A Primer on Psychological Theory

This paper addresses some of the principal constituent elements in the formation of theories in the science of psychology. To that end, means of theory construction, concomitant theory functions and types, and norms of acceptance are presented. Where appropriate, efforts were made to cite particular historic or contemporary theories of human behavior as cogent exemplars.     

A quality assurance programme for psychotherapy — The finnish experience

In many respects the status of psychotherapy in public health-care systems is similar to that of alternative medicine. The roots of training are outside universities. Legitimation and public funding have been non-existent or insufficient as compared with other fields of health care. Also a great deal of mysticism is attached to both. It is therefore relevant to study the role of psychotherapy from the frame of reference given by research into alternative health care.

Formal health care is characterised by (1) legalised status, (2) access to public funding and (3) integration in the formal medical curriculum. On the other hand there are several treatment philosophies which remain as outsiders from the point of view of formal health care. Informal health care approaches are characterised by (1) lack of legalised status, (2) no access to public funding and (3) no integration in the medical curriculum. Alternative medicine is a term usually attached to forms of informal health care like acupuncture, Spa-culture etc.

Psychotherapy in the public health sector lies somewhere between formal and informal health care. While it has no legalised status, anyone may call himself ‘psychotherapist’. Its definition remains obscure and its public accountability poor.

In this paper I have tried to show how one country — Finland — has tried to grapple with this problem as it attempted to set up psychotherapy services whose quality could be properly monitored — ‘Quality Assurance’ — allowing for public accountability. Now that psychotherapy is well established as a valuable treatment in the field of mental health it is possible to consider future expansion as a cost-effective way to improve the general mental health of the country.     

Social support and cardiovascular responding to laboratory stress: Moderating effects of gender role identification,sex, and type of support

The objective of the present study was to examine moderating effects of gender role identification, sex, and type of support on the buffering role of social support on cardiovascular responses. We hypothesized that (a) gender role identification, more than sex, would moderate the effect of social support and (b) to obtain optimal attenuating effects of social support, type of support provided should match type of support preferred in terms of one's gender role identification. That is, feminine participants would benefit more from relatively direct support, whereas masculine participants would benefit more from indirect support. Healthy participants (N = 100) performed a psychological stressor in the presence of a friend, after mental activation of a friend, or alone. Results revealed no moderating effects of gender role identification whether or not in combination with type of support. Nevertheless, results demonstrated an attenuating effect of mental support on heart rate and cardiac output in men. It is concluded that pathways linking social relationships and health may differ between women and men.     

Comparison of the role of self-efficacy and illness representations in relation to dietary self-care and diabetes distress in adolescents with type 1 diabetes

This cross-sectional study examined the joint effects of self-efficacy and illness representations on dietary self-care and diabetes distress in adolescents with type 1 diabetes by comparing two theoretical models: the Self-regulation Model (Leventhal, H., Meyer, D., & Nerenz, D. (1980). The common-sense representations of illness danger. In S. Rachman (Ed.), Medical Psychology (Vol. 2, pp. 7–30). New York: Pergamon.) and Social Cognitive Theory (Bandura, A. (1997). Self efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.). One hundred and fifty-one adolescents with type 1 diabetes completed self-report measures of dietary self-efficacy, illness representations, dietary self-care and diabetes distress. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling. The model best supported by the data (Leventhal's Self-regulation Model) showed that dietary self-efficacy, perceived consequences and treatment effectiveness had direct and independent effects on both dietary self-care and diabetes distress. Together with dietary self-efficacy, perceived short-term treatment effectiveness was a significant predictor of dietary self-care. Age was found to be a negative predictor of short-term treatment effectiveness beliefs. Diabetes distress was best predicted by self-efficacy and perceived consequences. It can be concluded that to target effectively dietary self-care and distress, clinicians should focus on key illness representation variables (perceived short-term treatment effectiveness and perceived consequences) in conjunction with self-efficacy.     

exploring drug users' illness representations of hiv,hepatitis b and hepatitis c using repertory grids

Abstract

Hepatitis B and C viruses are more prevalent among injecting drug users than HIV. This study explored drug users' illness representations of hepatitis B and C using repertory grid methodology. Initially, nine drug users were presented with six elements including hepatitis B and C, and HIV. Constructs were elicited via the sequential form variation of the method of triads. Elements were rated on elicited constructs using a five-point scale, and analyzed using “Flexigrid”. In a second quantitative research stage, 52 drug users were presented with six elements and supplied constructs. Results of the first stage indicated participants were able to generate constructs relating to Leventhal et al.'s (1980) features of illness representations. Most constructs, however, were causal in nature. Participants perceived hepatitis B, C and HIV similarly along the causal component. This similarity on the causal component was largely replicated in the second research stage. Participants, however, distinguished HIV from hepatitis B and C along serious, cure and timeline features. Participants did not distinguish hepatitis B from hepatitis C. The implications of these results for health promotion are discussed.     

Multiple Attachment Representations in Clinical Practice: Case Study of a Six-Year-Old Maltreated Child

Research on attachment predominantly traces the effect of a single or primary attachment and/or attachment style on working models and behavior. However, most children form multiple attachments. This article reviews research on multiple attachment representations in children and considers how such information can usefully be applied to clinical settings. Through the case study of a six-year-old adopted boy with a history of maltreatment, it explores how those internal working models can be assessed in treatment and the clinical value of recognizing different attachment representations and styles. Implications for treatment interventions are explored.     

Flexibility over automaticity: Separable representations for colours and words

This study demonstrates that associations between colour words and the colours they denote are not mandatory. Experiments 1–3 used a go/no-go task in which participants responded to one print colour and one word and withheld response from another print colour and another word. In Experiment 1, the content of the words denoted noncolour entities. In Experiment 2 the two words denoted two colours that were different from the target print colours. In Experiment 3, the words denoted the same colours as the target print colours but each response set included incompatible print colour and word (e.g., one response to the print colour blue and the word “green” and another response to the print colour green and the word “blue”). Participants performed equally well in all the experiments. Experiment 4a used Arabic digits and words denoting numbers, two formats that are known to have shared representations. Here, participants had difficulties separating their responses to the digits and words. These results suggest that representations of words are distinct from the content that they represent, supporting the existence of distinct verbal and colour modules.     

The Influence of Reduced Visual Acuity on Age-Related Decline in Spatial Working Memory: An Investigation

ABSTRACT

To investigate the relationship between visual acuity and cognitive function with aging, we compared low-vision and normally-sighted young and elderly individuals on a spatial working memory (WM) task. The task required subjects to memorise target locations on different matrices after perceiving them visually or haptically. The haptic modality was included as a control to look at the effect of aging on memory without the confounding effect of visual deficit. Overall, age and visual status did not interact to affect WM accuracy, suggesting that age does not exaggerate the effects of visual deprivation. Young participants performed better than the elderly only when the task required more operational processes (i.e., integration of information). Sighted participants outperformed the visually impaired regardless of testing modality suggesting that the effect of the visual deficit is not confined to only the most peripheral levels of information processing. These findings suggest that vision, being the primary sensory modality, tends to shape the general supramodal mechanisms of memory.     

In Pursuit of Happiness: How Some Young South African Children Construct Happiness

The purpose of the study was to explore the ways in which young South African children construct the notion of happiness. The small-scale study was conducted with children (n=42) in middle childhood between the ages of 6 and 13 years. Four fieldworkers were trained to elicit responses from young children through face-to-face, semi-structured interviews and six open-ended questions. This data collection strategy was twinned with the elicitation of graphic representations of ‘happiness’ as expressed and projected by the young children. Observations and audiotape data capturing served as secondary data sources. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed through theme analysis. Axial coding followed open coding as themes emerged. Graphic representations were analysed using basic psychological analysis techniques and then correlated with established themes from the interview data. Results from the study indicate that the participants in the study constructed ‘happiness’ predominantly in terms of relationships, recreation and the attainment of material possessions.     

Producing and recognizing words with two pronunciation variants: Evidence from novel schwa words

This study examined the lexical representations and psycholinguistic mechanisms underlying the production and recognition of novel words with two pronunciation variants in French. Participants first learned novel schwa words (e.g., /??nyk/), which varied in their alternating status (i.e., whether these words were learned with one or two variants) and, for alternating words, in the frequency of their variants. They were then tested in picture-naming (free or induced) and recognition memory tasks (i.e., deciding whether spoken items were learned during the experiment or not). Results for free naming show an influence of variant frequency on responses, more frequent variants being produced more often. Moreover, our data show an effect of the alternating status of the novel words on naming latencies, with longer latencies for alternating than for nonalternating novel words. These induced naming results suggest that both variants are stored as lexical entries and compete during the lexeme selection process. Results for recognition show an effect of variant frequency on reaction times and no effect of variant type (i.e., schwa versus reduced variant). Taken together, our findings suggest that participants both comprehend and produce novel French schwa words using two lexical representations, one for each variant.