A Negotiation Approach to Intake and Treatment Choice

Treatment choice is the decision process whereby the psychotherapeutic methods and the psychotherapist are determined when psychotherapy is recommended for a specific client. In this article the problem of treatment choice is situated within an integrative view of psychotherapy. A review of the literature confirms the usefulness of the following concepts for treatment choice: client preferences, client control of the situation of choice, and the mutual acceptability of differing views of therapists and clients. These research findings reveal the importance of four elements in the psychotherapeutic intake strategy: exploration of the client's perspective, informing the client, negotiation as a process of confrontation between the client's and the clinician's perspective, and the client's ultimate choice between alternative treatment proposals.     

Working with Families from the Indian Sub-Continent: An Indo-German Experience*

Whereas most Western European therapists and clients consider emotional distance and abstinence as desirable and conducive in the therapeutic process, this may not always be the case with clients from India. Cultural components such as the contrast between linear and cyclic world-views and the traditional view of the psychologist as an advisor in India present a challenge to professionals with a Western background. Some factors such as the situation of women in society and seemingly too close familiy ties can mean that a Western therapist fails to promote the changes an Indian client is desiring for his or her family. However, besides cultural awareness and caution, one of the most helpful tools in work across cultures is curiosity in its most positive sense and the readiness to be surprised by ones’ clients.I would like to thank all my Indian colleagues who supported and advised me in my work in India.     

Influence of Therapist and Client Behaviors on Therapy Alliance

This study considers the combined effect of therapist behaviors and couples interaction dynamics on therapeutic alliance because it seems to be a significant predictor of successful therapy outcomes. We measured therapeutic alliance using the Working Alliance Inventory, Observer Version (WAI-O), which includes three subscales: goals, tasks, and bond. We investigated the combined effect of therapist behaviors and couples interactions on therapeutic alliance. There were three significant findings: (1) the models better predicted therapeutic alliance for men clients than women clients; (2) combined consideration of partner behaviors and therapist behaviors provided the stronger prediction of therapeutic alliance; and (3) different variables predicted alliance for women clients versus men clients.     

Irrational and Evaluative Beliefs in Individuals with Anger Disorders

Evaluative beliefs have long been regarded as hot cognitions fundamental to the arousal of emotion. Previous research on anger has predominantly focused on inferential beliefs, with explorations of evaluative beliefs largely ignored. Therefore, this paper presents an investigation of the nature of evaluative beliefs in individuals with anger disorders. To investigate the experimental hypotheses that individuals with anger disorders will report high levels of hostile related evaluative beliefs, two methodologies were applied to a clinical sample of individuals with anger disorders. Individuals with anger disorders reported hostile evaluative beliefs, but interestingly it was evident that such individuals endorsed high levels of negative self-evaluation. The implications of these findings for future research and clinical work are discussed.     

The Relationship of the Self of the Therapist to Therapy Process and Outcome: are Some Questions Better Left Unanswered?

Gurman (1987) has challenged the field of marital and family therapy to answer questions concerning the relationship of the therapist to outcome. An examination of conceptual and empirical literature regarding the relationship of the self of the therapist to process and outcome in marital and family therapy discloses that empirical evidence for such relationship is not persuasive. The author constructs a crucible for the field of marital and family therapy.     

Idealism or Pragmatism? An Operational Code Analysis of Yitzhak Rabin andShimon Peres

This study quantitatively measured the operational codes of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres according to the Verbs in Context System (VICS) devised by Walker, Schafer, and Young (1998). Rabin's and Peres's basic propensities regarding the nature and conduct of foreign policy were then compared through analyses of variance, both to each other and across time. Three main trends were found in the results. First, both leaders' conception of their political environment changed over time, from basically conflictual in the 1970s to essentially neutral in the 1990s. Second, the remainder of Rabin's operational code, including a surprisingly strong predisposition to approach politics in a cooperative manner, was generally constant across time. Third, unlike Rabin, several other components of Peres's operational code underwent acute fluctuations, seemingly in response to the perceived different situational context. On the basis of these results and the operational code construct in general, a typology was created that classifies leaders according to their predisposition to pursue either cooperative or conflictual strategies and their level of responsiveness to their political environment.     

Ethical Considerations in Psychotherapeutic Systems

Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics - In the process of individual psychotherapy, the client and the therapist work together towards clarifying the client's problems, unlocking vicious circles,...     

Memory for a dialectical and a nondialectical prose passage in young and older adults

Age differences in adults' processing of a dialectical or nondialectical prose passage were explored. Twenty young and 20 older adults read a dialectical or mechanistic passage and were tested for free recall and recognition after a 30-min delay (filled with vocabulary and paradigm belief scale). Older (vs. young) adults had significantly lower formistic and mechanistic scores and showed greater relative preference for relativistic and dialectical beliefs (paradigm scale). There were no age differences in amount of free recall or number of correct responses (hits) on recognition, but older adults produced more spontaneous dialectical distortions in recall of the mechanistic passage and more paradigm-congruent false alarms on recognition. There was also a move from absolute toward dialectical thinking on the paradigm scale and, among males, on the recognition measure. Dialectical scores (paradigm scale) were positively correlated, and mechanistic scores negatively correlated, with number of dialectical distortions on free recall (mechanistic passage), while dialectical scores were positively correlated with number of dialectical false alarms (dialectical passage).     

What do parents talk about to infants?

The content of parents' talk is studied here as expressing their conception of their developing infant, from the initial symbiotic fusion to an individual situtated in space, time and society. The topics parents introduce in their speech to their infant reflect the perception and expectations they have of their baby. The social and parental status of fathers and mothers, and the anticipated role and status of the child- and adult-to-be, and in particular the age and gender of the infant, mediate the choice of topics. Parents' spontaneous speech to 3-month- and 9-month-old infants was studied during a diapering episode, before leaving the day-care centre. Five minutes of such a speech was recorded, and each utterance was assigned to a semantic category (e. g. greetings, comments on diapering, on mood). Sex-typing is already noticeable as early as 3 months of age: comments on the present situation and state are more frequent for girls, and comments about absent persons or events more frequent with boys. Both parents contribute to this effect, fathers more than mothers. With age parents become less concerned with immediate problems and more aware of the infant's own performances. First names are used more for boys than for gilrs. As a whole, boys are considered as individuals earlier than girls.