Group psychotherapy: being and becoming

This basic model of group therapy highlights marked differences from individual therapy and illustrates the complexity of treatment planning. As human needs today are often shunted, group therapists respond by absorbing experiential-type innovations and by extending the boundaries of theory and application. An attempt at enriching and integrating group methods gives rise to Theme-Centered Interactional Therapy, the advantages of which are discussed. This new approach has relevance to group counseling.     

Structural Ecosystems Therapy for HIV+ African‐American Women and Drug Abuse Relapse

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). This report examines the effect of Structural Ecosystems Therapy (SET) for (n=143) HIV+ African‐American women on rate of relapse to substance use relative to both a person‐centered approach (PCA) to therapy and a community control (CC) group. A prior report has shown SET to decrease psychological distress and family hassles relative to these 2 comparison groups. In new analyses, SET and CC had a significant protective effect against relapse as compared with PCA. There is evidence that SET's protective effect on relapse was related to reductions in family hassles, whereas there was not a direct impact of change in psychological distress on rates of relapse. Lower retention in PCA, perhaps caused by the lack of a directive component to PCA, may have put these women at greater risk for relapse. Whereas SET did not specifically address substance abuse, SET indirectly protected at‐risk women from relapse through reductions in family hassles.     

Minimal conditions for the perception of rotary motion

Abstract.— The necessity of simultaneous length and direction changes for the perception of rotary motion in depth was studied using patterns of one to four segments of a horizontal line. The patterns changed in length only, according to one of four waveforms: A sinusoidal waveform, with both the left and right half of the pattern changing at the same rate (simulating a parallel projection of rotary motion); a sinusoidal waveform, with asymmetric left-right changes (simulating a polar projection of rotary motion); a linear waveform, the same for both the left and right halves (a simple expansion and contraction); and a linear waveform on which the asymmetries of a polar projection were superimposed. Most reports described rotary motion in depth. Both the linearity and the right-left symmetry of the waveforms affected the proportion of rotary motion responses, with the proportions greater for the sinusoidal waveforms and for the asymmetrical waveforms.     

Exploring the lay representation of forgiveness: Convergent and discriminant validity

Four studies employing a prototype approach tested the convergent and discriminant validity of a lay forgiveness representation. In Study 1, participants nominated a wide range of forgiveness features. In Study 2, participants rated the centrality of forgiveness features, which created a reliable graded structure from central to peripheral features. Study 3 tested the convergent validity of this lay forgiveness representation while controlling for several confounding variables. In Study 4, the discriminant validity of this lay forgiveness representation was tested through a categorization procedure. The findings replicate and extend prior research on forgiveness (Kearns & Fincham, 2004), and support the psychological reality of a lay forgiveness representation distinct from other victim responses.     

THE EFFECT OF COMMUNICATION APPREHENSION AND SITUATION ON COMMUNICATION STRATEGY CHOICES

Volunteer undergraduate students were administered a questionnaire that assessed their perceptions of the probable use of certain persuasive strategies in a given situation and measured their level of communication apprehension. Data were analyzed to test hypotheses concerning the effects of communication apprehension and type of situation on the use of persuasive strategies. Data confirmed the impact of situation on strategy selection but failed to demonstrate the effect of communication apprehension or an interaction between communication apprehension and situation on strategy use. Implications for communication apprehension and communication competence were offered.     

PREDISPOSITIONS TOWARD VERBAL BEHAVIOR IN TASK-ORIENTED INTERACTION

Two studies were conducted that examined the interaction patterns of dissimilar PVB subjects in task oriented discussions. Their interaction was content analyzed and subjected to computer assisted Markov analysis. We found predictable behavioral, cognitive, and content differences between high, middle, and low PVB subjects. High-PVB subjects talked longer, interrupted less, initiated and reinitiated more ideas, had higher credibility, and had more perceived influence than did low-PVB subjects.     

THE MEASUREMENT OF VERBAL PREDISPOSITIONS: SCALE DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION

A self-report instrument (PVB), designed to measure Predispositions toward Verbal Behavior, was found to have acceptable internal reliability, content validity, moderate construct validity, and strong criterion-related validity. Subjects were found to have a generalized cognitive orientation toward their speech patterning that correlated positively with number of words and duration of talk in both highly-structured interviews and unstructured discussion situations.