The riddle of Siegfried: exploring methods and psychological perspectives in analytical psychology

Jung's dream of the killing of Siegfried poses a riddle: why did the unconscious choose precisely Siegfried as the hero to be murdered? Jung himself declares that he does not know. This paper attempts to decipher this riddle using three distinct methodological approaches accepted by Jung, two of them in fact grounded in his theories of dream interpretation. Besides presenting some possible answers to the riddle of Siegfried, this interpretative reflection brings to light the discrepancy of the psychological perspectives created by the heterogeneity of methods within analytical psychology.     

Recoupling in Mid‐Life and Beyond: From Love at Last to Not So Fast

Divorce rates have dropped in the United States, except for couples over 50 where they are rising steeply, along with rates of late‐life recoupling. Both stepcouples and their young adult and adult children in new older stepfamilies are often surprised to find themselves facing many of the same challenges that younger stepfamilies do. Some challenges are even intensified by the decades‐long relationships and additional layers of extended family that come with recoupling after mid‐life. Stepfamilies formed in later life must also negotiate decisions about estate planning and elder care among stakeholders who often have sharply divergent agendas before there is time to establish trusting relationships. This article describes the “normal” challenges facing stepcouples who come together over age 50. It provides evidence‐informed guidance for therapists in meeting these challenges on three levels of clinical work: Psychoeducational, Interpersonal, and Intrapsychic/Intergenerational. As in younger stepfamilies, “family therapy” must usually begin in subsystems—often the adult stepcouple and parent–adult child. The article then describes a particularly fraught subgroup of recouplers: over‐50 fathers and their new partners, where the dad's young adult or adult daughter is very unhappy with his new relationship. In these latter stepfamilies, father–daughter repair must precede stepfamily bonding. Stepfamilies that are preceded by a partner's death and those that begin with affairs are also discussed. Finally, some “easy wrong turns” for therapists are described.     

An “Afterthought”: Counseling Trainees’ Multicultural Competence Within the Spiritual/Religious Domain

Although spiritual/religious identity development is included within multicultural training on the theoretical level, significant gaps exist in counseling trainees’ practical preparation for spiritual/religious competence. This grounded theory study explores counseling trainees’ multicultural counseling competence within the spiritual/religious domain. Findings reveal that although trainees participated in multicultural counseling preparation, they experienced spiritual/religious training as an “afterthought,” and they identified the need for training opportunities that encouraged skill development and exploration and increased self‐awareness. A pesar de que se incluye el desarrollo de la identidad espiritual o religiosa a nivel teórico en la formación multicultural, existen vacíos significativos en la preparación práctica de los estudiantes de consejería para su competencia espiritual o religiosa. Este estudio de teoría fundamentada explora la competencia multicultural de estudiantes de consejería dentro del ámbito espiritual o religioso. Los hallazgos revelan que, aunque los estudiantes tomaron parte en preparación para consejería multicultural, solo experimentaron capacitación espiritual o religiosa como una idea secundaria, e identificaron la necesidad de oportunidades de formación que impulsen la exploración y el desarrollo de habilidades así como un aumento de la autoconciencia.     

Reporting a program evaluation: Needs,program plan,intervention, and decisions

The approach to intervention programs varies depending on the methodological perspective adopted. This means that health professionals lack clear guidelines regarding how best to proceed, and it hinders the accumulation of knowledge. The aim of this paper is to set out the essential and common aspects that should be included in any program evaluation report, thereby providing a useful guide for the professional regardless of the procedural approach used. Furthermore, the paper seeks to integrate the different methodologies and illustrate their complementarity, this being a key aspect in terms of real intervention contexts, which are constantly changing. The aspects to be included are presented in relation to the main stages of the evaluation process: needs, objectives and design (prior to the intervention), implementation (during the intervention), and outcomes (after the intervention). For each of these stages the paper describes the elements on which decisions should be based, highlighting the role of empirical evidence gathered through the application of instruments to defined samples and according to a given procedure.     

El ambiente construido,disuasivo del delito: Un replanteamiento del «espacio defendible»

Resumen

Se examinó el valor del espacio defendible (facilidad de acceso de los extraños y oportunidades de que los residentes observen las áreas públicas), en varios tipos de vivienda. La comparación de muestras emparejadas de viviendas (en donde una muestra la formaban personas que habían sido victimas de un crimen y otra, personas que no lo habían sido), empleando datos tanto de entrevista como de observación, produjo resultados complejos. El espacio defendible disuade del crimen en las áreas públicas internas, pero no en las externas. Se ha encontrado que el espacio defendible tiene poca influencia en el sentimiento de responsabilidad de las personas hacia las áreas públicas.     

La detección de la mentira mediante la medida de la tensión en la voz: una revisión crítica

Resumen

Los analizadores de la tensión vocal son dispositivos que supuestamente detectan la ausencia de ciertos microtemblores en la voz, lo) que sería indicativo de que el sujeto está experimentando tensión. Desde esta perspectiva se asume además que todo mentiroso está tenso, por loo que los analizadores de la tensión vocal se comercializan como detectores de mentiras. En este trabajo presentamos la historia de tales artilugios y la base teórica sobre la que pretenden apoyarse, para pasar a continuación a examinar la investigación empírica realizada para contestar a cuatro preguntas clave: (a) ¿existen características vocales que se alteran cuando el hablante experimenta tensión?, (b) ¿existen características vocales que se alteran cuando el hablante miente?, (c) ¿detectan la tensión los evaluadores del estrés vocal?, y (d) ¿detectan la mentira? La respuesta que la investigación ha dado a estas preguntas cuestiona seriamente el empleo de los analizadores de la tensión vocal como detectores de mentiras.     

El «efecto placebo» en los procesos de cambio terapéutico

RESUMEN

El conocimiento de los efectos placebo plantea el problema metodológico de cómo comprobar la eficacia de distintos procesos terapéuticos. Este problema es analizado por Bayés, que comienza destacando dos necesidades fundamentales: en primer lugar, la de promover investigación científica para evaluar el coste, grado de peligrosidad y eficacia de los tratamientos psicológicos y psiquiátricos, y en segundo, la urgencia de llevar a cabo investigaciones para averiguar de qué factores depende que los cambios positivos obtenidos se mantengan, y si los cambios instaurados a través de una estrategia concreta se mantienen mejor que los obtenidos mediante técnicas alternativas. Seguidamente desarrolla un proyecto de evaluación, secuencial y sistemático, de los efectos de un tratamiento psicológico, señalando tres aspectos fundamentales y dos caminos por los que poder realizar esta evaluación. Respecto al análisis de las condiciones que confieren o restan eficacia a un tratamiento, el autor sugiere dos herramientas: estrategias metodológicas que proporcionen datos empíricos fiables y un marco teórico común. La última parte se reserva al análisis de los diseños intrasujeto y la exposición de los cinco niveles implicados en el entramado de los tratamientos psicológicos, y finaliza destacando algunas estrategias prioritarias para el buen planteamiento del problema.     

Self-reported reflective functioning and father–child interactions in a sample of fathers who have used intimate partner violence

Reflective functioning (RF) has been found to be associated with mother–child interactions, but less is known about the association of fathers’ self and child-focused RF and father–child relationships.  Fathers who have histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) are known to have poor RF, which may impact their father–child interactions.  The current study was designed to examine how types of RF are associated with father–child relationships.  Pretreatment assessments and recorded, coded father–child play interactions were used to examine associations among fathers’ history of adverse childhood experiences (ACES), RF and coded father-child play interactions in a sample of 47 fathers with a history of IPV use in the last 6 months with their coparent.  Fathers’ ACES and their child's mental states (CM) were associated with father-child dyadic play interactions.  Fathers with greater ACES and higher scores on CM had the most dyadic tension and constriction during play interactions.  Those with high ACES but low CM had scores similar to those with low ACES and low CM.  These results indicate that fathers who have used IPV and have a history of significant adversity may benefit from interventions to increase their child-focused RF and further improve their interactions with their children.     

Searching for a pre-specified target letter in briefly displayed words and unpronounceable non-words

Two experiments were designed in which subjects searched briefly displayed and masked arrays of letters for a single pre-specified target. The target was randomly located at one of twelve positions, its identity remained constant throughout, and it was embedded either in the context of words or in a context of unpronounceable strings of letters. In experiment 1 the letters were arranged in two six-item rows, and word and non-waord displays were mixed and presented to a single group of subjects. Accuracy of search was superior when the letters formed words, both for responses scored for correct position and for responses scored for correct row. In experiment 2 word and non-word displays were presented to different groups of subjects, and for both groups the twelve characters were either arranged as before in two rows or were positioned at loci representing the clock positions. Accuracy of search was again superior when the letters formed words and were arranged in rows, but there was no advantage for words when the letters formed a circle. These findings, firstly, indicated that the “word-superiority effect” obtained in experiment 1 was not a result of subjects adopting a word processing strategy for all stimuli, and secondly, they suggested that the word information could not be used to advantage in the absence of spatial cues delineating the words and/or when the letters were not positioned in the usual horizontal arrangement. It was concluded that the results of both studies were consistent with a perceptual account of the word superiority effect.     

A comparison of two methods for the administration of paradoxical intention

Recent research in the treatment of insomnia by paradoxical intention has utilized two different methods of instruction. Studies utilizing the random assignment of subjects to treatment groups employ a procedure in which clients are provided with a straight-forward explanation based on the present authors' understanding of the use of paradoxical intention with insomnia (type A administration). In contrast, controlled case studies have employed reframing, a procedure which explains the need for the paradoxical intention in a manner which best suits the specific understanding of the individual client (type B administration). The present study employed the type B method in a design employing the random assignment of clients to groups. Three additional groups (type A administration, placebo control, no-treatment control) completed the design. The results indicated that the type A method was superior to the type B procedure when the same method for administering paradoxical intention was applied to a randomized group of individuals.