Promoting reconciliation through psychoeducational and therapeutic interventions.

This article presents a conceptualization of reconciliation as an interpersonal process that can mend relationships in which trust has been violated. We define reconciliation and describe a six-step program for promoting explicit reconciliation in couples. Psychoeducational groups of couples and couple therapy are often the contexts for promoting reconciliation. We discuss some theoretical support for each step, techniques used to promote progress through the step, and differential considerations in psychoeducation and therapy.

Religion and the forgiving personality.

Forgiveness is a concept with deep religious roots. It is also a basic social and psychological phenomenon. In this article, we explore the links between forgiveness and religion by surveying how they are linked in the major monotheistic world religions, and how they appear to be linked empirically. In attempting to account for the current body of empirical findings, we propose four potential substantive and methodological explanations that should be explored in future studies. Because the concept of forgiveness is (a) both spiritual and social-psychological in nature, and (b) possibly linked to some measures of human health and well-being (concerns that have traditionally been of interest to both reseachers in personality and researchers in religion), the concept of forgiveness could be an important common ground for future research on the interface of religion and personality.

Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships: II. Theoretical elaboration and measurement.

Interpersonal forgiving was conceptualized in the context of a 2-factor motivational system that governs people's responses to interpersonal offenses. Four studies were conducted to examine the extent to which forgiving could be predicted with relationship-level variables such as satisfaction, commitment, and closeness; offense-level variables such as apology and impact of the offense; and social-cognitive variables such as offender-focused empathy and rumination about the offense. Also described is the development of the transgression-related interpersonal motivations inventory--a self-report measure designed to assess the 2-component motivational system (Avoidance and Revenge) posited to underlie forgiving. The measure demonstrated a variety of desirable psychometric properties, commending its use for future research. As predicted, empathy, apology, rumination, and several indexes of relationship closeness were associated with self-reported forgiving.

Interpersonal forgiving in close relationships.

Forgiving is a motivational transformation that inclines people to inhibit relationship-destructive responses and to behave constructively toward someone who has behaved destructively toward them. The authors describe a model of forgiveness based on the hypothesis that people forgive others to the extent that they experience empathy for them. Two studies investigated the empathy model of forgiveness. In Study 1, the authors developed measures of empathy and forgiveness. The authors found evidence consistent with the hypotheses that (a) the relationship between receiving an apology from and forgiving one's offender is a function of increased empathy for the offender and (b) that forgiving is uniquely related to conciliatory behavior and avoidance behavior toward the offending partner. In Study 2, the authors conducted an intervention in which empathy was manipulated to examine the empathy-forgiving relationship more closely. Results generally supported the conceptualization of forgiving as a motivational phenomenon and the empathy-forgiving link.

Mandatory parental involvement prior to adolescent abortion.

The issue of parental involvement in an adolescent's decision to abort a pregnancy is complex and controversial. Consequently, the impact of legislation to mandate parental involvement is reviewed. Although the costs of such legislation are high, there are at least three important clinical benefits. First, a legal mandate will require many adolescents who would not otherwise involve their parents in this decision process to seek their counsel and emotional support. Second, parent's responsibility for the actions of their adolescent children is acknowledged within the legal system. Third, family unity may be promoted by allowing parents and adolescents an opportunity to deal more openly with the causes and implications of the pregnancy.

Religious affiliations in mental health research samples as compared with national samples.

Religious affiliations of patients in research samples in four major psychiatric journals for the years 1978-1982 were compared with those reported in national samples. Protestants and the unaffiliated were underrepresented, whereas Jewish persons were overrepresented. Catholics used mental health services in proportions similar to their presence in the population at large. These findings suggest that religious affiliation may influence the use of mental health services.

Treatment of families during life transitions: matching treatment to family response.

This article examines the conceptualization and treatment of families during normative and non-normative life transitions. Variables identified by individual and family developmental theorists account for some variation in responses of families to life transitions. Three family variables are identified as critical to practitioners' understanding of families: disruption of time schedules, number of new decisions involving initial disagreement, and pretransition family conflict. Different responses are hypothesized for families high or low on each variable. Six treatments of families are identified: historical family therapy, structure/process family therapy, experiential family therapy, psychoeducational approaches, family crisis intervention, and enrichment. The likelihood of success of each treatment is predicted on the basis of a family's response to the transition.

Effectiveness of components of self-verbalization training for control of cold pressor pain.

The increase of positive self-verbalizations (PSV), the decrease of negative self-verbalizations (NSV), their combination (PSV + NSV) and the use of an informational rationale that included a reconceptualization of pain were compared to a test-retest control group for ice water endurance. The Thought-Listing Questionnaire (TLQ) was used to assess participant thoughts. Sixty college women were pretested, given training, and posttested for ice water tolerance. Only the three self-talk treatments (PSV, NSV, PSV + NSV) produced greater pain tolerance. Analysis of TLQ data revealed a relationship between changes in thoughts and self-control of pain. Results suggest that, in contrast to some previous research, PSV and NSV were effective pain control techniques. Differences from other studies included using client-generated thoughts, examining client metacognitions, and promoting high compliance with training (tested by the TLQ). Client use of 'spontaneous' coping strategies was also discussed.

Compliance with homework to employ self-instructions in controlling ice water pain: an analogue to counseling.

40 women were taught to use self-statements to cope with pain caused by ice water. The trainer used four different strategies for reassigning a homework task of using self-statements to cope with pain produced by immersing one hand in ice water. The strategies were equally effective in eliciting compliance with the homework assignment.

Effect of cognitive strategy content and length of instructions on cold pressor pain tolerance.

This experiment assessed a recent contention that cognitive pain-control strategies are effective because length of training produces demands irrespective of content of training. Participants held the dominant hand in ice water for 5 sec. They then estimated how long they expected to tolerate ice water using one of four cognitive pain-control strategies. People who used multiple cognitive strategies previously found to be effective experienced mean tolerance equal to that of subjects who used multiple cognitive strategies previously found to be ineffective. Participants then used the instructions while their hands were immersed in ice water. People tolerated the pain longer when using effective rather than ineffective strategies. The experiment demonstrated that the efficacy of cognitive pain-control strategies cannot be accounted for by length of instructions alone.

Labor room and laboratory: clinical validation of the cold pressor as a means of testing preparation for childbirth strategies.

Annually, numerous couples prepare for childbirth through Lamaze childbirth education classes. Research on various portions of the Lamaze method has used the cold pressor as an analogue for labor. In this experiment, pregnant women who had attended either (a) Lamaze classes which taught pain control methods (n = 22), or (b) Red Cross parenting classes which did not teach pain control methods (n = 7), and students who received either (c) brief Lamaze training (n = 10), or (d) no training (n = 10), were tested on the cold pressor. Pregnant women were also interviewed after the delivery of their children. On the cold pressor, clinically trained Lamaze women were superior (longer tolerance, less pain and/or distress) to clinical control (Red Cross) women, which were equal to student Lamaze trained women. All groups performed better than student controls. Post hoc analyses showed that women who managed labor pain well performed better on the cold pressor task than women who did not manage labor pain well. This experiment established some limits for applying analogue results to childbirth. Moreover, it showed that women who attended Lamaze classes received less medication during labor than women who attended Red Cross classes; however, it was not clear whether this difference was due to the Lamaze classes per se, or to other uncontrolled variables.

Which prepared-childbirth coping strategies are effective?

To investigate coping strategies taught in childbirth education classes, a study was conducted to nulliparous women immersing their hands in ice water. Length of tolerance and self-reported pain served as measures of the techniques' effectiveness. Results in Experiment 1 showed structured breathing to be more effective than normal breathing. Effleurage was less helpful than no effleurage. Practice under stress was better than either imaginal practice or no practice. In Experiment 2 a combination of structured breathing and attention focal points was much better than normal breathing. While coaching was better than no coaching, the combination of structured breathing, attention focal points, and coaching produced the strongest treatment.

Is the Vando Scale a valid measure of perceptual reactance?

A test of the validity of the Vando Scale of perceptual reactance was made by correlating Vando Scale scores with objective pain tolerance, subjective discomfort, distortion in estimation of duration of discomfort, and assertiveness. 84 college women participated in an ice water-tolerance task. Higher scores associated with less subjective discomfort, greater time distortion and reduced submissiveness. Objective tolerance was not correlated with scale scores. It was concluded that the Vando Scale has relatively low construct validity and may be very sensitive to the demand characteristics of the research situation.

Spatial concept learning in preschool children: motoric experiences and verbal repetition as adjuncts to passive listening.

32 preschool children were matched by age, sex, and pretest scores on spatial concept knowledge. Four groups were (a) instruction (see and hear) only, (b) verbal repetition, (c) fine motor treatment (hand manipulation), and (d) gross motor treatment (body movement). The 11 spatial concepts studied were in front of, behind, beside, on top of, under, around, through, right, left, forward, and backward. There was no difference in performance between groups given instruction only and verbal repetition. The motoric groups learned more than the non-motoric groups. Older children knew more concepts initially but did not learn more new concepts than younger children.