Constructing We‐ness: A Communal Coping Intervention for Couples Facing Chronic Illness

Communal coping occurs when relationship partners view a stressful health problem as “ours,” rather than yours or mine, and take collaborative action to deal with it. Although research employing linguistic (we‐talk) and other measures of communal coping demonstrates relevance to a variety of chronic illnesses, the literature offers little about how clinicians can actively promote we‐ness and teamwork to help patients and their partners achieve the health benefits this appears to confer. This paper highlights clinical and supporting scientific features of a narrative intervention designed to foster communal coping by couples in which one partner has a chronic illness. The illustrative illness is diabetes, but with modification the protocol is suitable for other chronic conditions as well. Grounded in systemic and narrative models of problem maintenance and change, the communal coping intervention represents a distillation of research and clinical experience with family consultation over several decades. In contrast to more directive and educational approaches, the intervention consists entirely of questions, with no direct suggestions or instruction about how patients, partners, or couples should change. These questions comprise 8 sequential modules (Coping Challenges, Trajectory and Focus, Illness as External Invader, You as a Couple, Past Teamwork in Overcoming Adversity, Present and Future Teamwork, Obstacles to Teamwork, and Wrap‐Up), described here in manual‐like detail.     

Multiple Levels of Family Factors and Oppositional Defiant Disorder Symptoms Among Chinese Children

Family factors are closely associated with child developmental outcomes. This study examined the relationship of oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) symptoms and factors at whole family, dyadic, and individual levels in Chinese children. Participants, who were recruited from 14 primary schools in north, east, and south‐west China, included 80 father‐child dyads and 169 mother‐child dyads. Children in the participating dyads were previously diagnosed with ODD. Results revealed that family cohesion/adaptability was indirectly associated with ODD symptoms via parent–child relationship and child emotion regulation. Parent–child relationship affected ODD symptoms directly and indirectly through child emotion regulation. In addition, the effects of family cohesion/adaptability on parent emotion regulation and child emotion regulation were mediated by the parent–child relationship. The tested model provides a comprehensive framework of how family factors at multiple levels are related to child ODD symptoms and highlights the importance of understanding child emotional and behavioral problems within the family context, more specifically within the multiple levels of family relationships.     

Jung's Erotic Phenomenology: I. A New Translation

In the introduction to The Psychology of the Transference (1946), Carl Jung sketched out a theory of “erotic phenomenology” which condenses his teaching about sexuality and romantic love into a very concise summary. But the meaning of this passage is obscured in the English translation given in the Collected Works of C. G. Jung. I propose here a new translation which makes Jung’s meaning clearer, along with a commentary which explains it in the context of Freudian drive theory and German 19^th century philosophy. Invoking the concepts of instinct, mind, and Eros (both the passion and the divine figure), Jung’s theory says that male sexual desire can be cultivated or repressed in four distinct ways, each associated with a female symbolic figure or anima image: Eve, Helen, Mary and Sophia.     

Cooperation,Conflict, or Disengagement? Coparenting Styles and Father Involvement in Fragile Families

This paper draws on information from the Fragile Families Study (N = 2,695) to examine how different coparenting styles emerge and are related to fathers' involvement with young children in a representative sample of unmarried parents. The results show that the quantity and quality of paternal involvement is significantly higher when unmarried parents establish a cooperative as opposed to a disengaged or conflicted coparenting style. Cooperative coparenting is less likely, however, when unmarried parents have separated after the birth or were never together as a couple, when fathers are unemployed or have other risk factors, when the child has a more difficult temperament, and when parents have fewer children together. This analysis also helps clarify previously equivocal findings concerning the relationship between coparenting conflict and paternal involvement. Regression results show that paternal involvement is not significantly different among parents with cooperative and mixed coparenting styles, indicating that when unmarried parents can work together and support each other's parenting efforts, even if they argue frequently while doing so, fathers remain more involved. At the same time, conflicted coparenting leads to a larger decrease in father involvement than disengaged coparenting. In the context of poorer‐quality coparenting relationships, it was conflict that mattered for fathering, not just parents' inability to cooperate. Implications of these findings for parenting education programs are discussed.     

Understanding autism: how family therapists can support parents of children with autism spectrum disorders

The number of children diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder has increased dramatically in the last 20 years. Parents of children with autism experience a variety of chronic and acute stressors that can erode marital satisfaction and family functioning. Family therapists are well-suited to help parents stay connected to each other as they create a "new normal." However, family therapists need updated information about autism, and they need to understand how family therapy can help parents of children with autism. Because having a child with autism affects multiple domains of family life, this paper explores how family therapists can utilize an integrative approach with parents, enabling them to flexibly work with the domains of action, meaning, and emotion.     

Couple Relationship Education at the Transition to Parenthood: A Window of Opportunity to Reach High‐Risk Couples

This study evaluated if the transition to parenthood is a window of opportunity to provide couple relationship education (CRE) to new parents at high risk for future relationship problems. Fifty‐three percent of eligible couples approached agreed to participate in CRE and of these 80% had not previously accessed CRE. Couples were a broad representative of Australian couples having their first child, but minority couples were underrepresented. A third of couples had three or more risk factors for future relationship distress (e.g., cohabiting, interpartner violence, elevated psychological distress, unplanned pregnancy). Low education was the only risk factor that predicted drop out. The transition to parenthood is a window of opportunity to recruit certain types of high‐risk couples to CRE.     

Algunas cuestiones sobre el desarrollo del lenguaje de referencia mental: los problemas de los niños con el lenguaje de estados mentales

Resumen

En este artículo se revisan algunas cuestiones sobre el desarrollo del lenguaje de referencia mental. Se presentan y analizan algunos trabajos sobre la comprensión de los niños de las propiedades de factividad y de certidumbre, así como sus problemas con la distinción entre significado literal y pretendido. También se analizan las relaciones entre el desarrollo del lenguaje mentalista y el desarrollo del proceso de lecto-escritura. Se analizan los resultados en el marco de los modelos de inferencia mentalista de ‘teoría de la mente’.     

Tiempo y enfermedad

Resumen

En los enfermos, las situaciones o estados asociados a una percepción de alargamiento del tiempo transcurrido, se pueden clasificar, de acuerdo con la siguiente taxonomía: a) Una situación presente desagradable; b) Un estado de ánimo angustiado o deprimido; y c) Los tiempos de espera. Cuanto más importante e incierta sea para el enfermo la información, la persona o el acontecimiento que espera, más probable será que se produzca sufrimiento. La percepción subjetiva del tiempo es diferente en pacientes y profesionales sanitarios. Para los primeros el tiempo se alarga; para los segundos, se acorta. Este desfase perceptivo puede dar lugar en los pacientes a un sufrimiento inútil que es necesario eliminar o paliar.     

El proceso de envejecimiento: aspectos psicológicos

RESUMEN

En este articulo se revisan los estudios psicológicos sobre el proceso de envejecimiento y se sugiere una forma nueva y más apropiada de acceder y entender al anciano. Para ello comienza constatando que hoy día asistimos a un progresivo envejecimiento de la población en el mudo occidental, reseñando algunos datos demográficos y socio-culturales que sitúan su exposición y reflexión en el marco histórico actual. En su revisión se tartan, entre otras cuestiones, el interes por la tercera edad e imagen negativa de la misma o las relaciones entre la sociedad de consumo y ancianidad, centrando sus críticas en el modelo del deterioro, que justifica con los resultados de diversos estudios experimentales acerca del rendimiento intelectual, condiciones de motivación, capacidad de aprendizaje o modificación de las actitudes psicomotoras, entre otros. A continuación expone tres problemas fundamentales característicos del proceso de envejecimiento (climaterio, jubilación y crisis de identidad) que constribuyen a esclarecer toda la problemática y le permite presentar algunas sugerencias y conclusiones. Entre ellas, destacamos la no valided de la curva generalizada del deterioro y la irrelevancia relativa de la edad cronológica como causa del proceso de envejecimiento, quedando patente el gran número de factores que influyen en él. El autor finaliza resaltando la importancia de una psicología diferencial del proceso de envejecimiento que, tomando en consideración los factores sociales y con una colaboración interdisciplinar, consiga que la población que envejece vivencie la vejez como positiva.     

El psicólogo,los otros y la gente

RESUMEN

Este artículo resume la opinión del autor acerca de lo que la gente de la calle, los clientes y los profesionales de la psicología piensan sobre el psicólogo y sus funciones. El autor destaca que el hombre de la calle atribuye al psicólogo tres funciones principales: actuar como experto en los mecanismos psicológicos, ofrecer un sistema de conocimientos que le ayude a comprenderse a sí mismo y a los demás y participar en el esfuerzo por una sociedad mejor; a continuación, explica que el cliente espera del psicólogo que le libere de su dificultad y le haga más dueño de sus propios mecanismos psicológicos, destacando el autor la importancia del encuentro personal; seguidamente, nos habla de las funciones que el psicólogo debe ofrecer: investigación, enseñanza y aplicación. El artículo finaliza destacando los compromisos de todo psicólogo.