A Message to Assimilative Integrationists: It's Time to Become Accommodative Integrationists: A Commentary

This commentary considers the six papers on assimilative integration in the larger context of the significance of this specific form of integration for psychotherapy integration in general. The author begins by revealing his bias that theoretical integration is the most mature form of psychotherapy integration. In this context, he views assimilative integration as an advanced form of eclecticism that absorbs technical eclecticism into the practitioner/theorist's home orientation. Several of the papers present useful examples of assimilative integration, but they tend not to explore the implications of the successful application of foreign techniques for their home theories. The author concludes by suggesting that assimilative integrationists need to become accommodative integrationists by thinking through the implications for, and the implied modifications to, their home theoretical orientations. Accommodative integration would bring us a step closer to the author's ultimate goal—an emergent, unifying, and integrative theory of psychotherapy.     

Commentary on Boharts “The Client is the Most Important Common Factor”

The cliché Treatment operates on patient to produce effects is reversed by Bohart into Client operates on treatments and procedures to produce effects. Although this formula has the advantage of underscoring the patient's responsibility and competence, it may also overemphasize his or her role. A more balanced formula could be Process operates on both patient and client to produce effects, as it means that neither the therapist nor the client, but the process is the operator. There seems to be not much to earn, if the old hero (the therapist) is replaced by the new one (the client). A more promising perspective opens if both give up their pretence to be the operator, or the one who knows what is to be done, and listen and submit to the logic of the process that goes beyond both.     

Assimilation from the East and the Spectrum of Consciousness

Beginning with an eastern concept of human beings rooted in the Buddhist and Yogic traditions, this paper describes a theoretical assimilation of western models and therapies into the eastern paradigm. It traces the beginning of the east–west psychotherapy dialogue in the United States, citing early examples of Buddhist and yogic practices in the west. Ken Wilber's spectrum of consciousness model is presented and its unifying value for psychotherapy is explored. An integrative model of wholistic therapy, developed by a group of eastern and western practitioners, is then described. The paper concludes with an exploration of the issues and implications for psychotherapy integration raised by this model.     

A Relational Psychodynamic Perspective on Assimilative Integration

In this paper we discuss recent advances in relational psychoanalytic thinking, and demonstrate how an assimilative approach to integration can be based on this theoretical and clinical model. We describe 3 instances in which active interventions may be used to enhance relationally oriented, psychoanalytic work: by impacting on relationships outside of therapy that maintain pathological patterns, by filling in intrapsychic deficits, and by supporting the patient's active efforts at change. We provide clinical examples to illustrate each of these points.     

Editorial synthesis for counseling psychology and relationship science: Making connections and expanding disciplinary diversity

The field of relationship science began with understanding the role of attraction and has expanded to examine factors associated with relationship initiation, development, and maintenance. Despite the growth of the field, recent reviews of topics present in relationship science have revealed a dearth of literature examining sociocultural contexts that may impact relational processing, especially for traditionally underrepresented groups in science. Notably, given the theories, frameworks, and methods applied in these disciplines, counseling psychology and relationship science are at the forefront of examining such contexts. To this end, the goal of the special issue was to bring together scholars whose work is either an application of or showcases how the contemporary foci of counseling psychology, including but not limited to intersectionality, social justice, cultural competence/humility, identity, strengths-based approaches, and social power hierarchies are applicable to the study of relationships broadly defined. This editorial synthesis provides a brief summary of the four articles that are included in this special issue and ends with recommendations for future research that intersects counseling psychology and relationship science.     

Vertical jumping and signaled avoidance

This paper reports an experiment intended to demonstrate that the vertical jumping response can be learned using a signaled-avoidance technique. A photoelectric cell system was used to record the response. Twenty female rats, divided equally into two groups, were exposed to intertrial intervals of either 15 or 40 s. Subjects had to achieve three successive criteria of acquisition: 3, 5, and 10 consecutive avoidance responses. Results showed that both groups learned the avoidance response, requiring increasingly larger numbers of trials as the acquisition criteria increased. No significant effect of intertrial interval was observed.     

Editor's note: The parameters of adult development

Based on a recent extension of Heinz Werner's (1957) organismic-developmental theory (e.g., Wapner, 1987; Wapner & Demick, 1990, 1991), suggestions for the parameters of theJournal of Adult Development have been generated. These include the need for: (1) a focus on adult development at all levels of integration (biological, psychological, sociocultural); (2) increased examination of the interrelations among these levels as well as between the psychological part-processes ofexperience (cognition, affect, valuation) andaction over the course of adult development; (3) the complementarity of theory and empiricism, of basic and applied research, and of quantitative and qualitative approaches to methodology; and (4) transdisciplinary collaboration. Preliminary editorial policies are sketched; recommendations for any aspect of policy and procedure are strongly encouraged.     

An Outsider's Perspective on Psychotherapy Integration

This article offers those who are identified with progress in psychotherapy integration an outsider's perspective on progress in the field. The author argues for a contextual study of psychotherapy and psychotherapy integration, noting that the social psychology of psychotherapy may be an overlooked dimension in the study of psychotherapy integration. He suggests that perceptions of progress in psychotherapy integration may be exaggerated due to the lack of such a perspective.     

A Systematic Framework for Integrating Psychological Evaluations and Interventions

A systematic framework for an integrative approach to psychological evaluations and interventions is proposed based on the executive system model of intelligence, the transactional processes of stress and coping, and the field properties of the personal domain. The executive system of intelligence is a comprehensive model that helps to explain the active components of various types of psychotherapies. We are proposing that psychotherapies facilitate clients' uses of their executive functions to develop coping strategies in their transactions with the environment and the events in their life space. A clinical case is presented to illustrate our systematic approach to psychological evaluation and intervention.     

Fowler's Stages of Faith Development in an Honors Science-and-Religion Seminar

According to Paul Tillich's understanding of religion as "ultimate concern," a religious dimension is implicit in all university curricula. A science-and-religion course, such as one taught at Southeast Missouri State University, can offer students the opportunity to integrate their worldview, taking seriously both religious ideas and scientific information. Assignments based on A. E. Lawson's model of a learning cycle provide a vehicle for evaluating significant student learning leading toward fuller integration. The stages of faith developed by James W. Fowler serve as a fruitfull framework for interpreting changes in student viewpoints. Fowler's six stages of faith are characterized. Examples from student writing assignments demonstrate shifts in the cognitive understanding of faith that coincide with Fowler's stages.