Representations Of Self Research Articles

Mother and Self‐Representations: Investigating Associations With Symptomatic Behavior and Academic Competence in Middle Childhood

This article reports two studies examining the content and structural aspects of maternal and self-representations in middle childhood in two prospective studies of 9 to 11-year-old children, their stability over time and interrelations, and their contribution to symptomatology and academic functioning. In Study 1 (N=169), content and structural dimensions of participants' open-ended narratives of self and mother were assessed, and their factor structure was replicated across two consecutive measurement waves carried out a year apart. In Study 2 (N=137), using an independent sample, the authors investigated the associations of self- and maternal representations with teachers' subsequent reports of children's internalizing and externalizing symptomatology and academic competence. It was assumed that dimensions of self-representations played a mediating role in the prediction of children's symptomatology and competence by their maternal representations. Results corroborated the existence of interdependent but distinct representations of self and mother in middle childhood, as well as the stability over time of the structural and thematic aspects within each representation. The content of the self- and maternal representations was found to associate with observed symptomatic behavior, while their structure associated with children's academic competence. In addition, results indicated that self-representation content mediates the association of maternal representation content with subsequent symptomatic behavior. Findings are discussed in the light of the differentiation and interdependence of self- and maternal representations in middle childhood.

Metarepresentative Functions in Borderline Personality Disorder

Many authors consider that patients suffering from Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) are hampered in their ability to metarepresent, which is the correct ascribing of states of mind to oneself and to others and the reflecting thereon. Although the ability to mentalize is generally described as being uniform, various authors pinpoint problems which appear to be of a diverse psychological nature. Some describe difficulties in identifying emotions or a shortfall in their regulation, others identify a lack of integration between representations of self and those of others, and yet others focus on the failure to distinguish between fantasy and reality. In the present research all sessions during the first year of therapy of four patients suffering from BPD were tape-recorded and transcribed, and then analyzed using the Metacognition Assessment Scale (MAS), which is designed for the evaluation of the ability to metarepresent in clinical reports. The results support the hypothesis that there is a metarepresentation impairment in BPD but that it is more selective than was thought until now. In particular, such patients maintain their ability to identify internal states, whereas they are impaired in the integration of representations of self and others and in the differentiation between fantasy and reality.

From exclusion and alienation to a multi-racial community:The image of the mtis in New Caledonian literature

In her 2005 New Year's greetings, Marie-Nolle Thmereau, the President of the New Caledonian government, expressed her confidence in the future of her multiracial country, echoing the recognition of New Caledonia's demographic make-up in official discourse since the Noumea Accord (1998). This view of New Caledonian society has not, however, always been so optimistic or encompassing. The island's mixed population of some 230,000 has given rise over the years to social and political tensions. In this context, representations of Self and Other found in the island's literature, particularly as they concern the historically highly contentious issue of biological and cultural interaction, provide valuable perspectives on this subject, enabling us to trace the evolution of local attitudes to the question of mtissage and acquire a broader vision of the lived experience of the island's population.

We Are Driven

Is metapsychology out—or in again? Is it a millstone tied around our necks—or is it an intriguing Freudian witch whom we can even dance with? Is the concept of drives an outmoded oddity—or an indispensable companion, inspiring our understanding of the patient’s material and even opening new windows for further development? Can we proceed with the concept of structures and object relationships alone—or do we need the concept of drives in order to understand what these object relationships are all about?.The author clearly opts for the second option in each of these pairs of alternatives. Musing on the sophisticated meta-psychology debate that unsettled psychoanalysis in the United States for many years, she reviews some of the most frequently quoted objections to the concept of drives. Further, she offers an introduction to modern drive theory with the new duality of sexual and preservative drives, as well as a different concept of aggression, and explains how drives relate to structures—specifically, to the representations of self and object.

The Relationship of Adult Attachment Constructs to Object Relational Patterns of Representing Self and Others

This study examined the relation between attachment constructs assessed by self-report and object relations constructs assessed from narratives. Young adult participants (N = 65; median age 28) completed the Reciprocal Attachment Questionnaire (West, Sheldon, &Reiffer, 1987), provided a set of interpersonal narratives rated using the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale (SCORS; Westen, Barends, Leigh, Mendel, &Silbert, 1994), and completed other relationship-related measures. Results suggest some conceptual convergence between internal working models and representations of self, others, and relationships; for example, individuals who perceive significant others as offering a secure base for emotional connection tend to have complex, well-differentiated representations of self and others. In addition, multiple dimensions of object relationships were found to be significantly associated with participants' relationship status (current involvement in a significant relationship) and their parents' marital status.

Changes in Representations of a Self—Designated Significant Other in Long—Term Intensive Inpatient Treatment of Seriously Disturbed Adolescents and Young Adults

Blatt and colleagues (1996) found that severity of psychopathology in seriously disturbed, treatment-resistant, hospitalized adolescents at the beginning of treatment was positively correlated with the degree to which these adolescents were involved in describing their parents. At the end of long—term, intensive, psychodynamically oriented, inpatient treatment of these very troubled adolescents, reduction in the severity of psychopathology correlated significantly with increases in the development of the structural organization of descriptions of mother, father, self, and therapist. These findings suggested that treatment of seriously disturbed, treatment-resistant, adolescent and young adult inpatients seems to involve at least two primary dimensions: 1) disengagement from an intense involvement with parents and 2) development in the structural organization of representations of self and a significant new figure, the therapist. The present study extends these earlier findings by examining changes in the description of a “significant other” that each patient elected to describe at the beginning and the end of treatment. Clinical improvement over the course of treatment was significantly correlated with developmental progression of the significant figure each patient selected to describe (from a grandparent to a close friend) as well as with progression in the developmental organization in which this significant other was described. These findings suggest that treatment of seriously disturbed adolescents and young adults involves a disengagement from an intense involvement with primary caregivers to involvement with others outside the family matrix and the developmental elaboration of the representation of these figures.

The influence of foster parent investment on children's representations of self and attachment figures

This study examined associations between foster mothers' emotional investment, assessed when foster children were age 2, and foster children's representations of self and others, assessed when children were age 5. Caregiver investment was assessed using a semi-structured interview called the “This is My Baby” interview (TIMB; Bates, B., & Dozier, M. (2002). The importance of maternal state of mind regarding attachment and infant age at placement to foster mothers' representations of their foster infants. Infant Mental Health Journal, 23, 417-431.) administered to foster mothers when their foster children were age 2. Self-representations were assessed using a projective puppet interview (Cassidy, J. (1988). Child-mother attachment and the self in six-year olds. Child Development, 59, 121-134.) when children were age 5. Children's ability to cope with separations from caregivers was examined using the Separation Anxiety Test (SAT; Main, M., Kaplan, N., & Cassidy, J. (1985). Security in infancy, childhood and adulthood: A move to the level of representation. In I. Bretherton & E. Waters (Eds.), Growing points in attachment theory and research. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 50, (Serial No. 209), 66-104.). As predicted, foster mothers who were more accepting of their children early in the child–caregiver relationship had foster children who developed more positive self-representations than children whose foster mothers were less accepting. Additionally, caregiver acceptance was associated with children’s quality of coping responses in response to caregiver separations, with high caregiver acceptance associated with effective solutions to separation scenarios.

Psychodynamic Approaches to Personality Disorders

Personality disorders are pervasive in practice despite their relegation to a separate axis in the DSM system. The psychodynamically informed clinician may recognize personality disorders because of the recreation in the clinical setting of a pattern of object relationships. Representations of self in relation to others connected by affect states become etched in neural networks in the course of development and become repetitive patterns of relatedness. Recent research suggests that the clinician’s countertransference may be a useful way to detect the presence of specific personality disorders. Moreover, biological alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and amygdala secondary to trauma may contribute to these relatedness patterns. A growing body of evidence suggests that psychodynamic therapy is efficacious in treating personality disorders, in some cases in conjunction with medication. This clinical synthesis outlines a systematic approach to diagnostic understanding and treatment based on clinical theory and recent research in the field of personality disorders.

Supportive Psychotherapy

Supportive Psychotherapy

The Politics of Address in Early‐Modern England

Abstract Whilst historians’ perceptions of the social organization of early‐modern England have recently been dichotomized – perceived from either national or local levels – both interpretations rely on sources that are inherently very rhetorical in their representation of self and others. Is there another way of approaching local social relations? Perhaps there is much to be appreciated by a return to questions of social interaction, in particular at that most basic level of how people addressed each other, demonstrating social distance and closeness, exclusion and inclusion.

Shamans’ Pragmatic Gendered Negotiations with Mapuche Resistance Movements and Chilean Political Authorities

In this article, I look at the ways in which gendered national discourses and the discourses of Mapuche resistance movements coerce and construct shamans (machi) and the ways in which machi appropriate, transform, and contest these images. I explore the contradictions between machi’s hybrid practices and their traditional representations of self and why they choose to represent themselves as they do. My interest lies in the ways in which studying gendered representations by and about machi, especially machi’s nonideological political practices, can contribute to current discussions of power and resistance, agency and structure, and the practice of power itself. Recent anthropological work has focused on the particular historical, social, political, and economic contexts shaping how and why indigenous groups decide to protect and promote particular images of themselves. I focus not on the community politics in which machi are involved, but on machi’s public faces in relation to national political figures and Mapuche political leaders such as longko.

Moral Identity in Adolescence: Self and Other in Semantic Space

Through computational analysis of natural language responses, this exploratory study considered problems related to the assessment of adolescent moral identity. The matched sample was composed of 15 care exemplar and 15 comparison adolescents from ethnically and socioeconomically diverse urban neighborhoods. Participants were given a semi-structured interview based on a well-known study of adolescent moral identity (Hart & Fegley, 1995). Interview questions were designed to elicit representations of self and other. Participant responses were analyzed with the use of a computational language program. Findings indicated that care exemplar adolescents integrated parent and peer representations into actual selves, whereas comparison adolescents did not integrate other representations into actual selves. Contrary to expectations, care exemplar actual selves did not significantly incorporate the ideal self-representation. Implications for findings related to moral identity socialization and the efficacy of the computational methodology are discussed.

Memory perspective and self‐concept in social anxiety: An exploratory study

The mental representation of self and observer perspective images are important maintaining factors in cognitive models of social phobia (Clark & Wells, 1995; Rapee & Heimberg, 1997). This study investigates Libby and Eibach's (2002) hypothesis that the observer perspective is used to recall memories that are incongruent with current self‐concept. A total of 60 participants (divided into high and low social anxiety groups) completed a questionnaire in which they described current self‐concept, recalled four memories of social occasions (two congruent, two incongruent), and rated memory age and vividness. Congruence was defined as memories that “fit” with current self‐descriptions. A qualitative analysis of self‐concept showed that both groups used a similar range of themes. High socially anxious participants recalled more observer perspective memories in the second incongruent memory. Congruence did not influence vividness, but public self‐consciousness did. The implications of the results are discussed and suggestions made for future research.

Representations in Action

Integrating psychoanalytic and action models of development affords a rich, detailed depiction of developmental psychopathology. Psychoanalytic models depict mental representations of self and others as unconsciously organizing and regulating affect, cognition, and behavior, in response to both maturational imperatives and drive related conflicts. Action models emphasize the active, reciprocal, and goal oriented nature of person-context exchanges. In linking the two perspectives, we propose that representations serve as the mechanisms through which individuals shape their development, personality, and well-being. This integrative perspective is illustrated using a clinical case of an adolescent female treated for an eating disorder.

Euphemism and Dysphemism in the War-on -Iraq Discourse

The paper explores the use of euphemism and dysphemism in the war-on-Iraq discourse as found in a small number of relevant documents and news reports. A quadrant of euphemizing and dysphemizing is identified. Positive representation of self and negative representation of other are the realizations of the strategic functions of legitimizing and deligitmizing and these are, in turn, important tools of war propaganda and counter-propaganda..

Adult Attachment and High‐Risk Sexual Behavior Among HIV‐Positive Patients

The present study investigated the relationship between adult attachment style and sexual behavior among HIV‐positive patients. HIV‐positive (HIV+) participants (N= 48) completed questionnaires assessing number of sexual partners, adult attachment, self‐esteem, and depressive symptoms. Results revealed that insecure attachment styles (particularly negative attachment representations of self and fearful attachment) were associated with having multiple sexual partners, including at‐risk HIV‐negative (HIV‐) partners. These relationships remained significant after controlling for sexual orientation, self‐esteem, and depressive symptomatology. These results suggest that interpersonal issues may play a key role in high‐risk sexual behavior among HIV+ individuals.

Young children traumatized by organized violence together with their mothers – The critical effects of damaged internal representations

Three examples of young Kosovar children who were exposed to brutal violence together with their mothers are presented to illustrate how important it is to understand the impact of traumatic events on young children's development from the perspective of the parent – child relationship. The traumatized mothers' internal representations of self and self-being-together-with-child were damaged, and this in turn led to their care-giving system and internal representations of the children being negatively affected. No longer being able to see themselves as protective and loving parents, the mothers were unable to respond to their children with care-giving behaviour. The traumatized children's increased attachment behaviour and posttraumatic symptoms functioned as a trigger for posttraumatic symptoms in the mothers and contributed to a disengagement of the care-giving system. The on-going process disrupted the previous attachment pattern in mother – child interaction and a disorganized attachment pattern developed.

Shared representations between self and other: a social cognitive neuroscience view

The abilities to identify with others and to distinguish between self and other play a pivotal role in intersubjective transactions. Here, we marshall evidence from developmental science, social psychology and neuroscience (including clinical neuropsychology) that support the view of a common representation network (both at the computational and neural levels) between self and other. However, sharedness does not mean identicality, otherwise representations of self and others would completely overlap, and lead to confusion. We argue that self-awareness and agency are integral components for navigating within these shared representations. We suggest that within this shared neural network the inferior parietal cortex and the prefrontal cortex in the right hemisphere play a special role in interpersonal awareness.

El Rorschach en el siglo XXI: La evaluación de la representación mental

The Rorschach test has considerable potential to contribute to the study of cognitive processes, especially the representational world and of how individuals construct meaning. The representation of self and other is currently a major topic in attachment research and in social cognition and is very relevant for clinical psychology and psychiatry because it provides a way of understanding psychopathology that goes beyond the simple listing of manifest symptoms that is so prevalent today in descriptive psychiatry. This new emphasis on mental representation should enable us to extend our understanding of psychopathology and to discover new ways of systematically assessing a wide range of psychological disturbances.

Political tolerance in South Africa: Self-discrepancy and change

Individuals have a representation of how they personally feel about issues ('actual' feelings), as well as a representation of the attitudes that they believe they should 'ideally' possess, reflecting personal values. Furthermore, existing in a social-political environment, individuals make estimations of how they believe others around them think that they 'ought' to feel. These different representations of self may conflict, especially where external constraints on political actions are present. A survey of self-discrepancies before and after the change in political system in South Africa tests whether the change in regime and possible political behaviors impacted actual, ideal, and ought attitudes about general democratic principles and their application to specific positively and negatively evaluated groups.