Society for Psychotherapy Research

We aimed to develop a self-report measure of therapist acceptance of telepsychotherapy based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) framework. Using a cross-sectional survey design, 1265 therapists completed the UTAUT-T, as well as additional questions. Confirmatory analysis indicated that the original UTAUT model did not fit the therapist context well. Exploratory factor analysis specified a better-fitting five-factor model, which showed good internal validity fit (χ2 = 17,753.36, RMSEA = 0.063, TLI = 0.886, SRMSR = 0.04). The five UTAUT-T subscales showed high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.86) and together predicted the intention to use online therapy in the future (R2 = 0.42, F(5, 1259) = 181.9, p < 0.001). The 21-item UTAUT-T offers a promising self-report measure of therapist acceptance of telepsychotherapy and intention towardsusing it in the future. Future studies on the convergent and predictive validity of the UTAUT-T are warranted.

Dans cet article, l’auteur avance que, tant les valeurs inspirant la posture thérapeutique gestaltiste que le mode d’intervention basé sur la résonance affective du thérapeute, valent d’être défendus et même diffusés plus largement qu’aujourd’hui. Au vu de l’évolution du contexte réglementaire et de l’apparition du « modèle contextuel » — véritable contrepoint au modèle médical — il tente de déterminer un chemin praticable pour la Gestalt-thérapie relationnelle et de champ contemporaine qui lui permettrait d’être reconnue comme une modalité innovante et efficace par les acteurs du système du soin psychique. Il s’agit de construire une troisième voie qui passe entre la marginalisation ou même la disparition pure et simple (devant un courant majoritaire cognitivo-comportemental issu d’un modèle médical basé sur la preuve) et la dissolution dans un vaste courant intégratif (que pourrait amener l’adoption par le système de soin du modèle alternatif émergent - le modèle contextuel) basé sur les résultats. Il esquisse alors les grandes lignes d’une recherche gestaltiste qui permette à la Gestalt-thérapie d’être légitimée en étant reconnue comme offrant des traitements basés sur la pratique ainsi que de continuer à se développer comme une modalité originale et novatrice.

Early change is an increasing area of investigation in psychotherapy research. In this study, we analyzed patterns of early change in interpersonal problems and their relationship to nonverbal synchrony and multiple outcome measures for the first time. We used growth mixture modeling to identify different latent classes of early change in interpersonal problems with 212 patients who underwent cognitive-behavioral treatment including interpersonal and emotion-focused elements. Furthermore, videotaped sessions were analyzed using motion energy analysis, providing values for the calculation of nonverbal synchrony to predict early change in interpersonal problems. The relationship between early change patterns and symptoms as well as overall change in interpersonal problems was also investigated. Three latent subgroups were identified: 1 class with slow improvement (n = 145), 1 class with fast improvement (n = 12), and 1 early deterioration class (n = 55). Lower levels of early nonverbal synchrony were significantly related to fast improvement in interpersonal change patterns. Furthermore, such patterns predicted treatment outcome in symptoms and interpersonal problems. The results suggest that nonverbal synchrony is associated with early change patterns in interpersonal problems, which are also predictive of treatment outcome. Limitations of the applied methods as well as possible applications in routine care are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

The aim of this article is to present an overview of several recently proposed hypotheses about the development of morality and guilt during the evolution of our species and the individual psychic development. The article will show how group selection seems to have favored the development of prosocial motivations, emotions, and skills, which are the basis of “moral” judgments and behaviors, and how the specific experiences of each individual and her/his belonging to a specific culture shape this first moral innate “draft.” We will then review relevant empirical data about the development of guilt in infancy and early childhood from empathic concern and the tendency to feel responsible for other people’s wellbeing, and the temperamental and environmental factors at the basis of adaptive and maladaptive guilt. Finally, we will show the substantial compatibility between these recently developed hypotheses and data and the hypotheses developed by the Control-Mastery theory starting from clinical observation and from the ideas of several psychoanalytic authors.

The Interest Section on Therapist Training and Development of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPRISTAD) has launched a multisite collaborative longitudinal study of psychotherapy trainees’ development, a large-scale study involving a number of countries all over the world. In the present article, we present an overview of the early Italian contribution to the SPRISTAD study, based on preliminary paper-and-pencil data collection. Our preliminary findings showed cross-sectional differences at different years of training and two-years longitudinal changes in trainees’ perceived development. Moreover, trainees’ characteristics such as their motivation, relational manner, current life, and personal background have shown to deserve attention in research on trainees’ development. These findings encourage the continuation of the SPRISTAD online data collection.

Sequences of auditory objects such as one-syllable words or brief sounds disrupt serial recall of visually presented targets even when the auditory objects are completely irrelevant for the task at hand. The token set size effect is a label for the claim that disruption increases only when moving from a 1-token distractor sequence (e.g., "AAAAAAAA") to a token set size of 2 (e.g., "ABABABAB") but remains constant when moving from a token set size of 2 to a larger token set size (e.g., "ABCABCAB" or "DAGCFBEH"). Here we show that this claim was incorrect and based on experiments with insufficient statistical power. With sufficient statistical power it can be shown that disruption increases not only when the distractor token set size increases from 1 to 2, but also when it increases from two to eight one-syllable words (Experiment 1) and brief instrumental sounds (Experiment 2). These findings have implications for theories of auditory distraction which differ in their predictions about whether the distractor-induced performance decrement should (a) only be determined by acoustic differences between immediately adjacent distractor tokens (duplex-mechanism account) or (b) gradually increase as a function of the variability in the distractor set (attentional account). The present data are inconsistent with the duplex-mechanism account and support the attentional account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Sound disrupts short-term retention in working memory even when the sound is completely irrelevant and has to be ignored. The dominant view in the literature is that this type of disruption is essentially limited to so-called changing-state distractor sequences with acoustic changes between successive distractor objects (e.g., "ABABABAB") and does not occur with so-called steady-state distractor sequences that are composed of a single repeated distractor object (e.g., "AAAAAAAA"). Here we show that this view can no longer be maintained. What is more, disruption by steady-state distractors is significantly reduced after preexposure to the distractor item, directly confirming a central assumption of attentional explanations of auditory distraction and parallel to what has been shown earlier for changing-state sounds. Taken together, the findings reported here are compatible with a graded attentional account of auditory disruption, and they are incompatible with the duplex-mechanism account. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).