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Tony Bram

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Papers by Tony Bram

Borderline personality disorder diagnosis in a new key

Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, Dec 1, 2019

Background: Conceptualizations of personality disorders (PD) are increasingly moving towards dime... more Background: Conceptualizations of personality disorders (PD) are increasingly moving towards dimensional approaches. The definition and assessment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in regard to changes in nosology are of great importance to theory and practice as well as consumers. We studied empirical connections between the traditional DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for BPD and Criteria A and B of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD). Method: Raters of varied professional backgrounds possessing substantial knowledge of PDs (N = 20) characterized BPD criteria with the four domains of the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) and 25 pathological personality trait facets. Mean AMPD values of each BPD criterion were used to support a nosological cross-walk of the individual BPD criteria and study various combinations of BPD criteria in their AMPD translation. The grand mean AMPD profile generated from the experts was compared to published BPD prototypes that used AMPD trait ratings and the DSM-5-III hybrid categorical-dimensional algorithm for BPD. Divergent comparisons with DSM-5-III algorithms for other PDs and other published PD prototypes were also examined. Results: Inter-rater reliability analyses showed generally robust agreement. The AMPD profile for BPD criteria rated by individual BPD criteria was not isomorphic with whole-person ratings of BPD, although they were highly correlated. Various AMPD profiles for BPD were generated from theoretically relevant but differing configurations of BPD criteria. These AMPD profiles were highly correlated and showed meaningful divergence from non-BPD DSM-5-III algorithms and other PD prototypes.

Assessment of bipolar spectrum disorders, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, and ADHD in children and adolescents

American Psychological Association eBooks, 2023

Perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists: Implications from a study of undergraduates

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 1997

The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of ... more The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of various perceptions were explored. Participants were 265 undergraduate students. Responses to rating scale items indicated that the participants were fairly knowledgeable and had generally favorable perceptions of the field. Analyses of responses to open-ended items suggested, however, that a

Principles of inference-making

American Psychological Association eBooks, 2014

Psychoanalytic perspectives on intense involvement in sports

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

Rorschach assessment of ego involvement in affect regulation: Interrater reliability of form dominance in shading and achromatic color responses

Psychoanalytic Psychology

Effects of various forms of batting performance feedback on motivational factors and batting performance of youth baseball players

ABSTRACT Thesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. School of Health Education, Counseling Psychol... more

Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings

Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings, 2020

In this edited book, expert assessors illustrate through case examples how they apply psychoanaly... more In this edited book, expert assessors illustrate through case examples how they apply psychoanalytic theory to different clinical settings. These settings include private practice, neuropsychological, medical, forensic, personnel, custody, school, and psychiatric-residential. Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings allows the reader to track the assessor's work from start to fnish. Each chapter presents a description of the clinical setting in which the assessment occurred; a detailed review of the referral and patient history; test selection and test fndings with supporting data drawn from self-report, and cognitive and personality performancebased measures; psychiatric and psychodynamic diagnoses; implications and recommendations; discussion of the feedback process; and assessor-self refections on the case. Throughout the book, psychodynamic concepts are used to help understand the test data. The authors are experts in the psychodynamic assessment of clients in private practice, educational, medical, neuropsychological, and forensic settings. The fndings are derived from methods particular to each setting, with supporting data highlighted and woven throughout the interpretive process.

Psychoanalytic assessment in private practice

The Subjective Impact of Separation and Divorce on a Latency-Aged Child and His Analysis

The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 2019

I present the analysis of a latency-aged child whose parents separated about one-and-a-half years... more I present the analysis of a latency-aged child whose parents separated about one-and-a-half years into treatment and subsequently divorced. Even prior to his parents' announcement, the patient was preoccupied by intense anxieties about separation and abandonment. Such anxieties were exacerbated by the dissolution of his parents' marriage and of his familiar family constellation. I begin with a brief overview of the child's early development, the recommendation for analysis, and the initial phase of treatment. I then focus on process material from a two-year span following the parental separation. My aim is to illuminate the child's subjective experience of parental separation and divorce and my analytic efforts to help him represent, communicate, and understand it.

Experience of self and other: Narcissistic vulnerabilities

Psychological testing that matters: Creating a road map for effective treatment.

Clinically, we observe that patients whose self-esteem is especially brittle require certain cons... more Clinically, we observe that patients whose self-esteem is especially brittle require certain considerations in formulating a treatment plan (e.g., Gold & Stricker, 2011). We refer to such patients as narcissistically vulnerable, but we are not using the term narcissistic pejoratively or as an equivalent to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) category of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In contemporary psychoanalysis, as informed by self psychology (Kohut, 1977, 1984) and relational theory (e.g., Mitchell, 1986), narcissism is appreciated as a normal part of being human, and healthy self-love has its own developmental course intertwined with that of developing love for others. Regulating self-love and self-worth-that is, self-esteem-through life's inevitable failures, successes, losses, accomplishments, disapproval, and praise is a universal challenge requiring multiple adjustments, calibrations, and stabilizations daily. Some people, however, because of developmental setbacks and insufficiencies, struggle significantly with restoring a realistic, positive, and integrated sense of themselves through the upturns and downturns of fortune and misfortune. 7 EXPERIENCE OF SELF AND OTHER: NARCISSISTIC VULNERABILITIES

Potential space and reflective functioning: Towards conceptual clarification and preliminary clinical implications

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2001

The authors propose that although the psychoanalytic constructs &#39;reflective functioning&a... more The authors propose that although the psychoanalytic constructs &#39;reflective functioning&#39; and &#39;potential space&#39; overlap and are sometimes used interchangeably, a knowledge of their distinctions and the ways in which they interface have important clinical implications. These concepts are similar in that both are capacities considered (1) to originate in the caregiver-child relationship, (2) to involve playing with ideas and symbolic thought, (3) to facilitate the therapeutic process and (4) to represent a desirable treatment outcome. The terms diverge in three important ways. First, potential space is a broader concept that can be applied not only to thinking about internal states but to aspects of human experience (e.g. art, religion) involving a sense of aliveness. Reflective functioning is more circumscribed to representations of mental states and their implications for interpersonal functioning. Second, potential space has more of a conscious introspective element, whereas reflective functioning is based in procedural memory. Third, reflective functioning operates intrapsychically, whereas potential space tends to be thought of as occurring in an interpersonal field. The authors hypothesise and illustrate a possible bi-directional, dialectic relationship between the two constructs. It is suggested that this new understanding might, in some cases, facilitate productive reformulations of clinical formulations, such as working with a perceived resistance.

The physically ill or dying psychotherapist: A review of ethical and clinical considerations

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 1995

When a therapist becomes gravely ill, not only is the vital therapeutic frame disrupted, but the ... more When a therapist becomes gravely ill, not only is the vital therapeutic frame disrupted, but the therapist's preoccupation with personal vulnerability-as well as defenses against such feelings-may preclude acting in the best interests of clients. Although theAPA (1992) provides ethical guidelines that apply to therapists in such situations, the clinical literature more tellingly captures the nature and difficulty of the specific dilemmas that arise. Three such dilemmas for therapists involve (a) self-disclosure to clients about the illness, (b) precautions against the abandonment of clients, and (c) decisions concerning return to practice following a period of absence. The explicit focus in the literature has been on clinical, rather than ethical, implications of various approaches to these dilemmas. A goal of this article is not only to review these clinical perspectives, but also to elucidate the particular ethical values that are embedded within them. One conceptualization of psychotherapy is that of a process whereby the therapist lends his/her ego strength to the client while the client tries to develop or internalize such resources (Gold, The author wishes to thank Annette Stanton, Ph.D., for her suggestions regarding preparation of the article.

Review of Understanding personality through projective testing

Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2013

In the current climate of clinical psychology training in which depth approaches to assessment an... more In the current climate of clinical psychology training in which depth approaches to assessment and treatment are being deemphasized or eliminated (e.g., American Psychological Association Division 12 Presidential Task Force, 1999) in favor of symptom-focused methods, Tuber's Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing is a welcome and refreshing antidote. Tuber's volume follows in the tradition of classics on psychoanalytic psychological assessment such as Rapaport, Gill, and Schafer (1968); Schafer (1954); Allison, Blatt, and Zimet (1968); and Lerner (1998). As important and relevant as those texts continue to be, Tuber communicates his ideas and methods in a manner that is more accessible to contemporary graduate students, pre-and postdoctoral trainees, and early career psychologists who may have had less immersion in psychoanalytic theory than their predecessors in past decades. An experienced clinician, teacher, and supervisor, Tuber strives to write as if the reader is "sitting in my classroom, sharing the dialogue with me" (p. ix), and he is largely successful. Tuber's aims are to (a) present a developmental psychodynamic framework for understanding healthy and maladaptive personality and then (b) delineate how a battery of specific projective tests (Rorschach Inkblot Method [RIM], Thematic Apperception Test [TAT], Sentence Completion Test [SCT], and Animal Preference Test [APT]) are suited to illuminate these aspects of personality. Tuber's introduction establishes that understanding patients phenomenologically is the pillar of his approach. Tuber's thesis is that projective methods are a "refined set of tools to be a better phenomonologist" (p. 5), that is, to tap into a person's internal, subjective experiences and meanings. He adds that such phenomenology must be integrated with a theory of personality that "links individual experience to the wider contexts of human adaptation" (p. 6). In the subsequent chapters, Tuber presents his developmental psychodynamic model and then moves to discuss how the various projective measures operationalize the model's key constructs in a way that elucidates a patient's phenomenological experience.

Object relations, interpersonal functioning, and health in a nonclinical sample: Construct validation and norms for the TAT SCORS-G

Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2014

Perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists: Implications from a study of undergraduates

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 1997

The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of ... more The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of various perceptions were explored. Participants were 265 undergraduate students. Responses to rating scale items indicated that the participants were fairly knowledgeable and had generally favorable perceptions of the field. Analyses of responses to open-ended items suggested, however, that a

Effects of Batting Performance Feedback on Motivational Factors and Batting Performance in Youth Baseball

Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1995

The effects of batting feedback on motivational factors and batting of young baseball players wer... more The effects of batting feedback on motivational factors and batting of young baseball players were investigated. Hypotheses were that, compared to participants receiving feedback or no feedback on their batting average, those receiving contact average would exhibit (a) a greater increase in batting efficacy, (b) more enjoyment, satisfaction, and persistence, and (c) superior batting performance. Participants were 78 children from nine teams. Although analyses did not support the hypotheses, performance-to-efficacy correlations as well as other data provided tentative evidence for the premise that contact average may be more appropriate feedback for young players because (compared to batting average) it is less ambiguous and is based on a more realistic definition of success. Limitations and implications for coaches were discussed.

The Relevance of the Rorschach and Patient–Examiner Relationship in Treatment Planning and Outcome Assessment

Journal of Personality Assessment, 2010

In this era of evidence-based mental health care, traditional forms of depth-oriented psychothera... more In this era of evidence-based mental health care, traditional forms of depth-oriented psychotherapy and psychological assessment have been marginalized in graduate training in clinical psychology. As a counterpoint, this article presents the evaluation and treatment of an adolescent client, along with an outcome assessment, and illustrates ways that aspects of traditional psychological testing, including the Rorschach (Exner, 1986) and the patient-examiner relationship, can enhance psychodiagnosis and treatment planning. Additionally, this case illustrates ways that test data can illuminate the concept of underlying disturbance and its utility in diagnostic formulation, treatment planning, and outcome assessment.

Psychological Testing and Treatment Implications: We Can Say More

Journal of Personality Assessment, 2013

Psychologists invest considerable time and labor in psychological testing and report writing. Pat... more Psychologists invest considerable time and labor in psychological testing and report writing. Patients and families expose vulnerabilities and make a significant financial and time investment in the hope that testing will make a difference in treatment. Frequently, though, handling of treatment implications in reports is generic, which might not justify the time, expense, and emotional investment involved in the evaluation. As diagnosticians, we have the responsibility and potential to contribute more meaningfully to the work of our referring colleagues and the treatment of the patients we assess. I review the psychotherapy research literature to highlight evidence-based findings that can serve as guideposts in formulating treatment implications. Subsequently, I illustrate how we can use test data to make nuanced inferences about therapeutic alliance, potential resistances, likely transferences and countertransferences, and conceptualizing treatment on the supportive-expressive continuum.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Object Relations: Child-Rearing Antecedents, Stability in Adulthood, and Construct Validation

Journal of Research in Personality, 1999

Object relations theories posit that a child's relationship with caregivers has implications for ... more Object relations theories posit that a child's relationship with caregivers has implications for subsequent relationships. Object relations refer to mental representations of relationships. Longitudinal data and Westen's (1993) methodology were employed to investigate questions related to (a) child-rearing antecedents of adult object relations in a nonclinical population, (b) temporal stability of adult object relations, and (c) construct validation. A multivariate effect of child-rearing variables Based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author, this research employed the Patterns of Child Rearing, 1951-1952 data set (made accessible in 1979, in raw and computer data form). These data were collected by R. Sears, E. Maccoby, and H. Levin, and are available through the archives of the Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Producer and Distributor). Additionally, the study used data from the 1977-1978 Follow-up of the Patterns of Child Rearing Study collected by D. McClelland (made accessible in 1979, in raw and computer data form) and from the 1987-1988 Followup of the Patterns of Child Rearing Study collected by D. McClelland and C. Franz (made accessible in 1993, in raw and computer data form).

Borderline personality disorder diagnosis in a new key

Borderline personality disorder and emotion dysregulation, Dec 1, 2019

Background: Conceptualizations of personality disorders (PD) are increasingly moving towards dime... more Background: Conceptualizations of personality disorders (PD) are increasingly moving towards dimensional approaches. The definition and assessment of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in regard to changes in nosology are of great importance to theory and practice as well as consumers. We studied empirical connections between the traditional DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for BPD and Criteria A and B of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders (AMPD). Method: Raters of varied professional backgrounds possessing substantial knowledge of PDs (N = 20) characterized BPD criteria with the four domains of the Level of Personality Functioning Scale (LPFS) and 25 pathological personality trait facets. Mean AMPD values of each BPD criterion were used to support a nosological cross-walk of the individual BPD criteria and study various combinations of BPD criteria in their AMPD translation. The grand mean AMPD profile generated from the experts was compared to published BPD prototypes that used AMPD trait ratings and the DSM-5-III hybrid categorical-dimensional algorithm for BPD. Divergent comparisons with DSM-5-III algorithms for other PDs and other published PD prototypes were also examined. Results: Inter-rater reliability analyses showed generally robust agreement. The AMPD profile for BPD criteria rated by individual BPD criteria was not isomorphic with whole-person ratings of BPD, although they were highly correlated. Various AMPD profiles for BPD were generated from theoretically relevant but differing configurations of BPD criteria. These AMPD profiles were highly correlated and showed meaningful divergence from non-BPD DSM-5-III algorithms and other PD prototypes.

Assessment of bipolar spectrum disorders, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, and ADHD in children and adolescents

American Psychological Association eBooks, 2023

Perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists: Implications from a study of undergraduates

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 1997

The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of ... more The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of various perceptions were explored. Participants were 265 undergraduate students. Responses to rating scale items indicated that the participants were fairly knowledgeable and had generally favorable perceptions of the field. Analyses of responses to open-ended items suggested, however, that a

Principles of inference-making

American Psychological Association eBooks, 2014

Psychoanalytic perspectives on intense involvement in sports

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis

Rorschach assessment of ego involvement in affect regulation: Interrater reliability of form dominance in shading and achromatic color responses

Psychoanalytic Psychology

Effects of various forms of batting performance feedback on motivational factors and batting performance of youth baseball players

ABSTRACT Thesis (M.A.)--Michigan State University. School of Health Education, Counseling Psychol... more

Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings

Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings, 2020

In this edited book, expert assessors illustrate through case examples how they apply psychoanaly... more In this edited book, expert assessors illustrate through case examples how they apply psychoanalytic theory to different clinical settings. These settings include private practice, neuropsychological, medical, forensic, personnel, custody, school, and psychiatric-residential. Psychoanalytic Assessment Applications for Different Settings allows the reader to track the assessor's work from start to fnish. Each chapter presents a description of the clinical setting in which the assessment occurred; a detailed review of the referral and patient history; test selection and test fndings with supporting data drawn from self-report, and cognitive and personality performancebased measures; psychiatric and psychodynamic diagnoses; implications and recommendations; discussion of the feedback process; and assessor-self refections on the case. Throughout the book, psychodynamic concepts are used to help understand the test data. The authors are experts in the psychodynamic assessment of clients in private practice, educational, medical, neuropsychological, and forensic settings. The fndings are derived from methods particular to each setting, with supporting data highlighted and woven throughout the interpretive process.

Psychoanalytic assessment in private practice

The Subjective Impact of Separation and Divorce on a Latency-Aged Child and His Analysis

The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child, 2019

I present the analysis of a latency-aged child whose parents separated about one-and-a-half years... more I present the analysis of a latency-aged child whose parents separated about one-and-a-half years into treatment and subsequently divorced. Even prior to his parents' announcement, the patient was preoccupied by intense anxieties about separation and abandonment. Such anxieties were exacerbated by the dissolution of his parents' marriage and of his familiar family constellation. I begin with a brief overview of the child's early development, the recommendation for analysis, and the initial phase of treatment. I then focus on process material from a two-year span following the parental separation. My aim is to illuminate the child's subjective experience of parental separation and divorce and my analytic efforts to help him represent, communicate, and understand it.

Experience of self and other: Narcissistic vulnerabilities

Psychological testing that matters: Creating a road map for effective treatment.

Clinically, we observe that patients whose self-esteem is especially brittle require certain cons... more Clinically, we observe that patients whose self-esteem is especially brittle require certain considerations in formulating a treatment plan (e.g., Gold & Stricker, 2011). We refer to such patients as narcissistically vulnerable, but we are not using the term narcissistic pejoratively or as an equivalent to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) category of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In contemporary psychoanalysis, as informed by self psychology (Kohut, 1977, 1984) and relational theory (e.g., Mitchell, 1986), narcissism is appreciated as a normal part of being human, and healthy self-love has its own developmental course intertwined with that of developing love for others. Regulating self-love and self-worth-that is, self-esteem-through life's inevitable failures, successes, losses, accomplishments, disapproval, and praise is a universal challenge requiring multiple adjustments, calibrations, and stabilizations daily. Some people, however, because of developmental setbacks and insufficiencies, struggle significantly with restoring a realistic, positive, and integrated sense of themselves through the upturns and downturns of fortune and misfortune. 7 EXPERIENCE OF SELF AND OTHER: NARCISSISTIC VULNERABILITIES

Potential space and reflective functioning: Towards conceptual clarification and preliminary clinical implications

The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 2001

The authors propose that although the psychoanalytic constructs &#39;reflective functioning&a... more The authors propose that although the psychoanalytic constructs &#39;reflective functioning&#39; and &#39;potential space&#39; overlap and are sometimes used interchangeably, a knowledge of their distinctions and the ways in which they interface have important clinical implications. These concepts are similar in that both are capacities considered (1) to originate in the caregiver-child relationship, (2) to involve playing with ideas and symbolic thought, (3) to facilitate the therapeutic process and (4) to represent a desirable treatment outcome. The terms diverge in three important ways. First, potential space is a broader concept that can be applied not only to thinking about internal states but to aspects of human experience (e.g. art, religion) involving a sense of aliveness. Reflective functioning is more circumscribed to representations of mental states and their implications for interpersonal functioning. Second, potential space has more of a conscious introspective element, whereas reflective functioning is based in procedural memory. Third, reflective functioning operates intrapsychically, whereas potential space tends to be thought of as occurring in an interpersonal field. The authors hypothesise and illustrate a possible bi-directional, dialectic relationship between the two constructs. It is suggested that this new understanding might, in some cases, facilitate productive reformulations of clinical formulations, such as working with a perceived resistance.

The physically ill or dying psychotherapist: A review of ethical and clinical considerations

Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, 1995

When a therapist becomes gravely ill, not only is the vital therapeutic frame disrupted, but the ... more When a therapist becomes gravely ill, not only is the vital therapeutic frame disrupted, but the therapist's preoccupation with personal vulnerability-as well as defenses against such feelings-may preclude acting in the best interests of clients. Although theAPA (1992) provides ethical guidelines that apply to therapists in such situations, the clinical literature more tellingly captures the nature and difficulty of the specific dilemmas that arise. Three such dilemmas for therapists involve (a) self-disclosure to clients about the illness, (b) precautions against the abandonment of clients, and (c) decisions concerning return to practice following a period of absence. The explicit focus in the literature has been on clinical, rather than ethical, implications of various approaches to these dilemmas. A goal of this article is not only to review these clinical perspectives, but also to elucidate the particular ethical values that are embedded within them. One conceptualization of psychotherapy is that of a process whereby the therapist lends his/her ego strength to the client while the client tries to develop or internalize such resources (Gold, The author wishes to thank Annette Stanton, Ph.D., for her suggestions regarding preparation of the article.

Review of Understanding personality through projective testing

Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2013

In the current climate of clinical psychology training in which depth approaches to assessment an... more In the current climate of clinical psychology training in which depth approaches to assessment and treatment are being deemphasized or eliminated (e.g., American Psychological Association Division 12 Presidential Task Force, 1999) in favor of symptom-focused methods, Tuber's Understanding Personality Through Projective Testing is a welcome and refreshing antidote. Tuber's volume follows in the tradition of classics on psychoanalytic psychological assessment such as Rapaport, Gill, and Schafer (1968); Schafer (1954); Allison, Blatt, and Zimet (1968); and Lerner (1998). As important and relevant as those texts continue to be, Tuber communicates his ideas and methods in a manner that is more accessible to contemporary graduate students, pre-and postdoctoral trainees, and early career psychologists who may have had less immersion in psychoanalytic theory than their predecessors in past decades. An experienced clinician, teacher, and supervisor, Tuber strives to write as if the reader is "sitting in my classroom, sharing the dialogue with me" (p. ix), and he is largely successful. Tuber's aims are to (a) present a developmental psychodynamic framework for understanding healthy and maladaptive personality and then (b) delineate how a battery of specific projective tests (Rorschach Inkblot Method [RIM], Thematic Apperception Test [TAT], Sentence Completion Test [SCT], and Animal Preference Test [APT]) are suited to illuminate these aspects of personality. Tuber's introduction establishes that understanding patients phenomenologically is the pillar of his approach. Tuber's thesis is that projective methods are a "refined set of tools to be a better phenomonologist" (p. 5), that is, to tap into a person's internal, subjective experiences and meanings. He adds that such phenomenology must be integrated with a theory of personality that "links individual experience to the wider contexts of human adaptation" (p. 6). In the subsequent chapters, Tuber presents his developmental psychodynamic model and then moves to discuss how the various projective measures operationalize the model's key constructs in a way that elucidates a patient's phenomenological experience.

Object relations, interpersonal functioning, and health in a nonclinical sample: Construct validation and norms for the TAT SCORS-G

Psychoanalytic Psychology, 2014

Perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists: Implications from a study of undergraduates

Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 1997

The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of ... more The nature of popular perceptions of psychotherapy and psychotherapists as well as predictors of various perceptions were explored. Participants were 265 undergraduate students. Responses to rating scale items indicated that the participants were fairly knowledgeable and had generally favorable perceptions of the field. Analyses of responses to open-ended items suggested, however, that a

Effects of Batting Performance Feedback on Motivational Factors and Batting Performance in Youth Baseball

Perceptual and Motor Skills, 1995

The effects of batting feedback on motivational factors and batting of young baseball players wer... more The effects of batting feedback on motivational factors and batting of young baseball players were investigated. Hypotheses were that, compared to participants receiving feedback or no feedback on their batting average, those receiving contact average would exhibit (a) a greater increase in batting efficacy, (b) more enjoyment, satisfaction, and persistence, and (c) superior batting performance. Participants were 78 children from nine teams. Although analyses did not support the hypotheses, performance-to-efficacy correlations as well as other data provided tentative evidence for the premise that contact average may be more appropriate feedback for young players because (compared to batting average) it is less ambiguous and is based on a more realistic definition of success. Limitations and implications for coaches were discussed.

The Relevance of the Rorschach and Patient–Examiner Relationship in Treatment Planning and Outcome Assessment

Journal of Personality Assessment, 2010

In this era of evidence-based mental health care, traditional forms of depth-oriented psychothera... more In this era of evidence-based mental health care, traditional forms of depth-oriented psychotherapy and psychological assessment have been marginalized in graduate training in clinical psychology. As a counterpoint, this article presents the evaluation and treatment of an adolescent client, along with an outcome assessment, and illustrates ways that aspects of traditional psychological testing, including the Rorschach (Exner, 1986) and the patient-examiner relationship, can enhance psychodiagnosis and treatment planning. Additionally, this case illustrates ways that test data can illuminate the concept of underlying disturbance and its utility in diagnostic formulation, treatment planning, and outcome assessment.

Psychological Testing and Treatment Implications: We Can Say More

Journal of Personality Assessment, 2013

Psychologists invest considerable time and labor in psychological testing and report writing. Pat... more Psychologists invest considerable time and labor in psychological testing and report writing. Patients and families expose vulnerabilities and make a significant financial and time investment in the hope that testing will make a difference in treatment. Frequently, though, handling of treatment implications in reports is generic, which might not justify the time, expense, and emotional investment involved in the evaluation. As diagnosticians, we have the responsibility and potential to contribute more meaningfully to the work of our referring colleagues and the treatment of the patients we assess. I review the psychotherapy research literature to highlight evidence-based findings that can serve as guideposts in formulating treatment implications. Subsequently, I illustrate how we can use test data to make nuanced inferences about therapeutic alliance, potential resistances, likely transferences and countertransferences, and conceptualizing treatment on the supportive-expressive continuum.

A Longitudinal Investigation of Object Relations: Child-Rearing Antecedents, Stability in Adulthood, and Construct Validation

Journal of Research in Personality, 1999

Object relations theories posit that a child's relationship with caregivers has implications for ... more Object relations theories posit that a child's relationship with caregivers has implications for subsequent relationships. Object relations refer to mental representations of relationships. Longitudinal data and Westen's (1993) methodology were employed to investigate questions related to (a) child-rearing antecedents of adult object relations in a nonclinical population, (b) temporal stability of adult object relations, and (c) construct validation. A multivariate effect of child-rearing variables Based on the doctoral dissertation of the first author, this research employed the Patterns of Child Rearing, 1951-1952 data set (made accessible in 1979, in raw and computer data form). These data were collected by R. Sears, E. Maccoby, and H. Levin, and are available through the archives of the Henry A. Murray Research Center of Radcliffe College, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Producer and Distributor). Additionally, the study used data from the 1977-1978 Follow-up of the Patterns of Child Rearing Study collected by D. McClelland (made accessible in 1979, in raw and computer data form) and from the 1987-1988 Followup of the Patterns of Child Rearing Study collected by D. McClelland and C. Franz (made accessible in 1993, in raw and computer data form).