QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF SELF-COMPASSION, SELFPROTECTION, AND SELF-CRITICISM IN EMOTIONFOCUSED THERAPY VIDEO SESSIONS

One of the goals of Emotion Focused Therapy (EFT) is to develop a more resilient self by increasing self-compassion and self protection and simultaneously decreasing self-criticism. Although self-compassion and self-protection tasks are one of the essential interventions in EFT, there is still little research about how they are articulated productively within a therapeutic session. Therefore, the goal of our study was to examine how self-criticism, self-protection, and self-compassion are expressed by a client within a therapeutic session. This is a single case study examining one session with the therapist Les Greenberg, who is the founder of EFT. The data were analyzed using consensual qualitative research (CQR). The team consisted of two core team members and one auditor. The video was transcribed and sentences that revealed aspects of the client’s experience of being self-critical, self-compassionate, and self-protective were extracted. Three similar domains were considered for all three concepts: behavioral, emotional, and cognitive aspects. Consequently, the findings showed the following subdomains for self criticism: What you did wrong, What you should do instead, Expectations, Blaming from the critic, and Negative emotions towards the self, for self-compassion: Empathy towards the self, Positive emotions towards the self, Confirmation, Self compassionate Advice, Self-acceptance, Motivation to alleviate suffering, Self-forgiveness, and for self-protection: Expressing needs, Protecting the self, Expressing emotions towards the self-critic, Understanding for the self, and Criticizing the critic. More studies of categorizing a broader number of cases of various therapeutic approaches are necessary to develop more detailed understanding of clients’ expression of self-compassion, self-protection, and self-criticism within therapy

Facial expression of pain: an evolutionary account.

This paper proposes that human expression of pain in the presence or absence of caregivers, and the detection of pain by observers, arises from evolved propensities. The function of pain is to demand attention and prioritise escape, recovery, and healing; where others can help achieve these goals, effective communication of pain is required. Evidence is reviewed of a distinct and specific facial expression of pain from infancy to old age, consistent across stimuli, and recognizable as pain by observers. Voluntary control over amplitude is incomplete, and observers can better detect pain that the individual attempts to suppress rather than amplify or simulate. In many clinical and experimental settings, the facial expression of pain is incorporated with verbal and nonverbal vocal activity, posture, and movement in an overall category of pain behaviour. This is assumed by clinicians to be under operant control of social contingencies such as sympathy, caregiving, and practical help; thus, strong facial expression is presumed to constitute and attempt to manipulate these contingencies by amplification of the normal expression. Operant formulations support skepticism about the presence or extent of pain, judgments of malingering, and sometimes the withholding of caregiving and help. To the extent that pain expression is influenced by environmental contingencies, however, "amplification" could equally plausibly constitute the release of suppression according to evolved contingent propensities that guide behaviour. Pain has been largely neglected in the evolutionary literature and the literature on expression of emotion, but an evolutionary account can generate improved assessment of pain and reactions to it

Can compassion-focused imagery be used as an attention bias modification treatment?

Compassion focused-imagery (CFI), one of the psychological interventions of compassion-focused therapy, is receiving increasing attention. It is a therapeutic tool that targets the process of self-criticism by prompting individuals to imagine themselves as compassionate or to imagine receiving compassion from an ideal compassionate other. This research examines the role of self-criticism in the attentional processing of emotional stimuli, namely, critical and compassionate facial expressions. It is hypothesized that the activation of positive social emotions through CFI plays a role in broadening attention in the processing of emotional stimuli. The McEwan Faces stimulus set, which includes critical, neutral and compassionate faces, was used to create an attentional bias task called the dot probe task. The processing of emotional faces was assessed before and after exposure to either CFI or neutral imagery, controlling for the process of sensory integration (n = 80). A between-subject analysis was used to test the hypothesis. Before the imagery task, participants tended to look away from critical faces, and their level of self-criticism played a role. Both types of imagery significantly reduced the bias away from critical faces when the stimuli were presented for 1200 ms. This effect was reversed in the neutral condition for participants with high levels of self-criticism but not in the CFI condition. Interestingly, self-criticism impacts the attentional treatment of critical faces and the effect of imagery entailing sensory integration on this treatment. CFI seems to preserve this effect for participants with high levels of self-criticism, possibly due to the activation of positive social emotions.N/

Attentional bias to social-evaluative threat in body image dissatisfaction

The study aimed to examine attentional biases to social evaluative threat in individuals with a diagnosis of Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). Given the high degree of social evaluative anxiety in this population, it was expected that BDD participants, similar to people with high levels of social anxiety, would exhibit a stronger attentional bias to social threat than people without these difficulties. 13 individuals (ten women) with a diagnosis of BDD and 13 individuals (ten women) without a mental health diagnosis took the ‘face-in-the-crowd’ task. This involved detecting an emotionally incongruent face in an array (crowd) of 12 faces. Faster detection of a threatening face (angry or disgusted) in an array of happy or neutral faces, implied an attentional bias to threat. Slower reaction times in angry or disgusted crowds implied that participants were devoting more attentional resources to processing threat. A number of 2 x 2 ANOVAS were conducted with Group (BDD vs. Control) as between-subject factors and Stimuli Type (Angry vs. non-threatening) as within-subject factors. Contrary to predictions, the study found that while both BDD and Control group participants showed an attentional bias to threat, there were no significant between group differences. As the study included a very small sample, conclusions were drawn with caution. Clinical and research implications are presented

Inhibitory Control and Mentalizing: Potential Contributing Factors to Maladaptive Interpersonal Behaviors Associated with Depressive Symptoms

The current project considered the role of inhibitory control and mentalizing as vulnerability factors for engagement in excessive reassurance seeking, negative feedback seeking, and conversational self-focus among a sample of 222 older adolescents. It was hypothesized that lower levels of both inhibitory control and mentalizing would exacerbate the effect of elevated depressive symptoms on higher levels of the three interpersonal behaviors. Additional analyses further explored the role of self-reported gender identity. Models tested inhibitory control and mentalizing separately. In assessing inhibitory control, a self-report measure of impulsivity was used as a proxy for inhibitory control, and the Go/No-Go task was used as a behavioral measure of inhibitory control. In measuring mentalizing, a self-report measure of social perspective-taking and a behavioral task for emotion recognition were used. Support for associations between these two vulnerability factors and the three conversational behaviors was generally observed; however, these associations were not consistently in the expected direction. Results suggested that under conditions of low impulsivity (i.e., low levels of difficulty with inhibitory control), depressive symptoms were associated with more negative feedback seeking; under conditions of high impulsivity (i.e., high levels of difficulty with inhibitory control), depressive symptoms were associated with less conversational self-focus; and under conditions of both high and low levels of social perspective taking (i.e., mentalizing), depressive symptoms were associated with more excessive reassurance seeking. Although gender did not further impact the hypothesized moderation models, some mean-level gender differences and main effects of gender on interpersonal behavior were observed. Potential implications for interventions that target inhibitory control and mentalizing are discussed, and directions for future research are explored

Interoceptive impairments do not lie at the heart of Autism or Alexithymia

Background: Quattrocki and Friston (2012) argued that abnormalities in interoception–the process of representing one’s internal physiological states–could lie at the heart of autism, because of the critical role interoception plays in the ontogeny of social-affective processes. This proposal drew criticism from proponents of the alexithymia hypothesis, who argue that social-affective and underlying interoceptive impairments are not a feature of autism per se, but of alexithymia (a condition characterised by difficulties describing and identifying one's own emotions), which commonly co-occurs with autism. Despite the importance of this debate for our understanding of ASD, and of the role of interoceptive impairments in psychopathology more generally, direct empirical evidence is scarce and inconsistent. Methods: Experiment 1 examined in a sample of 137 neurotypical individuals the association among autistic traits, alexithymia, and interoceptive accuracy on a standard heartbeat tracking measure of interoceptive accuracy. In Experiment 2, interoceptive accuracy was assessed in 46 adults with ASD (27 of whom had clinically-significant alexithymia) and 48 neurotypical adults. Results: Experiment 1 confirmed strong associations between autistic traits and alexithymia, but yielded no evidence to suggest that either was associated with interoceptive difficulties. Similarly, Experiment 2 provided no evidence for interoceptive impairments in autistic adults, irrespective of any co-occurring alexithymia. Bayesian analyses consistently supported the null hypothesis. Conclusions: The observations pose a significant challenge to notions that interoceptive impairments constitute a core feature of either ASD or alexithymia, at least as far as the direct perception of interoceptive signals is concerned. General scientific summary: This article suggests that impairments in interoception–the process of representing one’s internal physiological states–do not lie at the heart of either autism or alexithymia

Creationism and evolution

In Tower of Babel, Robert Pennock wrote that “defenders of evolution would help their case immeasurably if they would reassure their audience that morality, purpose, and meaning are not lost by accepting the truth of evolution.” We first consider the thesis that the creationists’ movement exploits moral concerns to spread its ideas against the theory of evolution. We analyze their arguments and possible reasons why they are easily accepted. Creationists usually employ two contradictive strategies to expose the purported moral degradation that comes with accepting the theory of evolution. On the one hand they claim that evolutionary theory is immoral. On the other hand creationists think of evolutionary theory as amoral. Both objections come naturally in a monotheistic view. But we can find similar conclusions about the supposed moral aspects of evolution in non-religiously inspired discussions. Meanwhile, the creationism-evolution debate mainly focuses — understandably — on what constitutes good science. We consider the need for moral reassurance and analyze reassuring arguments from philosophers. Philosophers may stress that science does not prescribe and is therefore not immoral, but this reaction opens the door for the objection of amorality that evolution — as a naturalistic world view at least — supposedly endorses. We consider that the topic of morality and its relation to the acceptance of evolution may need more empirical research

Assessing The Psychometric Properties Of The Counseling Competencies Scale A Measure Of Counseling Skills, Dispositions, And Behaviors

Ethical and competent professional counselors are needed to provide quality counseling services to the public. Counselor educators and supervisors have the responsibility of training competent counselors. Furthermore, counselors and counselors-in-training have the responsibility of continually assessing their own development and implementing measures to increase their competency. Assessment instruments have sought to measure counseling competencies through evaluating counseling skills. However, a paucity of research exists that examines counseling competencies in a comprehensive manner using a psychometrically sound approach. Therefore, a need exists for a psychometrically sound assessment instrument that measures the construct of counseling competencies in a holistic manner. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the Counseling Competencies Scale© (CCS; UCF Counselor Education Faculty, 2009), an instrument designed to measure counseling competencies, within the areas of counseling skills, professional dispositions, and professional behaviors. The sample included 81 counseling practicum students and 21 counseling practicum supervisors from two graduate counselor education programs at public institutions accredited by the Council for Accreditation for Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) within the United States (one program in the southeast and another in the northwest). The practicum supervisors evaluated the counseling competencies of the counseling practicum students per the CCS at the semester midpoint and conclusion. Additionally, the counseling practicum students evaluated their own counseling competencies per the CCS at the semester midpoint and conclusion. Furthermore, the counseling practicum students and supervisors both iv completed a demographic questionnaire developed by the researcher. The data analysis procedures employed to test the research hypotheses were: (a) factor analysis, (b) Pearson product-moment correlation (two-tailed), and (c) Cronbach‟s alpha. The exploratory factor analyses yielded five midterm CCS factors ([a] Factor 1: Assessment and Application, [b] Factor 2: Professional Behaviors and Dispositions, [c] Factor 3: Beginning Counseling Skills, [d] Factor 4: Advanced Counseling Skills, [e] Factor 5: Directive Counseling Skills) and four final CCS factors ([a] Factor 1: Professional Dispositions and Behaviors, [b] Factor 2: Counseling Skills, [c] Factor 3: Assessment and Application, [d] Factor 4: Growth). Additionally, the CCS exhibited strong internal consistency reliability for both the individual factors and the overall models. The interrater reliability among raters yielded a low correlation (Skills [r = .436], Dispositions [r = .515], Behaviors [r = .467], and Total [r = .570]). Furthermore, an assessment of criterion-related validity yielded a high correlation (r = .407) between the final total score on the CCS and the students‟ final grade in the counseling practicum course. The results of the statistical analyses support the development of the CCS, a promising assessment instrument for evaluating counseling competencies within counselors-in-training. Through the further development of the CCS, counselor educators and supervisors will have a sound method for assessing their students‟ levels of counseling competencies and learning outcomes. Additionally, the CCS may support counselor educators and supervisions in their ethical and legal responsibilities as teachers, evaluators, and gatekeepers for the counseling profession. Furthermore, the CCS offers counselors-in-training a tool to assist them in understanding and developing their level of comprehensive counseling competencies