co-construction of meaning. Each approach provides a rigorous and systematic foundation for counselling interviews yet they differ in the ways they tackle meaning-making. The major difference is that the first approach presents a highly-structured form of life-designing interview that highlights the counselor's role in reconstructing a client's meanings, identity, and intentions. In contrast, the second approach presents a form of life-designing interview that highlights the client's role in self-construction of meaning, identities, and future prospects.