Brent Mallinckrodt

Working alliance, attachment memories, and social competencies of women in brief therapy

Current social competencies and memories of attachment bonds with each parent were examined as they related to influences on formation of the working alliance. Female clients (N = 76) at 4 university and community agencies completed surveys containing the Parental Bonding Instrument, the Self-Efficacy Scale, the Adult Attachment Scale, and the Working Alliance Inventory. Results indicated that parental bonds, especially with fathers, were significantly associated with social competencies. Multiple regression analyses indicated that social competencies (self-efficacy and adult attachment) accounted for 14% of the variance in client working alliance ratings, whereas recalled parental bonds accounted for 23% of the variance. Working alliance was negatively associated with father bonds, positively associated with mother bonds, and-among social competencies-significantly associated with capacity for adult attachment

Counselor training level and the formation of the psychotherapeutic working alliance.

To investigate the relation of training level to working alliance, 50 counselor-client dyads from three counseling agencies were surveyed. Counselors were grouped into three training levels: (a) novices, in their first practicum; (b) advanced trainees, in their second practicum through predoctoral internship; and (c) experienced counselors, postdoctoral staff at the agencies. After the third session, counselors and clients completed the Working Alliance Inventory to provide ratings of the bond, task, and goal dimensions of their alliances

Clients' Representations of Childhood Emotional Bonds With Parents, Social Support, and Formation of the Working Alliance

Survey data were collected from 102 client-counselor dyads at 3 counseling centers with regard to (a) client and counselor 3rd-session working alliance ratings, (b) quality of clients current social relationships, as evidenced by social-support satisfaction, and (c) clients representations of care and overprotection in their memories of childhood emotional bonds with their mothers and fathers. Care pertains to memories of parents emotional responsiveness, warmth, and attention to clients needs. Overprotection pertains to memories of parents intrusive control and resistance at attempts to gain independence. Results indicated that social support was a significant predictor of client-rated working alliance, whereas clients bonds with fathers were a significant predictor of counselor-rated working alliance. A trend toward interactions between social support and parental bonds in predicting counselor-rated alliance was also suggested. The working alliance, with conceptual origins in psychodynamic theory (cf. Sterba, 1934; Zeitzel, 1956), has been proposed as a part of the counseling relationship that is crucial to successful outcome regardless of the theoretical underpinnings of the therapy (Bordin, 1979, 1980). Drawing from the work of Greenson (1967) and Bordin (1979), Gelso and Carter (1985) described the working alliance as an emotional alignment between the counselor and the client that engages the self-observing, rational aspects of the client and the working, therapizing aspects of the counselor. Bordin (1979) suggested that the working alliance is composed of emotional bonds of trust and attachment between counselor and client, as well as agreement about the goals of treatment and the therapeutic tasks needed to achieve those goals. Evidence documenting the importance for successful therapy outcome of the counseling relationship in general (Orlinsky & Howard, 1986), and the working alliance in particular (for reviews see Gaston, 1990; Horvath & Symonds, 1991), continues to accumulate. Some studies have reported quite strong associations, with the working alliance accounting for up to 30%-45% of the variance in therapeutic outcome (Horvath & Greenberg, 1989). A recent meta-analysis reported a more modest, but nevertheless significant, effect size averaged across 24 studies (Horvath & Symonds, 1991). Although the bulk of previous research has examined the working alliance as a predictor of therapy outcome, more attention has been given recently to predictors of the working alliance itself, with studies of factors that affect counselors capacity to form working alliances (Mallinckrodt & Nelson, 1991), as

Social Support and the Impact of Job Loss on Older Professionals

University of Maryland Unemployment presents important psychological problems for all age groups, but the impact of job loss may be particularly severe for older workers. Participants in our study were 35 members of a self-help organization for unemployed professionals over the age of 40. Three types of variables were measured, (a) stressors, which were length of unemployment, financial concerns, and six functionally different types of social support; (b) stress symptoms, which were self-esteem, depression, physical health symptoms, psychological symptoms, and locus of control; and (c)job seeking behaviors. Our results indicated that financial concerns and social support stressors significantly predicted a number of the stress symptoms. Specific types of social support exhibited varied patterns of relations to these stress symptoms. The perceived availability of reassurance of worth support, provided in other contexts frequently by work colleagues, seemed to be most strongly related to positive self-esteem, internal locus of control, and more job-seeking efforts. The October 1986 unemployment rate of 6.8% represented nearly 8 million people (Jobless Rate, 1986). The devastat- ing impact of job loss on physical and mental health has been summarized in several reviews of empirical investigations (Dooley & Catalano, 1980; Gordus, Jarley, & Ferman, 1981). Job loss has been linked to increased rates of suicide (Ham- mermesh & Soss, 1974; Pierce, 1967); diagnosed cases of mental illnesses; or increases in both inpatient and outpatient use of mental health services (Barling & Handal, 1980; Bren- ner, 1973; Frank, 1981), increased alcohol abuse (Pearlin & Radabaugh, 1976; Smart, 1979), more external locus of con- trol (Parnes & King, 1977), lowered self-esteem (Perfetti & Bingham, 1983), and severe depression (Landau, Neal, Meis- ner, & Prudic, 1980). Some unemployed workers, depending on their attributional style, respond to the uncontrollable aversive event of job loss with learned helplessness behaviors, namely, depression and a lowered self-concept, that can im- mobilize job seeking efforts (Cohn, 1978; Feather & Daven- port, 1981). Job loss may be a particularly severe problem for older workers, who, when compared with younger colleagues in a study of an extensive layoff, were without jobs for nearly twice as long before securing new employment, despite the fact that the older workers were, in general, better educated and trained (Turner & Whitaker, 1973). Ideally, workers in their 40s have completed the tasks Levinson (1978) describes as settling down, namely, establishing a secure niche in the occupa- tional world and attaining some measure of advancement. This article is based on the doctoral dissertation of Brent Mallin- ckrodt under the supervision of Bruce R. Fretz. We gratefully ac- knowledge the members of 40-Plus for their cooperation, Linn C. Towbes for her help in data collection, Linda Ahuna and Craig Mallinckrodt for their assistance in data coding, and Elizabeth Alt- maier for her review of an earlier draft of this manuscript. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Brent Mallinckrodt, who is now at the Division of Counseling and Educational Psychology, College of Education, University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon 97403-1215. 281 Typical developmental tasks of workers in their 40s, the time of mid-life transition, involve the reappraisal of ones life goals and accomplishments as well as a recognition--perhaps for the first time--of ones own mortality. Still older workers may be concerned with meeting generativity needs by serv- ing as mentors to younger colleagues (Erickson, 1963; Lev- inson, 1978). Job loss may seriously interfere with the suc- cessful completion of these developmental tasks. In addition, establishing occupational security is a task not appropriate for workers in their 40s or older and, therefore, may be particu- larly stressful because it is off time (Schlossberg, 1981, 1984). Several studies have highlighted the importance of social support in facilitating the adjustment of older persons to life stresses (Norris & Morrell, 1984; Oppegard, 1984), including the stress associated with transition to retirement (Cassidy, 1985; Hornstein & Wagner, 1984). Although no previous study could be located that specifically examined social sup- port and job loss in older workers, social support has been related to significantly lower levels of stress symptoms in general samples of unemployed persons (Gore, 1978; Romero, 1984). In addition to these direct effects, social support may also have buffering effects by moderating the impact of other stressors (Kasl, Cobb, & Gore, 1975). Functionally different types of social support may be related to the negative effects of job loss in different ways (Friesen, 1985). Our study examined participants in a self-help group of unemployed former professional workers over the age of 40. Three different sources of stress were investigated, (a) length of time unemployed, (b) extent of perceived financial con- cerns, and (c) level of perceived social support. The study investigated the relation between these stressor variables and several stress symptoms, including depression, lowered self-esteem, physical illness, and changes in locus of control. Most central to our study was an examination of the relation of six functionally different types of support to the specific stress symptoms. The overall level of social support was hypothesized to have both a direct relation stress symptoms, and an interactive or buffering relation such that

Co-occurrence of eating disorders and incest: The role of attachment, family environment, and social competencies.

Childhood attachment, family environment, and adult social competencies were examined to explain the association between sexual abuse and eating disorders (EDs). Female college students (n = 102) and female clients sexually abused in childhood (n = 52) completed surveys retrospectively that assessed parental bonds, family environment, and sexual abuse, as well as current self-efficacy, social support, intimacy, adult attachment style, and ED symptoms. Client incest survivors had a higher ED rate (47%) than did sexually abused clients (22%), student incest survivors (24%), or nonabused students (17%). Significant associations were found between family environment, incest, social competencies, and eating disorders. Incest survivors had more dysfunctional families and lower social competencies than did nonabused women. Among incest survivors, those with the lowest levels of social competencies and poorest bonds with their mothers had more ED symptoms

Common Aspects of Object Relations and Self-Representations in Offspring From Disparate Dysfunctional Families

Survey data were collected from 97 adults, drawn from clinical and community settings, who identified themselves as growing up in dysfunctional families. Constructs from object relations, self psychology, and attachment theory were used to select criterion measures. Although the level of family dysfunction was generally high, no significant differences were observed between adult children of alcoholics and adults from families whose dysfunction was not due to substance abuse. Degree of family dysfunction was significantly associated with internalized shame, object relations deficits, and presence of addictions and emotional problems. Contrary to expectation, family dysfunction was negatively correlated with 2 self psychology constructs: goal instability and superiority. The study suggests that clinical interventions based on object relations and attachment theories may be particularly useful with adult children from dysfunction families. The term adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) has become popular with both mental health professionals and the public to denote a group of individuals with presumed shared developmental experiences and adult personality and interpersonal deficits (Fulton & Yates, 1990; Kashubeck & Christensen, 1992). These difficulties are assumed to result from growing up in a home where at least one parent was impaired by alcohol abuse. However, it has become clear that many other adults exhibit similar symptom patterns, although neither of their parents exhibited substance abuse problems. These individuals grew up in families with chronic violence, incest, psychiatric or physical illness, or some other form of dysfunction that rendered parents largely incapable of meeting the emotional needs of their children (Black, 1981). Adult children of dysfunctional families (ACDFs) is the term popularly used to identify this group. Common reports of adjustment difficulty from adults who grew up in families with disparate types of dysfunction suggest that these families may be similar in important ways. Problems that have been attributed to alcohol drinking are more likely due to factors coincident with alcohol abuse, such as maladaptive parenting; chaotic, distressed, or abusive environments; poor communication; and other problems that impair the familys ability to meet the childs physical and

Change in Working Alliance, Social Support, and Psychological Symptoms in Brief Therapy.

Many interpersonal therapists use the working alliance as a vehicle for client change and as a corrective experience for clients to learn new relationship skills. Clients in brief therapy (N = 34) completed measures of social support and psychological symptoms at pretest and termination and a measure of working alliance after the third session and at termination. Path analysis suggested that improvement in the working alliance was significantly related to improvement in social support and that improvement in social support was significantly related to symptom reduction. The working alliance appears to have an important indirect connection to symptom reduction, through the mediating influence of increased support. After the effects of improved alliance were controlled, increased support was still related to decreased symptoms; however, after the effects of social support were controlled, the relation between change in alliance and symptoms was not significant.

Attachment, Social Competency, and the Capacity to Use Social Support

Much of the pioneering research on the stress-buffering effects of social support tended to view support primarily in terms of its perceived availability in the environment. Individual differences were often included in these models, not as independent variables, but only as dependent variables representing psychological or physical health symptoms of distress. In many of these studies, the capacity to benefit from available social support was accepted as a given. After a decade of research in which this paradigm predominated, however, researchers in the mid-1980s increasingly began to view social support as an interaction between individual difference variables and the environment (e. g., B. R. Sarason, Pierce, & I. G. Sarason, 1990; I. G. Sarason, B. R. Sarason, & Shearin, 1986). On the basis of this growing body of research, it appears that at least three conditions are necessary for an individual to derive benefit from social support for coping with a given stressful life event: (1) the environment must offer support of the functional types and from relationship sources that match the coping requirements of the event; (2) the individual must possess social skills necessary to engage in supportive relationships, establish intimacy, and recruit the specific types of social support needed for coping with the Stressor; and (3) the individual must have the personality disposition and willingness to exercise these skills.

Social Support and the Effectiveness of Group Therapy

Collected self-report data from 37 pretest clients and 26 of the same clients at posttest who participated in six counseling center therapy groups. Questionnaires assessed six functionally different types of social support provided from two sources, therapy group members vs. persons outside the group, together with pre- and posttest levels of three distress symptoms, which were depression, self-esteem, and psychological symptoms of stress. Significant improvement in symptoms was noted during the eight-week interventions, and this improvement was related to the availability of social support, depending on the type and source of support. In general, support from sources outside the therapy group appeared to have the most impact. Levels of certain types of support differed in groups depending on whether or not the group was composed of members with a common presenting concern.

Culturally Sensitive Assertiveness Training for Ethnic Minority Clients

Les auteurs sinteressent a une capacite dont limportance est primordiale dans nos societes actuelles, a savoir la capacite de simposer (assertiveness). Ils proposent des elements de reflexion et des conseils aux therapeutes qui assurent la formation de cette capacite chez des sujets provenant de groupes ethniques minoritaires. Les strategies devaluation de cette capacite sont egalement discutees