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PubMed1992

Characteristics of participants in a gestational carrier program.

Genetic parents and gestational carriers in our gestational carrier program were evaluated by psychodiagnostic interview and by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Interview-2 (MMPI-2), a widely used objective psychological test, to identify psychopathology and describe personality characteristics. Overall, participants exhibited no overt psychopathology. Personality differences were found between gestational carriers and genetic mothers and genetic fathers and mothers. Clinical interviews revealed that gestational carriers tended to be the dominant partner in the relationship, were motivated by a wish to help an infertile couple, enjoyed being pregnant, showed narcissistic needs, and expressed a wish for secondary financial gain. The majority of gestational carriers stated that they had considered becoming a traditional surrogate but felt they could not surrender a child that was genetically theirs. These results indicate that there is not any predisposing psychopathology which attracts participants to the gestational carrier program.

Adult↗
PubMed1975

A scaled-projective measure of interpersonal values.

A projective instrument entitled the "Kilmann Insight Test" (KIT) was devised to measure the Interpersonal Value Constructs (IVCs) of individuals, defined as; the mental categories through which an individual perceives and interprets the desirable and undesirable features of interpersonal behavior. The KIT requires an individual to differentiate on a seven-point scal, 18 IVCs according to how relevant they are to a series of six ambiguous pictures of interpersonal situations. A factor analysis of the KIT's values resulted in two personal Restraint versus Boldness. Comparing the KIT with a self-report instrument containing the same value items as the KIT, seems to be tapping a different concept of values than the self-report assessment.

Factor Analysis, Statistical↗
PubMed1986

Information processing and communication deviance in schizophrenic patients and their mothers.

Tests of attention/information processing, the continuous performance test (CPT) and the span of apprehension task (SAT), were given to 25 schizophrenic patients and their mothers. Measures of communication deviance also were obtained from the mothers. Comparison of these assessments in the mothers revealed different transactional profiles for good attenders and poor attenders on the CPT and on the SAT. The relationships between generations (patient and mother) differ from the within-individual relationships. CPT performance by the patient is not significantly correlated with scores from the mother. However, SAT performance by the patient could be related to SAT performance by the mother and specific communication deviance factor scores.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

[The personality of children with weak posture].

An attempt is made on two groups of children with weak posture and of normal children aged 8 to 10 years to demonstrate a statistical link between fibrous tissue-weakness and certain psychological characteristics. In tests and observations of experiences and behavior of children one finds: Compared with the controls the children showing symptoms suffer psychosomatic changes. The cause is held to be not just increased psychomotor clumsiness, but their behavior pattern is essentially due to psychological pressure of their environment (parents, school, friends etc). This leads to: reduction self-confidence, increased experience of failure, hypercompensatory view of the self with strong criticism of others and again physical dysfunction. To offer treatment is not enough. We have to demand a spread of information, cooperative efforts of teachers , school-physicians and parents and education by team-work.

Activities of Daily Living↗
PubMed1979

Sex differences in children's expression and control of fantasy and overt aggression.

The present study explored sex differences in children's expression and control of fantasy and overt aggression. Fifth-grade boys and girls were presented a TAT-like projective test to measure fantasy aggression and controls over aggression. Overt peer-oriented aggression was measured by peer and teacher ratings. Results indicated that boys were rated more physically and verbally aggressive than girls but not more indirectly aggressive. Boys also produced more physical aggression in fantasy than girls, although the opposite trend was found for indirect aggression; no sex difference was found for verbal fantasy aggression. Finally, girls had a higher ratio of aggression control per total fantasy aggression than boys. The results support the position that while boys, in contrast to girls, are socialized in a way that encourage direct expression of aggression, girls are just as likely to be aggressive as boys when the aggression is indirect. The results are discussed further from the perspective of social learning theory and Maccoby and Jacklin's biological position.

Aggression↗
PubMed1994

A test of interpersonal theory of depression in children and adolescents using a projective technique.

Using a projective technique among child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients, we tested several hypotheses derived from Coyne's (1976b) interpersonal theory of depression. First, we predicted that depression would be associated with rejection, even controlling for the effects of aggression. Depression and rejection were associated only when aggression effects were covaried. Second, we hypothesized that the depression-rejection relation would display symptom specificity. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that depression, but not anxiety, was related to rejection. Third, we assessed whether an index of interpersonal style--reliance on others--moderated the depression-rejection relation. Results suggested that depression and overreliance were both associated with high rejection scores, whereas the combination of low depression and low reliance on others was associated with low rejection scores. We found that results held across age groups. The implications of our findings for the interpersonal theory of depression in youngsters are discussed.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1979

Manifestations of sexual and aggressive drives in prelatency, latency, and postlatency children.

The purpose of this study was to test Freud's proposition that the sexual drive is dormant during the latency stage. The null hypotheses were that there are no differences in the manifestations of sexual and aggressive drives during the prelatency and latency as well as the latency and postlatency stage groups. Subjects consisted of prelatency (3-5 years), latency (7-9 years), and postlatency (14-16 years) children. There were 180 subjects; 30 boys and 30 girls in each stage group. TAT cards 4, 10, 13MF chosen for sexual content; 3BM, 8BM, and 18GF for aggressive content; and 1, 2, 13B chosen for neutral content were used. Subjects rank ordered these nine cards in order of preference. Chi squares and t-values of Ss' preferences supported the Freudian concept of the latency age. In addition, the data also revealed that the older a child becomes, the less likely he is to show interest in aggressive content material. There was only one significant sex difference. This involved the preference for sexual content material among postlatency boys and girls.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1990

[A psychological study, using interviews and projective tests, of patients seeking anonymous donor artificial insemination].

A Thematic Aperception Test was used with 13 male and 16 female patients who were requesting A.I.D. The following main psychological reactions were found in women: anxiety and depression (fear of rejection by their family and friends; lowering the image of the husband--the donor being considered as a rival), aggression (the narcissistic woman "demands" A.I.D.; the donor is esteemed highly); mother is protective ("true" paternity comes through love of the child and the need to forget the donor). They found, in men: an inability to abandon fertility as lost (with denial of sterility); ambivalence, castration anxiety and a feeling of being excluded from the mother-child symbiosis with later acceptance of loss of fertility and (sometimes excessively) identification with the "mother". Most subjects studied were not intending telling the child about his true origin; because disclosure would be tantamount to transgressing twice over the laws of paternity and the rules against Oedipus behaviour. There is often a great difference between the ways the partners view the matter and inter-relate. We strongly recommend that psychological advice should be taken before treatment with A.I.D. is started.

Aggression↗
PubMed2002

Possible influence of defenses and negative life events on patients with chronic fatigue syndrome: a pilot study.

13 patients with a diagnosis of chronic fatigue syndrome and two contrast groups of conversion disorder patients (n = 19) and healthy controls (n = 13) were assessed using the projective perceptual Defense Mechanism Test to investigate if specific defense patterns are associated with chronic fatigue syndrome. Another objective was to assess the possible influence of perceived negative life events prior the onset of the illness. The overall results showed significant differences in defensive strategies among groups represented by two significant dimensions in a Partial Least Squares analysis. Compared to the contrast groups the patients with chronic fatigue syndrome were distinguished by a defense pattern of different distortions of aggressive affect, induced by an interpersonal anxiety-provoking stimulus picture with short exposures. Their responses suggested the conversion group was characterized by a nonemotionally adapted pattern and specific constellations of defenses, associated with interior reality orientation compared to the patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and the healthy controls. Rated retrospectively, the group with chronic fatigue syndrome reported significantly more negative life events prior to the onset of their illness than healthy controls. For instance, 5 of the 13 patients reported sexual assault or physical battery as children or teenagers compared to none of the healthy controls. A significant association was found between defense pattern and frequency of reported negative life events. However, these retrospective reports might be confounded to some extent by the experience of the patients' illness; for example, the reports may be interpreted in terms of present negative affect.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1975

Asthmatic children away from home: a comparative psychological study.

The essential difference that emerged from a comparison of the fantasies of Rapidly Remitting and Nonremitting asthmatic children was found to be in the area of emotional awareness. The children who lost their asthmatic symptoms when separated from home were found to have some awareness of angry feelings toward parental figures whom they experienced as hostile and/or rejecting. They were also found to be aware, to some extent, of longings for a relationship with a person who would provide nurturing care or guidance. The Nonremitting children, on the other hand, were found to be lacking in any awareness of either angry feelings or longings for a nurturing relationship. A study of the test materials of both groups of children reveals that these feelings are present in all eight children. Yet they have been totally repressed in the Nonremitting children, while the Rapidly Remitting children have, apparently, not felt the need to resort to such massive repression. Thus a second area of difference, implied in the first, emerges when we compare these two groups of children in terms of defensive ego functioning. Abramson's emphasis on the central importance of the period in which the child's emotional conflict arose proved to be valid for this study. He predicted that those children whose asthma begins at or near the period of toilet training will be the same ones who will have most difficulty giving up their asthmatic symptoms. Although I have not been able to validate dates for onset of asthma, it's clear, I hope, from the foregoing discussion that the Nonremitting children all suffer from conflicts arising in the anal period of development. This is not so (or much less so) for the Rapidly Remitting children who, however, often have conflicts which are just as severe. Each of the Nonremitting children, on an unconscious level, is waging a battle with mother over who will get the upper hand: this is the central conflict. Though these children are outwardly compliant much of the time, they betray their inner antagonism by withholding and being stubborn. Each has developed very skillful, though passive, methods for resisting adult authority. What are the implications for these findings? Our Nonremitting children do not always show obvious signs of emotional disturbance. Because they tend to be well behaved, they are often considered healthy and well adjusted. While the Rapidly Remitting children are insisting (often dramatically) on getting help, the Nonremitters are busy "fitting in". Though they are slow to respond to individual psychotherapy and milieu treatment, they need it as much as do those who are more immediately reponsive to our therapeutic efforts.

Anger↗
PubMed1981

An experimental study of psychoanalytic theories of depression.

This study involves an application of a new methodology, subliminal psychodynamic activation, which can be used to experimentally test psychoanalytic "dynamic" propositions. It was found that with a sample of neurotically depressed female patients, there was a significant decrease in depression-related responses following the stimulation of a symbiotic gratification fantasy ("Mommy and I are one"). Subliminal symbiotic stimulation had been shown previously in studies with different populations (schizophrenics, homosexuals, phobics, alcoholics and overeaters) to have similar ameliorative effects. The current results point to the importance of symbiotic dynamics and the relationship dependent on a dominant other, rather than to the retroflexion of aggression in neurotic depression. This is in keeping with the formulations of Arieti (1959), Bemporad (1953), Horowitz (1980), and the senior author (Slipp, 1977). Hypotheses regarding the effects of stimulating fantasies involving success were not supported by the primary data, although secondary data (from correlational analyses) did provide some indirect support for the senior author's hypothesis. The "Autonomous Succeed" message ("Succeed for myself") did not reverse the depressive mood, possibly because autonomy was equated with abandonment. Relatively differentiated depressives tended to respond to the "Exploitative Succeed" ("Succeed for Father or Mother") messages with a decrease in depression, while depressives with a low level of self-object differentiation tended to respond with an increase in depression. For more differentiated depressives, performing for and giving over a part of the self to another is an adaptive style that insures the dependent relationship and bolsters the patient's weak self-image. However, with poorly differentiated depressives, giving over to another raises the threat of total annihilation, since the self is already diminished. These secondary data can be viewed, however, as only suggestive and need to be pursued in future studies. The results on symbiosis in this study add to the growing literature (summarized in Silverman, 1976, 1980) indicating that subliminal psychodynamic activation is a useful technique for investigating psychoanalytic formulations in the laboratory. It was Freud's overriding hope that psychoanalysis be firmly rooted as a behavioral science and this technique seems most promising as contributing toward that end.

Achievement↗
PubMed1977

Effects of chlordiazepoxide and oxazepam administration on verbal hostility.

We compare the effects of chlordiazepoxide, oxazepam, and placebo on hostility, as both an inner motivational or potential state and verbal interpersonal behavior. This article reports the findings relevant to the latter dimension of hostility and integrates them with those findings, presented in an initial report, relevant to hostility as an inner motivational state. The verbal data again support the hypothesis that chlordiazepoxide-induced increases in verbal interpersonal hostility, following frustration, are greater than those associated with placebo. With regard to oxazepam, the verbal hostility data were consonant with the motivational data that suggested that oxazepam does not substantially disinhibit hostility but did not as consistently differentiate oxazepam and chlordiazepoxide at the level of overt hostile behavior.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Gender differences in premorbid social adjustment and intimacy motivation in schizophrenia.

The present study compared the relationship between motivation for intimacy and level of premorbid adjustment for men and women with schizophrenia. A sample of 34 schizophrenic patients (14 male and 20 female) were studied. Stories told in response to six TAT cards were scored for Intimacy Motivation (IM). Levels of Premorbid adjustment (PA) and Asociality (ASOC) were assessed. A statistically significant interaction between gender and level of PA indicated that males with good PA had higher IM than those with poorer whereas females with good PA had lower IM than females with poor PA. The same interaction was obtained for the measure of ASOC. Findings are discussed in relation to sociocultural expectations for women. Some implications for differential treatment needs of male and female schizophrenics are suggested.

Adolescent↗