The current state of empathy research.

The literature on empathy, primarily from counseling and psychotherapy and secondarily from social and developmental psychology, is reviewed. Obstacles that may account for theoretical confusions and empirical difficulties in studying empathy are highlighted. The decrease in empathy research in recent years appears attributable to the lack of clear focus and effective research tools as well as the shift in interest from empathy to other concepts such as the working alliance. It is argued that there is a need to return to studying empathy. Researchers should distinguish between dispositional and experiential empathy and between intellectual empathy and empathic emotions and indicate whether they are examining therapist or client experience of empathy. Suggestions for future research are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Becoming psychotherapists: Experiences of novice trainees in a beginning graduate class.

The authors investigated the experiences related to becoming psychotherapists for 5 counseling psychology doctoral trainees in their first prepracticum course. Qualitative analyses of weekly journals indicated that trainees discussed challenges related to becoming psychotherapists (e.g., being self-critical, having troubling reactions to clients, learning to use helping skills), gains made during the semester related to becoming psychotherapists (e.g., using helping skills more effectively, becoming less self-critical, being able to connect with clients), as well as experiences in supervision and activities that helped them cope with their anxieties. Results are discussed in 5 broad areas: feelings about self in role of psychotherapist, awareness of reactions to clients, learning and using helping skills, reactions to supervision, and experiences that fostered growth. Implications for training and research are provided. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

My personal reactions to Rogers (1957): The facilitative but neither necessary nor sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.

In this brief commentary regarding Rogers' (1957) paper (see record 2007-14639-002), I comment on Rogers' statement about personality change, the six conditions, and the resulting hypotheses. I conclude that the construct of therapeutic personality change needs to be reformulated to include interpersonal changes, and that the six conditions can facilitate therapeutic personality change, but are neither necessary nor sufficient for therapeutic personality change. I also suggest that several components from current common factors models (e.g., building expectations of change, encouraging corrective experiences) and a consideration of boundaries need to be included into a reformulation of Rogers' propositions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A qualitative analysis of client perceptions of the effects of helpful therapist self-disclosure in long-term therapy.

Thirteen adult psychotherapy clients currently in long-term therapy were interviewed twice, with semistructured protocols, about their experiences with helpful instances of therapist self-disclosure. Data were analyzed with a qualitative methodology. Results indicated that helpful therapist self-disclosures (a) occurred when these clients were discussing important personal issues, (b) were perceived as being intended by therapists to normalize or reassure the clients, and (c) consisted of a disclosure of personal nonimmediate information about the therapists. The therapist self-disclosures resulted in positive consequences for these clients that included insight or a new perspective from which to make changes, an improved or more equalized therapeutic relationship, normalization, and reassurance. Implications for psychotherapy are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bradykinin-increased phospholipid deacylation-reacylation in rat renal medulla is inhibited by dBc AMP

The effect of bradykinin on the mobilization of arachidonic acid was analyzed separately by acylation and degradation. Acylating activity was determined by the incorporation of [¹⁴C]arachidonic acid into the phospholipids at different times. Different concentrations of bradykinin had no effect on the phospholipid acylating activities. The degradation of the phospholipids was performed on renal medullary slices prelabeled with [¹⁴C]arachidonic acid. Treatment with bradykinin produced an initial degradation of phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylinositol, with a concomitant increase in lysophosphatidylcholine, lysophosphatidylethanolamine and lysophosphatidylinositol within 5 min of incubation. Phosphatidylcholine-, phosphatidylethanolamine-and phosphatidylinositol-labeling increased thereafter and reached the control values after 10 min of incubation. After 30 min, incubation of prelabeled slices with bradykinin produced a significant concentration-dependent increase in the phospholipid-labeling by reutilization of [¹⁴C]arachidonic acid. The effect of bradykinin on the phospholipid-labeling was blocked by preincubation with increasing concentrations of dBc AMP. Mepacrine also blocked the bradykinin stimulation in phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine, but had no effect on bradykinin-induced changes in the phosphatidylinositol arachidonic acid moiety.     

Investigation on the behaviour of selected pharmaceuticals in the groundwater after infiltration of treated wastewater.

In a rural arid area without suitable receiving water the treated wastewater of a low loaded municipal wastewater treatment plant with full nutrient removal and additional post treatment steps is infiltrated into the unsaturated soil for groundwater recharge. Groundwater probes at increasing distances from the infiltration point have been sampled every two months over a period of 14 months. Beside conventional parameters (nutrients, carbon, and bacterial counts) samples were analysed for pharmaceutically active substances. Depending on and corresponding to their chemical structure and their fate during wastewater treatment, the selected substances showed different behaviour in the saturated zone of the groundwater. The antiepileptic Carbamazepine behaves very conservative and only is removed negligible even after long flow times within the subsurface zone. For other substances like the tranquilizer Diazepam or the analgesics Diclofenac a partial elimination during the different steps of wastewater treatment can be observed. Further degradation could be observed during the subsequent subsurface passage. In correlation with flow time additional removal of these substances from the aqueous phase can be observed. The musk substances Galaxolide and Tonalide were removed to some extend but not as good as the previous mentioned compounds.     

Comparison of the behaviour of selected micropollutants in a membrane bioreactor and a conventional wastewater treatment plant.

Micropollutants as pharmaceutical active compounds (PhACs), residuals of personal care products or endocrine disrupting chemicals are of increasing interest in water pollution control. In this context the removal efficiencies of sewage treatment plants (STPs) are of importance, as their effluents are important point sources for the release of those substances into the aquatic environment. Activated sludge based wastewater treatment is the worldwide prevalently used treatment technique. In conventional plants the separation of treated wastewater and sludge occurs via sedimentation. A new development is the application of membrane technology for this separation step. The studies focus on the influence of the solids retention time (SRT) on the removal efficiency, as the SRT is the most important parameter in the design of STPs. A conventional activated sludge plant (CASP) and a membrane bioreactor (MBR) were operated at different SRTs. The substances selected are the antiepileptic carbamazepine, the analgesics diclofenac and ibuprofen, the lipid regulator bezafibrate, the polycyclic musks tonalide and galaxolide and the contraceptive 17alpha-ethinylestradiole. No significant differences in the removal efficiency were detected. Due to the absence of suspended solids in the MBR effluent, substances with high adsorption potential could be retained to slightly higher amounts.     

Effects of lipoxygenase and of chemical oxidising agent potassium iodate on rheological properties of durum dough

To study the involvement of lipoxygenase (LOX) and oxidising agent potassium iodate (KIO₃) in rheological behaviour of dough, mixograph and alveograph tests were performed using durum cultivars differing for quality and endogenous levels of LOX. Both tests were done in standard condition and with the adding of KIO₃ and of LOX and/or its substrate, utilised singly or in different combinations. The effects of these treatments were related to change of ‐SH and S–S content in relative mixograph dough. The mixograph and alveograph responses showed that the KIO₃ had an improving effect on dough tenacity and that the adding of LOX system enhanced this trend; on the contrary, the LOX system alone seemed not affect mixing stability. No relation was found between rheological responses and ‐SH and S–S content in the mixograph doughs. The results obtained could suggest that in durum wheat the main effect of LOX could be ascribable to bleaching action because of the co‐oxidation of carotenoid pigments.     

Development of a counselor verbal response category.

Developed a counselor response category system for measuring counselor verbal behavior by incorporating components from 11 existing systems, refining the categories after use, and having experts match examples to the definitions. The resulting system had 17 mutually exclusive categories, which had at least minimal face and content validity. In rating 3,866 counselor response units from 12 personal/emotional intake sessions, the category system resulted in high agreement levels between 3 judges. An analysis of the agreement levels for individual categories led to a revised 14-category system: minimal encourager, approval-reassurance, information, direct guidance, closed question, open question, restatement, reflection, nonverbal referent, interpretation, confrontation, self-disclosure, silence, and other. (11 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of reflection, restatement, probe, and nonverbal behaviors on client affect.

Examined the effects of counselor verbal behavior (reflections, probes, and restatements) and nonverbal behavior (presence or absence of nodding and smiling) on the verbal responses of 48 undergraduates. Each S participated in a half-hour counseling session which was divided into 4 time periods (baseline, counselor intervention, baseline, and counselor intervention). It was observed that probes resulted in more discussion of feelings than did either reflections or restatements. Nonverbal behavior did not affect discussion of feelings. Possible reasons for the effectiveness of the probe are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)