Consultation and the Introduction of Social Problem-Solving Groups in Schools

Social problem-solving programs for withdrawn and hyperactive children within a school context were developed and implemented in a day care center, a Montessori nursery school, a Catholic elementary school, and a Catholic high school. This article describes the program implementation for each of the four schools and some of the effects on the consultative relationship.     

Accuracy and bias in newlywed spouses' perceptions of each other's personalities

This study investigated moderators of newlywed spouses' accuracy in judging each other's personality. Spouses in 154 predominantly Hispanic newlywed couples rated their own and their partners' personality traits. Full‐sample results showed significant associations between perceivers' and targets' personality ratings (“truth force”/“tracking accuracy”). Positive directional bias (perceivers' mean trait ratings of targets exceeding targets' self‐ratings) also was evident. Positive directional bias occurred when perceivers had little familiarity with their spouse prior to dating and when perceivers had high self‐esteem. Truth force/tracking accuracy increased with less time spent cohabiting and higher perceiver self‐esteem. Positive associations between perceivers' self‐esteem and ratings of partners on positively valenced traits were reduced when partners had had greater opportunities to observe one another's behaviors.     

Psychoanalytic application and psychoanalytic integrity

In this article, the author offers an analysis of psychoanalytic application, defined as the breaking of new conceptual ground in some field of knowledge whereby the new idea is conceived, and later articulated, with the aid of reference to analogous phenomena in psychoanalysis. It requires apt analogy based on competent understanding of the applied field and of psychoanalysis. Only when the relevant differences between the applied and psychoanalytic fields are grasped can the extent of certain parallels emerge. The thinking by analogy that comprises psychoanalytic application may be intuitive and implicit, but should be susceptible of explicit theoretical elaboration that specifies, precisely, the point(s) of correspondence between psychoanalysis and the applied field in relation to a precise specification of their relevant differences. Applied psychotherapy at the interface of the internal and external worlds (historically rooted in casework) is employed as a model. By analogy with Donnet's concept of the analytic site, the author proposes the concept of the psychodynamic (case)work site, and elaborates it for that applied field in order to elucidate the proposed principles of psychoanalytic application.     

Children talk about work

To provide background for an elementary-level program of occupational information, 180 children in grades 3 through 8 were individually interviewed to learn their concepts of the world of work. The children disclosed their knowledge, interests, and attitudes related to various occupations and reasons for working. Some children were well informed and had specific vocational goals, while others were quite unaware of work. The data from the study were used to develop telecasts and other modes of presentation for occupational information.     

Lay Beliefs About Psychological and Social Problems Among Adolescents: Motivational and Cognitive Antecedents1

This study attempted to apply theoretical concepts from personality and social psychology to understand the nomological network informing clinical models held by laypersons. Personal values and social axioms predicted the lay beliefs of Chinese adolescents about the causes and cures of 2 psychological problems (agoraphobia and schizophrenia) and 2 social problems (child abuse and corruption). Using path analyses, we developed a model of lay beliefs for each specific problem, and found that social problems were perceived to be caused by social‐personal factors, whereas psychological problems varied in their perceived etiology, with agoraphobia perceived to be caused by the environmental/hereditary factor and schizophrenia by the social‐personal factor. Clinical methods were perceived to be the important curative factor in overcoming most problems.