Upsetting experiences for the therapist in-session: How they can be dealt with and what they are good for.

Several major schools of psychotherapy require a genuine emotional presence from therapists in-session, as well as a nondefensive awareness of their emotional responses to the client. The present article addresses the part played by upsetting experiences in the context of these requirements. In order to identify relevant issues for a discussion of the literature, grounded theory analysis is presented of a series of conversations with four psychotherapists about their experience with in-session distress. The participants reported client confrontation and rejection evoked a variety of negative emotions ranging from helplessness to anger. Besides traditional professional resources like supervision and personal therapy, they discussed several coping strategies that focused on emotions. One strategy that stood out was to analyze how the emotional impact occurred in order to clarify client issues. This strategy was reported to yield information that improved therapeutic effectiveness in the case at hand, but it also was an effective method for overcoming therapist distress and a means of promoting broader professional growth. These observations suggest issues for integrative psychotherapy research into emotional risk taken by therapists and its payoff. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Group decision making: How you frame the question determines what you find.

Though not arguing against the practical value of group decision making per se, R. S. Tindale and J. R. Larson (see record 1992-19783-001) used data from computer simulations and an 8-group replication study as a basis for questioning the validity of the findings reported by the present authors (see record 1990-04483-001). The authors show that Tindale and Larson's application of computer simulations is suspect, that the replication-study data is so limited that its significance is questionable, that its operational definition of an assembly bonus effect is restrictive to the point that it has little meaning in real-world settings, and that claims with respect to the performance of ad hoc laboratory groups are inflated and misleading. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How motives, skills, and values determine what people do.

Reviews research that demonstrates the importance of motivation, incentive value, and probability of success, independently measured, for predicting achievement performance and the frequency with which affiliation acts are performed. Both theory and research lead to the following conclusions: (1) motive strength, particularly in relation to the strength of other motives in the person, is the more important determinant of operant act frequency; (2) incentive value is the more important determinant of cognitively based choices; (3) motive strength and probability of success combine multiplicatively to predict response strength or probability; and (4) all determinants, plus this last interaction, together account for over 75% of the variation in operants such as affiliative act frequency. The remainder of the variation is readily attributable to environmental opportunities. (51 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How 14- and 18-month-olds know what others have experienced.

Fourteen- and 18-month-old infants observed an adult experiencing each of 2 objects (experienced objects) and then leaving the room; the infant then played with a 3rd object while the adult was gone (unexperienced object). The adult interacted with the 2 experienced objects in 1 of 3 ways: by (a) sharing them with the infant in an episode of joint engagement, (b) actively manipulating and inspecting them on his or her own as the infant watched (individual engagement), or (c) looking at them from a distance as the infant played with them (onlooking). As evidenced in a selection task, infants of both ages knew which objects had been experienced by the adult in the joint engagement condition, only the 18-month-olds knew this in the individual engagement condition, and infants at neither age knew this in the onlooking condition. These results suggest that infants are 1st able to determine what adults know (have experienced) on the basis of their direct, triadic engagements with them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to find out what women want

The Rapunzel syndrome (RS), is a rare form of gastric trichobezoar extending throughout the bowel. We report on a patient with RS causing gastric perforation and discuss the aetiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of this unusual syndrome. RS is found characteristically in girls with varying gastro-intestinal symptoms. The recommended treatment for large or complicated trichobezoars is surgery. Psychiatric follow up is essential to diminish the frequency of recurrence. CONCLUSION: Symptoms of trichobezoars are nonspecific and may mimic those of other pathological gastro-intestinal conditions. Early diagnosis and treatment of this condition is of prime importance and may avoid later fatal complications.     

How you move is what you see: Action planning biases selection in visual search.

Three experiments investigated the impact of planning and preparing a manual grasping or pointing movement on feature detection in a visual search task. The authors hypothesized that action planning may prime perceptual dimensions that provide information for the open parameters of that action. Indeed, preparing for grasping facilitated detection of size targets while preparing for pointing facilitated detection of luminance targets. Following the Theory of Event Coding (Hommel, Müsseler, Aschersleben, & Prinz, 2001b), the authors suggest that perceptual dimensions may be intentionally weighted with respect to an intended action. More interesting, the action-related influences were observed only when participants searched for a predefined target. This implies that action-related weighting is not independent from task-relevance weighting. To account for our findings, the authors suggest an integrative model of visual search that incorporates input from action-planning processes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metamemory cues and monitoring accuracy: Judging what you know and what you will know.

Three experiments examined metamemory for categorized lists of items. Judgments of learning (JOLs) were obtained from college students either immediately after study or following a brief (at least 30-s) delay. In contrast to past findings (e.g., T. O. Nelson & J. Dunlosky, 1991), no advantage was found for delayed JOLs in Experiment 1, using a standard, prediction-based metamemory cue. In Experiment 2, knowledge-based judgments were elicited, and delayed JOL accuracy improved significantly. The relative efficacy of 4 different metamemory cues was examined in Experiment 3. An interaction between the timing and phrasing of JOL cues was detected: Delayed JOLs were more accurate than immediate JOLs only when knowledge-based cues were used. These results are interpreted in A. Koriat's (1997) cue-utilization framework for JOL accuracy, and they show that the phrasing of metamemory cues can have a substantial impact on monitoring accuracy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A hundred billion dollars a year on dialysis. How to calculate and what to compare

We present a patient with primary tracheobronquial amiloidosis diffuse, presenting with asthma-like dysnea. The diagnosis was made through the broncoscopy and biopsy of infiltrated bronchial mucosa.     

Children's mental health: The gap between what we know and what we do.

There is widespread agreement that over 11% of our nation's children need mental health treatment, but the majority of these children receive inadequate or inappropriate treatment. This gap between what we know should be provided and what is provided is the result of a poorly structured health care financing system and a poorly coordinated treatment system. The treatment system fails to recognize that children's mental health problems are interactions between intraindividual difficulties and environmental conditions. A wealth of models of prevention and treatment have been developed, and a substantial scientific basis for children's mental health interventions now exists, but there is a shortage of community based services and a lack of coordination across services. Public policy toward children with mental health problems must encourage application of knowledge about effective treatment systems and encourage care in the least restrictive and most cost-effective settings. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Counterfactual thinking: From what might have been to what may be.

Consideration of counterfactual alternatives to negative outcomes, particularly when the counterfactuals change those outcomes, has repeatedly been shown to intensify regret and judgments of blame. Two studies examined the influence of the relevance of the counterfactual to future behavior on Ss' judgments of regret and self-blame after a negative outcome. Results indicated that a dispositional tendency to consider the future consequences of current behavior can ameliorate the negative affect caused by thinking about how a negative outcome could have been avoided. Results also suggested that this amelioration is particularly likely to occur when Ss are induced to focus on the future. These findings are discussed in terms of understanding the positive functions counterfactuals may serve, particularly with respect to the determination of future behavior. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Tetraplegia and functional surgery of the upper limb: what anesthesia for what surgery?

Needle aspiration for the treatment of peritonsillar abscess was assessed in 43 consecutive children aged 7 to 18 years (mean age, 13.9 +/- 2.5 years) during the 3-year period from 1988 through 1991. A positive aspirate was obtained in 31 (76%) of the 41 patients who cooperated for needle aspiration; a mean of 2.9 +/- 1.9 mL of pus was withdrawn. Of the 31 children with a positive aspirate, in 27 (87%) the abscess resolved, two (6%) required a second aspiration for resolution, and two (6%) underwent immediate tonsillectomy for persistent abscess. Of the 10 children (24%) with negative aspirations, in six (60%) the abscess resolved with antibiotic treatment alone, three (30%) underwent immediate (quinsy) tonsillectomy, and in one (10%) the abscess spontaneously drained. No bleeding, airway obstruction, or anesthetic complications occurred. Needle aspiration of peritonsillar abscess in children, with tonsillectomy reserved for nonresponders, appears to be an efficacious and safe method of treatment.     

On hearing what you listen for: The effects of attention and expectancy.

Listening differs from hearing just as looking differs from seeing. Listening and looking imply an active, conscious attention to sound or sight, often to particular stimuli. Whereas looking is made obvious by eye or head movement, listening usually involves a more subtle, internal setting. Such selective listening is frequently cited with respect to the so-called cocktail-party effect, the ability to pick out and attend to one of many talkers. In this article, the author does not deal directly with the cocktail-party effect, but presents data to show how attention and expectation affect the processing of simple sounds. These are first steps toward an analytic understanding of the psychophysical bases of the selective attention to one sound among many. Selective listening benefits the detection of sounds in an attended spectral region, but has little effect on the detection of sounds coming from an attended spatial region or in an attended temporal pattern. As to its effect on auditory discrimination and recognition, we know only that selective listening speeds the discrimination of sounds from an attended direction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How to influence people to do what you want: The application of social psychology to diverse human problems.

Reviews the book, Influence: Science and Practice by Robert B. Cialdini (see record 1992-98649-000). This book states we like rare things and will act to get them. Less is best, rare is valuable, limited amounts, limited time, exclusive engagement are all scarcity terms that motivate people. Scarcity is used to sell everything from baseball cards to tickets for musical shows. When it is scarce, we value it. This is an extremely well written book. The second edition is designed for classroom use with research evidence to underpin each point or suggestion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Social support for the bereaved: Recipients' and providers' perspectives on what is helpful.

Interviewed 40 people (mean age 44 yrs) who had lost a spouse and 54 people (mean age 42 yrs) who had lost a child in a motor vehicle accident 4–7 yrs earlier to gather information concerning support attempts from others that were helpful and unhelpful. Support attempts most frequently mentioned as helpful were contact with a similar other and opportunity to express feelings; those most frequently mentioned as unhelpful were giving advice and encouraging recovery. To understand better the unhelpful support attempts, comparisons were made with 100 control Ss' reports of what they would do or say to help a bereaved person. The possibility that unhelpful support attempts occur because people do not know what to say to bereaved persons seems implausible in view of the enlightened responses given by controls. The close correspondence between bereaved Ss' reports of how recovered they felt and control respondents' estimates of how recovered the bereaved would be suggests that unhelpful support attempts are not based on misconceptions about recovery. These findings indicate that factors inherent in the transaction between the bereaved and potential supporters should be addressed in future research concerned with understanding support attempts that fail. (40 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)