"Harmful effects of posttermination sexual romantic relationships between therapists and their former clients": Erratum.

Reports an error in "Harmful effects of posttermination sexual and romantic relationships between therapists and their former clients" by Laura S. Brown (Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 1988[Sum], Vol 25[2], 249-255). Reference was made to the Minnesota law regarding reporting of "any sexual or romantic relationship in which the parties were once therapist and client" (p. 250). Upon further review by the author, it was determined that the law is more complicated than conveyed in the article. A detailed explanation of the law is provided in the erratum, although legal counsel is suggested for further interpretation. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1989-02991-001.) Examines anecdotal evidence regarding the harmful effects of posttermination sexual or romantic relationships between therapists and clients, focusing on relationships between female therapists and former clients who are also women. The question of equality of power between therapists and former clients is addressed. The impact of these relationships on the community in which they occur is considered. It is concluded that posttermination relationships between therapists and clients have the potential to do as much harm as relationships initiated during therapy and that such relationships should be defined as unethical. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Boundaries in psychotherapy: Ethical and clinical explorations.

Reviews the book, Boundaries in psychotherapy: Ethical and clinical explorations by Ofer Zur (see record 2007-00030-000). In this book, Dr. Zur outlines a number of the salient boundary issues in psychotherapy. As such, this book provides a valuable resource for practising mental health professionals regardless of theoretical orientation. Specifically, this book aims to shed light on the definition and use of psychotherapeutic boundaries by providing a context-based and comprehensive discussion of diverse boundary issues. The book is divided into four parts, and each of the first three parts is made up of four chapters. Part 1, "Boundaries in Context," addresses an assortment of topics concerning boundaries in psychotherapy. Part 2 focuses on issues that affect the therapeutic frame. Part 3 addresses boundary issues that exist within the therapeutic encounter. In Part 4, appropriately titled "Final Thoughts," the author provides a cogent epilogue that highlights the complex and multifaceted nature of professional boundaries and stresses the importance of conducting risk- benefit analyses and other diligent risk management studies when contemplating crossing boundaries in psychotherapy. With regard to the author's stated objectives for writing this book, he accomplishes his goal of shedding light on the definition and use of psychotherapeutic boundaries. Overall, the author's simple and clear writing style makes this an extremely easy book to read. Other strengths include the succinct definition of terms and inclusion of practical tips and suggestions to help the reader navigate the complexities that entrench boundary issues in psychotherapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Counselor deliberate postural lean and communication of facilitative conditions": Correction.

Reports an error in "Counselor deliberate postural lean and communication of facilitative conditions" by Gary L. Hermansson, Alan C. Webster and Ken McFarland (Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1988[Apr], Vol 35[2], 149-153). The date of receipt indicated for the revision of this article was incorrect. The correct date of receipt is provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1988-36435-001.) This experimental study examined the relation between counselor deliberate postural lean and the communication of intensity, empathic understanding, respect, and genuineness. Results, from 12 male counselors acting as their own controls under three postural lean conditions (forward, backward, and choice) in counseling interaction with female clients, suggested compensatory processes in operation. Making a required lean forward was associated with decreased facilitative levels and backward with increased levels. The latter effects were more marked, with significant differences in intensity and respect. The effects were also more marked with those counselors who, as revealed in their choice session, preferred to move forward rather than backward, with these counselors also being the most effective as assessed by communicated empathy levels. It was concluded that for effective counselors in particular, deliberate postural lean results in a subtle maintenance of an equilibrium of verbal–nonverbal communication behaviors judged as most appropriate to the moment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Countertransference temptation and the use of self of self-disclosure by psychotherapists in training: A discussion for beginning psychotherapists and their supervisors.

Most recent articles on self-disclosure have addressed advanced questions of theory and technique related to self-disclosure in psychoanalysis. This article, however, takes up issues related to the use of self-disclosure by psychotherapists in training. Rather than arguing categorically that beginning psychotherapists should or should not use self-disclosure, the focus here is on the factors influencing the decision of whether or not to make a self-disclosure. Illustrated by 2 case examples, it is argued that because of their relative lack of experience in working with transference and countertransference, beginning therapists are especially susceptible to the temptation to use self-disclosure and nondisclosure to close off--rather than to analyze--a patient's intense transference feelings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Giving children security: Mamie Phipps Clark and the racialization of child psychology.

During the 1930s and 1940s, social psychologists became increasingly well-known among progressives battling race prejudice. By the early 1950s, African American psychologist Kenneth Bancroft Clark had become deeply involved with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's battle against segregated education in the South. By this time, his wife, who is less well-known in the annals of history, was developing her own reputation as the guiding spirit behind Harlem's Northside Center for Child Development. Her work at the center helped define an increasing interest in the psychology of children of color. This article examines the individual and social contexts of Mamie Phipps Clark's life and argues for greater attention to the dynamics of race and gender in the history of psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the "Music of Thought": The Use of Metaphor in Poetry and in Psychoanalysis.

The author considers the clinical use of metaphor--when psychoanalytic psychotherapists move intentionally to figurative and comparative language in talking with their patients--by comparing it to the use of metaphor in poetry. Both poets and psychoanalysts, despite the differences in the aims of their arts, rely on this way of speaking in order to evoke, discover, and create meaning. A consideration of the way therapists use metaphors sheds some light on essential clinical processes--and on the current debate between "classical" and "post-modern" ways of understanding what psychoanalysts do. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Differential involvement of the dorsal anterior cingulate and prelimbic-infralimbic areas of the rodent prefrontal cortex in spatial working memory": Correction to Ragozzino et al. (1998).

Reports an error in "Differential involvement of the dorsal anterior cingulate and prelimbic-infralimbic areas of the rodent prefrontal cortex in spatial working memory" by Michael E. Ragozzino, Spencer Adams and Raymond P. Kesner (Behavioral Neuroscience, 1998[Apr], Vol 112[2], 293-303). Figure 1 (page 295) and Figure 4 (page 299) were printed incorrectly. The corrected figure pages and corresponding captions are provided in the erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1998-01023-003.) The present study examined the effects of quinolinic acid lesions of the dorsal anterior cingulate and prelimbic-infralimbic cortices on spatial working memory and spatial discrimination using go/no-go procedures. All testing occurred in a 12-arm radial maze. In a working memory task, rats were allowed to enter 12 arms for a cereal reward. Three or 4 arms were presented for a 2nd time in a session, which did not result in a reward. In a spatial discrimination task, rats had successive access to 2 different arms. One arm always contained a reward, and the other never contained a reward. Prelimbic-infralimbic lesions impaired spatial working memory but only produced a transient spatial discrimination deficit. Dorsal anterior cingulate lesions did not induce a deficit in either task. These findings suggest that the prelimbic-infralimbic cortices, but not the anterior cingulate cortex, are important in spatial working memory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Changes in executive control across the life span: Examination of task-switching performance.

A study was conducted to examine changes in executive control processes over the life span. More specifically, changes in processes responsible for preparation and interference control that underlie the ability to flexibly alternate between two different tasks were examined. Individuals (N?=?152) ranging in age from 7 to 82 years participated in the study. A U-shaped function was obtained for switch costs (i.e., the time required to switch between tasks compared with a repeated-task baseline), with larger costs found for young children and older adults. Switch costs were reduced with practice, particularly for children. All age groups benefited from increased preparation time, with larger benefits observed for children and older adults. Adults benefited to a greater extent than children when the interval between the response to one task and the cue indicating which task to perform next was lengthened, which suggested faster decay of interference from the old task set for adults than for children. A series of hierarchical analyses indicated that the age-related variance in task-switching performance is independent, at least in part, from the age-related variance in other cognitive processes such as perceptual speed and working memory. The results are discussed in terms of the development and decline of executive control processes across the life span. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Ten years of research on the false-consensus effect: An empirical and theoretical review": Correction to Marks and Miller.

Reports an error in "Ten years of research on the false-consensus effect: An empirical and theoretical review" by Gary Marks and Norman Miller (Psychological Bulletin, 1987[Jul], Vol 102[1], 72-90). The block quotation on page 73 should be attributed to Crocker (1981). The two sentences immediately preceding this quotation should read: "Friendship groups typically exhibit a high degree of internal similarity with respect to members' beliefs, attitudes, values, and interests. Crocker (1981) reported the following:". (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1987-31255-001.) Ten years of research on the false-consensus effect (Ross, Greene, & House, 1977) and related biases in social perception (e.g., assumed similarity and overestimation of consensus) are examined in the light of four general theoretical perspectives: (a) selective exposure and cognitive availability, (b) salience and focus of attention, (c) logical information processing, and (d) motivational processes. The findings indicate that these biases are influenced by a host of variables and that no single explanation can account for the range of data. Instead, each theoretical perspective appears to have its own domain of application, albeit with some degree of overlap into other domains. The data further suggest that two or more specific mechanisms may operate simultaneously or in concert to produce assumed similarity and false-consensus effects. Discussion focuses on identifying the process or sets of processes operating in specific situations. We identify several gaps in the knowledge of mediating relationships and suggest directions for future research. We also discuss issues related to definition and measurement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Refining measurement in the study of social anxiety and student drinking: Who you are and why you drink determines your outcomes.

This study investigated inconsistencies in the literature regarding social anxiety and problematic drinking among college students. One hundred eighteen students (61% women) who experience anxiety in social or performance situations completed measures of social anxiety and a modified Timeline Followback that assessed the psychological context of drinking episodes and alcohol-related consequences. Results suggest that men who experience severe social anxiety drink less alcohol than men with lower levels of anxiety, whereas women high in social anxiety are likely to experience more alcohol-related consequences per drinking episode than women low in social anxiety, despite drinking similar amounts of alcohol. In addition, women with high social anxiety were found to experience more alcohol-related consequences than men with high social anxiety. These findings suggest that the inconsistencies noted in the literature on drinking to cope with social anxiety and alcohol-related consequences may reflect methodological differences and the failure to consider gender. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Longitudinal changes in the time parents spend in activities with their adolescent children as a function of child age, pubertal status and gender.

This study examined the time Dutch mothers (N=301) and fathers (N=255) spend per day engaging in 4 activities (going somewhere, doing something, watching TV, and eating together) with their adolescent children both concurrently and 5 years later. Also assessed was whether parent-child shared time was related to parent or child gender and whether age-related differences could be explained by adolescent pubertal status, family conflict, adolescent and parent work or volunteer hours, parental work stress, and adolescent computer use. Finally, the study examined whether family conflict predicted changes in shared time and whether shared time predicted changes in conflict. The findings showed that age changes depended on the activity and that pubertal status mediated age differences in TV viewing among mixed-gender parent-child pairs. Shared time during pre-, early, and mid-adolescence was linked to decreases in family conflict 5 years later. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tonic and phasic processes in the acute effects of alcohol.

This article presents a novel method for measuring the acute effects of alcohol. One hundred twenty nonproblem drinkers aged 21-28 participated in 3 alcohol administration sessions that produced peak blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) near .09 g%. Subjective intoxication ratings were taken at multiple points across rising and falling BACs. Mathematical modeling techniques decomposed intoxication ratings into a tonic component sensitive to BAC level and a phasic component sensitive to BAC rate of change. This model provided a good fit to observed data. Tonic and phasic gain parameters showed high repeatability across sessions. The average phasic gain parameter was about 4 times larger than the average tonic gain parameter, indicating that subjective intoxication is usually more affected by BAC change than by BAC level. The associations of drinking practices with tonic and phasic gain parameters varied by gender and family history of alcoholism. Tonic-phasic modeling allows individual and group differences in the acute effects of alcohol to be studied as time-dynamic processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral and social sciences, seventh edition.

Reviews the book, The science game: An introduction to research in the behavioral and social sciences, seventh edition by Neil McKinnon Agnew and Sandra W. Pyke (2007). In 1969, Neil Agnew and Sandra Pyke published the first edition of The Science Game, a 182-page survey of the major components of what they call the game of "sciencing," a game, they claim, that "like all other games of consequence, is a mixture of art, enterprise, and invention held loosely together by man-made rules." Using the same quirky but engaging style as in the original, in the seventh and latest edition, Agnew and Pyke dedicate a full 471 pages to the task, tackling a host of topics bearing on the activities of science, ranging from the strengths and weaknesses of humans' cognitive capacity for problem solving to debates in the philosophy of science regarding the nature of knowledge. Although this most recent edition elaborates on many of the same themes presented in earlier versions, it is much grander in scope and includes a number of new features, including the introduction of a central theme and memory aid throughout the book (i.e., a puzzle-solving theme), the inclusion of statements of chapter goals, and chapter-end summaries and self-test quizzes. The Science Game provides a fairly comprehensive set of "sound bites" pertaining to the techniques, procedures, and conventions adopted by social science researchers and is accessible to either students encountering these topics for the first time or more advanced students in need of a refresher. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychopharmacology of aggression in children and adolescents with primary neuropsychiatric disorders: A review of current and potentially promising treatment options.

Research examining the role of pharmacological therapy in the treatment of children and adolescents with clinical disorders is growing. Clinical disorders that present with comorbid aggression can add a challenge to treatment. Child and adolescent neuropsychiatric disorders associated with aggression include attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, various mood disorders and in particular bipolar disorders/pediatric mania, schizophrenia, mental retardation, oppositional defiant disorder, conduct disorder, and autism spectrum disorders. This review describes the psychopharmacy to treat these disorders and the aggression that often appears comorbidly. Existing literature regarding the efficacy and safety of psychotropics for youth with neuropsychiatric disorders also is discussed. In addition, general guidelines for psychopharmacy of aggression in children and adolescents are presented. Studies reviewed in this article provide evidence for the use of psychostimulants, alpha-2 agonists, beta blockers, lithium, anticonvulsant mood-stabilizers, atypical antipsychotics, traditional antipsychotics, and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in treating pediatric aggression with the choice of medication dependent on symptomology. Despite increased support for pediatric psychotropic use, there is a need for more long-term safety and efficacy studies of existing medications and newer, safer, and more effective agents with fewer side effects for the pharmacological treatment of all childhood disorders in which aggression is prominent. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Graphing the order of the sexes: Constructing, recalling, interpreting, and putting the self in gender difference graphs.

Graphs seem to connote facts more than words or tables do. Consequently, they seem unlikely places to spot implicit sexism at work. Yet, in 6 studies (N = 741), women and men constructed (Study 1) and recalled (Study 2) gender difference graphs with men’s data first, and graphed powerful groups (Study 3) and individuals (Study 4) ahead of weaker ones. Participants who interpreted graph order as evidence of author “bias” inferred that the author graphed his or her own gender group first (Study 5). Women’s, but not men’s, preferences to graph men first were mitigated when participants graphed a difference between themselves and an opposite-sex friend prior to graphing gender differences (Study 6). Graph production and comprehension are affected by beliefs and suppositions about the groups represented in graphs to a greater degree than cognitive models of graph comprehension or realist models of scientific thinking have yet acknowledged. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in the assessment of managerial and executive leadership: An overview.

Introduces this Special Issue of the Consulting Psychology Journal. The intent of this Special Issue is to cover some of the prevalent current issues underlying the assessment of managerial and executive leadership and to obtain different perspectives in doing so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Assessing disharmony and disaffection in intimate relationships: Revision of the Marital Satisfaction Inventory factor scales.

Previous research has identified 2 broad components of distress in intimate relationships: overt conflict, or disharmony, and emotional distance, or disaffection. Using confirmatory factor analysis, the authors derived 2 broadband scales of disharmony and disaffection from the Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (D. K. Snyder, 1997), building upon previous measures of these constructs (D. K. Snyder & Regts, 1982) derived from the original instrument. The new scales demonstrated high internal consistency and test-retest reliability, as well as discriminative validity and convergent validity with independent criteria of relationship functioning. Distinct distributions of these scales in community and clinical samples suggested their complementary role in research on intimate relationships and assessment of couples in treatment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Pain and dissociation in the cold pressor test: A study of hypnotic analgesia with "hidden reports" through automatic key pressing and automatic talking.

To test whether pain blocked by hypnotic analgesia may still be perceived at some level, 20 highly hypnotizable undergraduates participated in an experiment involving cold pressor pain in the normal condition and in hypnotically suggested analgesia. 3 reports were obtained reflecting felt pain within the hypnotic analgesia condition: the usual verbal report on a numerical scale, a manual report by "automatic key pressing," and a retrospective verbal report through "automatic talking." 9 Ss who were amnesic for both keypressing and automatic talking reported more pain in the automatic (hidden) reports than in their usual verbal reports. 8 of these 9, following release of amnesia, had a clear perception of 2 levels of awareness of the pain: the usual hypnotic experience of pain attenuated by analgesia suggestions, and a knowledge at another level of a more severe pain. In no case, however, did an S give a retrospective report of normal suffering at this "hidden" level. The hypnotically analgesic S may have reported no pain verbally because he was amnesic for it; when amnesia was removed he recalled the sensory pain, but without a suffering component, because suffering apparently did not occur. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of Apolipoprotein E Genotype on Spatial Attention, Working Memory, and Their Interaction in Healthy, Middle-Aged Adults: Results From the National Institute of Mental Health's BIOCARD Study.

The cognitive consequences of the apolipoprotein E-ε4 (APOE-ε4) allele were examined in middle age, before likely onset of symptoms of Alzheimer's disease. The authors identified 3 cognitive processes--visuospatial attention, spatial working memory, and the effect of visuospatial attention on working memory--and devised "behavioral assays" of the integrity of components of these processes. Redirecting visuospatial attention, retention of memory for location, and attentional modulation of memory of target location were affected by APOE genotype. Visuospatial attention showed additive effects of ε4 gene dose; each additional ε4 allele inherited further slowed disengagement from invalidly cued space. In contrast, working memory performance was affected only in ε4 homozygotes. Effect sizes for the APOE gene were moderate to large, ranging from 14% to 24%. Effects of APOE genotype on component processes of cognition in healthy, middle-aged adults is consistent with the emergence in adulthood of an APOE-ε4 cognitive phenotype. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)