Rafael Art. Javier

Autobiographical memory in bilinguals

Traditional studies on bilingual memory have focused, for the most part, on understanding memories of a nonpersonal nature. The assumptions have been that memory paradigms derived from these investigations can accurately describe and characterize memory systems in bilinguals and that they can be generalized to understanding memory of more personal phenomena. Unlike those earlier investigations, the present study utilized an experimental procedure which ensures a more direct investigation of memory of personal events. Five-minute monologues about a dramatic personal experience were elicited from a group of coordinate bilinguals and then analyzed following Chafes (1980) methodology. We found qualitative and quantitative differences in the linguistic organization of personal memories in the two languages in terms of the number of idea and thought units and the extent of elaboration and affective tone of the memories under discussion. The findings are important in understanding ways memories of personal events are linguistically organized in bilinguals.

Reaching across boundaries of culture and class: Widening the scope of psychotherapy.

Chapter 1 Introduction Chapter 2 What is a Multicultural Perspective for Psychoanalysis? Chapter 3 The Social Conscience of Psychoanalysis Chapter 4 Psychoanalysis in an Historic-Economic Perspective Chapter 5 How Universal is the Psychoanalytic Self? Chapter 6 Psychodynamic Treatment with the Urban Poor Chapter 7 The African-American Patient in Psychodynamic Treatment Chapter 8 Working-Class Issues Chapter 9 Countertransference in Cross-Cultural Psychotherapy Chapter 10 The End of Analyzability Chapter 11 The Accommodation of Diversity in Psychoanalysis Chapter 12 Skin Color in Psychotherapy Chapter 13 In Search of Repressed Memories in Bilingual Individuals Chapter 14 Assessing the Psychodynamic Function of Language in the Bilingual Patient

The role of stress on the language-independence and code-switching phenomena

Abstractthis investigation studies the extent to which stress affects the assumed functional separation of coordinate bilinguals linguistic organization. Spanish/English bilinguals were subjects in a GSR linguistic conditioning experiment using two intensities of buzzer sounds (stressful conditions) and two lists of words. One word for each list functioned as the conditioned stimulus. Generalization to semantically, phonemically, and unrelated words occurred in both languages and buzzer conditions. We found a differential impact of the buzzer on the functional separation of the languages, although not in the direction predicted. We concluded that stress produced code-switching, and hence, a primitivization of the subjects cognitive and linguistic functioning is assumed to have occurred. These findings are important in understanding the way stress affects the bilinguals languages at the linguistic and cognitive levels. They are also important in understanding the role of stress in language development and in the transfer of linguistic information.

Preliminary Investigation of a Culturally Specific Smoking Cessation Intervention for Hispanic Smokers

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to compare a culturally specific, multicomponent behavioral smoking cessation program for Hispanic smokers with a low-intensity, enhanced self-help control condition. Design. Participants who completed pretreatment assessment were randomly assigned to treatment conditions. Smoking status was evaluated at posttreatment, 6-month follow-up, and 12-month follow-up intervals. Setting. The study was based in predominantly Hispanic neighborhoods in Queens, New York. Participants. Ninety-three Hispanic smokers participated: 48 men and 45 women. Intervention. The multicomponent treatment involved a clinic-based group program that incorporated a culturally specific component consisting of videotaped presentations of culturally laden smoking-related vignettes. The self-help control program was enhanced by the use of an introductory group session and follow-up supportive telephone calls. Measures. Smoking outcomes were based on cotinine-validated abstinence and self-reported smoking rates. Predictors of abstinence were examined, including sociodemographic variables, smoking history, nicotine dependence, acculturation, partner interactions, reasons for quitting, self-efficacy, and linguistic competence. Results. Significant group differences in cotinine-validated abstinence rates in favor of the multicomponent group were obtained, but only at posttreatment. With missing data included and coded for nonabstinence, validated abstinence rates at posttreatment were 21% for the multicomponent group and 6% for the self-help group. At the 6-month follow-up, the rates were 13% for the multicomponent group and 9% for the self-help group. By the 12-month follow-up, the rates declined to 8% and 7% for the multicomponent and self-help groups, respectively. A dose-response relationship between attendance at group sessions and abstinence status was shown at posttreatment and 6-month follow-up intervals. Conclusions. The results of the present study failed to show any long-term benefit from use of a clinic-based, culturally specific multicomponent smoking cessation intervention for Hispanic smokers relative to a minimal-contact, enhanced self-help control.

Factors predicting participant attrition in a community-based, culturally specific smoking-cessation program for Hispanic smokers.

Factors predicting participant attrition in a community-based, culturally specific smoking-cessation program enrolling 93 Hispanic smokers were examined. Analysis of univariate predictors showed noncompleters (n = 18) to have lower incomes, to have expressed greater initial confidence in their ability to stop smoking, and to have perceived themselves to be in poorer general health and poorer health in relation to peers, than completers. Noncompleters were also more likely to have reported cardiovascular problems. Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that confidence in stopping smoking, health compared with that of peers, and reported cardiovascular problems contributed significantly to prediction while controlling for other significant univariate predictors. The results are discussed in terms of factors that might mitigate premature termination in community-based smoking-cessation interventions targeting Hispanic smokers.

Vicissitudes of autobiographical memories in a bilingual analysis.

In this article, I address a number of important issues regarding the nature of repression in bilingual analyses. Repressed memories are assumed to hold the key to pathological formations and to the development of transferential manifestations that arise in attempts to work through the conflicts associated with these memories. The nature and quality of the individuals dreams, as well as the whole associative process, are also assumed to be influenced in this way. Analysis of patients who know more than one language to communicate their experience, however, is beginning to raise some questions as to the best way to understand the work of repression in these individuals. I contend that because certain memories are more accessible in one language than the other, repression for bilingual individuals may be partly a function of linguistic accessibility. The concept of repression will therefore need to be reassessed in the context of these observations.

Discriminating Among Subgroups of Borderline Personality Disorder: An Assessment of Object Representations

The purpose of this study was to identify subgroups of borderline personality disorder (BPD) by examining internalized object relations. It was predicted: (a) that the internalized object relations of borderline patients as a group can be differentiated from psychiatric patients (comparison group N = 15), and (b) that BPD subgroups significantly differ in their object-relational profiles. Fifty-seven adult borderline subjects (28 male and 29 female) were separated into three groups based on Horneys description of interpersonal styles (moving away, against, and toward). Object relations were assessed using the Bell Object Relations Inventory and from early memories. Four written early memories were scored using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS). The results suggest that the malevolent inner object world of borderline patients is fundamentally different from nonborderline psychiatric patients; and that the defined BPD subgroups of moving toward, against, and away differed significantly on specific structural and thematic object-relational dimensions. Aspects from Fairbairns object relations theory and contributions from the self/representational, ego deficit, and Kernbergs models of borderline psychopathology are used to help interpret the findings. Identifying subtypes of BPD may allow for more precise discriminations in separating BPD from other disorders and may provide meaningful therapeutic and prognostic information for the different subgroups of borderline patients.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Domestic Violence and the South Asian Community

The South Asian community in the United States is composed of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent (primarily, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) and immigrants from the lands of the South Asian diaspora, including the Caribbean nations and South American countries. In themselves, these countries represent complex and diverse histories. Individuals coming from these countries are therefore influenced by a variety of sociopolitical, socioeconomic, cultural, religious, and historical factors that guide their behaviors toward themselves and others. Thus, when we try to address the issue of domestic violence in this community, it is difficult to isolate a single factor or set of factors to explain the phenomenon. Indeed, the South Asian peoples from these countries carry with them their national heritage and their religious heritages of Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Christianity. Hence, grasping the social dimensions associated with family violence requires a deep knowledge of these varied cultural and religious structures and histories. The obstacles to understanding domestic violence in this community are enormous, including the high level of secretiveness and fear operating among its members, which demarcate the very nature of the problem. These factors create a great challenge to the professional community and to the survivors, advocates, and community-based organizations interested in addressing this problem. For now we can only rely on preliminary, informal, and limited statistics about the problem until a more open forum to address the issue is found. It is essential to facilitate dialogue wherein discussion can take place. This was, indeed, the goal of the conference organized at St. John’s University on April 4, 1998, entitled “Furthering the Dialogue: Domestic Violence in the South Asian Immigrant Community.” It is dangerous to neglect this problem in a community that is increasing in number, making it likely that the number of domestic abuse cases may increase from an already threatening level. There are serious physical health, mental health, educational, occupational, and legal issues related to this problem that should be of concern to the professional and academic community.

The cost of psychotherapy.

This article examines the relationship between psychotherapy funding policies and concepts of mental health. Three levels of mental health - necessity, improvement, and potentiality - are proposed. Necessity represents basic adaptation, the current dominant level illustrated by brief psychotherapy funded through managed mental health care. Improvement is the phase beyond necessity aimed at prevention and heightened quality of life, and potentiality is the ideal. The latter two now receive limited funding and emphasis.

Urban poverty, ethnicity, and personality development

There are multiple factors which contribute to the development of the individuals personality. Many of these factors have been amply discussed in traditional theories of personality formation. An area that has been neglected in these discussions has been the role that poverty and ethnic and cultural factors may have in this regard. This paper offers a discussion of these issues with special emphasis on cultural, ethnic, and socioeconomic factors which tend to characterize the lives of Latino and Black individuals. Recommendations are made for a re-evaluation of the traditional theories of personality when applied to poor and minority individuals.