The Relationship Between Counseling Trainee Perfectionism and the Working Alliance With Supervisor and Client

The relationships between perfectionism, counseling self‐efficacy, and the supervisory and client working alliance were investigated among 143 counseling trainees and 46 supervisor–trainee dyads. Maladaptive perfectionism was negatively correlated with the supervisory alliance and working alliance. Counseling self‐efficacy moderated the relationship between adaptive perfectionism and the supervisory alliance (perspective of the counseling trainee) and maladaptive perfectionism and the supervisory alliance (perspective of the supervisor). The authors conclude that supervisors should consider perfectionism and counseling self‐efficacy as important factors in supervision.     

Psychoanalysis and cultural change: Perspectives based on Lacan's rereading of Freud

Psychoanalysis cannot distance itself from culture and its transformations. It cannot ignore cultural ideals, which each individual uniquely appropriates to produce identifications, find his place within the human community, express his desires, and manifest the suffering occasioned by each difficult experience. This article will try to demonstrate this necessity of taking culture into account by drawing on Lacan's approach, which is based on the lessons of Freud. The author emphasizes the fact that every culture has its “discontents,” which stem from the incompleteness at the very heart of human experience, and that our cultural constructions are therefore constantly being reworked. By doing so, she aims to cast a different perspective on the relationship between the psyche and culture, and bring out the inherent complexity of the now fashionable notion of the “decline of the father,” which is systematically used to explain the new symptoms and ills of modern society. By detecting this decline, by searching for the visible signs of this deficit, do we not instead end up creating them ourselves?     

“忠臣”还是“逆臣”？员工建设性越轨行为对主管绩效评价的非线性影响机制

整合社会交换和相似吸引理论,探讨了员工建设性越轨行为对主管绩效评价的过犹不及效应的作用机制和边界条件。实证分析结果表明：建设性越轨与主管绩效评价呈倒U形关系,领导感知的LMX在建设性越轨与主管绩效评价之间的倒U形关系中起完全中介作用,领导的建设性变革责任感在建设性越轨与LMX的倒U形关系中起负向调节作用。     

Successful Postgraduate Placement Experiences: What is the Influence of Job and Supervisor Characteristics?

We know little about what determines an effective placement experience, yet vocational placements are an integral part of many professional degree programmes. The aim of this research was to examine the influence of job (task variety, task identity, task significance, feedback, and autonomy) and supervisor (relationship quality and mentoring) characteristics on placement outcomes. The findings were tested on samples from two professions for which placement were a compulsory part of their course. Sample 1 consisted of 266 undergraduate nurses, and sample 2 consisted of 176 postgraduate psychologists. The findings showed that job and supervisor characteristics explained unique variance in professional development and placement satisfaction. Of the five job characteristics examined, skill variety, feedback from the job, and task significance influenced placement outcomes. Mentoring emerged as the most important supervisor characteristic that was associated with professional development and placement satisfaction, and to a slightly less extent, supervisor–student relationship quality was also important. The research and practical implications of the findings were discussed.     

Pets as safe havens and secure bases: The moderating role of pet attachment orientations

We examined the extent to which a pet functions as an attachment figure. In Study 1, 165 pet owners performed a goal exploration task, assessing the number of life goals generated and confidence in goal attainment. In Study 2, 120 pet owners performed a distress-eliciting task while assessing blood pressure. In both studies, participants were divided into three conditions: pet physical presence, pet cognitive presence, and no pet presence. As compared to no pet presence, physical or cognitive pet presence increased the number of life goals generated and self-confidence in goal attainment and reduced blood pressure during the distress-eliciting task. The findings confirm the ability of a pet to provide a safe-haven and a secure-base and the moderating role of attachment insecurities.     

Predicting confidence in flashbulb memories

Years after a shocking news event many people confidently report details of their flashbulb memories (e.g., what they were doing). People's confidence is a defining feature of their flashbulb memories, but it is not well understood. We tested a model that predicted confidence in flashbulb memories. In particular we examined whether people's social bond with the target of a news event predicts confidence. At a first session shortly after the death of Michael Jackson participants reported their sense of attachment to Michael Jackson, as well as their flashbulb memories and emotional and other reactions to Jackson's death. At a second session approximately 18 months later they reported their flashbulb memories and confidence in those memories. Results supported our proposed model. A stronger sense of attachment to Jackson was related to reports of more initial surprise, emotion, and rehearsal during the first session. Participants' bond with Michael Jackson predicted their confidence but not the consistency of their flashbulb memories 18 months later. We also examined whether participants' initial forecasts regarding the persistence of their flashbulb memories predicted the durability of their memories. Participants' initial forecasts were more strongly related to participants' subsequent confidence than to the actual consistency of their memories.     

Attachment theory within clinical supervision: application of the conceptual to the empirical

Attachment theory, which has demonstrated application in caregiver-child, romantic, and psychotherapeutic relationships, also appears to be supervision relevant. But bad blood between attachment theory and psychoanalysis may well have hampered considering the relevance of attachment theory for psychoanalytic supervision. This project sought to investigate the application of attachment theory to the supervision situation, with the potential implications of our findings for psychoanalytic supervision being considered. Attachment styles, leader–follower dynamics, and attachment-based expectations were explored as predictors of supervisor-trainee working alliance using a prospective, longitudinal study design. Findings revealed the importance of measuring supervision-specific attachment, the particularly problematic nature of supervisee avoidant attachment, and the potential contribution of a leader–follower framework for understanding supervisory attachment. These attachment concepts may well be useful in, and additive for, psychoanalytic supervision practice.     

The art of the tincture: analytical supervision

Using the alchemical metaphor, effective supervision can be seen as an excellent example of the tincture: a little goes a long way. This paper offers a model of the dynamics in analytical supervision: a mirroring of the professional-self of the supervisee, the opportunity to learn through empirical factual knowledge, and, most importantly, experiential, interactive and dynamic learning. The container of supervision will be amplified using an image of the triple vessel of alchemy. The materia of supervision is discussed as 'amalgams' of complex related material. The supervisory field is seen in a triadic intersubjective and interimaginal manner. Jung's diagram of all the possible conscious and unconscious connections between patient and therapist is expanded to include the supervisory situation. Moving beyond projective identification as explanatory process, the concept of the mundus imaginalis is used as the medium for this triadic structure. The 'analytic third' expands to include the 'supervisory fourth' while incorporating the supervisor's imaginings of the patient as the quintessential experience of the imaginal other. The supervisor's attitude and state of mind are seen through the paradigm of active imagination. This state of mind is called supervisory reverie.     

Walking in sacred spaces in the therapeutic bond: therapists' experiences of compassion satisfaction coupled with the potential for vicarious traumatization

The therapeutic bond is at the heart of effective therapy, yet few studies have examined therapists' experience of this bond. Using a qualitative study design, this exploratory study examines the experiences of couple and family therapists in relation to their perceptions of the satisfactions and risks involved in the therapeutic bond. The research was conducted using grounded theory methodology and eight in-depth interviews were conducted with therapists working in five counseling agencies in Sydney, Australia. Therapists described the importance of the 3 component parts of the therapeutic bond: the empathic connection between therapist and client; the role investment of the client; and the mutual affirmation experienced by both therapist and client in the therapeutic process. Walking in sacred spaces with the client was seen as both enriching and challenging for the therapist. The therapeutic bond gave therapists intense satisfaction and posed risks for them, especially when working with traumatic client experiences. However, the findings suggest that the experience of compassion satisfaction and the development of vicarious resilience counter-balanced the intense difficulty of bearing witness to clients' traumatic experiences and the potential for vicarious traumatization. The implications for sustaining couple and family therapists in their work are discussed.