Language switching in psychotherapy with bilinguals: Two problems, two models, and case examples.

Discusses the unique problems that working with bilingual patients in psychotherapy presents. One such problem is a "here and now" split between both affective experiences and developmental issues that took place in the mother tongue and their availability for exploration in psychotherapy conducted in a 2nd language. Previous theoretical material is reviewed and 2 additional models, one psychodynamic and one psycholinguistic, explaining this phenomenon are offered. Case material on 4 40–56 yr olds is presented to highlight both the affective split and the nonavailability of developmental issues in psychotherapy. Regression is discussed as an additional concept in approaching the language switching phenomena. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Affect translation in the psychotherapy of psychosis: Semrad's approach revisted.

Although psychotherapy has been deemphasized in recent years as a treatment modality in psychosis, it is clear that biological intervention alone does not restore patients to purposeful psychosocial functioning. In this article psychosis is viewed as being organized affectively, and a specific model of psychotherapy, first put forward by Elvin Semrad, is suggested to have clinical utility in this effort. This model is one of affect translation, and specific techniques in its use are explicated via case illustrations. How psychosis is organized and what affect translation accomplishes is also discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Lexical and conceptual processing in Chinese-English bilinguals: further evidence for asymmetry

According to the asymmetry model of bilingual representation (Kroll & Stewart, 1994), the first language (L1) lexicon is closely tied to an underlying conceptual memory, whereas second language (L2) items are mostly associated with their L1 equivalents. An outcome of this architecture is that L1-to-L2, or forward, translation must be mediated by the conceptual memory, whereas L2-to-L1 (backward) translation takes a direct lexical path. Some predictions derived from this hypothetical structure were tested in the present study, which took into account, through analysis of covariance, variations in response production time, concept retrieval time, and some other characteristics associated with the individual test items. Proficient Chinese-English bilinguals were tested on delayed production (Balota & Chumbley, 1985), picture naming, word translation, and category matching. The expected asymmetrical pattern of translation latencies (i.e., forward > backward) was demonstrated, although it could be statistically explained by the item characteristic of familiarity; matching an L1 item to a category name was faster than matching an L2 item, suggesting relatively strong L1 conceptual links. The present results are best accommodated by a form of asymmetry that allows for nondominant L2-concept linkage, the use of which is conditional upon the familiarity of the test item to the bilingual.     

Cross-language synonyms in the lexicons of bilingual infants: one language or two?

This study tests the widely-cited claim from Volterra & Taeschner (1978), which is reinforced by Clark's PRINCIPLE OF CONTRAST (1987), that young simultaneous bilingual children reject cross-language synonyms in their earliest lexicons. The rejection of translation equivalents is taken by Volterra & Taeschner as support for the idea that the bilingual child possesses a single-language system which includes elements from both languages. We examine first the accuracy of the empirical claim and then its adequacy as support for the argument that bilingual children do not have independent lexical systems in each language. The vocabularies of 27 developing bilinguals were recorded at varying intervals between ages 0;8 and 2;6 using the MacArthur CDI, a standardized parent report form in English and Spanish. The two single-language vocabularies of each bilingual child were compared to determine how many pairs of translation equivalents (TEs) were reported for each child at different stages of development. TEs were observed for all children but one, with an average of 30% of all words coded in the two languages, both at early stages (in vocabularies of 2-12 words) and later (up to 500 words). Thus, Volterra & Taeschner's empirical claim was not upheld. Further, the number of TEs in the bilinguals' two lexicons was shown to be similar to the number of lexical items which co-occurred in the monolingual lexicons of two different children, as observed in 34 random pairings for between-child comparisons. It remains to be shown, therefore, that the bilinguals' lexicons are not composed of two independent systems at a very early age. Furthermore, the results appear to rule out the operation of a strong principle of contrast across languages in early bilingualism.     

Strategies and risks in psychotherapy with bilingual patients: the phenomenon of language independence

The presence of two separate languages, each with its own lexical, syntactic, semantic, and ideational components, can complicate psychotherapy with proficient bilingual patients. If only one language is used in therapy, some aspects of the patients emotional experience may be unavailable to treatment; if both languages are used, the patient may use language switching as a form of resistance to affectively charged material. The authors suggest that monolingual therapists should carefully assess the degree of language independence in bilinguals in order to minimize its impact on therapy. They conclude that study of bilingual patients may provide important insights into the nature of the therapeutic process.     

Review of Neuropsychotherapy: How the Neurosciences Inform Effective Psychotherapy and Neuropsychotherapie (Neuropsychotherapy).

Reviews the book, Neuropsychotherapie (Neuropsychotherapy) and its English translation, Neuropsychotherapy: How the Neurosciences Inform Effective Psychotherapy, by Klaus Grawe (2004). In the last two decades, momentous advances have occurred in neuroscientific knowledge of complex human behavior and experience. At the same time, there has been a steady accretion of research-based information on the technique, process, and outcome of psychotherapy. In Neuropsychotherapie, Klaus Grawe has undertaken the integration of these two trends. He proceeds from the expectation that the breakthroughs in neuroscience are crucial both for the understanding of psychotherapy and for the further enhancement of its effectiveness. Grawe's book is a landmark and a breakthrough, and its impact will be felt for a great many years. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Adequacy of a translation of the MMPI into American Sign Language for use with deaf individuals: Linguistic equivalency issues.

Translated the MMPI into American Sign Language (ASL) via the back-translation procedure and recorded it on videotape to determine the linguistic equivalency of a sign language translation of a psychological test for use with deaf individuals. The bilingual retest technique was conducted whereby both forms of the instrument were administered to 28 ASL-English bilingual deaf Ss. Due to the advent of the MMPI-2 during the conduct of this study, a new set of T scores was calculated from the present MMPI data to compare the effect of shifting to the MMPI-2 norms. The results demonstrate adequate linguistic equivalencies of the ASL MMPI items and underscore the potential utility and practicality of future ASL translations of psychological tests for use with deaf individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychotherapy: The powerful placebo.

Contends that research designs in which psychotherapy treatments are compared to placebo conditions were derived from analogies with chemotherapy research. However, chemotherapy and psychotherapy research efforts are complementary rather than analogous. Chemotherapy placebos are delivered to eliminate the psychological variables that psychotherapy researchers attempt to explain. Psychotherapy treatments are analogous to chemotherapy placebos, rather than to chemotherapy treatments. It is suggested that chemotherapy artifacts, such as client outcome expectancies, cannot be viewed as de facto artifacts of psychotherapy research. It is further suggested that placebo groups should be eliminated from psychotherapy research. (49 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bilingual dual-coding theory and semantic repetition effects on recall.

A bilingual version of dual-coding theory was tested with French-English bilinguals who free recalled lists of concrete and abstract words repeated at different interitem lags. Repetitions involved the same words, translation equivalents, or same-language synonyms. The results extended previous findings and generally supported predictions from dual-coding theory and the independence storage hypothesis of bilingual memory: (a) Relative to single words, semantic repetitions (translations and synonyms) had additive effects on type recall even at short lags, whereas identical repetitions were less than additive at zero lag; (b) recall of identical repetitions increased more with lag than recall of semantic repetitions, so that differences between these conditions were diminished and sometimes reversed; (c) semantic repetition effects were weaker for synonyms than for translations, especially for abstract words; and (d) intrusion errors and pair recall were higher for translations than for synonyms, especially for concrete words at long lags. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Placebo-psychotherapy combinations: Inappropriate representations of psychotherapy in drug-psychotherapy comparative trials.

Argues that placebo-plus-psychotherapy combinations involve potential additive or interactive effects derived from the patient's or the therapist's perception that the patient is receiving an active medication. The perception renders this condition nonrepresentative of psychotherapy as it is typically practiced. Further, these combinations (in the absence of a psychotherapy-alone cell) are logically incapable of providing the controls that are necessary to rule out the existence of drug taking-by-psychotherapy interactions, precisely the hypothesis that their inclusion is intended to test. Finally, a review of the existing drug–psychotherapy literature points to bidirectionality in the noncomparability of placebo-plus-psychotherapy relative to psychotherapy alone. That is, the combination may sometimes overestimate, but appears more typically to underestimate, the efficacy of psychotherapy alone. Suggestions are provided for the appropriate selection of control conditions in drug–psychotherapy comparisons. (33 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reliability and equivalence of the Spanish translation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory—Revised (MSI—R).

This study examined the reliability and linguistic equivalence of the Spanish translation of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory—Revised (MSI—R) in a sample of 86 bilingual Mexican American couples. Overall, findings provided preliminary support for using this translation of the MSI—R with respondents whose preferred language is Spanish. Coefficients of internal consistency and temporal stability for scales constituting the Spanish MSI—R in both languages averaged .69. Multivariate analyses of variance indicated no significant effect for language of administration on MSI—R scale scores. Discussion emphasizes caveats in using the Spanish MSI—R and directions for further research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Individualized outcome measures of internal change: Methodological considerations.

Argues that in measuring the internal changes associated with psychotherapy outcome, most researchers have relied on indices of inferred change that lack consensual meaning, or are insensitive, or unreliable. Issues related to the selection of assessment procedures, the scaling of assessment devices, the computation of difference or change scores, and the translation of these scores into common indices of outcome are explored. Suggestions are provided for refining the measurement of inferred states in psychotherapy outcome research. (56 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Clinical and genetic studies of spinocerebellar ataxia type 2 in Japanese kindreds

The Urdu and English versions of the GHQ-28 were administered in Pakistan to bilingual students using a crossover design, in order to evaluate the equivalence and reliability of the translation in relation to the original, and to determine convergent validity using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) as a comparison measure. Satisfactory findings at each of level of analysis indicated that the Urdu GHQ-28 was comparable to the original English version.     

Modeling psychotherapy outcome as an event in time: An application of multistage analysis.

Standard survival analysis (SA) and multistate analysis (MSA) are methods for modeling categorical psychotherapy outcome events over time. The underlying principles, mathematical details, and indications for using each technique are discussed, and data from an anorexia nervosa psychotherapy outcome study comparing psychodynamic psychotherapy with psychodynamic psychotherapy plus cognitive–behavioral techniques are used to illustrate the use of SA and MSA techniques. MSA includes multiple competing outcome states in a single model. A single MSA model includes reaching target weight and treatment dropout before reaching target weight as competing events. It is concluded that MSA is an informative analytic technique in the domain of psychotherapy research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A test of dual coding theory for bilingual memory.

Presented 33 elementary teachers and 50 female community college students (all of whom varied in French-English bilingual dominance and experience) with (1) pictures to be labeled in English, (2) French words to be translated into English, and (3) English nouns to be copied as they were. Later, Ss were unexpectedly tested for recall. Results replicate and extend those of A. Paivio and W. E. Lambert (see record 1982-09020-001), demonstrating a 3.3:2.4:1 ratio of recall for images to translation equivalents to copying. Results support bilingual dual coding theory as proposed by Paivio and A. Desrochers (see record 1982-02758-001). (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Translational research: How social psychology can improve psychotherapy.

In an effort to generate innovative treatments, the National Institute of Mental Health has made translational research for alleviating mental illness a major funding priority. Although translational research is a powerful approach for moving basic science findings into novel treatments, it remains ambiguous and rarely implemented in psychology. The current article describes conceptual and methodological issues involved with translational research, including considerations about time frame, scope of hypothesis tested, dose of treatment, contraindication, and sampling. Translational concepts and methods are illustrated with areas of social psychology that are promising for translation into solutions for pressing questions in psychotherapy research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Demystifying the concept of ethnicity for psychotherapy researchers.

At a time when ethnic minority populations are increasing in the United States, few psychotherapy studies are including minorities in their samples. To include ethnic minorities in psychotherapy studies, the complex construct of ethnicity must be carefully measured. In this article, practical advice is offered for conceptualizing, measuring, and interpreting ethnic factors in psychotherapy studies. Also discussed are identifying pathways from ethnicity to psychotherapy outcomes. Pathways that may influence ethnic differences in psychotherapy outcome include cultural factors, minority status, socioeconomic status, acculturation, and immigration experiences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Evaluation of an Icelandic translation of the Basic Personality Inventory using a bilingual sample

This study investigated the similarity of Icelandic and English versions of the Basic Personality Inventory (BPI), a 240-item measure of psychopathology. Eighty-nine native Icelandic graduate students studying in North America completed both language versions of the BPI in a counterbalanced order with a retest interval of approximately one month. The results of this bilingual retest study confirmed the adequacy of the Icelandic translation. Specifically, scale means, test-retest coefficients, and reliability coefficients demonstrated that the BPI performed highly similarly in both language versions. These findings provide additional support for the adequacy and applicability of the Icelandic translation of the BPI.     

Toward a unified conceptual framework of psychotherapy.

The increase in theoretical redundancy and the fact that all theories of psychotherapy possess weaknesses as well as strengths suggest that the time may be ripe for the emergence of a unified theory of psychotherapy. Three questions are addressed that are prerequisite to the development of a unified conceptual framework in psychotherapy: (1) What is the current state of the field of psychotherapy integration? (2) How do we move toward a unified theory of psychotherapy? and (3) What must a unified psychotherapy theory include? Unification is merely the next step in the evolution of psychotherapy theory, which is expected to oscillate between stages of unification and differentiation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Outcome assessment of psychotherapy.

ANovember, 1995 Consumer Reports (CR) magazine report and an article by M. E. P. Seligman (American Psychologist, 1995) on psychotherapy use follow in the tradition of federal efforts in 1957 and 1976 to document mental health services utilization. The 1995 reports represent a confirmation of the public's perception and valuing of psychotherapy that is consistent with the overall conclusion from empirical research that "psychotherapy, as a generic process, is demonstrably more effective than no treatment." Lifetime psychotherapy use increased from 14% in 1957 to 26% in 1976 (and is probably higher today). CR data, reconfigured to parallel earlier reports on overall utilization and by provider group, are presented. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)