Luborsky, L., Barber, J.P., & Crits-Christoph, P. (1990). Theory-based research for understanding the process of dynamic psychotherapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58, 3, 281-287.
This article reviews empirical support for 6 basic theoretical assumptions central to psychodynamic psychotherapy. (1) A therapeutic alliance must develop. The strength of therapeutic alliance (the collaborative and affective bond between therapist and client) is shown to predictive of positive outcomes. (2) Patients display transference. Trends from existing studies show central relationship patterns exist which are largely consistent over time and may be projected onto the therapist. (3) Accurate interpretations of transference by the clinician lead to increased benefits for the client. Findings are inconsistent on this point, specifically on the relation between increased number of transference interpretations and outcomes. Mediators may exist, such as how the patient responds to the interpretation. (4) The patient will benefit more from more accurate interpretations. Accurate interpretations correlate with "better" sessions. Accuracy of interpersonal aspects of interpretation predicted outcomes best. (5) Increased insight about themselves and their relationships with others leads to better outcomes. Gaining an understanding about the therapist and others is associated with outcomes. An understanding of self and parents does not seem to be as well correlated. (6) Improved patients show greater change in their transference patterns. Results are consistent with the theory that transference still exists but is under better control and mastery. Patients' expectations of how others will respond becomes less negative and their mental health improves.
Showing posts with label 1 Star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 1 Star. Show all posts
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Friday, May 9, 2008
Cultural variation in infant's sleeping arrangements
Morelli, G.A., Rogoff, B., Oppenheim, D., & Goldsmith, D. (1992). Cultural variation in infant's sleeping arrangements: Questions of Independence. Developmental Psychology, Vol. 28, No. 4, 604-613.
Cultural practices differentiate infant sleep arrangements. In the middle-class US population, a common goal is to have infants sleep in their own rooms as soon as possible, consonant with the culture's importance on independence. In the Mayan population, it is not uncommon for children to sleep with their parents or other siblings well on into childhood, reflecting their culture's value on interpersonal relations. Changes are not prescribed by the authors; instead, broader cultural perspective is offered for American readers.
Cultural practices differentiate infant sleep arrangements. In the middle-class US population, a common goal is to have infants sleep in their own rooms as soon as possible, consonant with the culture's importance on independence. In the Mayan population, it is not uncommon for children to sleep with their parents or other siblings well on into childhood, reflecting their culture's value on interpersonal relations. Changes are not prescribed by the authors; instead, broader cultural perspective is offered for American readers.
Friday, April 18, 2008
Addressing Psychosocial Problems at Work
Probst, T.M. et al. (2008). A preliminary evaluation of SOLVE: Addressing Psychosocial Problems at Work. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 13, No. 1, 32-42.
SOLVE is a workplace intervention program implemented by many companies worldwide which aims to address the interrelated issues of job stress, workplace violence, tobacco use, drug and alcohol abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Psychosocial issues tend to coexist, e.g. stress leads to workplace hostility which spills over into home life and often results in poor coping strategies. SOLVE is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) models, which believe that behavior is influenced by cognitions, knowledge is necessary for behavioral change, and both are broadly influenced by dynamic interactions between numerous forces. Therefore, SOLVE attempts to make individuals aware of threats and their consequences, make them aware of benefits of the touted strategies, and provide specific information for tackling the health-related issues, while being both person- and organization-directed. Although SOLVE is used widely, its efficacy has not been evaluated. Current studies demonstrate improvements in knowledge among participants across locale which is encouraging. However, they do not assess attitudinal or behavioral changes, or bottom-line benefits to the organization.
SOLVE is a workplace intervention program implemented by many companies worldwide which aims to address the interrelated issues of job stress, workplace violence, tobacco use, drug and alcohol abuse, and HIV/AIDS. Psychosocial issues tend to coexist, e.g. stress leads to workplace hostility which spills over into home life and often results in poor coping strategies. SOLVE is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) models, which believe that behavior is influenced by cognitions, knowledge is necessary for behavioral change, and both are broadly influenced by dynamic interactions between numerous forces. Therefore, SOLVE attempts to make individuals aware of threats and their consequences, make them aware of benefits of the touted strategies, and provide specific information for tackling the health-related issues, while being both person- and organization-directed. Although SOLVE is used widely, its efficacy has not been evaluated. Current studies demonstrate improvements in knowledge among participants across locale which is encouraging. However, they do not assess attitudinal or behavioral changes, or bottom-line benefits to the organization.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Differential processing of objects under various viewing conditions in the human LOC
Grill-Spector, K. et al. (September 1999). Differential processing of objects under various viewing conditions in the human lateral occipital complex. Neuron, Vol. 24, 187-203.
This study used fMRIa techniques to investigate the brain's object-selective regions (namely the lateral occipital complex). fMRIa assumes that a group of neurons will respond to repeated presentations of a stimulus with attenuated responses. This signal reduction is presumably the result of neural fatigue from repeated exposure. Thus, "adaptation" data can be used to identify which types of stimulus are effectively treated identically by a certain region of the brain. This is especially interesting in structures further up the processing hierarchy where lower-level transformations have likely given way to more abstract, general representations of the stimuli. Researchers can then explore what properties of objects are preserved and which are transformed to a canonical representation by the time signals converge on a specific region.
First, the study sought to understand how long adaptation effects last. Time durations as long as 8 sec between matched stimuli still elicited amplitude reductions, establishing that adaptation has a fairly long-lasting effect.
Secondly, the study set out to examine which object properties were invariant within the LOC. The results indicate that the LOC is less sensitive to changes in size and position, compared to changes induced by illumination and viewpoint (rotation). In other words, it seems the LOC receives visual input which has been normalized for size and position.
This study used fMRIa techniques to investigate the brain's object-selective regions (namely the lateral occipital complex). fMRIa assumes that a group of neurons will respond to repeated presentations of a stimulus with attenuated responses. This signal reduction is presumably the result of neural fatigue from repeated exposure. Thus, "adaptation" data can be used to identify which types of stimulus are effectively treated identically by a certain region of the brain. This is especially interesting in structures further up the processing hierarchy where lower-level transformations have likely given way to more abstract, general representations of the stimuli. Researchers can then explore what properties of objects are preserved and which are transformed to a canonical representation by the time signals converge on a specific region.
First, the study sought to understand how long adaptation effects last. Time durations as long as 8 sec between matched stimuli still elicited amplitude reductions, establishing that adaptation has a fairly long-lasting effect.
Secondly, the study set out to examine which object properties were invariant within the LOC. The results indicate that the LOC is less sensitive to changes in size and position, compared to changes induced by illumination and viewpoint (rotation). In other words, it seems the LOC receives visual input which has been normalized for size and position.
Sunday, February 3, 2008
Psychedelic Medicine
Horgan, J. (February 26, 2005). Psychedelic Medicine: Mind bending, health giving. New Scientist.
A typical overview of the tumultuous history of the use of psychedelics in medicine and therapy by science writer John Horgan. I found the 'Psychedelic Healing' more interesting and informative; I would recommend reading this instead.
A typical overview of the tumultuous history of the use of psychedelics in medicine and therapy by science writer John Horgan. I found the 'Psychedelic Healing' more interesting and informative; I would recommend reading this instead.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
This is Your Brain on Politics
Iacoboni, Freedman, & Kaplan. (November 11, 2007). This Is Your Brain on Politics, The New York Times.
Easily one of the most bogus articles ever published on topics related to neuroscience. In short, the article claimed that it is possible to read the minds of people by examining their brain activity a la fMRI and glean insight into their cognitive reactions to American presidential candidates. The most fallacious reasoning employed by the authors was the assumption that activity in certain brain regions can have a 1:1 mapping to mental states such as anxiety, disgust, equivocation, empathy, and interest, e.g. the amygdala was active so they must be anxious with regard to this candidate. Additionally, the article was not peer reviewed, did not provide any scientific detail which could be used to evaluate the conclusions drawn, and only "studied" 20 subjects.
Luckily, there were some expedient retorts by subject matter experts, but probably not before millions of readers were led to believe that this is acceptable science and produced reasonable logical conclusions. Letters to the Editor, Nature
Easily one of the most bogus articles ever published on topics related to neuroscience. In short, the article claimed that it is possible to read the minds of people by examining their brain activity a la fMRI and glean insight into their cognitive reactions to American presidential candidates. The most fallacious reasoning employed by the authors was the assumption that activity in certain brain regions can have a 1:1 mapping to mental states such as anxiety, disgust, equivocation, empathy, and interest, e.g. the amygdala was active so they must be anxious with regard to this candidate. Additionally, the article was not peer reviewed, did not provide any scientific detail which could be used to evaluate the conclusions drawn, and only "studied" 20 subjects.
Luckily, there were some expedient retorts by subject matter experts, but probably not before millions of readers were led to believe that this is acceptable science and produced reasonable logical conclusions. Letters to the Editor, Nature
Saturday, December 1, 2007
Sex Differences in Jealousy
Buunk, B.P., Angleitner, A., Oubaid, V., & Buss, D.M. (1996). Sex Differences in Jealousy in Evolutionary and Cultural Perspective: Tests From the Netherlands, Germany, and the United States, Psychological Science, 7, 359-363.
In the 1992 article “Sex differences in jealousy in evolutionary and cultural perspective”, Buunk et al. suggested that women typically find emotional infidelity to be more distressing than sexual infidelity, whereas men are bothered more than women by sexual infidelity. The article leapt to the conclusion that these results supported hypotheses of jealousy offered by evolutionary psychology, a field which believes behavior evolves in a species if it is (or was) somehow adaptive. C.R. Harris & N. Christenfeld (HC) reacted to the article with “Gender, Jealousy, and Reason” which provided an alternate explanation for how such data might appear.
The experiment of the 1992 Buunk et al. article was replicated by HC during their subsequent study, reaching similar results. Both studies revealed that men demonstrate greater anguish to sexual than to emotional infidelity of their partner, whereas women grow more upset to emotional infidelity. However, HC were skeptical of the conclusions drawn by Buunk et al. – namely that the gender differences in sexual jealousy shown across geography and cultures was necessarily in support of an evolutionary psychology explanation.
In order to combat such conclusions, HC posed some additional questions to their respondents. First, they explicitly asked if they discovered that their partner was engaging in sexual intercourse with someone else, how likely did they think that their mate would be in love with this person. Conversely, they also asked respondents to imagine they discovered their mate was in love with someone else and to indicate how likely they believed their partner would also be engaging in sex with this other person.
The results concluded that men think that sex implies love for their partners more so than women, whereas women think that love implies sex more so than men. Given this extra data, one would find it reasonable to conclude, as a woman, that emotional infidelity also implies sexual infidelity. Essentially a double whammy, likely signifying both emotional and sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity is thus logically more troubling to a woman and might account for the uniqueness of results across genders.
Suggesting that men and women may instead show differences in their interpretations of the evidence of infidelity, HC challenged the foundational conclusions of Buunk et al. Although applying evolutionary psychology models may be provocative and convincing, HC showed that cognitive explanations may be equally plausible. Thus, one should exercise caution when interpreting the results of such a study of jealousy.
In the 1992 article “Sex differences in jealousy in evolutionary and cultural perspective”, Buunk et al. suggested that women typically find emotional infidelity to be more distressing than sexual infidelity, whereas men are bothered more than women by sexual infidelity. The article leapt to the conclusion that these results supported hypotheses of jealousy offered by evolutionary psychology, a field which believes behavior evolves in a species if it is (or was) somehow adaptive. C.R. Harris & N. Christenfeld (HC) reacted to the article with “Gender, Jealousy, and Reason” which provided an alternate explanation for how such data might appear.
The experiment of the 1992 Buunk et al. article was replicated by HC during their subsequent study, reaching similar results. Both studies revealed that men demonstrate greater anguish to sexual than to emotional infidelity of their partner, whereas women grow more upset to emotional infidelity. However, HC were skeptical of the conclusions drawn by Buunk et al. – namely that the gender differences in sexual jealousy shown across geography and cultures was necessarily in support of an evolutionary psychology explanation.
In order to combat such conclusions, HC posed some additional questions to their respondents. First, they explicitly asked if they discovered that their partner was engaging in sexual intercourse with someone else, how likely did they think that their mate would be in love with this person. Conversely, they also asked respondents to imagine they discovered their mate was in love with someone else and to indicate how likely they believed their partner would also be engaging in sex with this other person.
The results concluded that men think that sex implies love for their partners more so than women, whereas women think that love implies sex more so than men. Given this extra data, one would find it reasonable to conclude, as a woman, that emotional infidelity also implies sexual infidelity. Essentially a double whammy, likely signifying both emotional and sexual infidelity, emotional infidelity is thus logically more troubling to a woman and might account for the uniqueness of results across genders.
Suggesting that men and women may instead show differences in their interpretations of the evidence of infidelity, HC challenged the foundational conclusions of Buunk et al. Although applying evolutionary psychology models may be provocative and convincing, HC showed that cognitive explanations may be equally plausible. Thus, one should exercise caution when interpreting the results of such a study of jealousy.
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