The Imagination of Images and Images of Imagination: How the Imagination Relates to Aging,Health, and Spirituality

ABSTRACT

Psychological literature suggests that religion and spirituality increase in late adulthood. Yet, operational definitions of spirituality and religiosity remain widely debated and inadequate for the concepts they are designed to measure. The empirical studies of religion and spirituality as one ages are of poor design and often measure only limited aspects of religion or spirituality. Few empirical studies exist which have been conceived to only study religiosity and spirituality in late adulthood. The purpose of this study was to determine the defining aspects of religiosity and spirituality using the Allport, Ross Intrinsic, Extrinsic Religiosity Scale, Ellison's Spiritual Well-Being Scale, and Neugarten's Life Satisfaction Instrument. Using a principal component factor analysis, the study examined the factor structure using an older adult sample of 320 individuals 65 years of age and older. Having a purpose in life combines with intrinsic religious questions for the first factor. Life satisfaction questions group together on two factors and extrinsic religiosity is clearly one factor. The scales used hold together well when combined. A new, shortened scale to measure aspects of religiosity and spirituality is proposed.     

Using Stories in Dynamically Oriented Clinical Social Work

Abstract

This paper uses concepts from discourse analysis to understand the meaning making functions of narrative in clinical treatment and to describe the interactive processes through which these functions are achieved. “Negotiative” and “heuristic” narrative processes are described as they occur in ordinary conversation. The relevance of these concepts to clinical practice is then explored using case material.     

Converting a Freudian analysis into a Jungian one: obsession,addiction, and an answer from Job

In his analyses of obsessional patients, Sigmund Freud suggested that they suffered from intrusive cognitions and compulsive activities. Early psychoanalysts delineated the phenomenology of obsessionality, but did not differentiate what is currently termed obsessive‐compulsive disorder from obsessional personality. However, it was widely recognized that the success of psychoanalysis with obsessional patients was limited due to rigid characterological defences and transference resistances. The present paper examines the case of a middle‐aged obsessional academic who had been treated for nearly twenty years in a ‘classical' Freudian psychoanalysis prior to entering Jungian analysis. It examines how persistent focus on Oedipal conflicts undesirably reinforced the transference resistance in this obsessional man, and suggests that focusing instead on diminishing the harshness of the super‐ego via the therapeutic alliance, and fostering faith in the salutary aspects of unconscious processing has led to salutary results in this case. The biblical book of Job is adopted as ancient instruction in how to address the scrupulosity and addictive mental structuring of obsessionality in analysis.     

ITC Guidelines on Quality Control in Scoring,Test Analysis,and Reporting of Test Scores

The Quality Control (QC) Guidelines are intended to increase the efficiency, precision, and accuracy of the scoring, analysis, and reporting process of testing. The QC Guidelines focus on large-scale testing operations where multiple forms of tests are created for use on set dates. However, they may also be used for a wide variety of other testing situations and assessment techniques and for almost any situation in which assessment occurs. The QC Guidelines are applicable in any form of test administration, including paper and pencil tests and the ever-increasing computerized assessments via the Internet or offline.     

应用Markov模型进行临床决策分析的思考

应用模型进行临床决策分析的研究日益增多,Markov模型就是近年来用于临床决策分析的一种.它优于传统的决策树分析方法,能应用于疾病预后影响因素的研究、筛查试验的评价、疾病治疗结局预测、纵向生命质量资料分析等多个方面.Markov模型用于临床决策分析,是创新思维的体现,是实事求是的典范,体现了认识的辩证过程.     

Structural Validation of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale

Despite the prolific use of the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), there have been no prior studies using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to compare competing HDRS latent structures. The current study undertakes this task, examining CFAs on 397 older adults on the most stable latent models previously posited and a new rationally derived model by Cole and Motivala. CFAs were evaluated in their original first-order structure and in hierarchically related counterparts. All hierarchical models performed significantly better than their first-order counterparts. Moreover, the hierarchical Cole and Motivala model was significantly better on all comparative criteria than any of the other models. However, none of the tested models obtained sufficient fit with the data suggesting psychometric, scoring, or content limitations of the scale.     

Linguistic Analysis of Written Narratives of Caregivers of Children and Adolescents with Chronic Illness: Cognitive and Emotional Processes and Physical and Psychological Health Outcomes

Used linguistic analysis of written narratives of caregivers of hospitalized youth with chronic illness to identify emotional and cognitive processes related to physical and psychological health outcomes following writing. Measures were administered at baseline and 4 months. Experimental group (n = 29) wrote about traumas whereas the control group (n = 24) wrote about summer activities for 20 min on three different days. Compared groups on negative emotion- and cognition-related word use. Tested change in negative emotion- and cognition-related word use as predictors of outcomes in experimental group. Consistent with hypotheses, experimental group used more negative emotion words [F(1, 53) = 77.55, p < .001] and cognition-related words than control group [F(1, 53) = 19.09, p < .001] and an increase in cognition words predicted Physical Health Summary Score on SF-36 (standardized = .37, p < .05). A decrease in negative emotion words was related to Physical Health Summary Score on SF-36 only when entered into regression with change in cognition words (standardized = –.31, p < .05). A decrease in negative emotion together with an increase in cognitive processing facilitated by written emotional disclosure has beneficial effects on physical health-related quality of life.