Attachment to the Missing Object: Infidelity and Obsessive Love

In an object relations study on infidelity and obsessive love, the author observes that in relationships marked by chronic, repetitive infidelity and obsession, the lover is enamored with that which they can not have and that the psychological development of such individuals may have been traumatized by early attachment disturbances in the primary dyad. Tenacious, unsatisfying love-attachments as seen in sexual addictions and obsessional love may result from the internalization of an absent or intermittent object relationship—a morbid attachment to the missing object of infancy. Such patients often demonstrate depressive/addictive traits and schizoid defenses and typically have difficulty forming an attachment bond with the analyst, perceiving the analyst as a dangerous, rejecting agent who will recapitulate the original trauma. In the clinical case of Gretchen, the author uses Winnicott's (1960) concept of holding to create a progressive therapeutic bond, as toxic resistant forces are gradually resolved.     

Establishing derived requesting skills in adults with severe developmental disabilities

This project examined whether a history of reinforced relational responding would result in derived requesting skills in 3 adults with disabilities. Participants were first taught to request preferred items using pictures; they were then taught conditional discriminations between pictures and their dictated names and between dictated names and their corresponding text. Finally, requests for preferred items using corresponding text were evaluated. All 3 participants demonstrated derived requesting skills.     

Child Maltreatment and Emergent Personality Organization: Perspectives from the Five-Factor Model

The Five-Factor Model was used to examine personality organization in 211 six-year-old children (135 maltreated and 76 nonmaltreated). Longitudinal assessments were conducted at ages 7, 8, and 9. Six-year-old maltreated children exhibited lower agreeableness, conscientiousness, and openness to experience and higher neuroticism than did nonmaltreated children. Maltreated children also were more frequently represented in less adaptive personality clusters than were their nonmaltreated counterparts. A particularly vulnerable profile occurred predominantly among maltreated children and was related to experiencing both abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment and personality clusters were related to individual differences perceived by peers. Longitudinal stability of the personality dimensions also was assessed. At age nine, evidence was found for maintenance of the organization of the personality clusters obtained at age six and for continuity of maltreated children's personality liabilities.     

Looking on the One We Have Pierced: Repentance,Resurrection, and Winnicott's “Capacity for Concern”

This work presents a view of Christian repentance as a process analogous to the development of Winnicott's capacity for concern and illuminated by Rowan Williams' theology of the Resurrection. One begins with fear of forfeiting one's attachment to the divine good mother, confronts the evidence of one's destructiveness in the Passion of Christ, experiences the risen Christ's object survival and acceptance of reparations, and attains a desire to contribute-in to God and neighbor.     

Demographic characteristics,social competence,and behavior problems in children with gender identity disorder: a cross-national,cross-clinic comparative analysis

This study examined demographic characteristics, social competence, and behavior problems in clinic-referred children with gender identity problems in Toronto, Canada (N = 358), and Utrecht, The Netherlands (N = 130). The Toronto sample was, on average, about a year younger than the Utrecht sample at referral, had a higher percentage of boys, had a higher mean IQ, and was less likely to be living with both parents. On the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), both groups showed, on average, clinical range scores in both social competence and behavior problems. A CBCL-derived measure of poor peer relations showed that boys in both clinics had worse ratings than did the girls. A multiple regression analysis showed that poor peer relations were the strongest predictor of behavior problems in both samples. This study—the first cross-national, cross-clinic comparative analysis of children with gender identity disorder—found far more similarities than differences in both social competence and behavior problems. The most salient demographic difference was age at referral. Cross-national differences in factors that might influence referral patterns are discussed.     

声旁与整字的音段、声调关系对形声字命名的影响

采用命名任务研究了汉字形声字的声旁与整字的音段、声调关系对形声字命名反应时的影响,探讨声旁的音段、声调在汉字形声字发音中的作用。实验材料是180个汉字形声字。实验结果表明,汉字形声字的声旁与整字的音段关系对命名时间有重要影响。汉字形声字的命名存在着“规则效应”,声旁与整字音段相同时反应快,声旁与整字音段相异时反应慢。汉字形声字的命名也存在着“声调效应”。声旁与整字的声调关系对命名有重要影响。当声旁与整字声调相同时反应快,当声旁与整字声调相异时反应慢,这种效应不受字频影响。整个实验结果支持汉字认知中强的亚词汇成分自动激活的观点。     

Culture Is More than a Static Residual: Introduction to the Special Section on Culture and Foreign Policy

The literature on international relations frequently refers to culture in broad, macro-level ways to explain what cannot be explained by economic or military power. The assumptions that culture is simple, uniform and the opposite of power are, in the view of the authors, erroneous. Also, the authors note that there is a lack of scholarly interaction among psychologists interested in cross-cultural phenomena and international relations specialists interested in questions of identity and foreign policy. As an introduction to a special section on culture and foreign policy, this article calls for more communication among these scholarly communities; provides a set of observations about foreign policy and culture understood as a complex, dynamic concept; and calls for specific kinds of studies to better understand foreign policy in the context of cultural complexity and richness.     

Childhood Peer Relationship Problems and Young People's Involvement with Deviant Peers in Adolescence

Using prospective longitudinal data from the Christchurch Health and Development Study, this article examined the relationship between children's peer relationship problems in middle childhood and their subsequent risk of forming deviant peer affiliations in adolescence. The analysis proceeded in three steps. First, a structural equation model demonstrated a moderate association between early peer relationship problems and later deviant peer affiliations (r = .27). Second, the model was extended to include a latent variable measure of early conduct problems. This analysis revealed that when the confounding effects of concurrently measured conduct problems were taken into account, peer relationship problems in middle childhood were no longer significantly related to young people's choice of deviant peers in adolescence. Third, the model was further extended to include lagged variables, permitting an examination of possible reciprocal relationships between early conduct problems and peer relationship problems. Results suggested that both early peer relationship problems and adolescent deviant peer involvement are symptomatic of early child behavioral adjustment. The implications of these findings for explanations of deviant peer selection are discussed.     

Case Report: Object Relations Family Therapy as a Model for Genetic Counseling

Object relations family therapy (ORFT) is a psychoanalytically based approach for the treatment of couples and families which stresses the importance of past relationships. The therapist assumes a parentlike role and provides a holding environment in which clients can explore unconscious motivations. This paper will discuss the applicability of this method to genetic counseling. The case of a couple seen for recurrent trisomies will be presented and used as an example to discuss how ORFT might serve as a framework in a genetic counseling session.