In 4 experiments, the relationships among critical reasoning, personal goals, general intellectual ability, and information-processing style were explored. Three critical reasoning competencies were investigated: the law of large numbers, the intuitive analysis of covariance, and the ability to detect flaws in experimental designs. Participants were presented problems that involved goal-enhancing, goal-neutral, and goal-threatening evidence. There were 2 main findings: (a) Although general ability predicted 2 components of critical reasoning, biases in reasoning were better predicted by information processing style (i.e., rational vs. intuitive), (b) Reasoning on the goal-enhancing and neutral problems was less sophisticated than reasoning on threatening problems. Depth of processing seems to be a primary mechanism underlying motivated reasoning. In addition, information processing style is an individual difference variable that moderates the extent of reasoning biases. Similar results were obtained across different forms of critical thinking.

This article addresses the definitional and measurement barriers currently inhibiting countertransference research and indicates new pathways toward meaningful and clinically relevant countertransference research. First, I review the countertransference definitional debate and advocate for the adoption of a moderate countertransference definition. Second, I review the extant countertransference research, with primary emphasis on measurement issues, and recommend new methods and instruments for assessing the construct. Finally, I conclude with a few remarks about clinical implications and directions for future CT research.

Research indicates that traditional psychotherapy training practices are ineffective in durably improving the effectiveness of psychotherapists. In addition, the quantity and quality of psychotherapy training research has also been limited in several ways. Thus, based on extant scholarship and personal experience, we offer several suggestions for improving on this state of affairs. Specifically, we propose that future psychotherapy trainings focus on a few "big ideas," target psychotherapist meta-cognitive skills, and attend more closely to the organizational/treatment context in which the training takes place. In terms of future training research, we recommend that researchers include a wider range of intermediate outcomes in their studies, examine the nature of trainee skill development, and investigate the role that organizational/treatment culture plays in terms of the retention of changes elicited by psychotherapy training. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved).

Countertransference (CT) can provide psychotherapists with important information about relationship dynamics with clients, the therapy process, and clinical decisions. CT also can lead therapists to view clients and sessions inaccurately, feel unduly anxious, and behave in ways that primarily meet their own needs at the expense of clients. In summarizing existing scholarship on CT, Fauth (2006) noted the need for further research on therapists' subjective experiences of CT to enhance current understanding of this pantheoretical construct. To this end, we interviewed 18 therapists about their experiences of CT in a recently terminated case; half of the therapists described CT in a case they judged to be successful, and half described a case they thought was unsuccessful. Interview questions were designed to address the 5 components of CT proposed by Hayes (1995): origins, triggers, manifestations, effects, and management. A grounded theory analysis was conducted and a model describing therapists' experiences of CT in successful and unsuccessful therapy was developed. Implications for practice, training, and research are discussed.

Although therapist self-awareness has been hailed as a critical component of psychotherapy, recent evidence suggests that therapists' in-session self-awareness may hinder rather than help the therapeutic process. The authors examined the in-session self-awareness of therapists in training (trainees) in relation to their interpersonal involvement and the reactions of volunteer student clients (volunteer clients). Trainee in-session self-awareness variables predicted over 50% of the variance in their interpersonal involvement and the volunteer clients' perceptions of the therapeutic alliance. Contrary to previous research, trainees' level of in-session self-awareness was generally helpful rather than hindering from both the trainee and student-client perspectives. Potentially hindering aspects of in-session self-awareness did emerge, however, in that trainees' increasing efforts to manage their self-awareness were related to decreased trainee involvement and lower volunteer client ratings of the therapeutic alliance.