Biomedical subjects

G Noam

Publications and source records attributed to G Noam.

5 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed1997

Psychopathology as adaptive development along distinctive pathways.

Contrary to the standard assumption that psychopathology stems from developmental immaturity (retardation, fixation, regression), people diagnosed with psychopathology typically develop along distinctive pathways in which they build complex, advanced skills. These pathways are based on adaptation to trauma, such as maltreatment, or to problems in affective-cognitive regulation, such as those in autism. They do not fit normative developmental frameworks. Research has characterized several types of distinctive pathways, especially those arising from maltreatment; they are marked by normal developmental complexity but distinctive affective-cognitive organization. In one study sexually abused depressed adolescent girls admitted for treatment in a mental hospital described themselves-in-relationships with age-appropriate, complex developmental levels equal to those of both nonabused depressed girls and other adolescents. At the same time, they showed a powerful negativity bias contrasting with the positivity biases of other girls. Many of them produced dramatic switches in affective-cognitive organization across assessments contrasting with the similar organization showed by other girls. In another study toddlers from maltreating families showed a consistent negativity bias in play and representations of interactions. We show how to portray these distinctive developmental pathways through the example of Hidden Family Violence, in which people dissociate their private violent world from their public, good-citizen world.

Adaptation, Psychological↗

PubMed1994

Work satisfaction and health in the middle-aged and elderly.

BACKGROUND: There is evidence that occupational factors that cause psychological strain can affect physical and mental health, but findings are not consistent. METHODS: Work satisfaction was used as a convenient global index of job-related psychological strain. Relationships with general, physical and emotional health, appraised by the use of questions, were examined in workers aged > or = 50 years in a longitudinal community health study in Jerusalem. RESULTS: Positive associations were found both in 1975-1976 and in 1985-1987, with age, origin, education, sex and other variables controlled. The odds ratio in favour of poor general health was 2.8 times as high in dissatisfied workers as in very satisfied ones. Multivariate analyses suggested that the associations were not spurious ones attributable to a proneness to report both dissatisfaction and ill-health. Workers who expressed dissatisfaction in both 1975-1976 and 1985-1987 were particularly unhealthy in 1985-1987. CONCLUSIONS: The findings support the impact of work satisfaction or its determinants on current health, and suggest that persistent dissatisfaction may be especially deleterious to health.

Aged↗

PubMed1987

Interaction sequences in families of psychiatrically hospitalized and nonpatient adolescents.

A KEY theme running through competing views of family influences upon adolescent development is that of directionality, on two levels: influences within the flow of family interaction; and influences from family processes to individual adolescent development. In this paper our focus is upon the first level, intrafamilial sequences within families. More specifically, we study links between psychiatric impairment in adolescence and developmentally relevant parent-child and parent-parent sequences. This report extends a previous investigation (Hauser et al. 1984), which described our new family coding system and first correlational findings. We now study the flow of interactions within these families. Although there has been much recent empirical research in adolescent psychosocial development (e.g., Redmore and Loevinger 1979; Loevinger 1976; Adams and Fitch 1982; Hauser et al. 1984), one important area has received less attention--the relationship between developmentally relevant family processes and psychiatric disturbance during adolescence.

Adjustment Disorders↗

PubMed1987

Issues in the study of the quality of the elderly mother-adult daughter relationship.

The quality of intergenerational relationships seems to be a relevant factor in assessing both the family's capacity to continue to provide care for elderly family members and the effectiveness with which it performs caregiving functions. The purpose of this paper is first, to raise several questions with regard to the quality of family ties to which we believe research should address itself. These include the implications of recent sociodemographic trends for quality, and the effects which variations in quality may have for various dimensions of the caregiving process. The literature and research on qualitative aspects of family relationships seems to suffer from basic conceptual and methodological limitations. Thus, this paper also aims at presenting a multidimensional conceptualization of quality which we believe is essential for identifying those specific aspects of relationships most significant in their impact on caregiving.

Adult↗

PubMed1983

Ego development and self-image complexity in early adolescence. Longitudinal studies of psychiatric and diabetic patients.

Ego development and multiple self-images were studied in nonpsychotic psychiatric patients, diabetic patients, and healthy high school students. The results reported are drawn from the first year of a four-year longitudinal project investigating the psychosocial development and family interactions of impaired and at-risk adolescents. Both groups of patients, especially the psychiatric group, were significantly lower in their ego development and showed less self-image complexity than the high school students. These findings are discussed both in terms of understanding developmental deviation in these two chronically ill groups, and as a strategy for investigating formulations being proposed in the new self-psychology framework.

Adjustment Disorders↗