Defense Mechanisms, Gender, and Adaptiveness in Emerging Personality Disorders in Adolescent Outpatients

The present study focused on demographic and personality differences in the use of 30 defense mechanisms in adolescents with personality psychopathology and explored the hierarchical organization of personality traits based on the adaptiveness of defensive functioning. A total of 102 self-referred adolescent outpatients were interviewed and assessed on defense mechanisms and personality traits using the Defense Mechanisms Rating Scales and the Shedler-Westen Assessment Procedure 200 for Adolescents, respectively. Age and gender differences were found throughout the hierarchy. Pearson's correlations revealed a hierarchical organization of emerging personality disorders (PDs) in adolescence. More adaptive defenses were clearly associated with healthier personality style, whereas more pathological personality styles such as those with borderline traits were characterized by more rigid and maladaptive defenses. Dissociation was also associated with maladaptive personality types. Identifying the defenses associated with emerging personality disorders may inform the unconscious function of defense mechanisms in specific PDs. The systematic assessment of defense mechanisms might also help therapists to monitor changes during treatment

Factors related to women’s psychological distress during the covid-19 pandemic: Evidence from a two-wave longitudinal study

Background. A growing body of research has highlighted the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on women’s mental health. Previous studies showed that women have higher levels of depression, anxiety and PTSD, and worse psychological adjustment than men, which also persisted after the earlier phase of the pandemic. This study aimed to evaluate changes in women’s psychological distress during the pandemic and to evaluate the factors that have a more significant impact in predicting women’s psychological distress. Methods. This two-wave longitudinal study (T1 = Italian first lockdown, and T2 = second phase, when the restrictive measures were eased) involved 893 women (Mage = 36.45, SD = 14.48). Participants provided demographic and health data as well as measures of psychological distress, emotion regulation processes, and ability to tolerate uncertainty. Results. No significant changes were found in women’s psychological distress between T1 and T2, i.e., during and after the first lockdown. Lower social stability status and higher maladaptive emotional coping predicted high psychological distress. Conclusions. Results showed that modifiable psychological variables play a central role in predicting distress and indicated that emotion regulation interventions might be helpful in increasing psychological resilience and mitigating the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic within the female population

La Relación Entre la Motivación Docente y Variables de la Organización: Revisión de la Literatura

Abstract Teacher motivation plays a central role in education because ofitsimpacton student motivation. Previous reviews of teacher motivation have focused on individual variables and psychopathology indicators. However, it is also important to understand the effect of organizational variableson teacher motivationbecause these highlightthe contextthat the teacher is a part of(i.e.,the school). The literature review in this paper analysed studies related to teacher motivation and a pre-defined group of organizational variablesthat werepublished between 1990 and 2014 in several electronic databases.The study found that organizational culture was the most studied variable associated with teacher motivationand most studies in this area were published between 2010 and 2014.Further,there was a prevalence of quantitative studies. This paper concludes with the theoreticaland practical implications of the results,as well assuggestions for future research directions

Heinz Kohut: Die Heilung des Selbst

Recensione in una raccolt

Metaphor and emotional-cognitive regulation in psychotherapy: A single case analysis

The present study investigates the role of unconventional metaphors in relation to the emotional-cognitive regulation within Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy (MI Therapy). This study deals moreover with the application of a new instrument of metaphor analysis within psychotherapeutic transcripts, and with the analysis of MI Therapy by means of computer assisted text-analytic measures. An introduction to the role of metaphor in cognition and psychotherapy is presented. A theoretical model for the identification of metaphorical language within therapeutic transcripts (Metaphor Analysis in Psychotherapy – MAP) with a related operational identification procedure is then described. Following this, the Therapeutic Cycle Model (TCM) is introduced. Finally, guidelines about the conceptual model and the therapeutic treatment of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) within Metacognitive Interpersonal Therapy are offered. The first entire year of a treatment (42 sessions) with a patient affected by a NPD and treated with a MI Therapy has been recorded and entirely transcribed. The TCM’s computer assisted text-analytic measures made possible the clinical analysis of the case; the MAP allowed the identification of unconventional metaphors within the therapeutic transcripts. The relationship between the production of novel metaphorical language and the computer assisted text-analytic measures allowed the investigation of different clinical functions of metaphors within the therapeutic process analyzed. Metaphor production showed a different distribution along the phases of the treatment, with a lower frequency in the last phase for each text-corpus considered (H1). Metaphor occurrence, contrary to our expectations, did not show any significant relationship with Emotional Tone and Abstraction for any text-corpus considered (H2). As expected it was possible to show a significantly different metaphor distribution both in relation to the different EAPs (H3) and to the Therapeutic Cycles (H4). The dyad presented a significantly higher amount of metaphors in phases of the therapy characterized by Reflecting and Connecting. On the contrary, dyad’s metaphors showed a lower frequency within Relaxing and Experiencing. Finally, the metaphorical language of the dyad presented a higher frequency during their Cycles. This pattern of results differentiated itself if we considered separately the patient and the therapist. Patient’s metaphors countersigned phases of his speech characterized by Connecting and by Cycles. In relation to the therapist, his metaphors occurred prevalently during Reflecting, while a lower occurrence was observed within Relaxing. Moreover, therapist’s metaphors did not present a higher frequency within the Cycles. It was possible to partially verify the hypothesis of a different pattern of emotional-cognitive functions of metaphors both within and outside the Cycles (H5). Outside them, metaphorical language did not show significant differences across the EAPs for the dyad, while patient and therapist presented two different patterns of results. The patient used more metaphors within Relaxing than within Reflecting and Experiencing, while the therapist showed an almost complementary use of metaphors, which are less frequent during Relaxing and more frequent during Reflecting. On the contrary, metaphor production within the Cycles did not present significant differences across the EAPs for both the patient and the therapist, while for the dyad we could observe a higher frequency of metaphorical language within Reflecting and a lower one during Experiencing. Finally, the hypothesis of a different distribution of metaphors associated respectively with Reflecting and Experiencing across the Cycles (H6) was verified only for the patient. Patient’s metaphors occurring within Reflecting and Experiencing presented both a significantly higher occurrence within the Cycles than outside them. In relation to the text-analytic measures, it was possible to observe a higher amount of Emotional Tone and Abstraction in the final phase of the therapy. Abstraction increased significantly for each text-corpus considered, while Emotional Tone and negative Emotions did not when considering the therapist’s speech. The analysis of the EAPs presented a different distribution between the first two phases of the treatment and the third one. More precisely, we observed a significant reduction of Relaxing and a significant increase of Connecting. No significant modifications of Reflecting and Experiencing were detected. This held for each text-corpus considered. Finally, it was possible to observe a higher occurrence of the Cycles in the last phase of the therapy for each text-corpus considered. The results were interpreted within the theoretical framework provided by the two different methodologies (TCM and MAP), with reference to the MI Therapy. It was possible to conclude that the investigation of metaphor production at a purely frequency level can reveal important clinical features of treatment under analysis and the modification of these features. Moreover, clinical functions of unconventional metaphors were identified in relation to emotional-cognitive regulation processes occurring during the treatment and measured by means of computer assisted text-analysis. Finally, the applicability of computer assisted text-analytic measure for the clinical analysis of the case was demonstrated. These results can not be generalized due to the single-case nature of the study. However, our findings would advocate the opportunity of replicating this study with a bigger sample, and also in relation to different therapeutic orientations, in order to increase our empirical knowledge about the functions of metaphor in regulating emotional and cognitive process during psychotherapy