Changing narrative schemas in psychotherapy.

Presents a model of narrative structure, based on work in child therapy and the cognitive developmental investigation of narrative structure and memory. A model is presented of the processes that maximize the likelihood of securing narrative representational change, drawing on work in cognitive/developmental theory and the philosophy of science. Discussion and example show how the models of narrative structure and representational change can be integrated to define specific therapeutic tasks. Ways in which the empirical study of narrative schematic representations in psychotherapy may enhance understanding of various psychotherapeutic techniques are suggested. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Schizophrenia and the collapse of the dialogical self: Recovery, narrative and psychotherapy.

Asks the questions: How do personal narratives disintegrate in schizophrenia, and how should narrative issues in schizophrenia be addressed in individual psychotherapy? To examine these issues, this article presents a case analysis of 19 Ss suggesting that narratives in schizophrenia are compromised when internal dialogue either dissolves into cacophonous disarray or becomes too singularly and rigidly organized. It is suggested, therefore, that one way psychotherapy may be useful to persons with schizophrenia is to facilitate the reemergence of internal dialogue through external dialogue. In particular, psychotherapy can assist persons with schizophrenia to develop a narrative that allows for recovery by creating a context for increasing self-awareness and agency. The authors propose that, in the midst of the ongoing development of numerous psychosocial treatments for schizophrenia, the ability to facilitate narrative coherence may represent a unique psychotherapeutic contribution to recovery for persons with this condition. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Interaction, language and the "narrative turn" in psychotherapy and psychiatry

The traditional emphasis in psychiatry about "listening to patients" has recently been added to by the development of what we call the "narrative turn" in mental health care where clients' narratives are emphasised. We shall argue however that both approaches tend to embody similar assumptions about therapeutic transactions and roles, and that much work emphasising narratives reveals little about how therapists and researchers work to reconstruct the clients' accounts. It is therefore vital that the emphasis on narratives be supplemented by a more thoroughgoing approach to shared structures of knowledge which act to prefigure clients' distress, how professional records are a profoundly transformative medium, and how therapeutic encounters work to co-construct clients' narratives, rather than simply reflect or explore them. The radical implications of thinking about therapy in terms of narrative and language need to be more fully discussed in the therapy literature, so the narrative turn does not simply reproduce the common-sense assumptions of more conventional approaches.     

Children's use of the temporal dimension of gaze for inferring preference.

This study examined 4- and 5-year-olds' ability to spontaneously use the relative duration and frequency of another's object-directed gaze for inferring that person's preference. In Experiment 1, analysis revealed a strong age effect for judgment accuracy, which could not be accounted for by cue-monitoring proficiency. Reducing the saliency of the objects in Experiment 2 yielded significant improvement in the younger children's performance. Thus, at 4 years, children already show signs of attending to the temporal dimension of gaze for making mentalistic inferences of preferential liking, but their competence may be undermined by the object choices themselves. By 5 years, they appear to overcome this competition. The obtained developmental difference is discussed in terms of concurrent transitions in attention regulation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The Wizard of Oz as cultural narrative and conceptual model for psychotherapy.

Narrative has long served as a means of communicating important information that explains the relationships among events and as a guide for learning skills. This article examines a major contemporary narrative, The Wizard of Oz, as it elucidates difficulties encountered in our society and how they are addressed through development and change. The implications of the film for psychotherapy are explored using the comparative approach developed by Jerome Frank. The narrative is considered as it illustrates Frank's notion of demoralization and the elements and processes hypothesized to be shared by all effective psychotherapeutic approaches. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reducing psychotherapy dropouts: Maximizing perspective convergence in the psychotherapy dyad.

Reviews 3 decades of research addressing premature termination of psychotherapy. Client, therapist, interpersonal dyadic, and administrative variables have been extensively investigated. Because of a variety of methodological problems, this literature is highly contradictory, and results are difficult to reconcile, with only socioeconomic status (SES) and ethnicity emerging as consistent predictors of dropout. Treatment matching studies have evaluated the effects of maximizing similarity (or convergence) and minimizing perspective divergence within the therapeutic dyad. Research looking at interactive and multidimensional factors such as working alliance, client satisfaction and expectations, client likability, and pretreatment preparation has proven useful. This research suggests that psychotherapy dropouts might be minimized if differences between therapists' and patients' perspectives on therapeutic enterprise are acknowledged and recognized as legitimate targets for intervention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

电磁搅拌方式对A356铝合金凝固组织形貌分形维数的影响

利用分形几何中的分形维数定量表征了铝熔体经低过热度浇注和电磁搅拌作用下半固态合金浆料中初生相的尺寸细化和球化程度.通过OM、Matlab软件平台编制计盒维数法计算程序,研究半固态初生相α-Al形貌的分形特征和电磁搅拌方式对其形貌分形维数变化规律的影响.结果表明,合金的凝固组织具有分形特征,可通过分形维数对初生相尺寸细化和球化程度进行定量表征.初生相的形貌分形维数随搅拌方式由无搅拌、单向连续搅拌过渡到双向连续搅拌时,呈逐渐减小的变化规律,是一个降维的过程.在双向连续搅拌作用下初生相的分形维数最小,晶粒细化球化程度达到最佳     

The future of psychotherapy with children: Developmental psychotherapy.

Discusses the concept of developmental psychotherapy for children as a way of integrating information about human development, basic biological processes, and psychopathology with knowledge gained from studies of therapeutic change. In developmental psychotherapy, rather than trying to provide a permanent cure, the therapist tries using a variety of methods to help the child regain a footing on a developmental pathway more likely to lead to adequate adaptation in subsequent periods of life. Research in this field should concentrate on continuing refinement of models for developmental pathways leading to specific outcomes in a number of domains, particularly those involving externalizing disorders and substance abuse. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expectations of psychotherapy duration: How long should psychotherapy last?

Surveyed 234 members (aged 36–55 yrs) of American Psychological Association (APA) Division 29 (Psychotherapy) regarding their expectations of the number of psychotherapy sessions needed to successfully treat persons with various psychological disorders. Psychologists expected 30–40 sessions of individual psychotherapy to achieve clinically significant change. Differences in treatment duration expectancies were associated with client diagnosis and with therapist age, gender, therapeutic orientation, and experience. Psychotherapists' judgments of appropriate treatment durations should be considered when establishing guidelines for the duration of psychotherapy for specific psychological problems and disorders. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Foreword: Values in psychotherapy.

Contends that the glory of psychotherapists' "tree of psychology" is that its roots are absolutely philosophical and, therefore, limitless in scope and devoid of absolute proofs. The trunk of this tree is a solid and substantial store of scientific and empirical data. The branches bear a multitude of flowers, many of which are not quite substantial; not made to endure the critical climate of a questioning world. Ultimately, however, these flowers contain the germinating factor, that which allows human knowledge the possibility of continued growth and rejuvenation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Metamorphosis in psychotherapy: End of the systems era.

Discusses the reorganization of psychotherapy from a group of dominant schools of thought into a more generalized approach to treatment. It is noted that outcome studies found that all therapies seem to work, with only negligible differences between them. Self-criticism of the 3 major therapy systems (psychoanalysis, behavior therapy, and cognitive therapy) is outlined. Formal responses to the decline of psychotherapy systems include eclecticism, nonspecific therapies, pluralism, microinvestigation of therapy sessions, and therapy manuals that make therapies portable and transferrable. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Dimensions of psychotherapy: A factor-analytic study of ratings of psychotherapy sessions.

Rated tape recordings of 60 early sessions of psychoanalytically oriented therapy on 110 process variables. The ratings of 3 Os were clustered and factor analyzed. 4 factors were rotated and interpreted as (a) patient health vs. distress, (b) optimal empathic relationship, (c) active directive mode, and (d) interpretive mode with receptive patient. For 27 of the 30 patients, outcome ratings were obtained from the therapist (patient improvement and success + patient satisfaction). Patient improvement was not predicted by any process ratings. Success + patient satisfaction, on which women scored higher than men, was predicted by patient health vs. distress. Patients rated in early sessions as healthy and low in distress had better prognoses. Optimal empathic relationship qualities related positively to success in therapies low in directive mode, but for relatively directive therapies, this relationship was negative. (31 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Specific and nonspecific factors in psychotherapy: A problematic paradigm for psychotherapy research.

Discusses the specific/nonspecific hypothesis—a paradigm that has guided psychotherapy research for the last 3 decades—and suggests that underlying this hypothesis is the assumption that research can ultimately separate and assess the relative contributions to psychotherapeutic outcome of specific and nonspecific factors. This assumption, in turn, has held the promise that specific, active ingredients of psychotherapy could be identified. Categorical rejection of the specific/nonspecific hypothesis is advocated. It is suggested that the identity of psychotherapy with its interpersonal context must be acknowledged. In this way, the goal of psychotherapy research shifts from the search for active ingredients toward efforts to identify fundamental principles of human interaction that underlie the interpersonal conditions essential for therapeutic change. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychologists conducting psychotherapy: New findings and historical comparisons on the psychotherapy division membership.

481 American Psychological Association Division 29 psychologists engaged in psychotherapy returned a mailed questionnaire concerning their characteristics, activities, affiliations, theories, and satisfactions. Results are described and compared with findings of a similar study completed a decade ago. Among the most salient findings were (1) an aging profession that shows high career satisfaction and increased employment in independent practice; (2) 70% endorsement of psychodynamicism or psychoanalysis as a primary or secondary orientation; (3) an escalating proportion of female psychotherapists, whose employment in independent practice is more than 2.5 times greater than in 1981; and (4) a negligible increase in minority therapists. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Unification in psychotherapy: A commentary.

In this commentary I challenge both the possibility and desirability of a fully unified psychotherapy. I argue that multiple ways of construing psychotherapy theory and practice are always possible and, in any case, simply unavoidable. As such, it behooves us to value differences among therapies even as authors search for better ways to integrate them. It is through ongoing dialogue and debate among proponents of different therapies that a degree of assimilation of ideas and techniques from one theory or therapy into another takes place. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)