Colin Wastell

Attachment and meaning-making in perinatal bereavement.

The study examined the psychological impact of perinatal bereavement on 108 women, from a dual attachment and meaning-making perspective, both descriptively and predictively. The study hypothesized that grief acuity is a function of both attachment security (operationalized by A. Antonovskys 1979 Sense of Coherence [SOC] scale), and the ongoing search for meaning. Controlling for time post-loss, psychological distress and intrusive thoughts; sense of coherence and search for meaning significantly predicted current grief acuity. The findings supported the conceptualization of grief as an interpretive phenomenon, elicited by the loss of a primary attachment figure, thereby shattering core life purposes, and implicating the need to reinstate meaning.

Implications of Resolving the Diagnosis of PKU for Parents and Children

OBJECTIVE To examine resolution of the diagnosis among parents of children with phenylketonuria (PKU) as a mechanism of adjustment for parents and children. METHODS Reaction to diagnosis interviews were conducted with 52 mothers and 47 fathers of 55 children with PKU aged 2-12 years. The parents also completed questionnaires assessing their personal adjustment (stress symptoms), their childs adjustment (behavior problems), and coping variables (personal hopefulness and coping strategies). RESULTS Most mothers (69%) and fathers (77%) were resolved to their childs diagnosis. Lower levels of parent stress were explained by higher personal hopefulness (14% of the variance for mothers and 21% for fathers) and resolution of the diagnosis (15% of the variance for mothers and 6% for fathers) after taking account of demographic variables and severity of the childs PKU. Parent resolution, however, did not contribute independently to the variance explained in child behavior problems after taking account of coping variables and severity of PKU. CONCLUSIONS Resolution of the diagnosis of PKU is a strong indicator of parent adjustment, and assessment of parent reactions should be considered an integral component of clinical care. Further research is warranted in relation to the implications of parent resolution for the childs response to PKU through different development stages and the effectiveness of interventions in aiding parent resolution.

Defensive focus and the Defense Style Questionnaire.

The classification of defenses into affect and content focused is examined in the light of modern theorizing about defensive processes. The results of two studies into the factor structure of the Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ) are reported. The results indicate that the classification into levels by Vaillant is both empirically robust and theoretically meaningful. The two studies are presented as complimentary due to the predominance of female gender in study 1 and male gender in study 2. Implications for future research and clinical practice are explored, particularly in relation to personality and anxiety disorders.

Empathy training, sex offenders and re-offending

Abstract A common treatment focus for work with sex offenders is the development of “victim empathy”. It is asserted that by developing sex offenders’ empathy towards their victims, re-offending will be reduced. However, the clinical and empirical evidence indicates that re-offending remains a major problem among treated sex offenders. The present paper reports on the evaluation of a programme designed to increase sex offenders’ empathic ability. Overall, the programme was very successful in improving offenders’ scores on measures of empathy. However, one area that did not improve was the ability to recognize affective cues in other people. This skill deficiency may offer an important insight into the re-offending cycle of sex offenders. It is proposed that an inability to recognize affect indicators in others, including fear and distress, is a key deficiency leading to re-offending. The findings reported are exploratory, and for that reason tentative, but may provide a fruitful direction for future research of the pattern of sex-offender compliant behaviour while in custody and their subsequent sexual re-offending once released.

Trainee Teachers' Opinions about Suicide.

Abstract In response to the rising rate of youth suicide, interested parties—both overseas and in Australia—have examined various methods of suicide prevention. One popular approach has been to base prevention within secondary-school communities by equipping staff, especially teachers, to identify and appropriately intervene with at-risk youth. The attitudes toward suicide of trainee teachers from a large metropolitan university were examined. It was found that they held complex opinions about suicide. While endorsing the metaphor representing suicide as a cry for help, they also perceived the communicative intent of suicide as being primarily manipulative in nature. These results are discussed with reference to training and support of teachers by counsellors in secondary-school settings.

Cognitive Predispositions and Intelligence Analyst Reasoning

On numerous occasions in the past decade the quality of the work of Western intelligence agencies has been called into question. The terrorist attacks on the United States of 11 September 2001 (9=11), and the U.S. decision to invade Iraq, based on the asserted threat of Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), have both resulted in extensive investigations at the highest levels. Why did these agencies fail to detect the impending terrorist attacks, and how could they have gotten it so wrong concerning the presence of WMDs in Iraq? A substantial political and public concern has been generated by these questions. Comprehensive reports have been published in both unclassified and classified forms. In the United States, The 9=11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States [The 9=11 Commission Report] and the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission Report [WMD Report]; in the United Kingdom the Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction [Butler Report]; and in Australia, Report of the Inquiry into Australian Intelligence Agencies [Flood Report] have all found fault in

An emergence solution to the reasoning dual processes interaction problem

In a desire to account for experimental evidence that is said to indicate that human reasoning is subject to errors and biases, some scholars have championed dual process theories of reasoning. These scholars have attempted to resolve the dual processes interaction problem by proposing either additional processes or one system dominating the other. Utilising modularity theory, this article asserts that human reasoning consists of a multitude of modules that interact via dynamical emergent processes based on information input and output requirements. The proposed solution combines research from modularity and emergence theories.

Effective Intelligence Analysis: The Human Dimension

ABSTRACT This paper reports a two stage investigation into the role that personality (NEO Five Factor Inventory – NEO), cognitive (Watson‐Glaser critical thinking appraisal – WGCTA), and interpersonal traits play in the production of accurate and well constructed intelligence advice. The first stage consisted of the creation of a multiple choice intelligence assessment device that assesses the essential elements of good analytic tradecraft. The second stage reports on the psychological study of a sample of trainee analysts to assess the contribution of the intellectual, personality and interpersonal traits of analysts to good analytic practice. The findings indicate that analysts need empathic skills over and above analytic skills in order to carry out the tasks identified as integral to good intelligence analysis.

SINTELLA: simulation of INTELLigence analysis

ABSTRACT The development and testing of a simulation program for investigating the work of intelligence analysts is presented. The SINTELLA program is designed to create a structured information resource that represents the essential elements of intelligence analysis environments. Participants are required to produce documents and estimates of risk appropriate to the work context. The program captures a range of analyst information processing behaviour, including selecting, combining and evaluating information. Two versions of SINTELLA have been developed to date. Testing of these has shown promise from a number of perspectives. Experimental participants find the simulations easy to use. Performance data generated shows variability and sensitivity to both characteristics of the task and the psychological predispositions of the participants. Ongoing work with the program is involving national and international policing and security organisations.

Are Atheists Implicit Theists

The Cognitive Science of Religion commonly advances the view that religious beliefs emerge naturally via specific cognitive biases without cultural influence. From this perspective comes the claim that self-proclaimed atheists harbour traces of supernatural thinking. By exploring the potential influence of the cultural learning mechanism Credibility Enhancing Displays ( CRED s), which affirms beliefs, current disparities between studies involved in priming the implicit theism of atheists, might be reconciled. Eighty-eight university students were randomly assigned to either a religious or control prime condition. A dictator game was completed to obtain an indication of pro-social behaviour ( PSB ). Lifetime theists reported significantly higher religious CRED s exposure levels than lifetime atheists, though not convert atheists. Conversely, lifetime atheists reported significantly lower CRED s exposure scores than convert atheists. Convert atheists in the prime condition were significantly more pro-social than lifetime atheists. Additionally, higher scores on the CRED s exposure measure equated to higher PSB in the religious condition than the control condition. The results are consistent with the view that supernatural belief formation is an interactive process between both context and content biases, and that in order to accurately test for implicit theism, past personal differences in exposure to religious CRED s should be considered.