COVID-19 Related Traumatic Distress in Psychotherapy Patients during the Pandemic: The Role of Attachment, Working Alliance, and Therapeutic Agency

The early months of the COVID-19 pandemic have been a challenging time for many psychotherapy patients. To understand why certain patients were more resilient, we examined the role of patients' attachment anxiety and attachment avoidance, as well as collaborative therapy experiences (perceived working alliance and therapeutic agency) in their online sessions on their COVID-related traumatic distress over a three-month period. A total of 466 patients in online psychotherapy completed a survey during the first weeks of the pandemic, and 121 of those completed a follow-up survey three months later. Lower distress at follow-up was predicted by patients' lower attachment anxiety and higher therapeutic agency in their online sessions after controlling for baseline distress and time of survey completion. Higher working alliance predicted less distress at follow-up only for patients with high attachment anxiety. For patients with low attachment avoidance (i.e., more securely attached), higher therapeutic agency predicted less distress. These findings suggest that patients' attachment anxiety and therapeutic agency may play significant roles also in online therapy during COVID-19 in patient's experienced traumatic distress, and that working alliance and therapeutic agency may be differentially important for patients with different levels of attachment anxiety and avoidance.

The development of general competence and domain‐specific competencies

The development of competence was studied in a longitudinal sample of 98 children, with measurement points when the children were 7, 10, and 12 years old. Competence was defined in terms of adequate adaptation to developmental tasks, both on a general and on a domain‐specijic level. The general form of competence was measured by ego‐resiliency, reflecting fexibility and ability to solve developmental problems Domain‐specific competencies were measured by school achievement and social preference. The results showed that ego‐resiliency was related to the two domain‐specific competencies, although the hypothesized causal direction from general competence to specific competencies was not supported. Both domain‐specific competencies were found to have a feedback effect on ego‐resiliency. This feedback effect was stronger for social preference. These results suggest a transactional relationship between general and domain‐specific competencies, and point to the importance of domain‐specific competencies (especially social preference by the peer group) in the development of general competence in the child.

The Experience of Pleasure: A Perspective Between Neuroscience and Psychoanalysis

Pleasure is more than a mere sensory event, but rather it can be conceptualized as a complex, multiform experience involving memory, motivation, homeostasis, and, sometimes, negative affects. According to Freud, affect is a perceptual modality that registers the internal drive state of the subject rather than the objective experience of the external world, and the quality of this perceptual modality is calibrated in degrees of pleasure and displeasure. Within this conceptual framework, the aim of drive is always pleasure, and objects become significant in so far as they provide a way of discharging drives pressure. Subsequent conceptual psychoanalytic developments have partially rejected such metapsychological theorizations, postulating that other intrinsic motivations that are independent from libido can be observed in humans. Intrinsic motivation broadly refers to a set of psychological concepts including the inherent propensity to pursue one's choices, to seek out novelty and challenges, to satisfy curiosity and competence, and to extend one's capacities and control over events. What these concepts have in common is an inner endorsement of one's action, which is the sense that action is self-generated and is one's own. The notions of pleasure, drives, and affects are all of utmost importance for a neuropsychoanalytic understanding of mental functioning, due to their capability to explain desire, thought, and behavior from the perspective of human subjective experience. The purpose of this paper is thus to discuss psychoanalytic conceptual developments that have addressed pleasure, drives, and affects, in the light of recent findings coming from neurosciences. In particular, we will explore for insights from Panksepp's theory of primary-process emotional feelings, including the notion of "wanting" and "liking" as dissociable components of reward. In the last part of the paper, we will indicate possible theoretical implications for a neuropsychoanalytic understanding of libido-independent intrinsic motivations and their relationship with the self, including neuroscientific observations on self-related processes, agency, body-ownerships, and attachment.

Perceived Competence in School Functioning of Indian Children

Indian children's perceptions of their own competency in different domains of school functioning as well as in the general area of self-worth were examined using the Perceived Competence Scale of Harter (1982). Six hundred Indian school children, comprising 75 boys and 75 girls from each of Stds 2 to 5, were tested. In addition, their teachers were asked to complete a similar form reflecting their perceptions of the children's competencies. Teacher assessments were obtained for 138 randomly selected children. The major results indicated that (a) the children perceived their competencies to be higher in the cognitive and social domains than in the physical and general self-worth areas; (b) their perceptions varied less across the standards tested in the latter domains than in the former; and (c) there were significant correlations between the perceptions of teachers and children. The results are discussed in terms of their practical and educational implications.

Processes Associated with Integrative Social Competence

A total of 218 high school students were asked to report their predicted behavioral choices and anticipated emotional responses to nine situations involving a conflict between a socially responsible and a socially irresponsible course of action. Results showed that the males in the sample made fewer responsible choices than did the female participants, although the mean number of situations in which such choices were made dropped markedly for both sexes when the respondentks were assured that nothing bad would happen if they behaved irresponsibly. As hypothesized, socially responsible choices were closely associated with the anticipated emotions of guilt, pride, empathy, and fear, and not with anticipating strong self-interest emotions or worry about peer approval. These results suggest that integrative social competence, as exemplified by the culturally valued outcome of social responsibility, may be largely a function of motivational and contextual processes that are rather far removed from the literature's traditional emphasis on social understanding and social inferencing capabilities.

Parental Support and the Development of Competence in Children

The transactional relation between parental support and the development of competence in children was investigated in a longitudinal study. Sensitivity of the parent is assumed to be a prerequisite for the ability to provide adequate social support. Subjects were 100 children, aged 9 months to 12 years, and their primary caretakers. For both boys and girls, parental responsiveness was found to have an effect on the competence of the child at the age of 9 months, at that age measured by exploration and contingency analysis. Interindividual differences in competence remained stable in boys from age 9 months to 7 years, and between the ages 7 and 10, and 10 and 12. For girls, interindividual stability in competence was only found during the elementary school years. In both boys and girls the competence of the child (as indicated by their ego-resiliency) was related to later social support given by the parent. For boys, parents were more consistent in their approach and only their respect for the child's autonomy was related to earlier competence of the child. For girls, more dimensions of parental support were related to earlier competence of the child. These results thus indicate a strong effect of parental support on a child's competence in infancy, then a genderdifferentiated stability of competence from infancy to the end of elementary school, and a relation between the competence of a child and later parental support.

Maternal sensitivity, infant attachment, and temperament in early childhood predict adjustment in middle childhood: the case of adopted children and their biologically unrelated parents

In a longitudinal study, internationally adopted children (N = 146) placed before 6 months of age were followed from infancy to age 7. Results showed that girls were better adjusted than boys, except in cognitive development, and that easy temperament was associated with higher levels of social, cognitive, and personality development and fewer behavior problems. Higher quality of child-mother relationships, in terms of attachment security and maternal sensitivity, uniquely predicted better social and cognitive development. The combination of attachment disorganization and difficult temperament predicted less optimal ego-control and lower levels of cognitive development. It is concluded that even in adopted children, who are not biologically related to their adoptive parents, early mother-infant interactions and attachment relationships predict later socioemotional and cognitive development, beyond infant temperament and gender.

The Multivariate Dimensionality of Personal Control and Future Time Perspective Beliefs in Achievement and Self-Regulation

We examined the relations between college students' control beliefs and future time perspective (FTP) and their academic achievement and studying using canonical correlation. We identified two statistically significant canonical correlations. One associated primarily competency belief, as reflected by self-efficacy, and FTP connectedness with grades. The other associated primarily contingency beliefs, as reflected by locus of control and causal attributions, and FTP connectedness and valence with studying. Results support a distinction between competency and contingency in personal control beliefs and suggest that these have somewhat different motivational consequences. Results also indicate that future time perspective beliefs play a role in motivating achievement and studying. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Correlates of social and academic competence in middle childhood

The correlates of social and academic competence were investigated in 9-14 yr old children. Factor analysis of multiple measures of cognitive functioning, excluding IQ identified three dimensions: (1) Social Comprehension; (2) Cognitive Efficiency and (3) Divergent Thinking. The social comprehension dimension was derived from measures of humor and social cognition. Although strongly related to IQ, Social Comprehension still had a substantial unique relation to social competence in a school setting, as assessed by teachers and peers. While this dimension was the best predictor of social competence, IQ was by far the most powerful predictor of academic competence.