Patient-Therapist Congruence on Aspects of the Therapeutic Alliance in Psychotherapy for Medically Unexplained Symptoms

Medically unexplained symptoms (MUS) are physical symptoms that cannot be explained or are not sufficiently explained by medical examination. These symptoms most typically present as pain or other discomfort, and are associated with significant psychological distress, healthcare utilization, and disability. Both psychologists and medical professionals have struggled to treat this population, and MUS patients have noted their dissatisfaction with the care they receive. The present study analyzed a sample of 174 patient-therapist dyads to explore the role of congruence, or agreement, on aspects of the therapeutic alliance in therapy for MUS as congruence research has not yet been conducted in this population. This study aimed to learn more about the types of congruence present in this population, whether certain types of congruence were associated with treatment outcomes, and whether any patient characteristics were associated with types of congruence. The results of this analysis suggested that certain types of congruence were associated with treatment outcomes and patient characteristics. However, the analysis also revealed that other elements of congruence, such as whether patients and therapists agree things are going well, or whether they agree things are going poorly, or whether they disagree, are important elements to consider. In addition, patient characteristics, such as whether they have any mental health diagnoses, were shown to be associated with congruence. Overall, congruence alone did not consistently relate to treatment outcomes. The present study illustrated the importance of considering other congruence-related factors when treating patients with MUS both in psychological care and medical care settings

Impact of dance in advertisements on emotional attachment towards the advertised brand: Self-congruence theory

The present study examines how consumers’ perceived congruence between their self-concept and the image of the dance incorporated in online advertisements influences emotional attachment toward the advertised brand. The partial least squares structural equation model was applied to the data analysis. The results show that congruence between self-concept and the dance incorporated in online advertisements has a positive impact on emotional attachment toward the advertised brand. More specifically, the present study demonstrate that ideal self/dance-congruence increase emotional attachment towards advertised brand as hypothesized. However, contrary to expectations, actual self/dance-congruence has negligible contribution to emotional attachment towards advertised brand. The managerial implications of the study are outlined

Is Party Type Relevant to an Explanation of Policy Congruence? Catch-all versus Ideological Parties in the Portuguese Case

WOS:000319128500003 (Nº de Acesso Web of Science)Most research on policy congruence has failed to provide an explanation for it. Party characteristics are acknowledged to be relevant, but the literature has not achieved a consensus as to their effective importance. Nor has there thus far been an analysis of the implications for results of using different methods to assess congruence. The present article seeks to test the importance of party type (catchall versus ideological) for an explanation of levels of intra-party congruence, with a control using the main congruence-assessment methods. The article focuses on the Portuguese party system and makes use of a set of 19 policy issues across two dimensions: socioeconomic left–right and libertarian–authoritarian (plus left–right self-placement), which introduces additional controls of the assessment of party-type relevance. As far as we know, such an in-depth analysis of party-type congruence has not been done before. Findings support the notion that Portuguese catchall parties tend to display higher levels of MP–voter congruence than ideological parties, but the type of policy issue is also relevant: levels of congruence diverge across parties depending on the issue at stake. These results were supported by the different methods used

Internal/external occupational status congruence and life/job satisfaction of southern low-income young adults

The present study investigated the relationship between occupational status congruence among Southern low-income young adults and their perceptions of their current lives and jobs. Occupational status congruence was investigated from two perspectives, internal occupational status congruence (consistency between the occupational aspirations and expectations of subjects) and external occupational congruence (consonance between subjects' own occupational status and their ascribed occupational status). Subjects for the study consisted of 524 young adults, aged 21-22, from whom completed questionnaires were obtained during the third phase of data collection of the Southern Regional Research Project S-126. A two-way analysis of covariance, with race and sex as covariates, was used to test for differences in life satisfaction scores between groups who were internally congruent and internally incongruent, and between groups who were externally congruent and externally congruent. An identical procedure was used to test for differences in levels of job satisfaction. A final two—way multiple analysis of covariance was used to assess multiple and overlapping effects of internal occupational congruence and internal occupational incongruence, and external occupational congruence and external occupational incongruence on life and job satisfaction taken together

The Relationship Between Values, Congruence, And Innovation Capability

Some organizations are highly innovative and successful, while others are less innovative and successful.  What are the conditions that are associated with innovativeness?  This paper assesses values congruence as one variable which may be present in organizations whose professionals and managers report significant organizational innovativeness.  The Innovation Capability Audit and the Values Analysis Worksheet were administered to a group of research participants to determine the relationship between innovation and values congruence.  A correlation of - .711 was found.  This indicates a significant inverse relationship between the two variables being measured, innovation, and values congruence

The Role of Person-Organization Fit in Organizational Selection Decisions

This paper presents and tests a theoretical model of person-organization fit and organizational selection decisions using data from 35 organizations making hiring decisions. Results suggested that (a) interviewers were able to assess applicants\u27 values with above-chance levels of accuracy, (b) interviewers compare their perceptions of applicants\u27 values with their organizations\u27 values to assess person-organization fit, and (c) it is perceived values congruence and not actual values congruence between applicants and organizations that predicted interviewers\u27 person-organization fit perceptions. Results also suggested that interviewers\u27 person-organization fit assessments had the largest effect on their hiring recommendations even after controlling for competing applicant characteristics (e.g., demographics, human capital), and that interviewers\u27 hiring recommendations had large and significant effects on organizations\u27 hiring decisions (e.g., job offers)

Values congruence: more salient to social networking than to fit

This developmental paper looks at the issue of values congruence and the extent to which it evidences fit (for example P-O, P-G, P-P fit) or is more salient when identifying a social network which might be a more relevant construct for employees in the workplace. It takes a brief look at the background to the interaction debate as a foundation for the argument that value congruence is key to building relationships between individuals. The debate is brought up to date with a discussion of Edwards and Cable’s 2009 paper which puts the case for the value in value congruence in determining employee behaviour. This paper, however, seeks to question the extent to which values congruence is more important to individuals at work in terms of their fit (on whatever level) or in terms of their social network (which might underpin a sense of ‘not misfitting’) which might be key for many employees. The paper goes on to consider the implications for fit research in the light of salience of social network theory

Applications of Fair Testing

In this paper we present the application of the fair testing pre-order, introduced in a previous paper, to the specification and analysis of distributed systems. This pre-order combines some features of the standard testing pre-orders, viz. the possibility to refine a specification by the resolution of nondeterminism, with a powerful feature of standard observation congruence, viz. the fair abstraction from divergences. Moreover, it is a pre-congruence with respect to all standard process-algebraic combinators, thus allowing for the standard algebraic proof techniques by substitution and rewriting. In this paper we will demonstrate advantages of the fair testing pre-order by the application to a number of examples, including a scheduling problem, a version of the Alternating Bit-protocol, and fair communication channels