|
|
 |
|
 |
|
Psychology
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|  Theories of Affect |
|
| Affects have been at the focus of psychoanalysis from the moment of its inception, and clinical work has never proceeded and cannot conceivably take place without them. The literature is strewn with remarks indicating that a general theory of psychoanalysis cannot be constructed until there is some progress in affect theory. Similarly, on the clinical level, there is almost no text without mention of affects, a fact that is reflected in the words of André Green, who wrote in 1977: "It is no exaggeration to say that, in psychoanalysis as it is practiced today, work on the affects commands a large part of our efforts. There is no favorable outcome which does not involve an affective change" (p. 129). Bion, in an address delivered to the British Society, touched upon the special status of affects when he remarked that "feelings are the few things which analysts have the luxury of being able to regard as facts" (unpublished address to the British Society, 1976, quoted by Limentani, 1977, p. 171). |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Adolescent Alcohol and Drug Abuse |
|
| Estimates of the prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse among adolescents vary with the definition of adolescent “problem drinking” and “problem drug use.” Most commonly, prevalence estimates have been based on measures of consumption such as quantity consumed, frequency of use, frequency of intoxication, or binge drinking. For example, as of 1998, 49.1% of high school seniors report marijuana use, 22.8% report use within the past month, and 5.6% report daily use (Johnston et al., 1998). Additionally, 29.4% of seniors report past use of one or more hard drugs, 81.4% acknowledge using alcohol some time in their life, and 32.9% report being drunk in the past 30 days. This survey also indicates that 3.9% of high school seniors drink daily. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Animal Cognition |
|
| After a number of false starts, animal cognition has taken root as a viable area of inquiry. Instead of sterile debates about the validity of behavioral, as opposed to cognitive, accounts of animal learning we have recently been witness to an impressive array of empirical and theoretical analyses of memory, expectancy and other cognitive processes in animals (see Hulse, Fowler, & Honig, 1978 and Griffin, 1982 for recent summaries).
As significant as such developments may be, it is important to understand how the current Zeitgeist, the widespread study of human cognition in particular, has contributed to the development of animal cognition. The purpose of this essay is to call attention both to some features of recent research on animal cognition which distinguish it from earlier, less successful, efforts and to some basic differences between the assumptions underlying the study of animal and human cognition. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Attachment Theory and Close Relationships |
|
| Attachment theory is much broader and more pervasive in its scope than many people realize. The theory has two principal components: (1) a normative component, which attempts to explain modal, species-typical patterns of behavior and stages of development through which nearly all human beings pass, and (2) an individual difference component, which attempts to explain stable, systematic deviations from the modal behavioral patterns and stages (see Hazan & Shaver, 1994 ; Simpson, in press, for more in-depth discussions). Due to the success of Mary Ainsworth's pioneering research on patterns of attachment in young children (see Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978 ), most empirical work to date has focused on individual differences in attachment instead of normative features. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Behavior Therapy with Children |
|
| Children and families benefit from behavior therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the remediation and management of psychological and behavioral problems (Casey & Berman, 1985; Kazdin, Bass, Ayers, & Rodgers, 1990; Lonigan, Elbert, & Johnson, 1998; Spirito, 1999; Weisz, Donenberg, Han, & Weiss, 1995; Weisz, Weiss, Alicke, & Klotz, 1987; Weisz, Weiss, Han, Granger, & Morton, 1995). In the fields of clinical child and pediatric psychology, various behavior therapies have been shown efficacious for a wide variety of presenting problems, including depressive disorders (Kaslow & Thompson, 1998), phobic and anxiety disorders (Ollendick & King, 1998), autism and pervasive developmental disorders (Rogers, 1998), oppositional defiant and conduct disorders (Brestan & Eyberg, 1998), attentiondeficit/hyperactivity disorder (Pelham, Wheeler, & Chronis, 1998), recurrent pediatric headache (Holden, Deichmann, & Levy, 1999), recurrent abdominal pain (Janicke & Finney, 1999), medical procedure-related pain (Powers, 1999), diseaserelated pain (Walco, Sterling, Conte, & Engel, 1999), severe feeding problems (Kerwin, 1999), pediatric obesity (Jelalian & Saelens, 1999), enuresis and encopresis (Houts, Berman, & Abramson, 1994; Luxem & Christophersen, 1994; Stark et al., 1997), and sleep disorders (Mindell & Durand, 1993). Although many challenges remain for clinical child and pediatric psychology researchers and clinicians (Kazdin & Kendall, 1998; Weisz & Hawley, 1998), it is clear that behavior therapies and cognitivebehavioral therapies should be included in the health care provided to children and families. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Maltreatment Effect on Child Psychology |
|
| Child maltreatment is now recognized as a major social and mental health problem in the United States and increasingly throughout the world. Since the publication of the seminal article describing the “battered child syndrome” in 1962 by Kempe and his colleagues, (Kempe, Silverman, Steele, Droegemuller, & Silver, 1962), the fields of medicine, social work, law, psychology, law enforcement, and, more recently, dentistry and public health have increased their focus on the diagnosis, treatment, prosecution, and prevention of child abuse and neglect. Various progressive measures have been taken to protect children at the state and federal levels, such as the enactment of laws mandating the reporting of suspected abuse or neglect, the establishment of a nationwide system to protect children (Child Protective Services, CPS), and the creation in 1974 of the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect (now the Office of Child Abuse and Neglect, OCAN). In spite of these efforts, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect (1990) concluded “that child abuse and neglect in the United States now represents a national emergency” (p. 2), and a recent report by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (1998) stated, “One of our nation's most compelling problems is the maltreatment of our children” (p. ix). |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Psychology of Children |
|
| Although influential developmentalists such as Wilhelm Preyer (1888–1889) and Leonard Carmichael (1933, 1946, 1970) published major works detailing the unsolved problems in comprehending the relations between biological and behavioral development, and early editions of the Handbook of Child Psychology each provided scholarly reviews of the relation between biological (including the brain) and behavioral development (see, e.g., Carmichael, 1933, 1946, 1970; Gesell, 1933; McGraw, 1946; Tanner, 1970), the epigenesis of neurobiological development was accorded little attention in the prominent developmental theories in existence through much of the 20th century (Crnic & Pennington, 1987; Fishbein, 1976; Goldman, Rakic, 1987; Johnson, 1998; Segalowitz, 1994). Undoubtedly, the relative neglect of developmental neurobiology as relevant to developmental theorizing on the unfolding of behavioral epigenesis was due, in part, to the paucity of information that existed about the structural and functional organization of the brain. Writing in the late 19th century, both James Mark Baldwin (1895) and Sigmund Freud (1895/ 1966) conveyed a great interest in the phylogenesis of the brain, but expressed surprisingly little concern with its ontogenesis (Segalowitz, 1994). |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Divorce and Child Psychology |
|
| Nearly one million children a year in the United States will experience their parents' divorce (U.S. Bureau of Census, 1992). It appears that 50% to 60% of American children will live in a single-parent household, typically headed by mothers, for some period of their life. Almost three-quarters of the fathers and two-thirds of the mothers will remarry (Booth & Edwards, 1992; Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1994). Because the rate of divorce is 10% higher for second marriages than for first marriages, many of these remarriages will also fail (Cherlin & Furstenberg, 1994), particularly those involving once-divorced women. Almost half of all the children whose parents divorce will be in a stepfamily within four years, and the rate of divorce for remarried families in which children are present is 50% higher. Statistics vary from country to country, but divorce has become commonplace. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Consumerism and Behavior Modification |
|
| As in business and industry, issues of consumerism have begun to assume an important role in behavior modification in education. Consumerism has affected the manner in which programs are evaluated. For instance, Braukmann et al. ( 1975) have solicited the satisfaction of their clients and others directly and indirectly served by their Achievement Place program. Willner, Braukmann, Kirigin, Fixsen, Phillips, and Wolf ( 1977) used client satisfaction information to train staff. The clients were asked to identify staff behaviors that they preferred. The social behaviors were then taught to the staff and the clients rated the quality of interactions with the staff more highly than previously. In many college courses, including our PSI courses, it has become standard practice to ask students to evaluate various aspects of the course ( Johnson et al., 1976 ). Informal observation has suggested that the more responsive we are to student suggestions, the more satisfaction is reported. Brownell, Colletti, Ersner-Hershfield, Hershfield, & Wilson ( 1977) have demonstrated the wisdom of such input. In their study, they found that when their clients were involved in the selection of their performance standards, they performed better than when standards were externally imposed. In order to assess any potential negative side effects of the "extrinsic reinforcement" system used in Ramey and Sulzer-Azaroff ( 1977) , we asked students to rate their preference for the task so reinforced. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Juvenile Delinquency and Criminal Behavior |
|
| Juvenile delinquency is defined as illegal behavior committed by a minor. Although this definition is rather simple, the tremendous volume of literature that exists on delinquency and the many disciplines that have contributed to this body of literature, including criminology, law, sociology, and psychology, indicate that the issue itself is complex.
Delinquent behavior is a relative concept: it has meaning only in relation to the laws that apply to a given population at a specific point in time. This makes discussion of the incidence of delinquency virtually meaningless, because what defines a behavior as delinquent can vary from time to time, culture to culture, and even state to state (Lunden, 1964). Wootton (1959) noted that a single change in the law could make many behaviors illegal or make previously illegal behavior legal. This makes the study of delinquency, or antisocial behavior, very difficult. The most accurate statistics are compiled by agencies that can control for the variations in legislation and criminal justice practices. Therefore, the reader wishing such data is referred to the annual reports published by the U.S. Department of Justice and state and local law enforcement agencies. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
| |
| Depression and Suicide in Adolescence |
|
| In the latter part of the 1990s, depression among adolescents has become a widely publicized phenomenon. Looking only at such events as the suicide of teen idol Kurt Cobain of the rock group Nirvana and the school shootings in Jonesboro, Arkansas, Springfield, Oregon, West Paducah, Kentucky, Bethel, Alaska, Pearl, Mississippi, and Littleton, Colorado, one comes to the conclusion that depression and suicide are a common occurrence for this generation of adolescents. Even though an examination of suicide rates for this age group will show that the dramatic increases in the 1970s and 1980s have begun to level off, major declines in suicidal behaviors do not appear to be occurring, and depression appears to be ever-present.
Only in the 1980s was depression clearly acknowledged as a clinical phenomenon occurring in children and adolescents (Matson, 1989). This acknowledgment occurred primarily with the advent of more behavioral indices of depressive symptoms. Prior to that time, there was controversy as to whether children and adolescents suffered from such a syndrome as depression and how to view depressive symptoms shown by these affected individuals. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Parenting: The Child in the Context of the Family |
|
| There may be no other event that couples look forward to with greater anticipation, or experience with more elation and satisfaction, than the planned birth of a healthy infant. With the arrival of the first infant also comes new responsibilities and multiple opportunities for growth. A key function of the family is the nurturing socialization of the child. Belsky, Lerner, and Spanier (1984) also propose that as the family is a means of socializing children, so it is also a means of socializing adults. The opportunities for personal growth are as great in having children as in being children.
Until relatively recently, parenting research focused on such issues as parental attitudes, motherinfant dyadic interaction, the impact of the child on the caregiver, and, most recently, the role of fathers. Now the scope has broadened and focuses more on the reciprocal and ongoing processes that shape the family as a unit with multiple components. Integral is the social context in which the family operates. Using personal construct theory (Kelly, 1955), Pedersen, Yarrow, Anderson, and Cain (1978) suggest that there are potential benefits from two parents (rather than a single individual) interacting with their infant in the development of complex constructs needed for social exchanges. |
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| Jungian Psychology |
|
| There remains for consideration a further possibility, namely, that Jung's work has been a good cultural fit--using 'culture' in the wider, anthropological sense to denote a total way of life--for groups to which the work of Freud, again on cultural grounds, could not gain such ready access.
Indications of a difference in background between the Jungian and the Freudian schools have been found already, and there are other pointers in the same direction. A. A. Roback, himself of Jewish origin, declares: 'the facts in the case are correct, viz., Jewish patients and Jewish practitioners play a predominant part in psychoanalysis'. Indeed, he continues,
'I should venture to state that the particulars contained in the hundreds of psychoanalytic articles regarding Jewish idiosyncrasies and peculiarities are of inestimable value both as literature and psychology; and it would not be presumptuous to predict that these studies will be greatly prized by the future Jewish historian, who will seek to reconstruct our age in the light of these intimate details.'
For the Jungian school in general, as distinct from Jung himself, no statement quite so clear-cut appears to have been made, and indeed we noted that analytic psychology does contain within its ranks some Jewish members. Nevertheless, the information that many of his patients have come from the Church, as well as his preoccupation with Christian dogma, gives a sufficient inkling of the groups with which he has largely been in touch.
|
|
| full text » |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
