The impact of therapist disclosure on patient disclosure.

Conducted a psychotherapy analog study with 90 female undergraduates to examine the effects of therapist disclosure on the S's disclosure to the therapist during a 1st interview. 3 levels of therapist disclosure, no disclosure, demographic disclosure, and personal disclosure, and 2 levels of therapist warmth were manipulated. Ss completed a modified version of the Jourard Self-Disclosure Questionnaire. Ss exposed to a warm therapist offering moderate self-disclosure (demographic disclosure) disclosed more to the therapist than Ss exposed to warm nondisclosing or personally disclosing therapists. No differences were found between nondisclosing and personally disclosing warm therapists. Ss exposed to a cold therapist offered uniformly low levels of disclosure regardless of the level of therapist disclosure. (17 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: Effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity.

[Correction Notice: An erratum for this article was reported in Vol 63(2) of Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (see record 2008-10509-001). In the article, a sentence was incorrect. The corrected sentence is included in the erratum.] Sought to replicate previous findings that disclosing traumas improves physical health and to compare the effects of revealing previously disclosed vs undisclosed traumas. According to inhibition theory, reporting about undisclosed traumas should produce greater health benefits. 60 healthy undergraduates wrote about undisclosed traumas, previously disclosed traumas, or trivial events. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant between-groups differences on longer term health utilization and physical symptom measures. However, Ss who disclosed more severe traumas reported fewer physical symptoms in the months following the study, compared with low-severity trauma Ss, and tended to report fewer symptoms than control Ss. Results suggest that health benefits occur when severe traumas are disclosed, regardless of whether previous disclosure has occurred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Experimental disclosure and its moderators: A meta-analysis.

Disclosing information, thoughts, and feelings about personal and meaningful topics (experimental disclosure) is purported to have various health and psychological consequences (e.g., J. W. Pennebaker, 1993). Although the results of 2 small meta-analyses (P. G. Frisina, J. C. Borod, & S. J. Lepore, 2004; J. M. Smyth, 1998) suggest that experimental disclosure has a positive and significant effect, both used a fixed effects approach, limiting generalizability. Also, a plethora of studies on experimental disclosure have been completed that were not included in the previous analyses. One hundred forty-six randomized studies of experimental disclosure were collected and included in the present meta-analysis. Results of random effects analyses indicate that experimental disclosure is effective, with a positive and significant average r-effect size of .075. In addition, a number of moderators were identified. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: Effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity": Correction to Greenberg and Stone.

Reports an error in "Emotional disclosure about traumas and its relation to health: Effects of previous disclosure and trauma severity" by Melanie A. Greenberg and Arthur A. Stone (Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1992[Jul], Vol 63[1], 75-84). In the article, a sentence was incorrect. The sentence on page 76 that reads "For example, Esterling, Antoni, Kumar, and Schneiderman (1990) found that subjects who wrote more emotion-focused words (high disclosers) had a larger lymphocyte response to mitogen stimulation than low disclosers" should have read as follows: "For example, Esterling, Antoni, Kumar, and Schneiderman (1990) found that subjects whose essays contained greater proportions of emotionfocused words (high disclosers) had better immunological control of latent Epstein-Barr virus, relative to low disclosers." (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1992-39142-001.) Sought to replicate previous findings that disclosing traumas improves physical health and to compare the effects of revealing previously disclosed vs undisclosed traumas. According to inhibition theory, reporting about undisclosed traumas should produce greater health benefits. 60 healthy undergraduates wrote about undisclosed traumas, previously disclosed traumas, or trivial events. Contrary to expectations, there were no significant between-groups differences on longer term health utilization and physical symptom measures. However, Ss who disclosed more severe traumas reported fewer physical symptoms in the months following the study, compared with low-severity trauma Ss, and tended to report fewer symptoms than control Ss. Results suggest that health benefits occur when severe traumas are disclosed, regardless of whether previous disclosure has occurred. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Physical medicine and its relationship to patient management

In this article, some general concerns for the use of modalities and procedures for the older person are given. Management of the geriatric patient requires knowledge, understanding, and patience; it requires a clinician and health care staff that care about older people. It requires a recognition of the dignity of age and the intrinsic worth of each individual as a human being. It requires hope and an ability to project a quality of life, regardless of the living condition. It requires kind words and a hands-on effort. It requires an appreciation of life and a high degree of ethical and moral concern.     

The impact of skills training on responses to the disclosure of mistreatment.

Objective: Although disclosure of mistreatment can be beneficial, the effects of disclosure are largely contingent on the quality of responses received. An experimental design was used to evaluate a set of skills-training materials (STMs; Foynes & Freyd, 2010) designed to improve supportive responding to the disclosure of mistreatment experiences. Method: Dyads of university students and community members (N = 110) were randomly assigned to condition (experimental or control) and role (discloser or listener). After completing a series of questionnaires, the “discloser” was asked to describe an experience of mistreatment not previously disclosed to the “listener.” Dyads completed postdisclosure questionnaires, reviewed a set of STMs regarding either healthy lifestyle improvements (control) or supportive listening techniques (experimental), and completed a quiz. A second experience of mistreatment was disclosed and a final set of questionnaires was completed. Results: Results indicated that listeners in the experimental condition demonstrated significantly fewer unsupportive behaviors than listeners in the control condition. Listeners who started with high levels of unsupportive behaviors benefitted the most from the STMs. Conclusions: The STMs developed for this study are relatively short in length, easy to administer, and informed by disclosers' perceptions of supportive behaviors. Thus, these materials could serve as a preliminary step toward developing more effective ways of providing lay people with education on enhancing supportive listening behaviors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The truth and bias model of judgment.

We present a new model for the general study of how the truth and biases affect human judgment. In the truth and bias model, judgments about the world are pulled by 2 primary forces, the truth force and the bias force, and these 2 forces are interrelated. The truth and bias model differentiates force and value, where the force is the strength of the attraction and the value is the location toward which the judgment is attracted. The model also makes a formal theoretical distinction between bias and moderator variables. Two major classes of biases are discussed: biases that are measured with variables (e.g., assumed similarity) and directional bias, which refers to the extent to which judgments are pulled toward 1 end of the judgment continuum. Moderator variables are conceptualized as variables that affect the accuracy and bias forces but that do not affect judgments directly. We illustrate the model with 4 examples. We discuss the theoretical, empirical, methodological, measurement, and design implications of the model. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The social construction of truth.

Examines the American Psychological Association (APA) Memories of Childhood Abuse report, which contains the opposing view points of 2 subgroups of the working group that produced the report, the clinicians and the researchers. The author views the Final Report of the working group as an exercise in alternative methods of truth making. In the development of his analysis, the author explains his choice of the term "truth-making" rather than "truth finding." The process of constructing truths and the possibility of resolving contrary claims to truth is discussed. The author's remarks are intended as a scaffold for an understanding of why the clinicians and the researchers could find little common ground. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of therapist disclosure and its perceived appropriateness on client self-disclosure.

Data from 71 female undergraduates imply that a therapist who expects high disclosure to facilitate client openness must first indicate that high therapist disclosure is part of the professional role and is appropriate for effective psychotherapy. Otherwise, high therapist disclosure may be counterproductive, leading to withdrawal rather than increased disclosure. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)