This article analyzes the concepts of "enmeshment" and "cohesion" and their entanglement in the field of family therapy. Early theories in this area were concerned primarily with processes of self/other differentiation. More recent theories have favored spatial metaphors that emphasize closeness-distance. We contend that self/ other differentiation and closeness-distance are different classes of behavior and that their linkage in the literature has obscured useful distinctions. Our analysis reveals two separate dimensions that clinicians and researchers should consider: Intrusiveness (including coercive control, separation anxiety, possessiveness/jealousy, emotional reactivity, and projective mystification); and Closeness-Caregiving (including warmth, time together, nurturance, physical intimacy, and consistency). We give definitions of these constructs and briefly examine their clinical and gender-related implications.
The study demonstrated that, contrary to common belief, proficiency in surgery does not protect against stressful auditory influences or the influence of mental preoccupation. Interestingly, relaxing auditory influences such as classical music can even have a positive impact on the accuracy of experts. Previous musical experience could help to identify surgeons whose performance may be specifically affected by music or noise.
The authors introduce the Music Experience Questionnaire (MEQ), a self-report measure of individual differences in reactions to music. In analyses of responses in a derivation sample of 211 undergraduates and a replication sample of 105 undergraduates, scores on the 6 scales of this measure showed acceptable alpha coefficients and test-retest correlations. The authors found 2 principal factors: subjective/physical reactions to music and active involvement. MEQ scores were, at most, weakly correlated with 2 measures of favorability of self-presentation, the Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale (D. P. Crowne & D. Marlowe, 1960) and the Responding Desirability on Attitudes and Opinions Scale (K. Schuessler, D. H. Hittle, & J. Cardascia, 1978). Examination of correlations between MEQ scores and the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression scale (L. S. Radloff, 1977), as well as factor scores on the Adjective Check List (H. G. Gough & A. B. Heilbrun, 1983), suggested areas of similarity and difference in the correlates of music experience for women and men. The authors discuss directions for future research as well as potential uses of the MEQ.
Four aspects of the item content of personality inventories were studied: the area of psychological functioning addressed (cognitive, preferences, feelings, behavioral), degree of reference to situational factors, degree of reference to response frequency, and the nature of reference to time. Three judges rated items of the California Psychological Inventory, Eysenck Personality Inventory, Maudsley Personality Inventory, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, Jackson Personality Research Form, and Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire. Behavioral acts were found infrequently addressed in inventory items, and the other areas of functioning were approximately equally represented. More than half of the items referred to situation characteristics, 39% included the notion of frequency of behavior or experience, and most referred to the present. Rating reliabilities were also presented, and results for individual inventories were compared. Implications for controversies in the field of personality were discussed.
Predictions of psychiatric patients' imminent dangerousness by 30 experienced psychologists and psychiatrists were studied. These clinical judges reviewed summary descriptions of 40 male patients newly admitted to an acute-care psychiatric unit and predicted whether each patient would engage in an assault during his first 7 days on the unit. Statistically significant but low levels of reliability were found among individual judges' predictions, but a strong relationship was found between composite judgments by psychologists and psychiatrists. Judges attained a low accuracy rate in predicting patients' violence. Cue-utilization analyses suggested that on the whole both actual violence and judges' forecasts were linearly predictable. Variables in the model of clinical forecasts of violence included patients' assaultiveness prior to admission as well as rated hostility and depressive mood, whereas empirical correlates of violence in this patient sample included the absence of emotional withdrawal and the presence of hallucinatory behavior. The apparent extent to which judges used valid predictors of violence was related to their accuracy. Implications for the prediction of imminent violence in acute psychiatric care settings are discussed.
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