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psychologist vol 26 no 2
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Searching for love Robert Sternberg on the stages of his quest to understand what bonds us together
Incorporating Psychologist Appointments ÂŁ5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society
news 88 careers 138 reviews 148 looking back 156
the paradoxical brain 102 dyslexia – in tune but out of time 106 happy birthday? 110 interview with Andrea Burri 116
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letters 78 the Levelt, Noort and Drenth Committees make their sole and final rejoinder to criticisms of their report on the Stapel fraud; male:female imbalance; and more news and digest the final report on Stapel; DSM-5; national honours; the public perception of psychology; London Lectures; dementia; nuggets from the Digest; and more
Searching for love Robert Sternberg on the stages of his quest to understand what bonds us together
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BIG PICTURE
A novel approach Image by Sam Dahl from a graphic novel by Gareth Morris and colleagues. Does your work lend itself to a striking image? E-mail ideas for ‘Big picture’ to jon.sutton@bps.org.uk. Homeless hostels have undergone significant change in the last decade, with capital investment and an increasing integration with a range of support services. But what can a psychological perspective add to our understanding of the ways hostels can impact on the lives of those who reside there? The social psychological contribution to the theorising of homelessness has tended to reflect detrimental aspects of the experience. It has, for instance, sought to explain how experienced homeless people may entice a new hostel resident toward ‘entrenched’ homelessness and deeper forms of exclusion, such as street begging and criminal activity. But research conducted by Gareth Morris, Philip Brown, Lisa Scullion (University of Salford) and Peter Somerville (University of Lincoln) has uncovered evidence of the positive impact of new social networks formed in hostels. The research team aimed to engage a wider
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Do you have a passion for photography as well as psychology? We are running the first Psychologist photography competition, sponsored by Wiley. To enter, send your work to the editor (jon.sutton@bps.org.uk), along
audience in their research and produced a graphic novel of their findings. The book Somewhere Nowhere: Lives Without Homes was illustrated by Sam Dahl, a Masters graduate at the University of Salford, and the pages here reveal a sample from Becka’s life story. For Becka, first made homeless by a step-parent on her 16th birthday, the hostel and the social networks she forged within it were a step toward a sustainable, independent life. Gareth Morris tells us: ‘We’ve received positive feedback from people in the homelessness sector who have supplemented funding bids with copies of the book, and from lecturers who plan to use it as a teaching resource. We hope it will not only inform and educate readers of the events that lead people toward homeless episodes in their lives, but also add to discussions among academics about how they can achieve impact with their research using creative methods.’
with up to 100 words of explanation regarding its relevance. Closing date for entries is 1 March 2013. The winning entry will receive a £50 book token, courtesy of Wiley, and feature in ‘Big picture’.
www.thepsychologist.org.uk
The paradoxical brain Narinder Kapur, Jonathan Cole and Tom Manly outline some surprising enhancements of function following brain disorder
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Dyslexia – in tune but out of time Usha Goswami, winner of the Society’s Presidents’ Award, examines difficulties in ‘temporal sampling’
106
Happy birthday? Nick Wattie and Joseph Baker on relative age and its influence
110
Interview: In the heat of the moment Jon Sutton interviews psychologist and genetic epidemiologist Andrea Burri
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february 2013
THE ISSUE ‘My whole life I have been searching for love,’ says Robert Sternberg (p.98). ‘At a personal level, after a number of false starts, I have found it. In my research – initiated when a love relationship in my personal life was failing – I have tried to come closer to understanding what love is, how it develops, and why it succeeds or fails.’ How much would you pay for an hour of love? More than you would pay to avoid an hour of disgust? Find out what researchers found on p.94 and at tinyurl.com/95bitsteep – just one of hundreds of studies covered by the Society’s Research Digest, which is nearing its 10th birthday. Also in this issue, I’d like to direct you to our regulars of ‘Big picture’, ‘New voices’, ‘Looking back’ and ‘One on one’. We’re always looking for suggestions and contributions for these sections: get in touch on jon.sutton@bps.org.uk. Finally, make sure you don’t miss our ‘Reviews’ section on p.148, now expanded to cover psychology in any form of media: TV, newspaper, web, music, exhibition, film, app, etc. Again we rely on your contributions: we would dearly love for you to get in touch. Dr Jon Sutton
methods teaching thematic analysis, with Victoria Clarke and Virginia Braun
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reviews 148 a philosophical review of The Hobbit; Science Club; apps, books, and more in our section covering psychology in any form of media
society President’s column; Excellence in Psychology Education; Lifetime Achievement Award; and more
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new voices 154 learning from learners: Rachel Wu with the latest of our series for new writers
careers and appointments 138 we hear from Bryan McCrae about the psychology of sales; Aon Dillon on the concept of autonomy; and Kay Buckby on her work in management training
looking back in defence of inclusive realism in psychology: David Pilgrim offers an alternative to radical constructionism and naive realism
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one on one …with Anita Rose
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LETTERS
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Drawing a line in the sand We are already aware of the importance of supporting staff and embedding the right values into working practices. The HCPC Standards on Conduct, Performance and Ethics require those on our register to ‘effectively supervise tasks that you have asked other people to carry out’. But this may not be
difficulties in doing the job. There might be questions about the need for more training, the safety of equipment, size of caseload, staffing levels and procedures. Or there might be an issue with the conduct of a colleague. The Standards are currently undergoing a thorough review with input from service users and professionals. We welcome your views on whether or not they need to be strengthened. Another area of concern for HCPC is the adult social care workforce. The skills mix in health and social care is changing rapidly, and more health and care organisations delegate work to support workers who are not on a professional register. Support staff require appropriate education and training and supervision, but they may need to be made personally accountable too. We are currently contributing to the debate by looking at models of regulating individuals who work in adult social care. Various options are being examined, GEOFF PICK
The long-awaited report of the Mid Staffordshire Inquiry is due to be published in early 2013. The Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) was not asked to give evidence, but we have been watching with interest and have engaged in the debates about many of the issues that have been highlighted during the Inquiry. One of the questions we regularly ask ourselves is this: What more can we do as your statutory regulator to empower you to play a stronger role in maintaining standards, even where the culture of health and care organisations may appear to militate against this? One initiative we are supporting is the ‘Big Conversation’. This has been instigated by Karen Middleton, Chief Health Professions Officer at the Department of Health in England, to encourage staff to comment on unprofessional behaviour whenever it surfaces. Another initiative is the research we are undertaking into dispute resolution, for example between managers and staff, who may complain about each other’s conduct. We need to know more about the reasons for such disputes as well as the ways in which they can be resolved.
enough. Supervision provides the opportunity for a professional to voice concerns about standards of care or
contribute
Minding our medication language
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Further to the letter on the inaccurate use of the term ‘anti-dementia’ drugs (December 2012), I suggest that exactly the same arguments apply to psychiatric medications, and that our language should reflect evidence and not mislead lay people – or indeed, professionals. So called ‘antipsychotics’ have no specific effect on psychosis, are not a cure, and do not
rectify identified biological abnormalities. The previous term ‘major tranquilliser’ reflects their mode of action much better. The same is true of ‘antidepressants’ and of the most recent example of rebranding, ‘mood stabilisers’, all of which are better described simply by their drug class (SSRIs, etc.) Using these terms uncritically gives service users false hopes about what medications can achieve, and
subtly increases the pressure to take them regardless of the growing amount of evidence that in many cases they are actively damaging (Whitaker, 2010.) Psychiatric medication does have its uses, but only if accompanied by clear messages about its limitations – it cannot heal the trauma and abuse that, as a growing amount of research indicates, plays a causal role across all
These pages are central to The Psychologist’s role as a forum for discussion and debate, and we welcome your contributions.
Send e-mails marked ‘Letter for publication’ to psychologist@bps.org.uk; or write to the Leicester office.
Letters over 500 words are less likely to be published. The editor reserves the right to edit or publish extracts from letters. Letters to the editor are not normally acknowledged, and space does
kinds of mental distress (Read & Bentall, 2012). Moncrieff (2008) has argued for a drugcentred, not disease-centred, model of medication use; in other words, one that recognises that while general effects such as sedation may sometimes be experienced as helpful, these medications do not target disease symptoms or entities. While they may bring temporary relief from overwhelming distress, they
not permit the publication of every letter received. However, see www.thepsychologist.org.uk to contribute to our discussion forum (members only).
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including statutory and voluntary registers, and an Australian model that uses a statutory code of conduct and a ‘negative licensing’ scheme – effectively a register of individuals who are judged not fit to practise against the code of conduct rather than a register of those who are. Any care worker who is found to fall below statutory national standards of behaviour and conduct could be placed on a ‘negative’ register. The system could also impose a range of sanctions, for example, require specific training or supervision to be put in place. The evidence from other countries that have a similar model shows that relatively few people are stopped from working in the sector permanently. However, the statutory nature of the negative registration scheme means that there is a clear deterrent, an enforceable means of holding care workers to account. This is what is missing at the moment. Robert Francis QC’s report into Mid Staffordshire is likely to be challenging to all of us who work in health and social care, and rightly so. I would urge you to stimulate debate and discussion amongst your colleagues on these important issues, and engage with us to ensure that we continue to be a robust and responsive regulator in times of rapid change.
Anna van der Gaag Chair, Health and Care Professions Council
do not actually ‘treat’ illnesses. Careful use of language will help to ensure that their benefits are maximised and the very real risk of harm is avoided.
Dr Lucy Johnstone Consultant Clinical Psychologist Cwm Taf Health Board Royal Glamorgan Hospital
References Moncrieff, J. (2008). The myth of the chemical cure. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Read, J. & Bentall, R. (2012). Negative childhood experiences and mental health. British Journal of Psychiatry, 200, 89–91. Whitaker, R. (2010). Anatomy of an epidemic. New York: Crown.
The male:female imbalance I was interested to read Dr Pamela Jacobsen’s letter in The Psychologist (January 2013) She wrote reacting to Dr John Radford’s concerns about psychology moving in a ‘female direction’ owing to the fact that female undergraduates outnumber males 80:20. Dr Jacobsen wonders, with some exasperation, what a ‘female direction’ would look like and suggests that worries about the gender imbalance may be motivated by implicit sexism with ‘female’ being code for ‘not quite as good’. I couldn’t help but raise a smile. I trained with Pam and was the only male on a course of 20 clinical psychology trainees. I was lucky enough to study and
practise alongside some brilliant, inspiring colleagues, of which Pam was certainly one, but I hope it is clear to everyone that the lack of males is a genuine problem. For example, males are more likely to die by suicide but are less likely to engage with mental health services. Gender stereotypes about dealing with mental distress are clearly relevant here, and the visibility of male mental health professionals is likely an important way of bridging that gap. This alone seems good enough reason to promote the idea that psychology should be equally valued by people of all and every gender. Nursing is stereotypically considered
I am sorry if my remarks in The Psychologist (Interview, December 2012) left Pamela Jacobsen in despair, even if quiet (Letter, January 2013). In necessarily brief responses to an interview I tried to choose my words carefully, but perhaps did not succeed. I did not ‘assert’ that the sex imbalance has moved the focus of the discipline in a feminine direction, I ‘suspected’ it. I did not suggest that ‘Psychology as a title should be totally abandoned’, but that it might be seen as one of a family of behavioural sciences. Even that does not cover the wide range of our discipline. Personally I prefer ‘Psychology’, but the public perception of that remains obstinately inadequate. It is well established that disciplines, and the careers associated with them, are widely seen as falling on a continuum of appropriateness for, and attractiveness to, men and women. This is shown by the views of students and intending students, and by the differential rates of recruitment, which are consistent in the USA, the UK and other European countries, and China. There are several facets to this dimension of masculinity/femininity, such as
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to also be a ‘feminine’ profession, but nursing organisations have made a concerted effort to reach out to males and make them feel welcome despite the wider clichés. I have seen no such interest or effort in psychology. The trick, of course, is to work in a reality where stereotypes exist without reinforcing them. So, I would hope that rather than thinking about psychology going in a ‘male’ or ‘female’ direction, we’re just focused on improving the diversity of our profession. Attracting males is part of that though, and can’t be ignored or sidelined if diversity is to be achieved.
Dr Vaughan Bell South London and Maudsley NHS Trust
altruism/self-interest, openness/intellect, and perhaps most generally an interest in ‘things’ versus ‘people’. It is not redundant to say that men tend to be more masculine, and women more feminine. Engineering (for example) has long been seen as more masculine, and persistent well-funded campaigns to increase female recruitment have had little effect. Psychology has changed from attracting men and women more or less equally, to the present 20:80 balance. I think it is regrettable that we recruit, not too many women, but too few men.
John Radford Emeritus Professor of Psychology University of East London
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FORUM THE REAL WORLD In his 1929 book Civilization and Its Discontents Freud observed that ‘it is always possible to bind together a considerable number of people in love, so long as there are other people left over to receive manifestations of their aggressiveness’. Over the intervening decades, history and psychology have generated a large amount of data that speaks to this observation. Most notably, in order to make sense of the atrocities of World War II, two sets of classic social psychological studies produced evidence that ties to an ingroup go hand-in-hand with prejudice towards outgroups. First, Sherif’s Boy’s Camp studies showed that close friends could become bitter enemies once their relationship was defined in terms of competing group interests. Following on from this, Tajfel’s minimal group studies showed that discrimination against outgroups could arise from individuals’ mere assignment to groups – however meaningless the basis for intergroup division. The work of Sherif and Tajfel moved researchers in the social identity tradition towards the conclusion that love of an ingroup – and identification with its goals – was an essential underpinning of aggression towards outgroups. However, this analysis remained at odds with conclusions drawn from other classic studies which argued that such aggressiveness is the consequence of people’s ‘natural’ tendency to go along with rules and roles associated with the social positions in which they find themselves. The stories that Milgram and Zimbardo told held little place for love of any form. As it has evolved, together with colleagues like Phil Banyard, Rakshi Rath and Megan Birney, our own contribution to this debate has involved re-examining the latter paradigms in order to interrogate claims that the evils they document spring from processes devoid of thought and emotion. In our own BBC Prison Study we found that it was only when they identified with a brutal leadership that participants were willing to display the forms of enthusiasm and creativity necessary for tyranny to succeed. Our more recent work has also shown that willingness to follow the aggressive instructions of an authority is predicted by, and contingent upon, identification with it. Indeed, in both the Zimbardo and the Milgram paradigm it appears that identification with the researchers’ scientific projects – and their leadership – was the crucial process that made destructive acts both meaningful and possible. In short, terror results not from carelessness but from commitment. It is a labour not of ignorance but of love. At one level, the upshot of all this is to reveal a unity of process running through all these classic studies. This centres on the realisation that identification with an ingroup is a prerequisite for the forms of passion that justify and motivate oppression of outgroups. However, this analysis also takes us further by showing that there is no necessary link between love of ‘us’ and hatred of ‘them’. So Freud was certainly correct to observe that these can be two sides of the same coin, but they need not be. For while social identification underpins all forms of group behaviour, work by Andrew Livingstone and others has shown that the form of that behaviour depends critically on the content of social identity. If those we identify with espouse a vision of ‘us’ that requires love to be proved through hate, then we will move towards the dystopian worlds produced by Zimbardo and Milgram. But as Martin Luther King and Desmond Tutu have shown, when leaders define social identities that require love to be proved by love, this can be a royal road not only to reconciliation but also to social progress. Steve Reicher is at the University of St Andrews. Alex Haslam is at the University of Queensland. Share your views on this and other ‘real world’ psychological issues – e-mail psychologist@bps.org.uk. An archive of columns can be found at www.bbcprisonstudy.org.
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Flawed science? The recent report of the Levelt, Noort and Drenth Committees into the fraudulent research practices of the social psychologist Diederik Stapel performs a valuable service for the academic community. In cataloguing the nature and extent of Stapel’s malpractice the report draws attention to a number of challenging issues, and provides a necessary corrective to the scholarly literature by specifying the details of the research fraud in each of the publications examined by the Committees. The Social Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society welcomes this aspect of the report. However, the report goes on to question the integrity of the field of social psychology as a whole. Despite a clear statement that ‘[t]he Committees are unwilling to make any statement about social psychology in general’ (p.48), the verdict is nevertheless damning: ‘The Committees can reach no conclusion other than that from the bottom to the top there was a general neglect of fundamental scientific standards and methodological requirements’ (p.53) which extends beyond Stapel’s immediate circle to encompass journal editors and peer reviewers. This leads the Committees to suggest that ‘there are certain aspects of the discipline itself that should be deemed undesirable or even incorrect from the perspective of academic standards and scientific integrity’ (p.54). Whilst critical reflection on scientific practice is to be welcomed, the Section has serious concerns that these conclusions are unwarranted insofar as they paint a picture of the field as seriously and uniquely compromised. As has been pointed out by Wolfgang Stroebe, Tom Postmes and Russell Spears in a recent issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, there are no grounds for concluding either (a) that research fraud is any more common in social psychology as compared with other disciplines, or (b) that the editorial process is particularly poor at detecting research fraud in social psychology. In fact, they point out that fraud across disciplines is typically only identified following the actions of whistleblowers rather than through the peer review system. Let us be clear that research fraud is beyond the pale, and that critical scrutiny and reflection is to be welcomed and encouraged. But let us be equally clear that where action is needed – such as on the impact of pressures to publish and the low value typically accorded to replications – the issues extend far wider than a single discipline. On this point, scientists in all disciplines would find much of value in the work of sociologists of science – from the classic works of Harry Collins, Bruno Latour and others – who have shown the contingent and ‘messy’ nature of scientific practice across the full range of disciplines. The aim of these scholars has typically not been to identify and understand ‘bad science’, but instead to elucidate the operation of the scientific endeavour as a social system. Promoting critical reflection on these aspects of science sheds light on the disjuncture between ‘science in action’ (to use Latour’s term) and the official accounts one finds in the typical research report. If a genuine reflection on scientific practice is to be encouraged, it is this much more far-reaching endeavour which will ultimately serve the greater value. Steps can be, and are being, taken to make malpractice even more difficult; but the subdiscipline does not deserve the harm to its reputation that may be provoked by the careless implication of unique deficiencies.
Stephen Gibson Honorary Secretary, BPS Social Psychology Section, on behalf of the Section Committee
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We contacted Willem Levelt, Chair of the Levelt Committee, for his comment on a news piece (see pp.88–9). He offered us a sole and final rejoinder, published here in full. Since its appearance on 28 November, Flawed Science, the final report of our investigation committees on the scientific fraud of the social psychologist Diederik Stapel, has triggered a flood of reactions in both the public and private domain. The report has been praised for its thorough analysis of the complete oeuvre, 137 publications, of Stapel. The scientific record in social psychology can now be cleansed of all 55 fraudulent papers (co-) authored by Stapel, of another 10 papers with serious evidence of fraud and of 10 (at least partly) fraudulent dissertations completed under Stapel’s supervision. This sets a new standard for the investigation of other cases of scientific misconduct. The report has been also praised for its revelation and detailed analyses of scientific malpractice, aside from straightforward fraud, which appeared in a majority of publications coauthored by Stapel. There was, in particular, repeated evidence of selective data manipulation: verification bias in the design, the statistical analysis and the reporting of the research conducted. The report noted, in addition, a general carelessness in applying basic standards of sound scientific procedure. In many cases, this negligence of scientific standards was quite manifest in the publications. Scientific colleagues let us know that they would make this analysis obligatory reading for their students or that they would use these examples in their courses on methodology and research design. The report has also been criticised, in particular by the European Association of Social Psychologists (EASP) and by the BPS Social Psychology Section. These critical comments did not concern the facts reported, but their interpretation and inferred implications for the whole field of social psychology. The relevant facts for the interpretation were, in summary, these: The 137 publications co-authored by Stapel had gone through the hands of 70 different co-authors, some Dutch, many international. They had also been screened by a substantial number of reviewers of international, mostly leading,
journals in the field. Many of the papers, finally, had been examined by the 18 promotion committees of Stapel’s PhD students. But, as the report says, ‘virtually nothing of all the impossibilities, peculiarities and sloppiness mentioned in this report was observed by all these local, national and international members of the field, and no suspicion of fraud whatsoever arose’. This is remarkable at least for the many cases of manifest, often tendentious sloppiness. It is the more remarkable because increasingly Stapel’s fraud became detectable, as the young whistleblowers eventually demonstrated. The report’s interpretation of these facts is two-pronged. Firstly, it states the obvious: the publications of Stapel and coauthors cannot and should not be considered as representative for the field of social psychology. The report states explicitly: ‘The Committees are unable to make any statement on these grounds about social psychology as a whole’, and ‘the Committees are not suggesting that unsound research practices are commonplace in social psychology’. These statements have been fairly cited in public reactions to the report. Secondly, the remarkable failure of the relevant national and international peer community to discern, over such a long period, the manifest negligence of scientific standards in the journal publications co-authored by Stapel impelled the Committees to address a more general issue. Could it be that customary procedures of enforcing and monitoring sound scientific practice in social psychology are in need of improvement? The report provides a range of concrete examples of the apparent failure of this critical function, at different levels of the scientific hierarchy far beyond Stapel’s local research environment. This state of affairs was judged sufficiently serious to prompt the Committees to recommend a thorough investigation, both nationally and internationally, of these practices and review procedures. Here, the Committees were in the good company of leading social psychologists. The report approvingly mentions various initiatives already taken since the Stapel fraud came to light in September 2011. It refers in particular to the excellent November 2012 issue of Perspectives in Psychological Science. The preface to that issue raises practically the same issue: ‘Is there currently a crisis of confidence in psychological science reflecting an unprecedented level of doubt among practitioners about the reliability of research findings in the field? It would certainly appear that there is.’ The special
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issue then provides 23 papers, by leading authors, analysing these issues in social psychology and proposing various ways of improving customary practices, in particular by focusing on replication studies at all levels. This is exactly in line with the report’s recommendation: ‘Far more than is customary in psychology research practice, replication must be made part of the basic instruments of the discipline and at least a few journals must provide space for the publication of replicated research.’ The criticism the report received largely concerns the fact that it does not compare its findings with similar derailments in other sciences: it ‘uniquely’ targets social psychology, whereas a comparison with other sciences would have shown that the noticed defects are of a much more general character in modern science. This was considered to be an unfair treatment of social psychology. True, the report does not compare the observed disquieting facts in the domain of social psychology with the situation in neighbouring or further afield sciences, either with respect to the incidence of fraud, or generally with respect to the occurrence of bad or sloppy science. It is, given the existing literature on this topic, more than likely that such a comparison would have led the Committees to the conclusion that social psychology is not unique in these respects. However, such a comparative investigation was not part of the Committees’ commission. The terms of reference, specified in the opening section of the report, limit the investigation to determining which publications (co-)authored by Stapel are fraudulent and to offering a view on the methods and the research culture that may have facilitated this misdemeanour. We were pleased to notice that, in the various responses our report elicited, the comparison to other sciences was not used as an excuse for the observed shortcomings in social psychology. Whatever the outcome of these comparisons do show, we believe it is critical that the responsible organisations and practitioners in social psychology continue to focus attention on fostering research integrity and monitoring proper research practices at all levels. If the revelation of Stapel’s fraud, the report’s analysis of the research culture in which it took place, and the report’s recommendations to guard against such misconduct have sharpened that attention, the Committees’ major efforts have not been in vain.
Pieter Drenth, Willem Levelt and Ed Noort Chairs of the three Stapel fraud investigation committees
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Tilting at Scottish windmills? that the current proposed wording constitutes a starting point for testing by the Electoral Commission. Reference to the saltire is misleading – suggesting it has been intensively publicised in Scotland as an ‘icon of personal identity’ ‘for several years’. It has been the flag of Scotland since the 9th century and was on the coinage of King David in the early 13th century. However it is a white elongated cross (adopted in the Union Jack) on a blue oblong background. To suggest that asking the Scottish people to put a black cross in a square white box (as in the filling in of any form) would bias the response, seems incredible. The referendum is about ‘independence’ not about what people believe is the ‘best thing for the future of Scotland’, so Mallory Wober’s proposed wording is not ‘fairer’ as claimed, but is actually invalid. The referendum debate TIM SANDERS
The letter by Mallory Wober, in the December issue, appears to have been prompted by a concern for the future of the UK, by a potential positive outcome of the referendum on Scottish independence. After making irrelevant comment about the origins of the fathers of Cameron and Salmond, the letter refers twice to the Scots as ‘less than 10 per cent’ of the British population. The writer claims bias in what he erroneously puts as the proposed referendum question, and moreover he gives no psychological research references for this claimed bias. A critical error is that the letter gives a misrepresentation of the referendum question as a ‘statement’ when it is actually a ‘question’. The wording Mallory Wober gives is not as proposed by the Scottish Government, which is in fact: ‘Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?’ Furthermore he fails to mention
will have extended over more than two years before the vote. Thus people will have made up their minds well before seeing the ballot paper, so voters are probably less likely to be influenced by ballot paper format, but this has not been researched. A serious omission is not pointing out that the question was being referred by the Scottish Government to the Electoral Commission for Scotland for checking and modification, before it is put before Holyrood in the Spring of 2013. These facts are readily available and should be checked before passing judgement. The Electoral Commissioner has stated: ‘We will assess the referendum question to see whether voters find it clear, simple and neutral. If it isn’t, we’ll say what needs to be done.’ Parliament is committed to following that advice. The assessors will include not only the voters, but also all relevant specialists, including ‘plainlanguage specialists’ and ‘academics’. Psychologists must be involved. This assessment process will take 12 weeks with ‘unambiguousness’ and ‘avoidance of encouragement towards one response more favourably than another’, being stated matters of central concern. In many respects Mallory Wober appears to have been tilting at windmills.
Dr John W. Hinton University of Glasgow
THE EXPERIENCE OF SUICIDE I was interested to see that Peter Beaumont states that suicide ‘is neither a crime nor a sin’ (Letters, December 2012). I would beg to differ. My grandfather ‘committed suicide’ in the 1930s when it was indeed a crime and he would have been prosecuted had he survived. My father was also a suicide in the late 1960s when it was no longer a crime but it was a sin, in so far as the pain and poverty to my mother (no insurance pay-out) and the destruction of our family – my poor sisters suffered at school and I took the brunt of my mother’s consequential inability to cope with her feelings of paranoia and feelings that other people blamed her. My own husband took his own life in the autumn of last year after many years of mental illness. I understand that he was not a well man, but it has not stopped my pain and distress as I loved him to the end. I do not feel the paranoia my mother felt but have worried deeply that perhaps I could have done more. It has had repercussions on his son, my stepson, and deeply upset my own daughter, his stepdaughter, both of whom also loved him. I had tried to explain how such a death affected others but my husband clearly did not understand any of this and told me on a previous occasion that he could only think of himself when he reached this kind of juncture. I consider this to be much worse
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than cruelty to animals – it is cruelty to human beings and I would welcome some major objective in the prevention and treatment of those with suicidal intent. It could offer hope to others before they find themselves in my situation. This also leads me on to the letter on ‘Misleading nomenclature’ by Dr John Kelly (same page). My grandmother had dementia in her eighties and told me of the suffering (about which she had never previously spoken) over her husband’s death in the 1930s. My mother (not related to my grandmother by blood) also has paranoid dementia, I think at least in part related to my father’s death. She believes that her ‘anti-dementia’ drugs are all that give her hope; she would take no comfort from being told that they are palliative. What hope for me, I ask? I can only hope that by the time I am in my eighties a better solution is on offer, as I am all too aware that these drugs only offer a stay of execution. I guess what I am trying to say is that simply looking at things intellectually is not always the complete answer – especially for those who (what to say, I am aware that ‘sufferers’ is regarded in the same light as ‘victims’) actually live through the experiences. BPS Member (name and address supplied)
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letters
Psychologists in retirement After 40 years in health and education and being somewhat weary of organisational life, I’m preparing to retire. I’ve had a varied career involving practice, training, supervision, management and research; yet I’m rather reluctant to entirely give up being a psychologist, doing things that are interesting and, I hope, useful. I’m aware that there are options after full-time work: private practice, consultancy, sessional teaching, independent research, writing… I imagine that some of us just stop, grateful for a rest and to have more time to tend the roses/grandchildren. But are a lot of skills and knowledge being lost at this transition? There’s a paper from the American Psychological Association that addresses the issue in relation to demographic changes (Chamberlin, 2004). The higher proportion of older people means that a
larger pool of experience that is being lost to society as psychologists (and others) retire; at the time of writing it was noted there was no systematic societal or APA response to this. My information is that there is no BPS group for retired psychologists, which may indicate that all are happily engaged elsewhere. I wonder if retired psychologists could collaborate to promote the understanding and application of psychology, with less organisational constraints or concerns about funding, career progression, etc. Not only in our primary area of expertise but also drawing on generic skill in research, analysis, communication, project management, appreciation of group dynamics and organisational politics. These are some of the topics that have come to mind: I people and politicians’ reluctance to consider psychological knowledge;
I I I I
the quality of decision making in public life; psychological support for voluntary workers, mentors, carers; attitudes to sustainability and environmental concerns; facilitating partnerships across cultural domains (e.g. between science and drama).
I’m aware that I’ve not addressed this idea in relation to registration, insurance, ethical oversight, etc., but I’d be interested to hear from anyone who is thinking on similar lines. Phil Topham Bristol
Reference Chamberlin, J. (November, 2004). Redefining retirement: No desire to fully retire. Monitor on Psychology, 35(10), 82.
Competence to teach mindfulness It was a pleasure to read the letter entitled ‘Who is competent to teach mindfulness?’ by Marika Lahtinen in the December 2012 edition. At this time of expanding interest in the implementation of mindfulness in health care the piece raised important questions about what it means to be competent to teach mindfulness and the challenges of assessing ‘readiness to teach’. The enthusiasm to implement secular mindfulness-based programmes in a range of contexts (including health care, education, business, prisons and community centres), and with a diversity of client populations within these contexts, is strong and growing. Within the UK a strong driver has been the recommendation by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE, 2009) of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) as a National Health Service treatment of choice for people with recurrent depression. As training organisations in the UK have grown in response to this interest, there has been a concerted focus on quality and integrity in training processes, standards for teachers and mindfulness-based teaching competence. The principles underpinning the training processes at the three UK university-based mindfulness training centres – Bangor, Exeter and Oxford – are articulated in Crane et al. (2010). The UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teacher Trainers, which represents all the main UK training organisations, has developed and disseminated national good practice guidance on standards for mindfulness-based teachers (UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teacher Trainers, 2011). Last year (Crane, Kuyken et al. 2012) we unpacked the aspects of competency which are particular to the mindfulness-based teaching context (i.e. embodiment of the qualities of mindfulness) and those which are generic to related contexts (i.e. relational skills, holding the group learning environment). And finally, the three universities have developed the Bangor, Exeter and Oxford Mindfulness-Based Interventions: Teaching Assessment Criteria
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(MBI:TAC) Scale (Crane, Soulsby et al., 2012) . Initial research on the psychometric properties of the MBI:TAC give promising indication that mindfulness-based teaching competency can indeed be assessed reliably and validly (Crane et al., in press). All these developments do not constitute the regulation which Lahtinen mentions in her final paragraph. They do however, offer some clear frameworks and guidance which have been developed in collaboration with stakeholders and leaders in the field and will hopefully give a foundation to developments in this area going forward. Rebecca Crane Centre for Mindfulness Research and Practice Bangor University
References Crane, R.S., Eames, C., Kuyken, W. et al. (in press). Development and validation of the Mindfulness-Based Interventions – Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI:TAC) scale. Assessment. Crane, R.S., Kuyken, W., Hastings, R. et al. (2010). Training teachers to deliver mindfulness-based interventions: Learning from the UK experience. Mindfulness, 1, 74–86. Crane, R.S., Kuyken, W., Williams, J.M.G. et al. (2012). Competence in teaching mindfulness-based courses: Concepts, development, and assessment. Mindfulness, 3, 76–84. Crane, R.S., Soulsby, J.G., Kuyken, W. et al. (2012). The Bangor, Exeter & Oxford Mindfulness-Based Interventions Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI-TAC) for assessing the competence and adherence of mindfulness-based class-based teaching. Retrieved 14 January 2013 from tinyurl.com/a9bqxvs National Institute for Clinical Excellence (2009). Depression: The treatment and management of depression in adults (update). Clinical Guideline 90. Retrieved 14 January 2013 from http://publications.nice.org.uk/depression-in-adults-cg90 UK Network for Mindfulness-Based Teacher Trainers (2011). Good practice guidance for teaching mindfulness-based courses. Retrieved 14 January 2013 from http://mindfulnessteachersuk.org.uk
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Feeding victim mentality? Rana & Rana’s concern (Letters, January 2013) regarding over-optimism about post-traumatic growth (PTG) is mistaken. A chorus of voices since Bonanno (2004) have urged professionals not to mistake the traumatised people they see in clinics as being representative. The majority of people who experience traumatic events do not suffer from PTSD (Ahmed, 2007). Instead of moderating their statement to say that PTSD can become a serious mental illness that sometimes leads to significant morbidity or mortality, Rana and Rana risk pathologising a normal reaction to an abnormal event. They also mislead, by omitting to mention, as closer reading of Adshead (2000) indicates, that only ‘the experience of interpersonal violence increases the prevalence up to 20–30%’. Even so, over half of these people will recover without treatment! The seriousness (or not) of PTSD has to be assessed on an individual basis and not assumed or stereotyped. When I commissioned a special issue on PTG (Altmaier & Prieto, 2013) it reminded me of a reviewer who advised against publishing a paper on PTG after sex abuse/domestic violence because it would undermine ‘victim support organisations’! We need to move away from ‘a damaged-for-life’ victim
mentality and be acutely aware that the majority of traumatised people are far more resilient than many mental health professionals recognise. Even after tsunamis and wars, most people need care and support, not therapy. PTG proponents are merely reflecting their firsthand experience of the remarkable resilience of the human spirit. Dr Waseem Alladin University of Leicester
References Adshead, G. (2000). Psychological therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 144–148. Ahmed, A.S (2007). Post-traumatic stress disorder, resilience and vulnerability. Advances in Psychiatric Treatment, 13, 369–375. Altmaier, E.M. & L.R. Prieto (Eds.) (2013). Through a glass darkly: Meaning-making, spiritual transformation, and posttraumatic growth [Special issue]. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 26(1). Bonanno, G.A. (2004). Loss, trauma and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? American Psychologist, 59(1), 20–28.
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psychologist vol 25 no 11
Professor Tanvir Ahmad Rana and Arsal Wazir Rana’s response to Stephen Joseph’s article about post-traumatic growth (November 2012) goes some way to acknowledging the benefits and hopefulness behind the phenomenon. However, their letter warrants a response on three points. Firstly, they seem to imply that the topic of post-traumatic growth comes at the expense of fully understanding the hardship of those suffering post-traumatic stress. However, the literature on posttraumatic growth, as mentioned in the article by Joseph, already makes it clear that it is not a choice between one and the other: Post-traumatic growth does not imply the absence of post-traumatic stress,
Has your teaching, research or practice in psychology been affected by the economic climate? Get in touch if you are interested in contributing to an ‘austerity psychology’ discussion special – e-mail jon.sutton@bps.org.uk
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nor that once in recovery a sufferer will simply leave their traumatic experiences behind, never again to reflect on them. Secondly, their letter stated that typically 20–30 per cent of people exposed to trauma go on to develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While the challenges of estimating PTSD are numerous, most estimates lie at a much more conservative 7–9 per cent, with higher rates reported only following the most extreme events (Bonanno et al., 2010). Furthermore, Joseph acknowledges that PTSD sufferers are less likely to experience post-traumatic growth than those who, following a traumatic event, remain ‘able to cope, think clearly and engage sufficiently in the necessary affective-cognitive processing’. To this end, the figures should encourage us, not leave us feeling helpless: If 7–9 per cent of those with traumatic experiences develop PTSD then the implication is that post-traumatic growth remains a real possibility for the majority. Even for those in the throes of PTSD, it is not a permanent state – following successful Incorporating Psychologist Appointments £5 or free to members of The British Psychological Society
letters 794 news 802 big picture centre careers 848
november 2012
treatment they may well go on to experience posttraumatic growth. The third, and perhaps most important point to make, is that posttraumatic growth offers a challenge to the illness ideology represented by PTSD, and as psychologists we must What doesn’t recognise the dangers of kill us… applying an illness ideology to mental health conditions (Maddux et al., 2004). Post-traumatic growth thus offers us a different way to perceive the traumatic experience, whereby posttraumatic stress is shown to be a normal, natural process of cognitive adjustment, which results in positive change. Stephen Joseph on the silver lining of post-traumatic growth, and Ciarán O’Keeffe looks back on the ‘enabling trauma’ of the BBC’s Ghostwatch, 20 years on
rejection and the adolescent brain 820 the origins of human communication 824 ‘running’ an introductory module 828 interview: taking control of your space 830
Lucinda Brabbins Honorary Assistant Psychologist Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust
References Bonanno, G.A., Brewin, C.R., Kaniasty, K. & La Greca, A.M. (2010). Weighing the costs of disaster: Consequences, risks, and resilience in individuals, families, and communities. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 11, 1–49. Maddux, J.E., Snyder, C.R. & Lopez, S.J. (2004). Toward a positive clinical psychology: Deconstructing the illness ideology and constructing an ideology of human strengths and potential. In A.P. Linley & S Joseph (Eds.) Positive psychology in practice. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
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Getting paid Psychologists can do little about the scandalously poor rates of pay allowed by the Legal Services Commission. But it is not clear why they put up with being paid late. Most psychiatrists these days seem to have terms of engagement. They deal with charge rates, cancellation fees, travelling, notice etc., etc. It is a shame more psychologists do not have the same. One or two have confidently reported their terms to me: ‘We put clearly on our invoices: This invoice is payable in 30 days’ or ‘We have on the invoice: We will charge 2 per cent per month for late payment’. Those terms are good guidance, but nothing more. There is a contract between the parties, that probably started when you, the psychologist, agreed to make an appointment to see the client. Unless, therefore, the solicitor knew of the terms at that time, he can simply ignore them. All, however, is not lost. As a starting point the Law Society guidelines enjoin solicitors to make interim payments to experts. They stipulate a period of three months. Your terms of engagement might well provide for payment
NOTICEBOARD in 30 days and allow yourself a discretion where solicitors have complied with the guidelines. Next you could set up an automatic diary system to warn debtors that their term of credit is due to expire shortly (giving the exact date so there is no room for manoeuvre) and add – this is the important point – that you will then be looking to them for statutory interest. It is surprising how many debtors claim not to have heard of the Late Payment of Debt (Commercial) Act, passed in 1998. It gave creditors the statutory entitlement to both interest (currently a swingeing 8.5 per cent) and compensation (albeit modest) when bills are paid late. You may think it fair to mention the Act in your terms, but the Act incorporates the right to charge interest in your contract and is there for you when you want it. I hope that more psychologists will start introducing terms of practice and that as a result they will get paid a bit sooner. Knowing your rights should help.
Leslie M. Wise Chartered accountant and barrister See advertisement on p.87
obituary
John Nisbet (1922–2012) John Nisbet was born in Rosyth and died in Banchory on 5 October 2012, aged 89. He spent his whole professional career in Scotland, leading to the award of an OBE for services to Scottish education. He was a sandy-haired Scot, small in stature but with a powerful intelligence that could become overwhelming on occasions, and yet his lecturing was outstanding – clear, concise and inspirational. He once complained to me that he felt intelligent enough to see the big problems, yet not intelligent enough to solve them! That, I think, was the perfectionist in him which, allied to great energy and determination, also applied to his leisure pursuits. He held a single-figure golf handicap for 25 years, carried out a 20-mile walk and 4000-foot climb to celebrate his 75th birthday, and was still discussing a joint article with me in his final weeks. As an RAF intelligence officer in his twenties, he passed information to the code-breakers of Bletchley Park. Afterwards he took a degree in English at Edinburgh University, before becoming a schoolteacher and taking a part-time degree in education under Godfrey Thomson. As an assistant lecturer at Aberdeen University, he completed a PhD on the effects of family environment on intelligence. Subsequently, he pioneered ways of utilising ideas from educational psychology in schools, and was awarded a Fellowship of the British Psychological Society. In 1963 he became the first Professor of Education at Aberdeen University and, during the next 10 years, his activities and influence became international. He was appointed to the SSRC, becoming chairman of its Educational Research Board, and worked in Europe for OECD and UNESCO. Over this period he wrote six books, five book chapters and 23 journal articles, and subsequently edited the British Journal of Educational Psychology and became Chair of the British Educational Research Association. His main research contributions involved using theories about metacognition to show how to encourage pupils to ‘learn how to learn’, rather than just absorb knowledge that could become rapidly redundant. He also wrote influentially on the impact of educational research on practice, seeking to persuade policy makers that research findings should not be used to dictate specific changes in practice: their influence is subtle and long-term, changing ways of thinking to enhance the whole teaching enterprise, not to alter particular methods. That, some would argue, is a view that still needs to be heard!
Noel Entwistle Professor Emeritus of Education University of Edinburgh
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I I am a recently appointed Clinical Psychologist working in a part-time post with a newly formed Mental Health Liaison Team. The Team provide specialist frontline emergency mental health assessment for individuals across the lifespan (18 upwards) who are in acute mental health crisis, with the formulation of a management plan. It also provides advice, training and consultation to referring teams including A&E and other medical and surgical departments. I am keen to make contact with psychologists working in similar roles. Dr James Easton Princess Royal University Hospital, Farnborough james.easton@oxleas.nhs.uk I Teachers, researchers, lecturers and students of Psychology are alerted to the online MMU Psychology Journal (Dissertations) UK. This was first published in September 2010 and the work of students graduating in 2010; 2011 & 2012 is now ‘live’ (see www.did.stu.mmu.ac.uk/MMU_ Psychology_Dissertations_UK). Colleagues at all UK universities are asked to make their students aware of the website. Andy Bell Department of Psychology Manchester Metropolitan University A.Bell@mmu.ac.uk I Assisted suicide for those terminally ill is an issue that has aroused, and will continue to arouse, either empathy or alarm. Although currently illegal I sense that in the not too distant future change may be proposed to the current law. Any change might benefit from a more multidisciplinary approach than one taken purely on legal technicalities. I am not aware of any research activity but feel sure there must be psychological interest in the issue of assisted suicide. I should be pleased to hear from psychologists interested in this topic. David E. Broadbent david.broadbent65@gmail.com
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ARTICLE
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Searching for love Robert J. Sternberg on the stages of his quest to understand what bonds us together
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Love perhaps best can be seen as a sort of a prism – looking at it in different ways reveals different faces of the same phenomenon. For example, one face of the prism might specify components of love, such as intimacy, passion and commitment; another face might specify the stories of love that give rise to such components, such as stories of fantasy, mystery, theatre, or even horror; yet another face of the prism might show the role of cognitive processes, such as intelligence, creativity and wisdom, in the formation and maintenance of successful loving relationships. This article examines some of the faces of the prism, which I observed in a series of stages over the course of a research career.
y whole life I have been searching for love. At a personal level, after a number of false starts, I have found it. In my research – initiated when a love relationship in my personal life was failing – I have tried to come closer to understanding what love is, how it develops, and why it succeeds or fails. What, then, is love, how does it develop, and why does it succeed or fail? I have gone through five stages in seeking to understand love and what leads to success in love.
question
Why, if love is ever-present in people’s lives, has it been studied so little by psychologists?
resources
Sternberg, R.J. & Weis, K. (Eds.) (2006). The new psychology of love. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/ topic_love.html
references
Stage 1: A structural model of ‘bonds’
Byrne, D. (1971). The attraction paradigm. New York: Academic Press. Fehr, B. & Russell, J.A. (1991). The concept of love viewed from a prototype perspective. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 60, 425–435. Gottman, J. (2000). The seven principles for making marriage work. New York: Three Rivers. Hatfield, E., Bensman, L. & Rapson, R.L.
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model would propose that love is one essentially indivisible construct (general factor) that cannot be further analysed; a ‘Thomsonian’ model would propose that love produces a general factor, but that the general factor can be understood as a large number of ‘bonds’, or emotions, motivations, and cognitions that are empirically separable but that typically occur together when one experiences love. A ‘Thurstonian’ model would propose that love comprises a small set (perhaps seven or eight) correlated aspects, or factors, that constitute the primary experience of loving. The research supported the Thomsonian model, with underlying ‘bonds’ of love. They comprised constructs such as trust, caring, mutual respect, affection, and the like. In the empirical work testing the models, I had relied primarily on the Rubin Liking and Loving Scales (Rubin, 1970). But I began to feel – based largely on feedback from colleagues – that the scale was too narrow in what it assessed, in particular shortchanging the passionate feelings of love. So I moved on in my thinking.
I started off my career studying intelligence. At a point in my life when Stage 2: A triangular theory I was in a failing relationship, I became Based on my own personal experiences in interested in love. Indeed, I have always love, I next proposed a triangular theory studied things at which I failed – I got interested in intelligence when I flunked Type of Love Intimacy Passion Commitment IQ tests as a Nonlove No No No young child. My first attempt Friendship Yes No No at a theory of Infatuated Love No Yes No love (Sternberg & Grajek, Empty Love No No Yes 1984) was to compare three Romantic Love Yes Yes No structural Companionate Love Yes No Yes models, based on structural Fatuous Love No Yes Yes (psychometric) theories of Consummate Love Yes Yes Yes intelligence. A ‘Spearmanian’ Table 1: Taxonomy of kinds of triangles of love
(2012). A brief history of social scientists’ attempts to measure passionate love. Journal of Personal and Social Relationships, 29, 143–164. Hatfield, E. & Sprecher, S. (2010). The passionate love scale. In T.D. Fisher, C.M. Davis, W.L. Yaber & S.L. Davis (Eds.) Handbook of sexuality-related measures: A compendium (3rd edn) (pp. 469–472). Thousand Oaks, CA: Taylor & Francis.
Hazan, C. & Shaver, P. (1987). Romantic love conceptualized as an attachment process. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 511–524. Hendrick, C. & Hendrick, S. (1986). A theory and method of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 50, 392–402. Kerckhoff, A.C. & Davis, K.E. (1962). Value consensus and need complementarity
in mate selection. American Sociological Review, 27, 295–303. Rubin, Z. (1970). Measurement of romantic love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 16, 265–273. Sprecher, S. & Metts, S. (2012). Development of the ‘Romantic Beliefs Scale’ and examination of the effects of gender and gender-role orientation. Journal of Social and Personal Relationship, 29, 143–164.
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of love (Sternberg, 1986, 1997a, 1998a), which holds that love can be understood in terms of three components that together can be viewed as forming the vertices of a triangle. The triangle is used as a metaphor, rather than as a strict geometric model. These three components are intimacy (top vertex of the triangle), passion (left-hand vertex of the triangle), and decision/commitment (right-hand vertex of the triangle). Intimacy refers to feelings of closeness, connectedness, and bondedness in loving relationships (Sternberg & Grajek, 1984). Passion refers to the drives that lead to physical attraction and excitement.
Decision/commitment refers, in the shortterm, to the decision that one loves a certain other, and in the long-term, to one’s commitment to maintain that love. More of each component leads to different sizes of love triangles, and different balances of the three components give rise to different shapes of triangles. The three components of love are interactive. For example, greater intimacy may lead to greater passion or commitment, just as greater commitment may lead to greater intimacy or, with lesser likelihood, greater passion. Although all three components are important parts of loving relationships, their importance may differ from one relationship to another, or over time within a given relationship. The three components of love generate eight possible kinds of love when considered in combination (Sternberg, 1998a). No relationship is likely to be a pure case of any of them. Table 1 summarises the various kinds of love. A Triangular Love Scale, based on the theory, measures the three components (Sternberg, 1997a, 1998a). There were 12 Likert-scale items measuring each of the
Sternberg, R.J. (1986). A triangular theory of love. Psychological Review, 93, 119–135. Sternberg, R.J. (1995). Love as a story. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 12, 541–546. Sternberg, R.J. (1996). Love stories. Personal Relationships, 3, 59–79. Sternberg, R.J. (1997a). A constructvalidation of a Triangular Love Scale. European Journal of Social Psychology,
three components. An example of an intimacy item would be ‘I have a warm and comfortable relationship with X.’ An example of a passion item would be ‘I cannot imagine another person making me as happy as Y does.’ An example of a commitment item would be ‘I view my relationship with Z as permanent.’ Factor analyses revealed three factors for the ratings, corresponding to the three components of the triangular theory. Although the scale shows moderate to high correlations with Rubin (1970) scale scores, in our work, the three subscales of the Sternberg Triangular Love Scale correlated more highly with relationship-satisfaction ratings than did either of the Rubin Liking or Loving Scales.
Stage 3: Love as a story
Taxonomy of some love stories Addiction
Strong anxious attachment; clinging behaviour; anxiety at thought of losing partner
Art
Love of partner for physical attractiveness; importance to person of partner’s always looking good
Business
Relationships as business propositions; money is power
Collection
Partner viewed as ‘fitting in’ to some overall scheme; partner viewed in a detached way
Cookbook
Doing things a certain way (recipe) results in relationship being more likely to work out
Fantasy
To be saved by a knight in shining armour, or marry a princess and live happily ever after
Game
Love as a game or sport
History
Events of relationship form an indelible record; lots of records, mental or physical
Horror
Relationships become interesting when you terrorise or are terrorised by your partner
Mystery
Love is a mystery and you shouldn’t let too much of yourself be known
Police
You’ve got to keep close tabs on your partner
The triangular theory to make sure he/she toes the line characterises the structure of Science Love can be understood, analysed, and love, but not how that structure dissected, just like any other natural emerged in the first place. phenomenon According to the theory of love as a story (Sternberg, 1998b), love Sewing Love is whatever you make it triangles emanate from stories. Almost all of us are exposed to Theatre Love is scripted, with predictable acts, large numbers of diverse stories scenes and lines that convey different conceptions War Love is a series of battles in a devastating of how love can be understood. but continuing war Some of these stories may be explicitly intended as love stories; Table 2: A selection of people’s notions of love others may have love stories embedded in the context of larger stories. Either way, we are provided of which we in part create – leads to the with varied opportunities – through development of stories about love that we experience, literature, media, and so then seek to fulfill, to the extent possible, forth – to observe multiple conceptions in our lives (Sternberg, 1995, 1996, 1998b; of what love can be. As a result of our Sternberg et al., 2001). Various potential exposure to such stories, we form over partners fit these stories to greater or lesser time our own stories of what love is or degrees. We are more likely to succeed in should be. close relationships with people whose The interaction of our personal stories more rather than less closely match attributes with the environment – the latter our own.
27, 313–335. Sternberg, R.J. (1997b). Thinking styles. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (1998a) Cupid’s arrow. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (1998b). Love is a story. New York: Oxford University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (2003). Wisdom, intelligence, and creativity,
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synthesized. New York: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (2011). The theory of successful intelligence. In R.J. Sternberg & S.B. Kaufman (Eds.) Cambridge handbook of intelligence (pp.504–527). New York: Cambridge University Press. Sternberg, R.J. (2012). Die Rolle von Kreativität in der Liebe. Familien Dynamik: Systemische Praxis und
Forschung, 37(1), 4–15. Sternberg, R.J. & Barnes, M.L. (1985). Real and ideal others in romantic relationships. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 1586–1608. Sternberg, R.J. & Grajek, S. (1984). The nature of love. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 55, 345–356. Sternberg, R.J. & Hojjat, M. (Eds.) (1997). Satisfaction in close relationships. New York: Guilford.
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Some of the stories we have found to be particularly useful in conceptualising people’s notions of love are shown in Table 2 (a more comprehensive list appears in Sternberg 1998b). This non-exhaustive working list of stories is based upon an analysis of love stories in literature, previous psychological research by myself and others, and on interpretations of informally gathered case material. Love stories have within them complementary roles, which may or may not be symmetrical. We look for someone who shares our story or who at least has a compatible story that more or less can fit with ours, but we may not always look for someone who is just like ourselves. Rather, we may look for someone who is like us in sharing a story or similar story, but who is complementary to us in the role within that story. Thus, people look for others who are, at one level, similar, but at another level, different. From this point of view, neither similarity theory (Byrne, 1971) nor complementarity theory (Kerckhoff & Davis, 1962) is quite right with respect to love. Rather, which we seek depends on the level we are addressing. We may have multiple stories represented hierarchically, so that the stories are likely to vary in salience for us. In other words, we will prefer some stories over others, so that we may find partners differentially satisfying as a function of the extent to which they match our more rather than less salient stories. A Likerttype scale presenting items representing multiple stories allows participants to show preferences for multiple stories. In order empirically to test some predictions of the theory of love as a story, we devised a Likert scale-based questionnaire that assesses people’s stories (Sternberg et al., 2001). We opted for such a questionnaire rather than for qualitative narratives because a scale more readily provides quantitative tests of the theory. All subjects were adults. All participants received a love-stories scale. Some examples of items are: I Addiction: ‘If my partner were to leave
Sternberg, R.J., Hojjat, M. & Barnes, M.L. (2001). Empirical aspects of a theory of love as a story. European Journal of Personality, 15, 1–20. Sternberg, R.J. & Weis, K. (Eds.) (2006). The new psychology of love. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
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I I I
me, my life would be completely empty.’ Art: ‘Physical attractiveness is quite honestly the most essential characteristic that I look for in a partner.’ Business: ‘I believe close relationships are partnerships, just like most business relationships.’ Fantasy: ‘I think people owe it to themselves to wait for the partner they have always dreamed about.’ Game: ‘I view my relationships as games; the uncertainty of winning or losing is part of the excitement of the game.’
Stories differed widely in popularity. The most popular stories were travel (‘Love is a journey’), gardening (‘Relationships need to be continually nurtured’), democratic government (‘Two partners equally share power’), and history (‘Events of relationship form an indelible record’), in that order. Least popular stories were horror (‘Relationships become interesting when you terrorise or are terrorised by your partner’), collectors (Partner viewed as ‘fitting in’ to some overall scheme), autocratic government (One partner dominates or even controls other), and game (Love as sport), again in that order. There were significant sex differences favouring men for art, pornography (‘Love is to degrade or be degraded’), sacrifice (‘To love is to give of oneself or for someone to give of him or herself to you’), and science fiction (Feeling that one’s partner is…strange). There was a significant difference in favour of women for travel – love is a journey. We found that whereas all three components of the triangular theory of love (Sternberg, 1986) – intimacy, passion, and commitment – positively predicted satisfaction, those stories that showed significant correlations with satisfaction all negatively predicted the satisfaction ratings. It appears, therefore, that maladaptive stories in themselves can lead to dissatisfaction, but that adaptive stories do not necessarily lead to satisfaction. Couples with more similar stories (as well as triangular profiles of love) experienced greater satisfaction in close relationships. In particular, there was a strong correlation (.65) between story profiles of men and women involved in
close relationships. Moreover the degree of discrepancy in couples’ profiles of stories was also negatively correlated with ratings of satisfaction (–.45), as predicted by the theory.
Stage 4: Compatible styles Although the triangular theory and theory of love as a story captured diverse elements of love, they did not fully predict which couples would succeed and
which would fail. At one point in my career, I was studying what I called ‘thinking styles’, or preferred ways of using one’s abilities and knowledge base. For example, someone with a legislative style likes to come up with his or her own ideas; someone with an executive style prefers to execute other people’s ideas; and someone with a judicial style prefers to evaluate ideas, usually of other people (Sternberg, 1997b). I discovered that relationships could rise or fall depending on how well people were able to be compatible across their stylistic preferences. For example, legislative partners could do well because
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their relationship was exciting and constantly producing novelty, but could do less well if each insisted on having his or her way (as legislative people sometimes tend to do). Partners with executive styles might do well if they were content to ‘follow the Joneses’, but could do less well if one or the other wanted direction from inside rather than outside the relationship. Two partners with judicial styles could do well if they enjoyed analysing the behaviour of other couples and evaluating
triangular components, stories and styles, also wisdom, intelligence and creativity, synthesised (Sternberg, 2003, 2011, 2012). Creativity is needed because relationships and the circumstances in which they unfold change over time. Couples who cannot be flexible in adapting to those circumstances, and to the changes that inevitably happen because the trajectories of the various components of love are different over time (Sternberg, 1986), are more likely to be in failing relationships. Analytical intelligence is needed because relationships inevitably encounter challenges, and those individuals and couples that are not smart enough to overcome the challenges are more likely to succumb to them, watching their relationship fail along the way. Practical intelligence is important because the challenges of life require not only abstract analysis, but also common sense. And wisdom is needed to understand one’s partner’s viewpoint (dialogical thinking), to understand that what counts as a good answer to a problem can change over time (dialectical thinking), and to act ethically toward one’s partner. Without WICS, one can have love, but nevertheless fail in one’s relationship.
Conclusion
what the others were doing wrong, but could do less well if they starting turning their judicial style on each other. One partner with a legislative style and one with an executive style could do well if one was happy to lead and the other to follow, but less well if the leader began to feel bored or the follower to feel imposed upon. And so forth. So at this point, I was arguing that compatibility in styles as well as love triangles and stories was important.
My thinking about what leads to success in loving relationships has evolved over time. In a sense, it started with my work on intelligence, and most recently, has returned, albeit in a very different way, to my work on intelligence. Obviously, there are many other factors underlying successful intimate relationships (see, for example, Gottman, 2000), and there are many other theories of love (see Sternberg & Weis, 2006, and box opposite). But I believe that, if a couple wishes to make a loving relationship work, it helps greatly if (a) they have compatible triangles of love, (b) compatible stories of love, (c) compatible styles of thinking, and (d) a synthesis of wisdom, intelligence, and creativity that they apply to their relationship.
Stage 5: The role of WICS More recently, I have suggested that success in love involves, beyond
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Robert J. Sternberg is at Oklahoma State University, USA robert.sternberg@okstate. edu
Measuring love So you love Jack… or Jill. But how much do you love your him… or her? Over the years, there have been a number of attempts to go beyond just studying love to actually measuring it. The measures provide a means for studying love in a scientific way – beyond just talking about it. But the measures also show how important it is to understand the theory underlying the measurement, because they illustrate how it is possible to have different ‘love scales’ that in fact measure different things because they are based on different underlying theories of love. My goal here will be to describe some of the theoretical orientations underlying such scales (beyond those discussed in the main article – see also Sternberg, 1998a, 1998b). A much more comprehensive account of scales used to measure passionate love, in particular, can be found in Hatfield et al. (2012). The earliest major scale was that of Rubin (1970), who devised scales of both liking and loving. He found that the scales measured different aspects of one’s experience in interpersonal relationships. His scale has been widely used in research. A second theory that provided a scale for measuring love is that of Hendrick and Hendrick (1986), who based their scale on the ‘colors of love’ theory proposed by Lee (1973). The types of love measured in this scale are eros, or romantic love; ludus, or game-playing love; storge, or solemn love; agape, or selfless love; mania, or intense, jealous and uncontrolled passionate love; and pragma, or pragmatic love. Hazan and Shaver (1987) suggested using attachment theory as a basis for developing their scale of styles of love. They initially proposed three styles of loving based on attachment theory: secure, ambivalentinsecure, and avoidant-insecure. Fehr and Russell (1991) developed a prototype-based scale for measuring love. The idea was to assess those aspects of love that are closer to and further away from some central node or ‘heart’ of the concept. Hatfield and Sprecher (2010) presented a scale for measuring passionate love. This work was followed by that of Sprecher and Metts (2012), who were interested in beliefs about romantic love. These researchers created a scale that measured four different sets of beliefs regarding romantic love, in particular: Love Finds a Way, One and Only, Idealization, and Love at First Sight. They found that men tended to be more romantic in their orientation than women, and that femininity was a better predictor of romanticism than was masculinity.
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Homeless hostels have undergone significant change in the last decade, with capital investment and an increasing integration with a range of support services. But what can a psychological perspective add to our understanding of the ways hostels can impact on the lives of those who reside there? The social psychological contribution to the theorising of homelessness has tended to reflect detrimental aspects of the experience. It has, for instance, sought to explain how experienced homeless people may entice a new hostel resident toward ‘entrenched’ homelessness and deeper forms of exclusion, such as street begging and criminal activity. But research conducted by Gareth Morris, Philip Brown, Lisa Scullion (University of Salford) and Peter Somerville (University of Lincoln) has uncovered evidence of the positive impact of new social networks formed in hostels. The research team aimed to engage a wider
audience in their research and produced a graphic novel of their findings. The book Somewhere Nowhere: Lives Without Homes was illustrated by Sam Dahl, a master’s graduate at the University of Salford, and the pages here reveal a sample from Becka’s life story. For Becka, first made homeless by a step-parent on her 16th birthday, the hostel and the social networks she forged within it were a step toward a sustainable, independent life. Gareth Morris tells us: ‘We’ve received positive feedback from people in the homelessness sector who have supplemented funding bids with copies of the book, and from lecturers who plan to use it as a teaching resource. We hope it will not only inform and educate readers of the events that lead people toward homeless episodes in their lives, but also add to discussions among academics about how they can achieve impact with their research using creative methods.’
Image by Sam Dahl from a graphic novel by Gareth Morris and colleagues. Does your work lend itself to a striking image? E-mail ideas for ‘Big picture’ to jon.sutton@bps.org.uk.
A novel approach
BIG PICTURE
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Do you have a passion for photography as well as psychology? We are running the first Psychologist photography competition, sponsored by Wiley. To enter, send your work to the editor (jon.sutton@bps.org.uk), along
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with up to 100 words of explanation regarding its relevance. Closing date for entries is 1 March 2013. The winning entry will receive a £50 book token, courtesy of Wiley, and feature in ‘Big picture’.
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ARTICLE
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The paradoxical brain Narinder Kapur, Jonathan Cole and Tom Manly outline some surprising enhancements of function following brain disorder Disorders of the brain and its sensory organs have traditionally been associated with deficits in movement, perception, cognition, emotion and behaviour. It is, however, increasingly recognised that paradoxical enhancement of functioning may occur in some settings. This article provides a selective review of such phenomena – better-than-normal performance after brain lesions; situations where two lesions can be better than one; and enhanced functioning in people with sensory loss. Such findings provide an impetus for the nascent field of positive neuropsychology, and offer new avenues to understand brain–behaviour relationships, with both theoretical and therapeutic implications.
The way of paradoxes is the way of truth. Oscar Wilde, 1891
questions
How can we adapt models of cognition and the brain to take account of paradoxical phenomena?
resources
Kapur, N. et al. (in press). Positive clinical neuroscience – explorations in positive neurology. The Neuroscientist. www.theparadoxicalbrain.com
references
‘T
Alary, F., Goldstein, R., Duquette, M. et al. (2008). Tactile acuity in the blind: A psychophysical study using a twodimensional angle discrimination task. Experimental Brain Research, 187, 587–594. Amedi, A., Raz, N., Pianka, P. et al. (2003). Early 'visual' cortex activation correlates with superior verbal memory performance in the blind. Nature Neuroscience, 6, 758–766.
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How can we use naturally occurring paradoxical improvement and recovery to inform new therapies and treatments in psychology and neuroscience?
hus, the feeling I sometimes have – which all of us who work closely with aphasics have – that one cannot lie to an aphasic… it was the grimaces, the histrionisms, the false gestures and, above all, the false tones and cadences of the voice, which rang false for these wordless but immensely sensitive patients.’ Thus wrote the neurologist Oliver Sacks (Sacks, 1985, pp. 78–79) when describing the paradoxical ability of his aphasic patients to gauge from nonverbal aspects of President Reagan’s communication that there was perhaps an element of reduced authenticity in his communication. Paradoxes have been implicit or explicit in many revolutionary medical discoveries, leading in some cases to Nobel Prizes. For example, Chandrasekhar’s Physics Nobel Prize Lecture (1984) referred to a resolution of the ‘Eddington paradox’, named after the famous English astrophysicist, whereby a star which had cooled to absolute zero somehow found the energy to undergo major expansion. Twenty years later, in 2004, the Nobel Prize for Physics was won by Frank Wilczek. His prize lecture was entitled ‘Asymptotic freedom: From paradox to paradigm’ (Wilczek, 2005). Wilczek referred to two paradoxical findings in physics that gave rise to the discovery of a new dynamical principle, ‘asymptotic freedom’. The first paradox referred to the fact that one of the hidden building blocks
Baron-Cohen, S. (2012). Autism and the technical mind. Scientific American, 307, 58–61. Baron-Cohen, S., Ashwin, E., Ashwin, C. et al. (2011). The paradox of autism: Why does disability sometimes give rise to talent? In N. Kapur (Ed.) The paradoxical brain (pp.274–288). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Beste, C., Wascher, E., Dinse, H. et al.
of nature, quarks, are ‘born free but everywhere they are in chains’. The second paradox related to the fact that two major theories in physics, special relativity theory and quantum mechanics theory, both seemed to be viable, even though they treated the concepts of space and time differently. Paradoxical phenomena abound in nature (Kapur, Manly et al., 2011) and are evident in fields of inquiry such as human ageing (Zimerman et al. (2011), child development (Lewkowicz & Ghazanfar, 2011), cognitive psychology (Dror, 2011), and psychological well-being (Mauss et al., 2011). A theme running through these examples is that the discovery of the paradoxical phenomenon itself may often be serendipitous, and that what is often key is a receptive and creative frame of mind of the clinician or researcher in question, who can grasp the clinical implications of the paradox, and may be spurred to develop new ideas and new experiments to understand its nature. The study of individuals with cerebral pathology has traditionally been embedded in the lesion-deficit model. While this has provided valuable insights into our understanding of the organisation of function in the human brain, it has its drawbacks. By focusing on the negative effects of changes, the lesion-deficit model can overlook positive changes, such as those that can emerge from plastic reorganisation. It can also introduce potential confounds, since it may sometimes be problematical to make a direct link between a behavioural deficit and the locus of a lesion or disease state due to other nonspecific or distant effects of the lesion. Lastly, it may discourage thinking about the compensatory and adaptive strategies that the brain, and the person, may use and which may assist in coping with disease and ameliorating dysfunction. In this article, we explore examples that question the traditional view that lesion or dysfunction of the nervous system inevitably leads to deficits in performance. We do not deny that, for
(2012). Faster perceptual learning through excitotoxic neurodegeneration. Current Biology, 22, 1914–1917. Cardosa-Leite, P., Ascher, P. & Bavelier, D. (2012). Brain plasticity: Paradoxical case of a neurodegenerative disease? Current Biology, 22, R884–R886. Champoux, F., Collignon, O., Bacon, B. et al. (2011). Early- and late-onset
blindness both curb audiotactile integration on the parchment-skin illusion. Psychological Science, 22, 19–25. Chandrasekhar, S. (1984). On stars, their evolution and their stability (Nobel Lecture). Angewandte Chemie International Edition in English, 23, 679–689. Chebat, D.R., Rainville, C., Kupers, R. & Ptito, M. (2007). Tactile-'visual' acuity
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most people, neurological impairment reduces their possibilities within the world, and frequently requires them to relearn functions and actions which previously occurred automatically. But we do suggest that this is not always the only outcome of nervous system insults. Such ideas are not new. ‘Neurology’s favourite word is deficit, denoting an impairment or incapacity of neurological function’, noted Oliver Sacks in his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat (1985, p.1). Ten years later, in An Anthropologist on Mars, he wrote, ‘Defects, disorders, diseases, in this sense, can play a paradoxical role, by bringing out latent powers, developments, evolutions, forms of life, that might never be seen, or even be imaginable, in their absence’ (1995, p.xii). As early as 1929, Vygotsky made a similar point in The Fundamental Problems of Defectology, commenting on the importance of compensatory strategies and mechanisms in cases such as blindness (Vygotsky et al., 1929/1993). Vygotsky noted, ‘The doctrine of overcompensation has an important significance and serves as a psychological basis for the theory and practice of educating a child with a loss of
hearing, sight, and so forth. What horizons will open up to the pedagogue, when he recognizes that a defect is not only a minus, a deficit, or a weakness but also a plus, a source of strength and that it has some positive implications!’ (1929/1993, p.29). While the above ideas and observations are not new, what is new are hypotheses that, for example, link genes for highly technical skills with genes for autism (Baron-Cohen, 2012), that link the neurochemical profile associated with Huntington’s disease to faster perceptual learning (Beste et al., 2012; Cardosa-Leite et al., 2012), and that suggest transient ischaemia as a therapeutic option to prevent the occurrence of strokes (Meng et al., 2012).
Paradoxical enhancement of face processing Etcoff et al. (2000) found that aphasic (language-impaired) patients were better able than healthy individuals to use facial cues to detect the presence of deception in video clips of people displaying or concealing powerful emotions. To this
BEV DOOLITTLE, ©THE GREENWICH WORKSHOP, INC
extent, they confirmed the clinical observations by Oliver Sacks noted at the beginning of this article. It is uncertain whether this paradoxical facilitation represented improvement due to repeated practice at using facial expression in social settings, liberation from the ‘distraction’ of processing the words’ meaning, or more fundamental neural reorganisation of non-linguistic social processing mechanisms. Moscovitch et al. (1997) reported a patient, CK, who showed visual object agnosia (problems in identifying objects from their visual form) and acquired dyslexia following a closed head injury. CK was able to outperform control participants in detecting faces hidden in a painting of a woodland scene (see ‘The Forest Has Eyes’ below). The authors argued that competition from an intact objectrecognition system prevented normal people from detecting the hidden faces. Whilst it can be argued that this ‘facilitation’ of particular functions within these tasks is at the cost of more generally adaptive processes (understanding words and objects), it makes the point that enhanced levels of ability despite, indeed because of, impairments elsewhere are likely to occur in everyday life. The challenge is to find and quantify them.
‘The Forest Has Eyes’
of the tongue in early blind individuals. Neuroreport, 18, 1901–1904. Choi, S.M., Lee, S.H., Park, M.S. et al. (2008). Disappearance of resting tremor after thalamic stroke involving the territory of the tuberothalamic artery. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 14, 373–375. Constantino, A.E. & Louis, E.D. (2003). Unilateral disappearance of essential
tremor after cerebral hemispheric infarct. Journal of Neurology, 250, 354–355. Cuevas, I., Plaza, P., Rombaux P. et al. (2009). Odour discrimination and identification are improved in early blindness. Neuropsychologia, 47, 3079–3083. Dror, I. (2011). The paradox of human expertise: When humans get it wrong. In N. Kapur (Ed.) The
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paradoxical brain (pp.177–188). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Etcoff, N.L., Ekman, P., Magee, J.J. & Frank, M.G. (2000). Lie detection and language comprehension. Nature, 405, 139. Fieger. A., Röder. B., Teder-Sälejärvi. W. et al. (2006). Auditory spatial tuning in late-onset blindness in humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18,
When two lesions can be better than one The disastrous effects of a forest fire can sometimes, paradoxically, be offset by deliberately starting controlled fires that will deprive the main blaze of its substrate. A similar principle is sometimes used in the treatment of intractable epilepsy when the corpus callosum, connecting the two brain hemispheres, is cut to limit the spread of the seizures (Matthews et al., 2008). These patients are often referred to as ‘split-brain’
149–157. Goldreich, D. & Kanics, I.M. (2003). Tactile acuity is enhanced in blindness. Journal of Neuroscience, 23, 3439–3445. Gougoux, F., Lepore, F., Lassonde, M. et al. (2004). Neuropsychology: Pitch discrimination in the early blind. Nature, 430, 309. Hamilton, R.H., Pascual-Leone, A. & Schlaug, G. (2004). Absolute pitch in
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patients. Thus, the deleterious effects of an epileptogenic lesion in one hemisphere are counteracted by the introduction of a second lesion to an intact part of the brain, the corpus callosum. This second lesion helped to largely eliminate the spread of epileptic discharges from one hemisphere to the other. The term ‘double-hit recovery’ may usefully describe such a second lesion effect. The notion that the two cerebral hemispheres are somewhat independent entities that appear, for some purposes, to compete with one and other is important in understanding some other ‘double-hit recovery effects’. Sprague (1966) famously demonstrated that biased perception resulting from a cortical lesion could be resolved by a lesion to a subcortical structure. Such rebalancing effects have been observed to occur spontaneously. In one example from the realm of visual perception, Vuilleumier et al. (1996) found that the left-sided visual neglect that followed a right parietal infarct disappeared after a subsequent left frontal infarction. In the motor domain, Nakashima et al. (1993) reported the case of a 67-year-old telegrapher who developed occupational cramp in his right hand after typing. Eventually, he also developed painful and disabling dystonic cramps that were triggered by writing. After a while, he was obliged to give up writing altogether, but he was still able to use his hands normally for other purposes, such as holding chopsticks. A number of years later, a stroke damaged his left striatum, subcortical structures deep in the brain, and this resulted in weakness and numbness in the right side of his body. After a week, these symptoms had largely disappeared, though he remained too weak to use chopsticks with ease. However, paradoxically, his dystonic cramp had disappeared. Ten months later, he was able to use chopsticks normally; in addition, his dystonic cramp never returned. The second lesion from the stroke, a ‘doublehit’, had resulted in an improvement in his motor function. Constantino and Louis (2003) reported a further example, this
blind musicians. Neuroreport, 15, 803–806. Joseph, S. & Linley, P. (Eds.) (2008). Trauma, recovery and growth. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Kapur, N., Manly, T., Cole, J. & PascualLeone, A. (2011). The paradoxical nature of nature. In N. Kapur (Ed.) The paradoxical brain (pp.1–3). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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time a 75-year-old dentist who had suffered from a form of familial tremor in both hands known as essential tremor. Then two strokes affecting the right fronto-parieto-temporal region resulted in left arm and leg weakness. Although the weakness persisted, presumably because of the involvement of the primary motor cortex, his left-sided tremor disappeared. Further case reports have suggested that strokes in the area of the thalamus can resolve the tremor caused by Parkinson’s disease (Choi et al., 2008).
Enhanced performance and profound sensory loss Sensory loss, such as that associated with becoming blind or deaf, is inevitably associated with limitations in everyday adjustment. But what has become apparent in recent years is that betterthan-normal performance can also be reliably found in such individuals across a range of settings. For the purposes of this article and for reasons of space, we will focus on enhanced functioning in those with blindness. For centuries, there have been anecdotal reports about disproportionate numbers of blind individuals having musical talent. In the case of one aspect of musicality, the ability to precisely name a heard note (‘absolute pitch’), Hamilton et al. (2004) found that just over half of a sample of blind musicians possessed this talent. In contrast, the highest reported rates amongst sighted musicians is just under a fifth. Gougoux et al. (2004) noted better pitch discrimination in early-blind, but not late-blind, subjects. Fieger et al. (2006), reported that blind individuals are better than sighted individuals in the localisation of sounds, especially those coming from the periphery. In the case of touch, Goldreich and Kanics (2003) have found that in early blind subjects there was evidence for enhanced tactile discrimination in a gratings orientation task. This task evaluates an individual’s tactile discrimination ability in judging fine
Kapur, N., Pascual-Leone, A., Manly, T. & Cole, J. (2011). The paradoxical brain – so what? In N. Kapur (Ed.) The paradoxical brain (pp.418–434). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Lewkowicz, D. & Ghazanfar, A. (2011). Paradoxical psychological functioning in early child development. In N. Kapur (Ed.) The paradoxical brain (pp.110–129). Cambridge: Cambridge
orientation differences between objects. Blind subjects also demonstrated lower thresholds on a tactile angle discrimination task compared with sighted subjects (Alary et al., 2008). Better-than-normal tactile abilities do not appear to be limited to the fingers used for Braille – some reports have also found greater tactile discrimination ability in the tongue in blind individuals (Chebat et al., 2007). In a study that examined a fascinating side-effect of enhanced sensory function in the blind, Champoux et al. (2011) reported that blind individuals were less susceptible to the parchment-skin illusion, in which the sound generated by hands rubbing together results in a change in how dry or moist the palms feel, depending on how the original sound is altered (e.g. change in frequency). The suggested explanation is that blind individuals are better at ignoring auditory stimuli while completing a tactile task.
University Press. Matthews, M., Linskey, M. & Binder, D. (2008). William P van Wagenen and the first corpus callosotomies for epilepsy. Journal of Neurosurgery, 108, 608–613. Mauss, I., Tamir, M., Anderson, C. & Savino, N. (2011). Can seeking happiness make people unhappy? Emotion, 11, 807–815. Meng, R., Asmaro, K., Meng, L. et al.
(2012). Upper limb ischemic preconditioning prevents recurrent stroke in intracranial arterial stenosis. Neurology, 79, 1853–1861. Moscovitch, M., Wincour, G. & Behrmann, M. (1997). What is special about face recognition? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9, 555–604. Nakashima, K., Takahashi, K. & Ota, M. (1993). Cessation of writer's cramp after stroke. Movement Disorders, 8,
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In the case of the processing of odours, Cuevas et al. (2009) reported that children with early-onset or congenital blindness perform better than sighted children at labelling common odours. In the case of memory functioning, blind people have been reported to outperform the sighted in auditory-verbal recognition (Röder et al., 2001) and recall (Amedi et al., 2003). The neural mechanisms underlying enhanced performance in blind subjects have been unravelled in recent years, with evidence to suggest unmasking of latent auditory and tactile functions in the occipital cortex. Odour processing may also be ‘taken over’ by posterior areas of the brain.
Conclusions Influential views within contemporary neuroscience view the brain as a dynamic, adaptive and evolving system shaped by
249–251. Röder, B., Rösler, F. & Neville, H.J. (2001). Auditory memory in congenitally blind adults. Brain Research, Cognitive Brain Research, 11, 289–303. Sacks O. (1985). The man who mistook his wife for a hat. London: Duckworth. Sacks O. (1995). An anthropologist on Mars. London: Picador. Seligman, M.E.P. & Csikzentmihalyi, M.
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its environment and itself. Damage to the brain may upset one dynamic state and cause difficult-to-predict effects as it settles into a new state. Without minimising the very real losses that often arise, the paradoxical enhancements noted above emphasise the importance of looking at change rather than simply focusing on deficit. This echoes a broader approach of positive psychology and positive clinical psychology that places emphasis on dispositional optimism, flourishing, resilience and functional reserve in coping with impairment (Seligman & Csikzentmihalyi, 2000; Wood & Tarrier, 2010). The emerging fields of ‘positive neurology’ and ‘positive neuropsychology’ in the rehabilitation of the brain-damaged individual have a similar emphasis. These fields suggest that we focus on intact skills, on past strengths and interests, and on how both rehabilitation efforts and domestic, social and work environments can be altered to take these skills and talents into account. Research on post-traumatic growth (Joseph & Linley, 2008), for instance, points to an approach that regards an acute adverse event as, in part, a form of learning experience, one from which the individual has the potential to become stronger in terms of mental attitude and ability to cope with stress. These approaches are tailored to individuals’ needs and abilities and place the patient in their social setting rather than in a purely clinical one. But the new field also, importantly, suggests that it is not only dispositional optimism that can be harnessed. In some cases, truly paradoxical improvements can occur, which may reveal important insights into brain function. Such an approach can learn from neurodevelopmental disorders, such as the autism spectrum syndrome, where enhanced abilities can sometimes result in talent (Baron-Cohen et al., 2011).
(2000). Positive psychology: An introduction. American Psychologist, 61, 774–788. Sprague, J.M. (1966). Interaction of cortex and superior colliculus in mediation of visually guided behaviour in the cat. Science, 153, 1544-1547 Vuilleumier, P., Hester, D., Assal, G. & Regli, F. (1996). Unilateral spatial neglect recovery after sequential
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Paradoxical phenomena in clinical neuroscience point to a view of the brain as a non-linear device, which relies on dynamic synchrony and balance between neural systems. Damage to the brain may upset this dynamic state, and repair may often entail interventions that restore a degree of synchrony and balance. We would like to propose that the paradoxical enhancements noted in this article point to a paradigm shift in how we view illnesses of the brain, and in particular point to a new, emerging field, that of positive neuropsychology. The field of positive neuropsychology in relation to such resilience has seen a greater focus over the last few years (see www.posneuroscience.org). We suggest that, however important such examples are, positive phenomena may be found more widely within neuroscience after central nervous system damage and in developmental conditions. These may open up novel ways of assisting patients, and also provide fresh insights into the functioning of the normal human brain (Kapur, Pascual-Leone et al., 2011).
strokes. Neurology, 19, 184–189. Vygotsky, L.S., Rieber, R.W. & Carton, A.S. (Eds.) (1993). The collected works of LS Vygotsky, Volume 2: The fundamentals of defectology. New York: Springer. (Original work published 1929) Wilczek, F. (2005). Asymptotic freedom: From paradox to paradigm. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 102, 8403–8413.
Narinder Kapur is in the Research Department of Clinical, Educational and Health Psychology, University College London n.kapur@ucl.ac.uk Jonathan Cole is at Poole General Hospital and the University of Bournemouth Jonathan.Cole@poole.nhs.uk
Tom Manly is in the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge tom.manly@mrccbu.cam.ac.uk
Wood, A.M. & Tarrier, N. (2010). Positive clinical psychology: A new vision and strategy for integrated research and practice. Clinical Psychology Review, 30, 819–829. Zimerman, S., Hasher, L. & Goldstein, D. (2011). Cognitive ageing: A positive perspective. In N. Kapur (Ed.) The paradoxical brain (pp.130–150). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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REVIEWS
© 2012 WARNER BROS. ENTERTAINMENT INC. AND METRO-GOLDWYN-MAYER PICTURES INC.
Outside the comfort zone The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey Peter Jackson (Director) Much of the early discussion of Peter Jackson’s new film, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, has focused on Jackson's use of the latest 3D technology by shooting at 48 frames-per-second. Some viewers complain that the picture quality is so eye-poppingly clear that it becomes distracting and even disquieting. Jackson himself has remarked that it may take the average filmgoer half the movie before he or she feels truly comfortable. Comfort, in fact, is a major theme in the film, as it is in the classic children’s book on which it is based. Bilbo, ‘a Baggins of Bag End’, spends a good portion of the film praising, then longing for, the comforts of home. On the first page, author J.R.R. Tolkien wrote that Bilbo’s home meant ‘comfort’. For French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, the ‘house allows one to dream in peace’. Without a house, ‘man is a dispersed being’. In the climactic scene of the film outside Gollum's cave, Bilbo finally commits himself wholeheartedly to the quest, telling Thorin that because he likes his home so much he wants to help the Company take back their own home from the dragon who made them refugees. Having already survived a difficult childhood, Tolkien lost several of his closest friends in the trenches of World War I. Tolkien, like Bachelard, understood that ‘home’ can have conflicting psychological resonances. Home can connote warmth, comfort, security, but also stagnation, risk-aversion and constraint. In the film Gandalf warns Bilbo that when he returns from his journey he will be changed and may not be so comfortable at home as he has been. The Hobbit has long appealed to psychologists for its obvious correspondences to the process of maturation. As the book opens, Bilbo is effectively a 50-year-old child nestled in his comfy hobbit hole. By the end of the tale Bilbo has achieved Jungian individuation or Maslowian self-actualisation by stepping out of his comfort zone, resolving his inner conflicts, and growing in courage, self-confidence, and self-understanding by confronting challenges and dangers. The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is a flawed but very good film. It is over-long, the dialogue occasionally limps, and there is too much dwarfish and trollish clownishness. Otherwise, the film triumphantly succeeds. It is visually and technologically stunning, the action scenes are terrific, Andy Serkis’ Gollum is brilliant beyond words, and (unlike the Lord of the Rings films) the many changes Jackson makes to Tolkien’s original storyline are nearly always effective. Our advice, then, is to step outside your own comfy hobbit hole and see Jackson’s Hobbit film the way it was meant to be seen: as a cutting-edge work of art in 3D format. It will be an adventure. I Reviewed by Gregory Bassham who is a Professor of Philosophy at King’s College Pennsylvania, and Eric Bronson who is a visiting Professor in the Humanities Department at York University Toronto. The pair are editors, with William Irwin, of The Hobbit and Philosophy (Wiley, 2012).
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An indispensible guide The Wiley-Blackwell Handbook of Schema Therapy: Theory, Research and Practice Michiel van Vreeswijk, Jenny Broersen, & Marjon Nadort (Eds.) With a foreword by Jeff Young, the founder of schema therapy, this handbook is truly indispensible for any clinician with an interest in schema therapy, from the novice to the experienced schema therapist. Written by international experts in schema therapy, this book covers a wealth of information relating to schema therapy, including theory, diagnostic considerations, therapy techniques (integrating mindfulness and ACT), new settings and populations (including adolescents, groups and forensic settings), training issues, research developments and issues relating to public policy and cost-effectiveness. It is easy to read and structured in a way that allows the reader to ‘dip’ into areas of specialist interest. Many chapters include case studies and therapy transcripts, allowing the clinician to readily access the information and relate it to their own clinical practice. At the end of his foreword, Jeff Young states that he believes ‘that this handbook should be required reading for anyone interested in the field’; and I couldn’t agree more. Overall, an exciting, informative and interesting book, which renewed my passion for schema therapy. I Wiley-Blackwell; 2012; Hb £110.00 Reviewed by Dr Tina Perry-Moore who is a clinical psychologist with Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust
YOUR BROADER ‘REVIEWS’ SECTION ‘Reviews’ now covers psychology in any form: books, films, apps, plays, web, TV, radio, newspapers, etc. To contribute, e-mail psychologist@bps.org.uk.
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A psychological treat Book of the Week. The Examined Life by Stephan Grosz, read by Peter Marinker BBC Radio 4 I love Radio Four. There is something I find calming and reassuring about the structure of the scheduling and the approach of the programmes. Radio Four has been there for me in times of stress: finals revision, romantic break-ups, thesis writing… There are also some real programming gems, such as The Life Scientific and All in the Mind. Book of the Week I think is a great idea, but I sometimes dislike the choices of books, partly because I seem to have
an unerring tendency to switch on the radio in the middle of the night only if there is a frightening murder mystery being read out, complete with screams. Book of the week in early January was a psychological treat though. Extracts from The Examined Life by Stephan Grosz were read by Peter Marinker. Marinker read in a soothing voice which suited both the material and my idealised idea of Radio Four. I listened to two of the five extracts, episode two and episode five. I had already come
Dr Howard Fine is a Consultant Clinical Psychologist, co-founder of Recolo UK Ltd, and a regular consulting psychologist for media productions on child development and education (with recent contributions to Educating Essex, Jamie Oliver’s Dream School, Cutting Edge and Panorama). Here he reviews his own involvement in the Channel 4 series The Undateables.
people with less knowledge of psychoanalysis. Ideas such as splitting were explained beautifully clearly, and the extracts chosen did well to incorporate some of these explanations. It reminded me of Yalom’s Love’s Executioner in its fundamental idea, although I am afraid to say I thought Yalom handled the idea in a more sophisticated and subtle way. The extracts I heard from The Examined Life felt a little too neat and some of the conclusions drawn felt a little too glib. Nonetheless, a nice choice for Book of the Week and worth having a look at the book or a listen to on iPlayer. I Reviewed by Lucy Maddox, a Clinical Psychologist in the NHS and Associate Editor for ‘Reviews’
CHANNEL 4
Challenging public prejudices
across the book on my mother’s bookshelves at Christmas (mother has also retrained as a psychotherapist – read into that what you will), and found it easy to pick up and dip into. The book uses short vignettes of patients to tell a story, to involve the reader or listener, and to bring to life psychoanalytic concepts. The radio programmes were similar, easy to listen to for anyone, no matter how much background knowledge of psychoanalysis they had. In fact I wondered if the book and radio reading might even be more suited to
The Undateables highlights the challenges that a disability may offer to someone looking for a relationship. The series followed individuals with a broad range of presentations, including physical disability, learning disability, acquired brain injury, mental health disorders and congenital disorders associated with facial disfigurement, as they enter the dating circuit in pursuit of a relationship. ‘It was very fulfilling to have a media company, which are in some way responsible for My role as a consulting psychologist was to advocate public perception, to be so receptive and able to take on an educative role’ for and support the contributors, as well as offering them better understand the individual needs of the contributors, consultation to the production team. Due to the potential social, including issues around capacity, informed consent, and minimising emotional and cognitive vulnerabilities, consideration was given to stress and change. The welfare of the individuals took precedent capacity, stability, ability to cope with pressures of the production over the production needs, with the production company adhering to process (unpredictability, performance anxiety, setting boundaries), the recommendations made and were respectful of the dignity of the to ensure that any vulnerability would not be exacerbated by their contributors. This was well received by the families involved as well involvement in the programme. I further needed to ensure that the as the external advocating agencies. It was very fulfilling to have a contributors were resilient enough and had resources around them media company, which are in some way responsible for public to support the pressures from public feedback in respect of their perception, to be so receptive and able to take on an educative role. public exposure. This programme was of particular interest due to relevance to During the production and post-production, containment and the client groups we work with, faced with the dual obstacles of support was offered to the families and contributors as appropriate, aspiring to lead a normal life and enjoy the same human rights and ranging from personal insecurities about their abilities and freedoms as everyone else, as well as challenging public prejudices. appearance, to the perceived expectations of how they would be I felt this was sensitively produced with great efforts to support the received by their potential dates and assumptions based on first individuals and their families. I hope this series is recognised for impressions. There were also quite normal anxieties raised bringing these issues to the fore, rather than dismissed as regarding the public’s response to the programme. uncomfortable exploitation. Independent consultation to the production company helped
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Sampling the candy
Graham Davey’s Blog http://grahamdavey.blogspot.co.uk A growing number of psychologists – in training, in research, in practice – are entering the blogosphere. In the last issue we heard about Professor Dorothy Bishop’s prize-winning efforts; this month I would like to highlight Professor Graham Davey’s blog. Davey is Professor of Psychology at the University of Sussex, and he began blogging last January (as well as tweeting as @GrahamCLDavey). During 2012 he racked up 21 honest and thought-provoking entries on a range of topics the discipline cannot afford to shrink from, such as mental health interventions, psychology as a science, meeting Skinner, experimenter effects, textbooks, and more. His post of 4 December was a fine example of how to blog. Under the heading ‘Stickers’, ‘Jugglers’ and ‘Switchers and dumpers’, Davey posed the question ‘Which
A new approach Group Cognitive Therapy for Addictions Amy Wenzel, Bruce S. Liese, Aaron T. Beck & Dara G. FriedmanWheeler This book is both timely and welcome. Timely in that it details an evidence-based, cost-effective method of group treatment for addictions; welcome in that it allows psychologists to reach out to treat effectively the ever-increasing numbers of clients presenting with addictive behaviours. Here addictions are not limited to substance misuse but extend to all forms of addictive behaviour, including sex and gambling. Issues relating to dualdiagnosis are also addressed. The authors describe
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kind of researcher should you be?’ Recalling his postgraduate time as ‘a dyed-in-thewool behaviourist loading rats into Skinner boxes and clichés into arguments,’ Davey mused how ‘relatively narrow interests (and views and approaches) can seem like they are the universe… But what happens later on in our academic lives? Should we stay focused and hone our skills in a focused research niche, or should we nervously wander out of that niche into new areas with new challenges requiring new skills?’ As with a lot of good blogging, this really struck a chord with me – in fact, partly due to a failed job interview many moons ago at Davey’s own university! ‘If you are a newly graduated PhD,’ Davey wrote, ‘most recruiting Departments will want to know that you are – as they put it - “capable of independent research” before appointing you. Do you go scrabbling for that last section in your thesis entitled “Future Directions” and try to stretch out your PhD research (often in a painfully synthetic way, like seeing how far some bubble-gum will stretch – even though the “amount” there is still the same). Or do you bite the bullet and try your newly-learnt skills on some new and different problems?’
the implementation of a specific form of treatment, the cognitive therapy addictions group, (CTAG), based upon a comprehensive cognitive model of addiction. This is an open-ended group so members can enter and leave at any time. The authors provide a persuasive rationale for the use of this model. The cognitive model overarches the approach, but the emphasis is also on group processes as an aid to
recovery. Clients are encouraged to support each other’s efforts to meet achievable goals. The authors provide cognitive conceptualisations relevant both to individuals and to the group as a whole supported by clinical vignettes so the reader can gain a flavour of actual sessions. There are numerous clear and informative tables. Additionally they provide examples of forms used in the course of therapy, which readers can use in their own practice. I was very impressed by the layout and readability of this book. The authors have avoided the manualised ‘cook-book’ approach and have achieved a balance between the discussion of theoretical principles and their application to practice. I Guilford Press; 2012; Hb £26.99 Reviewed by Clive Sims who is an independent psychologist and researcher
Davey goes on to set out the options. The ‘stickers’ often concentrate on a small, limited number of research problems but maybe have the benefit of developing more and more refined (and sometimes more complex) theoretical models. Take that path, Davey warns, and you risk becoming ‘the person who sits near the front at international conferences and begins asking questions with the phrase “Thank you for your very interesting talk, but…”.’ So what about becoming a ‘juggler’, with at least two relatively independent streams of research? This diversity has its advantages, and that man B.F. Skinner
Second series welcome Dara O Briain’s Science Club BBC2 Dara O Briain’s Science Club tackles the big questions in science, and the fifth episode, about the brain, broadcast on 7 December, was no different. The programme covered new developments along with old favourites, such as a demonstration of the rubber hand illusion. I was completely enthralled by a report from researchers at Brown University who trained a woman suffering from
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promoted the scientific principle of serendipity – if something interesting crops up in your research, drop everything and study it!’ Davey says this approach spawns some entrepreneurial ‘switchers and dumpers’, ‘who post a new (and largely unsubstantiated) theory about something in the literature, and then move on to a completely new (and often more trending)
BBC - PHOTOGRAPHER: ANDREW HAYES-WATKINS
paralysis from the neck downwards to control a robotic arm with her thoughts. Truly the stuff of science fiction, this kind of reporting shows how important psychology and neuroscience is, and what a difference these advances can make to people’s lives. As has become customary in the show, a segment was given over to experimentation using super-strength Polish vodka. As Professor Mark Miodownik put a brain in a blender, then added vodka and water to produce an emulsion of the fat, I wondered whether this experiment had been chosen for the addition it made to the programme, or simply for the sake of a running joke. I think this segment could have been better filled with one of the many psychological experiments people could have experienced for themselves – perhaps a demonstration of the Ames room or the inverted face illusion. A lively discussion was raised around ‘smart drugs – cognitive enhancers that may improve focus and productivity. An audience poll produced an interesting outcome – those who would consider
area of research, leaving researchers of the former topic to fight, bicker and prevaricate, often for years, about what eventually turns out to be a red herring, or a blind alley, or a complete flight of fancy designed to grab the headlines at the time.’ Unfortunately, but understandably, Davey stops short of naming names. But his own preference for serendipity is clear: ‘Research isn’t just about persevering at a problem until you’ve tackled it from every conceivable angle, it’s also an opportunity to try out as many candies in the shop as you can – as long as you sample responsibly!’ Professor Davey tells me it was his postgrad students who convinced him to start blogging. ‘I’d always had a tendency to diverge and “rant” on about pet issues in research meetings. So they suggested I should expose these flights of fancy to a wider audience, and – as they put it – “get down with the kids”! Having blogged for a year now, I’m happy to recommend it unreservedly. It’s a great way of honing your writing skills – especially the “being concise and engaging” bits. But more than anything else, if you have views and ideas about science or psychology, a blog is one of the greatest ways of getting feedback on those
taking the drugs were not always the same people who would be happy for others to do so. I am undecided – while I can see the benefits for those with demanding jobs, such as surgeons, I worry about the lack of longitudinal studies, and the possibility of developing tolerance or dependence – something not mentioned in the show. Professor Uta Frith was on hand as the expert guest, and put in an admirable performance, managing to explain difficult concepts clearly and enthusiastically. Along with two female reporters, and a clip of Professor Barbara Sahakian talking about ‘smart drugs’, it was good to see some female scientific role models – something that is sadly lacking from the scientific ‘hall of fame’ the guests add to each week. Science Club is a great attempt at bringing science to the mainstream in a way that is engaging and informative, but in places it can become a little formulaic. I think, in general, they handled the difficult topic of neuroscience well, and I very much hope a second series is commissioned. I Reviewed by Ginny Smith (@GinnyFBSmith) who is a psychology graduate now working as a freelance science communicator
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thoughts as well as introducing people to new ideas and alerting them to new information. Science is not just about the pedantic journal publishing juggernaut, it’s also very much about the thought processes that precede formal publication, how science is conducted, and – perhaps most importantly – how enjoyable science is. All these are legitimate grist to the blogger’s mill.’ As with many bloggers, Professor Davey’s efforts are worthy of a wider and more interactive audience. I hope his example will encourage other psychologists to try their hand at this underrated form of dissemination and debate. I Reviewed by Jon Sutton Managing Editor of The Psychologist
Intimacy vs. love Intimacy Ziyad Marar Most of us spend our lives searching for love, for that one unique person with whom we can share our innermost thoughts and desires. In his third book, Marar describes intimacy as being a complex concept and outlines the parallels between intimacy and love, whilst identifying a key set of ingredients – reciprocity, conspiracy, emotion and kindness – that characterise the existence of intimacy, without which he says our life is unfulfilled. Writing in dialogue form, Marar explores the intricacies of intimacy and examines the barriers to achieving it that many of us face in today’s world of consumerism and social media. He details the many obstacles that impede our search for intimacy as well as our own insecurities that keep intimacy at bay. Drawing on insights from philosophy, psychology, and popular literature and film, Marar shows how intimacy is central to a life well lived. This is a bold and thought-provoking book with brilliant insight into human psychology and required reading for anyone brave enough to embrace this human experience that is as elusive as it is powerful. I Acumen; 2012; Pb £14.99 Reviewed by Kirsten Nokling who is a research assistant at the Spectrum Centre for Mental Health Research, Lancaster University
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How are you feeling right now? Mappiness iPhone app Mappiness was developed by George MacKerron, an environmental economist at the London School of Economics, to provide data on how people’s well-being fluctuates in response to their environment. The app sends out alerts at least once a day inviting people to rate how happy, relaxed and awake they feel. People also have the
opportunity to provide contextual information such as what they are doing, whether they are indoors or outdoors, and who they are with. A wide range of activities is included in a drop-down menu such as fishing, singing, watching TV, gambling, smoking and making love. The iPhone's GPS provides information about location and the microphone measures noise levels. If people are outdoors, they can take a photograph. Feedback is provided about current happiness levels and a chart providing information on how happiness fluctuates over time is available. Since its launch in February 2011, mappiness has had over 3.5 million responses, from more than 52,000 people Findings suggest that people are least happy when in urban environments, slightly happier in the suburbs, and happiest at the coast, close to mountains or walking in coniferous forests. Unsurprisingly they tend to be happier during weekends than weekdays and when they are not at work. Overall, the ‘happiest’ activity appears to be making love, which apparently adds about 12 happiness points. Being sick in bed is the least happy activity reducing happiness levels by almost 20 points.
just in
For a full list of books available for review and information on reviewing for The Psychologist, see www.bps.org.uk/books Send books for potential review to The Psychologist, 48 Princess Road East, Leicester LE1 7DR Remember, ‘Reviews’ now covers much more than books… if you would like to contribute, e-mail psychologist@bps.org.uk
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Using positive psychology with adolescents Building Happiness, Resilience and Motivation in Adolescents: A Positive Psychology Curriculum for Wellbeing Ruth MacConville & Tina Rae Building Happiness, Resilience and Motivation in Adolescents is a practical resource for use in schools. MacConville and Rae acknowledge that adolescence can be a turbulent time where difficulties can develop into mental health problems. They recognise that schools play a vital role in promoting emotional well-being, which will in turn enhance learning. The first part of the book provides a brief introduction to positive psychology. Part two
Psychologisation in Times of Globalisation Jan De Vos
provides a PowerPoint presentation, facilitator’s notes and activities to introduce new staff to the programme. Every chapter introduces the subject and offers activities focused on one of the ‘character strengths’. The programme aims to build on individual strengths in a solution-focused way by increasing insight and developing flexible thinking. Practitioners can deliver parts of the programme to tailor it to the child. I would note that the facilitator would require a sensitive emotional response to some potentially difficult situations. In summary this is a practical resource for practitioners who want an overview of positive psychology. The programme contains relevant activities and worksheets that are ideal for this client group.
In 1991 I defined psychologisation as the exaggeration of the role of psychological factors. De Vos extends this to the influence of psychology where it does not belong. One example: Supernanny, trying to help parents with badly behaved offspring. Real psychologists are described as objectifying the subjective and potentially dangerous, given their involvement in interrogation and torture. Apparently, we also obstruct ‘genuine ways of living’ and people would be better off guided by intuition, elders and traditional healers. In short, De Vos regards psychology as ‘obsolete’. I found this book a hardto-follow collection of generalisations, littered with jargon, and offering a view of psychology that I don’t recognise. Statements such as ‘psychology has always been without psychology as it per definition creates a subject beyond psychology’ left me baffled. In my view, this book isn’t about psychologisation, let alone psychology. It’s an unbalanced critique that doesn’t acknowledge that we have choices. We can still go to an ‘alternative’ practitioner and not everyone has left religion behind. I can’t recommend it.
I Jessica Kingsley; 2012; Pb £24.99 Reviewed by Rebecca Daniels who is an assistant psychologist
I Routledge; 2012; Pb £19.99 Reviewed by Ellen Goudsmit who is a health psychologist and Fellow of the BPS
I Reviewed by Gail Kinman who is a Chartered Psychologist and Professor of Occupational Psychology at the University of Bedfordshire
Sample titles just in: The Psychology of Retirement Derek Milne Decoded: The Science Behind Why We Buy Phil Barden Psychological Foundations of Marketing Allan J. Kimmel The Pursuit of the Nazi Mind Daniel Pick Philosophy of Mind William Jaworski Fat Lives: A Feminist Psychological Exploration Irmgard Tischner
An unbalanced critique
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Research. Digested.
The British Psychological Society’s free Research Digest Blog, email, Twitter and Facebook
www.researchdigest.org.uk/blog ‘Easy to access and free, and a mine of useful information for my work: what more could I want? I only wish I’d found this years ago!’ Dr Jennifer Wild, Consultant Clinical Psychologist & Senior Lecturer, Institute of Psychiatry ‘The selection of papers suits my eclectic mind perfectly, and the quality and clarity of the synopses is uniformly excellent.’ Professor Guy Claxton, University of Bristol
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