The promotion of self-forgiveness,responsibility, and willingness to make reparations through a workbook intervention

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a workbook intervention designed to promote self-forgiveness, acceptance of responsibility, and willingness to make amends/reparations in a university student sample. The intervention manual consisted of three parts: (a) promoting prosocial and responsible attitudes, (b) reducing barriers to self-forgiveness, and (c) promoting healthy thinking and behaviors. Outcome measures included acceptance of responsibility, motivation to make reparations, and state and trait self-forgiveness. Measures were administered pre-intervention and immediately post-intervention. Participants were randomly assigned to an intervention group (N = 50) or a control group (N = 43). The control group studied materials for their university courses instead of completing the intervention. Following the intervention, the intervention group had significantly a higher state and dispositional self-forgiveness post-test compared to the control group. Changes in acceptance of responsibility and willingness to make reparations did not reach statistical significance as compared to the control group.     

Stray thoughts – seeking home: Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt read in light of Wilfred Bion's ideas

Peer Gynt, the main character in Ibsen's dramatic poem from 1867, has fascinated scholars since its publication. After a lifetime of escapades, Peer finds himself lonely, detached and with feelings of deadness. Gradually, the underlying structure of his personality confronts him. With the help of Wilfred Bion's ideas, it is possible to trace a distinct pattern, where unprocessed thoughts seem to play a decisive role in hindering Peer's self‐realization. The main female character, Solveig, spends her life waiting for Peer. Eventually she develops into a container, ready to welcome Peer's stray thoughts. This paper demonstrates how she evolves Bionian capacities like reverie, and eschewing of memory and desire. The interpretation that follows thus challenges a tradition where Solveig is seen as a romantic figure who, like Goethe's Gretchen, is designed to save the male protagonist by unconditional love. This paper argues that Solveig plays a more active role towards Peer in offering significant tools for personal development. The paper concludes that Ibsen and Bion have uncovered elements of basic human conditions that in some significant ways seem to coincide.     

Birth of the cool: a two-centuries decline in emotional expression in Anglophone fiction

The presence of emotional words and content in stories has been shown to enhance a story’s memorability, and its cultural success. Yet, recent cultural trends run in the opposite direction. Using the Google Books corpus, coupled with two metadata-rich corpora of Anglophone fiction books, we show a decrease in emotionality in English-speaking literature starting plausibly in the nineteenth century. We show that this decrease cannot be explained by changes unrelated to emotionality (such as demographic dynamics concerning age or gender balance, changes in vocabulary richness, or changes in the prevalence of literary genres), and that, in our three corpora, the decrease is driven almost entirely by a decline in the proportion of positive emotion-related words, while the frequency of negative emotion-related words shows little if any decline. Consistently with previous studies, we also find a link between ageing and negative emotionality at the individual level.     

21世纪中国老年心理学研究:现状与未来

本文回顾了近40年中国老年心理学的研究成果,并从研究主题角度与美国老年心理学研究进行了比较。发现中国老年心理学主要聚焦于老年人心理健康研究,同时也在老年人家庭人际关系和社会支持领域研究有较为丰富的研究成果。但国内对老年人的认知能力、人格、情绪情感探讨较少,既缺少前沿的基础研究,也缺少对复杂能力、复杂情感等的系统研究。结合中国人口老龄化现实,本文提出了21世纪中国老年心理学的未来研究取向：基础研究和应用服务研究的双向结合,中国文化特色取向,个体-环境交互作用取向和个体差异取向。     

Inquiry into the Transcendence of Tang Dynasty Confucians to Han Dynasty Confucians and the Transformation of Traditional Confucianism in Terms of Lunyu Bijie

Neo-Confucianism of the Han and Tang dynasties is an indispensable part of the history of Chinese philosophy. From Han dynasty Confucians to Tang dynasty Confucians, the study of Confucian classics evolved progressively from textual research to conceptual explanation. A significant sign of this transformation is the book Lunyu Bijie 论语笔解 (A Written Explanation of the Analects), co-authored by Han Yu and Li Ao. Making use of the tremendous room for interpretation within the Analects, the book studied and reorganized the relationship between “the study of literature” and “the Dao and principles.” It clearly shows an inevitable development of Confucianism, shifting its focus from phenomena to the nature of the heart-mind in order to comprehend nature and heavenly Dao, both of which “cannot be heard (from Confucius).”     

追踪研究方法在国内心理研究中的应用述评

以1982~2012年中国期刊网收录的88例追踪研究为对象,从应用现状、设计特征、数据处理三方面分析和评估追踪研究方法在国内心理研究的应用情况及存在的问题。结果显示,2005年之前追踪研究方法应用增长缓慢,2005年开始呈显著增长趋势,研究对象以未成年及成年早期群体为主。主要采用固定样本追踪设计,大部分研究测量2-3次、样本量在10~300之间、持续时间在3年内。61例有缺失的研究中,38例用删除法处理缺失;主要运用 HLM、方差分析、t检验和SEM分析追踪数据。相当部分研究存在测量次数少、样本量较小、持续时间短、被试缺失严重及数据处理方法相对陈旧问题。追踪研究方法的应用应注意,根据理论模型和研究有效性要求确定设计类型和设计特征,根据数据特征选择缺失处理方法和追踪数据分析方法。     

A randomised trial investigating guided self-help to reduce perfectionism and its impact on bulimia nervosa: A pilot study

Aim

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate reducing perfectionism as a potential treatment target for individuals with Bulimia Nervosa (BN).

Method

Forty-eight individuals meeting DSM-IV criteria for BN or eating disorder - not otherwise specified with binge eating [objective or subjective] or purging at least once per week were recruited. Participants were randomly assigned to receive 8 sessions of manual-based guided self-help (GSH) over a 6-week period that was focused on either cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) for perfectionism, CBT for BN, or a placebo. Individuals were assessed at baseline, pre-treatment, post-treatment and at six-month follow-up on 12 outcome variables, including diagnostic criteria and psychological variables.

Results

There was no significant change in any of the outcome variables over a 6-week no-treatment period but at post-treatment and 6-month follow-up there were significant main effects of time for 10 and 8 outcome variables respectively, suggesting that all groups reported significant reductions in bulimic symptomatology and related psychopathology at post-treatment and follow-up.

Conclusions

These findings show potential for the use of novel interventions in GSH for BN.     

The role of computer‐aided psychotherapy within an NHS CBT specialist service

To date, the feasibility of computer‐aided psychotherapy as an intervention has only been recognised in primary care practice. The present study sought to evaluate the impact of ‘Beating the Blues’ (BtB), an established computerised cognitive behaviour therapy (CCBT) self‐help programme for the management of anxiety and depression, within an NHS CBT specialist healthcare centre. Of the 555 service users who used BtB as part of routine care, with follow‐up assessment at six to eight weeks, 71% completed all eight sessions. Statistically significant differences on the Beck Depression Inventory‐II (BDI‐II) and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) were found in completer and intention‐to‐treat analyses; 50% of completers achieved reliable change on the BDI‐II and approximately 25% of completers achieved reliable and clinically significant change on both measures. Outcomes were benchmarked against outcomes in studies of routine face‐to‐face CBT. These findings provide evidence that BtB may be of value to service users in secondary mental healthcare centres, alleviating current burdens on public health and therapeutic resources. Future research directions should include examining which factors influence individuals’ decisions to try computer‐aided psychotherapy, which individuals are best suited to using these interventions, and why some users drop out prior to programme completion.     

"齐风"与"齐气"--万历朝山东诗坛

晚明万历朝诗坛上,公安、竟陵风靡天下,笼盖一时,齐鲁诗坛却独树一帜,不为所动。齐鲁文人的审美取向总体上呈现出鲜明的地域文化特征,厌弃公安、竟陵,传扬历下诗脉,倡导浑厚雅正。万历前期,于慎行、公鼐、冯琦诸公立足齐鲁文化,标举“齐风”,倡言革新,“齐风”的内涵有雄浑大雅、自我树立、真情为宗、自然化工等;万历后期,王象春、公等人主张重开诗界,不袭陈言,诗风纵横放驰,“齐气”奔轶。     

'The healing power of love': The literary/analytic bond of marriage in Freud's essay on Gradiva

Freud 's declared position regarding the management of 'transference love' advocated 'abstinence', objectivity and even 'emotional coldness in the analyst'. However, his essay on Jensen's Gradiva reveals an identification with an involved and responsive 'maternal' analytic position associated with theorists such as Ferenczi, Balint and Winnicott. These theorists attribute the origins of transference love to the pre-oedipal stage, shaping their analytic model on the basis of the early relationship with the mother. Freud generally had difficulty identifying with such a position, since it entailed addressing his own inner feminine aspects. Yet a literary analysis of his 'Gradiva' reveals this stance in his textual performance, i.e. in the ways in which he reads and retells Jensen's story. Freud 's narration not only expresses identification with Zoe, the female protagonist, but also idealizes her 'therapeutic' conduct, which is closer in spirit to that of object-relations theorists. His subtext even implies, however unintended, that an ideal treatment of transference love culminates in a psychical 'marriage' bond between the analytic couple, a metaphor used by Winnicott to describe the essence of the mother–baby (analyst/patient) bond. Freud 's reading process is itself analogous to Zoe's 'therapeutic' conduct, in that both perform a creative and involved interaction with the text/patient.