I. Patients of the treatment division of the judge baker guidance center 1

Abstract

There is a growing emphasis in the social work literature that social work's overall mission should be that of social justice and that mental health be relegated as outside of social work's realm. This paper draws upon a constructionist and narrative perspective in developing a general formulation of clinical social work to bridge the gap between social justice and mental health.     

社会认知的双重机制：来自神经科学的证据

随着对社会认知的脑与神经机制研究的不断深入,尤其是伴随具身认知科学的兴起,社会脑概念的提出与镜像神经元的发现都使得社会认知研究取得了长足进步,但同时也引发了新的争论。在神经科学领域内有关社会认知的主要发现与新近理论假设的基础上,社会认知双重机制假说得以产生。该假说认为,大脑中至少存在两套机制来完成对于他人心理状态与行为的理解。第一套机制是基于大脑镜像匹配系统的研究提出的——具身模仿（embodied simulation）;第二套机制即传统心理理论研究中所涉及的“心智化能力”（mentalizing）。该机制存在的证据除了传统心理理论领域中行为研究论据之外,更多的来自于与具身模仿系统相悖的实验研究。社会认知双重机制假说对于社会认知的研究有着重要的推动作用,但仍面临诸多问题需加以完善。     

Links between attachment and theory of mind in childhood: Meta‐analytic review

Theoretical models suggest a relation between children's attachment and their theory of mind (ToM), but existing empirical studies are inconclusive with respect to the existence and magnitude of this association. We present the first meta‐analytic review of available studies on the attachment‐ToM association during childhood. Fifteen research on attachment‐ToM links among typically developed children aged 2 to 6 were reviewed and 12 studies that report correlations between attachment and ToM (N = 629) were included in a quantitative meta‐analysis. Meta‐analytic results showed that the higher attachment security, the better ToM skills; the combined effect size for this association was moderate, r = .30. These findings are discussed in‐depth and future research directions are proposed.     

The Parent's Capacity to Treat the Child as a Psychological Agent: Constructs, Measures and Implications for Developmental Psychopathology

Recent studies of the relationship between parenting and child development have included a focus on the parent's capacity to treat the child as a psychological agent. Several constructs have been developed to refer to this capacity, for example maternal mind-mindedness, reflective functioning, and parental mentalizing. In this review article, we compare and contrast different constructs from diverse theoretical backgrounds that have been developed to operationalize parental mentalizing. We examine the empirical evidence to date in support of each of the constructs and review the relevant measures associated with each construct. Next, we discuss the possibility that these apparently diverse constructs may tap into the same underlying neurobiological socio-cognitive system. We conclude by proposing a testable model for describing the links between parental mentalization, the development of mentalizing in children, and child psychopathology.     

Biased Mentalizing in Children Aged Seven to 11: Latent Class Confirmation of Response Styles to Social Scenarios and Associations with Psychopathology

A new approach to the measurement of mentalizing is introduced. Instead of measuring the presence or absence of mentalizing capacity, the current study aimed at developing a mentalizing task that focuses on investigating biases in mentalizing through the use of ambiguous peer‐related social scenarios. The response consistency of 659 children was investigated in a community sample of children aged seven to 11. Confirmatory latent class analysis allocated children to three groups on the basis of their responses: an overly positive style (OP), a rational/neutral style (R) or an overly negative style (ON). Children classed as OP showed a greater likelihood of being above cut‐off on a population screen for externalizing disorder. Over a two‐year follow‐up period, the children who were classified as R were most likely to remain so whereas the OP and ON children were found to change group. The results are discussed in the context of social‐cognitive research in this age group. Further studies should examine the external validity of the mentalizing task because the results reported here concern only internal construct validity.