Single Session Thinking 2020

This update presents key developments since Talmon’s original (1990) publication, including an account of the three international symposia which have taken place since the last ANZJFT special edition on single session therapy in 2012, and the major compilations that followed the symposia. Underlying elements that unite different single session approaches are explored, and an attempt is made to provide a terminology that is inclusive and coherent. As reflected in the title, the term ‘single session thinking’ is suggested as an over-arching term for the approach that is no longer limited to the therapy room, but reaches into many different contexts. In conclusion, possible future clinical and research developments in the field of single session thinking and practice are reflected upon, and the implications for contemporary health care delivery considered.     

Probability Size Matters: The Effect of Foreground-Only versus Foreground+Background Graphs on Risk Aversion Diminishes with Larger Probabilities

Graphs are increasingly recommended for improving decision-making and promoting risk-avoidant behaviors. Graphs that depict only the number of people affected by a risk (“foreground-only” displays) tend to increase perceived risk and risk aversion (e.g., willingness to get vaccinated), as compared to graphs that also depict the number of people at risk for harm (“foreground+background” displays). However, previous research examining these “foreground-only effects” has focused on relatively low-probability risks (<10%), limiting generalizability to communications about larger risks. In two experiments, we systematically investigated the moderating role of probability size on foreground-only effects, using a wide range of probability sizes (from 0.1% to 40%). Additionally, we examined the moderating role of the size of the risk reduction, that is, the extent to which a protective behavior reduces the risk. Across both experiments, foreground-only effects on perceived risk and risk aversion were weaker for larger probabilities. Experiment 2 also revealed that foreground-only effects were weaker for smaller risk reductions, while foreground-only displays decreased understanding of absolute risk magnitudes independently of probability size. These findings suggest that the greater effectiveness of foreground-only versus foreground+background displays for increasing perceived risk and risk aversion diminishes with larger probability sizes and smaller risk reductions. Moreover, if the goal is to promote understanding of absolute risk magnitudes, foreground+background displays should be used rather than foreground-only displays regardless of probability size. Our findings also help to refine and extend existing theoretical accounts of foreground-only effects to situations involving a wide range of probability sizes.     

Re-authoring to Reconcile Religious Beliefs with Affectional Orientation: A Narrative Study

Narrative qualitative research design was used to understand the processes of three lesbians with Oneness Pentecostal backgrounds who reconciled their religious beliefs with their affectional orientation. The central question for this study was “How do lesbians with Oneness Pentecostal backgrounds describe their coming out processes, and how did they reconcile their religious beliefs and sexual orientations?” Participants’ stories revealed that reconciliation processes are unique and complicated. The narrative therapy reauthoring technique was combined with a feminist theoretical framework and used to analyze participants’ stories. Three unifying themes of reconciliation were the process of redefining (a) religious beliefs, (b) family, and (c) self.     

The motivational mechanisms underlying active and high-strain work: consequences for mastery and performance

We test if the motivating potential of active work and the demotivating consequences of high-strain work can be explained by the “quality” of motivation experienced. Study 1, an experiment (N?=?205), revealed active work maintained intrinsic motivation and identified regulation (compared to baseline). High-strain work decreased these motivations. Moreover, demand was negatively related to mastery only at low control, through reduced intrinsic motivation. Demand was negatively related to task performance at low control, through reduced identified regulation. Study 2, an online survey (N?=?516 employees), revealed an energising effect of active work on intrinsic motivation and identified regulation, both of which had positive associations with job performance. A demotivating effect of high-strain work on intrinsic motivation was revealed, which had negative associations with job performance. In conclusion, internalised motivations are important mechanisms, through which active work protects and enhances mastery/performance, and through which high-strain work can deplete these outcomes.     

Re-assembling climate change policy: Materialism,posthumanism, and the policy assemblage

National and international policy-makers have addressed threats to environmental sustainability from climate change and other environmental degradation for over 30 years. However, it is questionable whether current policies are socially, politically, economically, and scientifically capable of adequately resolving these threats to the planet and living organisms. In this paper we theorize and develop the concept of a “policy assemblage” from within a new materialist ontology, to interrogate critically four policy perspectives on climate change: “liberal environmentalism”; the United Nations policy statements on sustainable development; “green capitalism” (also known as “climate capitalism”) and finally “no-growth economics.” A materialist analysis of interactions between climate change and policies enables us to establish what each policy can do, what it ignores or omits, and consequently its adequacy to address environmental sustainability in the face of climate change. None, we conclude, is adequate or appropriate to address climate change successfully. We then use this conceptual tool to establish a “posthuman” policy on climate change. Humans, from this perspective, are part of the environment, not separate from or in opposition to it, but possess unique capacities that we suggest are now necessary to address climate change. This ontology supplies the starting point from which to establish sociologically a scientifically, socially, and politically adequate posthuman climate change policy. We offer suggestions for the constituent elements of such a policy.     

Mixed methods,materialism and the micropolitics of the research-assemblage

We assess the potential for mixing social research methods, based upon a materialist and micropolitical analysis of the research-assemblage and of what individual research techniques and methods do in practice. Applying a DeleuzoGuattarian toolkit of assemblages, affects and capacities, we document what happens when research methods and techniques interact with the events they wish to study. Micropolitically, many of these techniques and methods have unintended effects of specifying and aggregating events, with the consequently that the knowledge produced by social inquiry is invested with these specifications and aggregations. We argue that rather than abandoning these social research tools, we may use the micropolitical analysis to assess precisely how each method affects knowledge production, and engineer the research designs we use accordingly. This forms the justification for mixing methods that are highly aggregative or specifying with those that are less so, effectively rehabilitating methods that have often been rejected by social researchers, including surveys and experiments.     

The Development and Validation of the FACES-IV-SF

The Family Adaptability and Cohesion Scale IV (FACES-IV) was developed to capture the balanced and unbalanced levels of cohesion and flexibility in families. Although this measure has been shown to be valid and reliable, its length at 62 items limits utility and uptake in clinical and research settings. This paper details the development of a shorter form of the FACES-IV (the FACES-IV Short Form) using two studies. In the first study, three item-level analyses were used to identify 24 items that provided the best measurement of each of the scales of the FACES-IV. In the second study, the reliability, and convergent and divergent validity of the short form was tested. Results suggest that the FACES-IV-SF is a valid and reliable measure that adheres to the theory underlying the original FACES-IV but may be better utilized in clinical and research settings due to its brevity.