Affective Bonds Research Articles

“Together to build a life in common”: A solidarity approach to psychoanalytic interventions in the community

This article is a collective writing of the FEPAL (Federación Psicoanalítica de América Latina) study group Psychoanalysts in the Community established in March 2020. The group involves psychoanalysts and psychoanalysts in training who represent psychoanalytic institutions and groups of psychoanalysts from Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Colombia and Ecuador. Our extended courses, research and teaching aim at sustaining “solidarity rhythms”, that is, the necessity of empathy and bonding in regard to enjoying meeting with others. We privilege the “voices of the subjects” in different communities, taking into account their feelings, thoughts and theories. In order to build a humanizing development, it is necessary to be present in a stable way, where a significant attachment is lacking. The first step in the construction of projects is dreaming. In the case of working in the community it is possible to start the transformation of some forms of existence into others that are more promising for the community, the groups, and the subjects. In this article, we discuss the terms solidarity ethics (i.e. the absence of lies), solidarity bond (i.e. altruism), interdisciplinary work (i.e. different disciplines), solidarity diversity (i.e. the acceptance of heterogeneity), and active listening (to be receptive to the other), as common denominators of many Latin American projects. These terms constitute the framework that favors the completion of subjectivation when it was interrupted or spoilt. The absence of ethics, affectional bonds and receptivity damage psychic and social growth.

You are how you eat

Abstract: This article explores research that relates practices of interpersonal food behaviours to attachment style. The focus is on food sharing and food offering, across different affec-tional bonds, from family to friends to romance, and how this is affected by attachment styles and behaviours. Although food sharing tends to bring us joy, it can hurt too, as research using the hot sauce paradigm tells us. The research findings are interwoven with anecdotes from the author’s own Greek Cypriot heritage, where food sharing is synonymous with the cuisine; in many ways this piece could be considered a love letter to meze.

The Role of Antenatal and Postnatal Maternal Bonding in Infant Development.

The affectional bond experienced by a mother toward her developing fetus/infant has been theorized to be a critical factor in determining infant developmental outcomes; yet there remains a paucity of research in this area, and a lack of high-quality longitudinal studies. This study aimed to examine the extent to which mother-to-infant bonding predicted infant development in a multi-wave longitudinal pregnancy cohort study (N= 1,347). Self-reported bonding was assessed using the Maternal Antenatal Attachment Scale at each trimester, and the Maternal Postnatal Attachment Scale at 8 weeks and 12 months postpartum. Infant development was assessed using the Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development, Third Edition (Bayley-III) at 12 months. Bonding predicted indicators of infant social-affective development, including social-emotional, behavioral, and temperamental outcomes. Effect sizes ranged from small to moderate, increasing over the perinatal period (β= 0.11-0.27). Very small effects were also identified in the relationship between bonding and cognitive, language, and motor development (β= 0.06-0.08). Findings suggest that a mother's perceived emotional connection with her child plays a role in predicting social-affective outcomes; prediction may not extend to other domains of infant development. Maternal bonding may therefore be a potentially modifiable predictor of infant social-affective outcomes, offering important considerations for preventive intervention.

A Pilot Study to Evaluate the Efficacy of Self-Attachment to Treat Chronic Anxiety and/or Depression in Iranian Women.

The aim of this pilot study was to evaluate the efficacy of the new Self-Attachment Technique (SAT) in treating resistant anxiety and depression, lasting at least three years, among Iranian women from different social backgrounds. In this self-administrable and algorithmic intervention, the participant, using their childhood photos, imaginatively creates an affectional bond with their childhood self, vows to consistently support and lovingly re-raise this child to emotional well-being. We conducted a longitudinal study with repeated measurement to evaluate the efficacy of SAT using ANOVA. Thirty-eight women satisfying the inclusion and exclusion criteria were recruited from different parts of Tehran. To describe the SAT protocols, a total of eight one-to-one sessions were offered to the recruits, the first four were weekly while the last four were fortnightly. The participants were expected to practice the protocols for twenty minutes twice a day. Two questionnaires, GAD-7 and PHQ-9, were used to measure anxiety and depression levels before and after the intervention and in a three-month follow-up. Thirty women completed the course. The change in anxiety level between the pre-test and the post-test was significant at p < 0.001 with effect size 2.5. The change in anxiety between pre-test and follow-up test was also significant at p < 0.001 with effect size 3.5. The change in anxiety between the post-test and the follow-up was significant at p < 0.05 with effect size 0.6. For depression, the changes between pre-test and post-test as well as between pre-test and follow-up were significant at p < 0.001 with effect size 2.3 and 3.1 respectively.

Bond Prices Through Bond Ranking As Intervening Variables: Liquidity, Leverage , Company Size, Auditor's Reputation

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of liquidity, leverage, firm size, auditor reputation and bond ratings on bond prices. This type of research data obtained from secondary data. The sample in this study were 48 companies listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange using the random sampling method. The results of this study indicate that liquidity, leverage, firm size, auditor reputation have no effect on bond ratings and leverage, firm size, auditor reputation have a positive and significant effect on bond prices, while liquidity, leverage, firm size, auditor reputation affect bond prices through bond rating. Keywords: bond prices, liquidity, leverage, firm size, auditor

The alliance construct in psychotherapies: from evolution to revolution in theory and research

The alliance construct in psychotherapies: from evolution to revolution in theory and research

The Hermeneutics of Implication and Inference: Actor-Network Theory, The Scarlet Letter, and the Hawthorne Digital Archive

ABSTRACT This essay suggests that viewing “The Custom House” and The Scarlet Letter through the lens of actor-network theory allows us to better understand Hawthorne’s view of the social contract. Hawthorne’s novels both model and perform an uncanny form of sympathetic community-making that relies on the power of implied depth—expressed in passages, symbols, gestures, and subtle hints—to generate affective bonds. This Hawthornean model for social networking offers a potentially liberating and creatively inspiring example for thinking about the connections we make between literary interpretation and digital resources, and it also offers a model for how reading and interpretation—of texts, other people, and even ourselves—can lead to increasingly open-ended and ethically responsible relationships between self and other.

A intervenção do Serviço Social nas Unidades de Cuidados Continuados Integrados em tempo de Pandemia Estudo realizado nas ULDM da Comunidade Intermunicipal do Oeste

The Continued Care National Network (RNCCI - Rede Nacional de Cuidados Continuados Integrados), results from a partnership between Ministério do Trabalho e da Solidariedade Social and Ministério da Saúde to ensure rehabilitation, readaptation ofc social and family reintegration of people in a situation of dependece. It´s a policy that State regulates, through agreements and partnerships with the third sector and private entities. The pandemic, as an unprecedented public health crisis, has brought enormous challenges to the protection of the well-being and citizens human rights. The study focuses on the intervention of social work in the Long-Term and Care Units (ULDM - Unidades de Longa Duração e Manutenção) as well as the strategies used during the pandemic, with the aim of offering a vision of the economic and social vulnerabilities of the patients of ULDM inserted in the Inter-municipal Community of the West of Portugal (OesteCIM). The work is based on a qualitative methodology using a semi-directive interview technique. The study demonstrates that, of the 180 ULDM patients, 81 are considered "social cases" which, in the words of the interviewees, are patients with a reduced family and economic support. The persistence and resilience of Social Workers and their permanent attempt to find a social solution for these patients is highlighted, as well as the family involvement to maintain affective bonds. It was reported the most harmful consequence caused by the impact of the pandemic was the absence of visits.

The Effects of Health Care Chatbot Personas With Different Social Roles on the Client-Chatbot Bond and Usage Intentions: Development of a Design Codebook and Web-Based Study.

BackgroundThe working alliance refers to an important relationship quality between health professionals and clients that robustly links to treatment success. Recent research shows that clients can develop an affective bond with chatbots. However, few research studies have investigated whether this perceived relationship is affected by the social roles of differing closeness a chatbot can impersonate and by allowing users to choose the social role of a chatbot.ObjectiveThis study aimed at understanding how the social role of a chatbot can be expressed using a set of interpersonal closeness cues and examining how these social roles affect clients’ experiences and the development of an affective bond with the chatbot, depending on clients’ characteristics (ie, age and gender) and whether they can freely choose a chatbot’s social role.MethodsInformed by the social role theory and the social response theory, we developed a design codebook for chatbots with different social roles along an interpersonal closeness continuum. Based on this codebook, we manipulated a fictitious health care chatbot to impersonate one of four distinct social roles common in health care settings—institution, expert, peer, and dialogical self—and examined effects on perceived affective bond and usage intentions in a web-based lab study. The study included a total of 251 participants, whose mean age was 41.15 (SD 13.87) years; 57.0% (143/251) of the participants were female. Participants were either randomly assigned to one of the chatbot conditions (no choice: n=202, 80.5%) or could freely choose to interact with one of these chatbot personas (free choice: n=49, 19.5%). Separate multivariate analyses of variance were performed to analyze differences (1) between the chatbot personas within the no-choice group and (2) between the no-choice and the free-choice groups.ResultsWhile the main effect of the chatbot persona on affective bond and usage intentions was insignificant (P=.87), we found differences based on participants’ demographic profiles: main effects for gender (P=.04, ηp2=0.115) and age (P<.001, ηp2=0.192) and a significant interaction effect of persona and age (P=.01, ηp2=0.102). Participants younger than 40 years reported higher scores for affective bond and usage intentions for the interpersonally more distant expert and institution chatbots; participants 40 years or older reported higher outcomes for the closer peer and dialogical-self chatbots. The option to freely choose a persona significantly benefited perceptions of the peer chatbot further (eg, free-choice group affective bond: mean 5.28, SD 0.89; no-choice group affective bond: mean 4.54, SD 1.10; P=.003, ηp2=0.117).ConclusionsManipulating a chatbot’s social role is a possible avenue for health care chatbot designers to tailor clients’ chatbot experiences using user-specific demographic factors and to improve clients’ perceptions and behavioral intentions toward the chatbot. Our results also emphasize the benefits of letting clients freely choose between chatbots.

Finding Oneself Well Together with Others: A Phenomenological Study of the Ontology of Human Well-Being

Based on critical readings of Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time and Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, the paper offers a phenomenological study of the ontology of well-being that transcends the opposition between subjective and objective being. By interpreting the Heideggerian notion of Befindlichkeit as the fundamental way in which humans find themselves in the world, being affected by and faced with their own existence, the paper opens a way to understanding well-being that locates the possibility of elevating one’s own being not inside or outside the I but in the affective bond to others called friendship. Aristotle’s reflections on philia play a crucial role in developing this understanding of well-being, according to which humans find themselves well by sharing joy with each other and making a vital contribution to the realization of their own possibilities.

Overcoming Linguacultural Barriers in Screen Translation

The multilingual discourse practices distinctive of contemporary multicultural societies have assumed an increasingly prominent position in contemporary European and American multicultural films (cf. Bleichenbacher, 2008; Berghahn &amp; Sternberg, 2010; Jacobsson, 2017), where code-switching (cf. Myers-Scotton, 1993; Auer, 1998; Gardner-Chloros, 2009; Bathia &amp; Ritchie, 2014) stands out as a key conversational strategy when interethnic encounters are at stake. This ties issues of on-screen multilingualism to the field of audiovisual translation (cf. Corrius &amp; Zabalbeascoa, 2011, 2019; Şerban, 2012; Zabalbeascoa &amp; Voellmer, 2014; de Higes Andino, 2014), intended as a key vehicle of intercultural/interlinguistic mediation. This paper aims at looking contrastively and diachronically at how code-switching, implying the recurrent on-screen presence of L3s, has been dealt with in the original version and in the Italian dubbed versions of twenty European and American multicultural/multilingual films, belonging to different genres and released within a time span covering three decades, where interracial relationships are at centre stage; the main objective of this study is to verify whether specific translation, or non-translation, strategies are applied to the instances of language alternation either to faithfully re-create the original linguistic interplay for the Italian audience or to manipulate it in dubbing. Lay summary The multilingual discourse practices distinctive of contemporary multicultural societies have assumed an increasingly prominent position also in contemporary European and American multicultural films, where the alternation of different languages by bilingual/multilingual characters stands out as a key conversational strategy when interethnic encounters and cross-cultural romance are at stake. On-screen multilingualism thus results to be strictly tied to the field of audiovisual translation, nowadays intended as a crucial vehicle of intercultural/interlinguistic mediation worldwide. This paper aims at analyzing how different language alternation practices have been dealt with in the original version and in the Italian dubbed versions of twenty European and American multicultural/multilingual films, belonging to different genres and released within a time span of thirty years, where interracial relationships and love-stories are at centre stage. The main objective of this study is indeed to verify whether specific translation, or non-translation, strategies are applied to the instances of language alternation enacted throughout the film dialogues, either to faithfully re-create the original linguistic interplay for the Italian audience or to manipulate it through dubbing. All this primarily aims at pointing out what can be achieved by screen translation in terms of transcultural and translingual transmission, mediation and re-mediation when cross-cultural relations are at stake and at highlighting a series of translation (or non-translation) trends that increasingly favour affective bonds between Self and Other, liable to overcome cultural clashes as well as to cross linguistic bridges both on and off the screen.

Relationship Between Secure and Insecure Attachment Style with Physician Empathy Among Medical Students: A Cross-sectional Study in Iran

Background: Physician empathy is one of the fundamental factors involved in patient care and it can enhance the therapeutic effects of patient–clinician relationships. Attachment is defined as the tendency of human beings to make strong affectional bonds with some specific people. Objectives: This study are aimed to examine the possible relationship between secure and insecure attachment style with physician empathy among medical students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted on 268 medical students and residents at Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Iran in 2015. All participants voluntarily participated in this study and an informed consent was obtained. Data analysis was done through completing two questionnaires, including the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy-Health Professionals Version (JSPE-HP) and the Revised Adult Attachment Scale (RAAS). Data was analyzed using Pearson correlation coefficient and stepwise regression analysis and analyzed in SPSS (v. 18). Results: The highest frequency (n = 137; 51%) was related to individuals in the age range of 21 - 25 years. The empathy score of all students was 99.99. Among 268 participants, 76 (28.4%) and 192 (71.6%) students represented secure and insecure attachment styles, respectively. Married students had higher empathy scores than single students (P = 0.056). No statistically significant difference was found in the mean empathy scores by gender (P = 0.305) and different years of studying (P = 0.883). The mean ± standard deviation of empathy score in psychiatry residents was 113.4 ± 16.24, which was higher than the residents of other fields. Also, our results revealed no significant difference between the empathy scores in individuals with secure and insecure attachment styles (P = 0.945; 95% CI: -3.883 - 3.620). Conclusions: Evaluating empathy in the educational courses of medical students, as future physicians, can offer valuable guidelines to improve the mental health of students and help them have a good relationship with patients.

Assisted reproduction technologies and reproductive justice in the production of parenthood and origin: Uses and meanings of the co-produced gestation and the surrogacy in Brazil.

This article examines the construction of parenthood, drawing on Brazilian cisgender, heterosexual, and homosexual couples' experiences in using assisted reproduction technologies (ART), particularly the surrogacy. For that purpose, we interviewed: 1) a lesbian woman who had her daughter through her partner's pregnancy, using ART with anonymous donor semen; 2) a gay man who, together with his partner, used a surrogacy service under contract via a specialised offshore agency; 3) a woman who was a surrogate, in Brazil, for her sister-in-law and brother who lived abroad and, from abroad, sent an embryo fertilised for surrogacy; 4) a woman who resorted to her sister-in-law in order to be a mother by surrogacy, with ovules from the woman herself fertilised with semen from her husband; and 5) the sister-in-law mentioned in 4), who acted as surrogate for her brother and his wife. These interviews made it possible to think about the discursive construction of the legitimacy of such parenthoods, as it is produced by access to, and manipulation and circulation of, reproductive technologies and persons. This biomedical management of bodies sets up a material and discursive circuit that, in turn, produces a complex web of personal, normative, legal, professional and market relationships, particularly with a view to construction of a parenthood anchored in a notion of biologically-constituted origin. In this respect, biological, affective and social bonds merge to produce a precise placement of who is the father and/or who is the mother, as well as who are the important others and how they are linked to the child in a broader web of parenthood.

Strengths and challenges of a school-based sexual and reproductive health program for adolescents in Chile.

BackgroundAdolescent sexual and reproductive health services in Chile have been primarily provided through health centers. Although some school-based initiatives have been implemented, to date, these have not been assessed. This study aims to identify strengths and challenges of the affectivity and sexuality component of the school-based 3A Program, a health program which seeks to prevent risk behaviors and promote healthy lifestyle habits within public schools (addressing health topics which in Spanish begin with the letter ‘A’, hence ‘3A’), implemented in the municipality of Lo Prado, city of Santiago.MethodsWe carried out a qualitative study with a descriptive-interpretative approach in three schools. We conducted in-depth interviews with students, teachers, health professionals, and school principals (N = 44); and focus groups with students (N = 3), teachers and health personnel (N = 3). The interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.ResultsParticipants highlight the integrative approach to health and to sexual and reproductive health promoted in the 3A Program, which is enhanced by the collaboration of interdisciplinary health teams. Permanent and expedited student access to sexual and reproductive health care is achieved, and affectional bonds are developed between students and the Program’s health staff. The Program assists female participants to imagine and form identities that are not inherently tied to motherhood. It also assists boys and LGBTQ+ adolescents in feeling included as relevant actors in sexual and reproductive health and decision making. The delivery of contraception in schools is highly valued. The most significant challenge identified is ensuring effective and ongoing collaboration between health staff and teachers.ConclusionParticipants value the effectivity and sexuality component of the 3A Program as an initiative to improve adolescents’ access to sexual and reproductive health care. Our findings suggest that this Program could be replicated throughout the region and the country to improve the quality and accessibility of health services for adolescents.

The epidemiology of love: Historical perspectives and implications for population-health research

ABSTRACT Since the 1990s, research studies and theoretical work have made the case for altruistic and compassionate love as a psychosocial determinant of physical and mental health and well-being. Empirical findings and the deliberations of various conferences, working groups, and think-tank initiatives have laid the groundwork for a field that has been referred to as the epidemiology of love. This article provides a narrative history of this field, beginning with early work in psychology and in sociology. These precursors include decades of psychological studies of romantic, sexual, affectional, and interpersonal bonds, preceded by the work of sociologist Pitirim Sorokin in the 1950s detailing his taxonomy of the multiple aspects and dimensions of altruism and love. More recently, research at the intersection of altruism, love, spirituality, and human flourishing has emerged, including studies of physical and mental health. Currently, funded initiatives are developing applications of this research to global population health.

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FESTIVAL ATTACHMENT AND ARAB TOURISTS' REVISIT INTENTION: A CONCEPTUAL MODEL

While there is a large body of literature on revisit intention to festivals, there is surprisingly little knowledge about it in the context of the Arab world. This research aims to develop a conceptual framework that focuses on the relationship between festival attachment and revisit intentions to festivals. The concept of festival attachment in the current research is borrowed from the concept of place attachment, referring to the same bonds that form between tourists and a tourist place that can also be developed or forged between tourists and a festival. Tourists have an opportunity to develop self-identification with festivals, create affective bonds with them, satisfy and meet their needs through specific facilities or attributes of festivals, and form social bonds with other tourists visiting them, just as they would at a tourist place. All of these aspects together represent what we call attachment to a festival or festival attachment. Based on extensive literature review, the researchers proposed that festival attachment is a multidimensional construct that comprises four dimensions: festival identity, festival affect, festival dependence, and social bonding. The current proposed model will be empirically tested in the context of Jerash Festival of Culture and Arts in Jordan from the perspective of Arab tourists. The findings of this research are expected to broaden the scope of the existing literature on place attachment by introducing important insights from festival settings and its relationship with revisit intention, as well as adding new insights about the Arab tourists' attachment to cultural festivals and their revisit intentions to these festivals.

Towards a Political Theology of Radical Democracy: Notes on a Popular Uprising in Afro-Colombia’s Pacific Littoral

ABSTRACT In this paper I conceptualize the political theology at play in a recent popular uprising in Buenaventura, the main city-port in Colombia’s pacific littoral. This political theology emerges from the testimonies of people who participated in the events, and the theo-political vocabulary they employ in narrating what happened. To elaborate on it, I follow the thread of the relation between Church and people which enabled the former’s leadership in the uprising. First, I examine the oblique and uncertain relation between this spiritual memory and the tradition of liberation theology in Latin America. Secondly, I specify the distinctive constellation of sovereignty, antagonism and affective bonds performed in the uprising, by staging a counterpoint between these events and figures of the Europe-centered political theology tradition such as Schmitt and Durkheim. Through these two movements, the paper explores the singularity of the temporal and the affective experiences of this political process and event, and the force of its decolonial critique.

Review Essay: “It all begins with women”: Women's Resilience in Fascist Italy and War

Review Essay: “It all begins with women”: Women's Resilience in Fascist Italy and War

Brazilian cherry: identifying local knowledge and diversity of Eugenia involucrata in the countryside of Santa Catarina state/Brazil

Background: Eugenia involucrata (cerejeira do mato) is a fruit species from the Atlantic Forest Biome, which presents several potential uses; however, it is considered an endangered species. An ethnobotanical survey and physical-chemical evaluations were carried out in order to characterize the local knowledge about E. involucrata, the variability maintained by local communities and identify fruits with agronomic traits of interest. Methods: The study was conducted in the counties of Curitibanos, Frei Rogério, and Rio das Antas. Ethnographic research was used to gather ethnobotanical knowledge. Fruit samples from seven plants owned by family units were evaluated for diameter, height, pH, vitamin C, titratable acidity, and total soluble solids. Results: Nineteen family units were interviewed, where eleven use purposes and fifteen agricultural management practices were mentioned for Eugenia involucrata. The main criteria indicated by people interviewed for E. involucrata selection were “sweeter fruits,” “darker fruits” and “larger fruits.”. There was variability among the seven accessions of E. involucrata evaluated. The accessions 3.D, 4.MI, 5.MII and 6.G were the ones that best met the selection criteria. The affective bond, related to familiar or childhood traditions has contributed to the conservation of E. involucrata. Conclusions: The family units interviewed share a cultural relationship with E. involucrata, which has been perpetuated over generations through the continuous use of the species. Among the genetic variability maintained by the family units, the accessions 3.D, 4.MI, 5.MII and 6.G were those which best attend the selection criteria established. Keywords: cerejeira do Rio Grande, on-farm conservation, ethnobotany.

MÃES QUE PERDERAM FILHOS ADULTOS: UM GRUPO FOCAL

Death, although being part of human development, in its last stage, it is still not so debated in social circles, being associated to pain and suffering, because it characterizes the breaking of affective bonds, besides making us remember of our own finitude. When a mother loses her son, she faces a lacerating pain, as if one part of her has died together with her son, it lacks words to define such pain. The present is a qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and field research. The data collection was conducted through a focal group with four mothers who lost their children during adult stage, who have passed away at least five years ago, women who reside in a municipality in the northeast of Rio Grande do Sul state. The analysis and interpretation of data was carried out with content analysis. The relevance of this study resides in the possibility of producing reflections about maternal mourning allowing planning of actions which involve the mourners, family and community promoting health, resignification of feelings and completeness of the individual.