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PubMed1980

The closing phase of the psychoanalytic treatment of adults and the goals of psychoanalysis 'The search for truth about one's self'.

The purpose of this paper is to pose doubts and queries about the nature and objectives regarding our work. I am not contributing specific replies to these questions, but rather some ideas so that we may rethink what we are doing and why we are doing it. In the first place, I state the doubts which I have regarding the classical criteria and goals as being the expression of the essence of psychoanalysis. Perhaps we do not realize that we 'saturate' the development of the psychoanalytic relationship with the aprioristic idea of 'leading' our patients to achieve the therapeutic goals we have already fixed for them from the very beginning. We should question if these 'therapeutic objectives' correspond to what should be our 'psychoanalytic point of view', with its search for the truth about oneself regarding our goals. Psychoanalysis is a science with specific and singular characteristics which should not be confused or, indeed equated with medical science or any other natural science. In the second place, I would like to draw attention to the fact that when considering these criteria, the accent has been almost exclusively put on the personality of the analysand. I believe that it is important to take into account also that which concerns the personality of the analyst with his neurotic and/or psychotic remnant and the role which his counter-transference or his projective counter-identification plays and which can disturb his creative work. But I wish to stress, especially, the importance contained in the analyst-analysand interaction in order to understand better the vicissitudes of all which happens in the closing phase of analysis. The achievement of insight is one of the most important goals of psychoanalysis. The concept of insight is related to that knowledge which stems from the experiences of deep change and mental growth helping the patient to get near to 'being his own truth', with the need to accept the corresponding responsibility. It is important to differentiate this authentic insight, so close to the getting near to the truth, from all other types of intellectual knowledge or 'pseudo-insight' which tend towards the opposite, that is, the avoidance of the truth. Finally, I discuss the disadvantages caused, in my opinion, from bearing in mind too much the idea of 'termination' during the carrying out of our task within the analytic situation in the closing phase of analysis. The predominance of the aprioristic thought that the analysis is 'on the point of' or 'should' end would obstruct the ability to detect what is authentically new in the material and what is most feared by the patient, such as getting closer to the search for truth about himself.

Deception↗
PubMed1995

Meeting goals and confronting conflict: children's changing perceptions of social comparison.

It was proposed that previously observed grade-related changes in children's social comparison behavior could be explained by the changing goals and meanings children assign to this behavior. Specifically, it was suggested that, as children progress through the school system, they become increasingly aware of the negative and positive aspects of social comparison and adjust their behavior in response to this awareness, as well as to increasingly salient self-evaluation goals. To examine these propositions, 106 elementary school children were observed in their classrooms and interviewed once a year for 3 years. Consistent with previous research, overt forms of social comparison were most frequent among younger children, whereas subtle forms of social comparison were most frequent among older children. Furthermore, with increasing grade children were likely to view overt forms of social comparison negatively and subtle forms as useful in meeting self-evaluation goals. Additional analyses revealed little association between perceptions of social comparison and actual social comparison behavior, except that perceiving subtle social comparison as useful for self-evaluative goals predicted engagement in such behavior 2 years later.

Child↗
PubMed1994

Goal setting and performance in sport and exercise settings: a synthesis and critique.

Although goal setting research in industrial and organizational settings has been proliferating rapidly over the past 20 yr, it is only recently that sport psychologists begun to systematically test its effects in sport and exercise settings. However, the recent empirical literature in sport and exercise examining the relationship between goals and performance has been equivocal. Thus, the purposes of the present review are fourfold: (a) briefly review the industrial/organizational literatures concerning the relationship between goals and task performance; (b) review the literature testing the relationship between goals and performance in sport and exercise settings; (c) discuss methodological and interpretive limitations including the impact of mediating variables; (d) offer future directions for research.

Attitude↗
PubMed1994

The program directors' perspective on the goals and objectives of advanced general dentistry training.

In September of 1991, all postgraduate general dentistry (PGD) program directors (Advanced Education in General Dentistry [AEGD] and General Practice Residency [GPR] directors [n = 325]) were surveyed to ascertain their opinions of the ideal goals and objectives of PGD programs. The response rate was 81.5 percent (n = 265). The directors rated the relative importance of various PGD program goals and objectives. The average of all the items rated was 3.4 on a scale ranging from 1 = unimportant to 4 = very important. The respondents identified several clinical and didactic subject areas that they considered very important including; infection control, CPR, dental and medical emergencies, diagnosing dentoalveolar trauma, diagnosing oral pathology, and assessment and treatment of patients with medical conditions. They also identified several training areas which were beyond the scope of a PGD program, e.g., research techniques, pediatric sedation, and selected advanced clinical procedures in dentistry (implantology and orthodontics) which require a long time to complete. In general, there was substantial agreement among the directors of different program types and sites as to the relative importance of various program goals. The largest differences were found among directors of programs from different sites, e.g., hospitals versus dental schools as opposed to directors from different program types, e.g., GPR versus AEGD. There is now a need to determine the relationship of these identified idealized goals and differences to program outcomes for the graduates of PGDs.

Analysis of Variance↗
PubMed1993

Goals for coping with pain mitigate time distortion.

The cold pressor test was used to investigate the effect of specific versus nonspecific time-oriented goals on perception of time by a person experiencing pain. Headache pain has been shown to attenuate the retrospective estimates of time passage. In the present study, laboratory-induced (cold pressor) pain produced results congruent with those of a previous clinical report on headache. In addition, results indicated that giving a specific time goal for coping with pain minimized the time distortion. Time estimations of subjects in pain with a specified goal were found to be significantly longer (and more accurate) than time estimations of subjects who were in pain but not given a time-specific goal.

Adaptation, Psychological↗
PubMed1996

Children's social goals and self-efficacy perceptions as influences on their responses to ambiguous provocation.

This study examined whether children who vary in their behavioral responses (aggression vs. withdrawal vs. problem solving) to ambiguous provocation but who are similar in their attributional processes differ in their social goals and self-efficacy perceptions. In response to 10 hypothetical situations involving ambiguous provocation, fourth- and fifth-grade students (n = 781) indicated whether or not the protagonist intended to cause the harm and reported how they would respond to the protagonist's action. Newly developed measures assessed children's situated social goals and self-efficacy perceptions. Results indicated that the aggressive, withdrawn, and problem-solving responders differed in their social goals and self-efficacy perceptions. The strength of the findings, compared to earlier work on children's goals and self-efficacy perceptions, suggests the importance of a situated social-cognitive assessment in which children's thoughts are measured in a specific kind of social situation and are related to their reported behavior in the same type of situation.

Child↗
PubMed1997

Setting goals for drug policy: harm reduction or use reduction?

Historically, United States drug policy has focused on use reduction; harm reduction is a prominent alternative. This paper aims to provoke and inform more debate about the relative merits of these two. Since harm is not necessarily proportional to use, use reduction and harm reduction differ. Both terms are somewhat ambiguous; precisely defining them clarifies thinking and policy implications. Measures associated with use reduction goals are poor; those associated with harm reduction are even worse. National goals influence the many decentralized individuals who collectively make drug policy; clearly enunciating goals makes some policy choices transparent and goals serve a variety of purposes besides guiding programmatic decisions. We recommend that the overall objective be to minimize the total harm associated with drug production, distribution, consumption and control. Reducing use should be seen as a principal means of attaining that end.

Decision Making↗
PubMed1997

[Behavioral instrumental reactions and the frequency of cardiac contractions in chimpanzees with different rates of approaching a goal and a shortened time of its exposure].

Reaching the goals moving with different speed (from 1 to 400 mm/sec), the chimpanzee revealed respective behavioural, emotional, instrumental, and cardiovascular responses. When obscuring the goal for a certain time, the chimpanzee nevertheless managed to reach it, the relations between the speed of approaching goal and behavioural or instrumental responses being preserved. Thereupon, the chimpanzee are able to reach the goal provided the latter's trace exceeds 5-10-fold the time of really acting stimulus.

Animals↗
PubMed1998

[Problems and goals of psychotherapy patients. A qualitative-content analytic study of patient statements at initial assessment].

The present paper has the objective of demonstrating the content-analytical assessment of problems reported by the patient and of his expectations in respect of psychotherapeutic treatment. In this approach of qualitative research, the interpretation process is split up into several steps which can be tested with regard to their adequacy to the material. This reduces the range of subjective interpretations. The development of the analysis of content is described in detail. First of all, a system of categories was outlined on the basis of patients' Nos. 1-40. This system was then used to rate the texts Nos. 41-80 and modified. After that, the revised version was applied to rate the texts Nos. 81-120, and so on. As can be shown, high interrater reliabilities were achieved by this procedure. The coding of the entire sample of n = 198 patient reports yielded the following results. Of all problems, depressive complaints, bodily complaints, anxiety and interpersonal problems were most frequent. The most important goals concerned coping with anxiety, gaining joy of living/happiness/satisfaction, greater self-assertion, better family relations/partnership, coping with problems and peace of mind/calmness. The categories of goals (18 items) seemed to be more complex and manifold than the categories of problems (10 items) and went beyond mere reduction of complaints or problems. As was to be expected, differences between diagnostic groups with regard to frequency of problems and expectations could be demonstrated. However, these differences were found only in the frequencies of deficits (complaints and problems) and reduction of complaints or coping with problems, respectively, whereas positive, health-related goals did not seem to be specific to the disorder. This suggests that it would be worth while to utilise patients' subjective definitions of problems and goals for assessment schedules to evaluate treatment outcomes.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Cost-effectiveness of the lower treatment goal (of JNC VI) for diabetic hypertensive patients. Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure.

BACKGROUND: The recommendation of the Sixth Report of the Joint National Committee on Prevention, Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Pressure (JNC VI) to lower blood pressure (BP) in diabetic patients to less than 130/85 mm Hg may have negative economic consequences. A formal cost-effectiveness analysis was therefore performed, comparing the costs and potential benefits of a BP goal of less than 140/90 mm Hg (as recommended by JNC V) vs less than 130/85 mm Hg (as inJNC VI). METHODS: A 24-cell computer model was populated with costs (1996 dollars), relative risks, and age-specific base-line rates for death and 4 nonfatal adverse events (stroke, myocardial infarction, heart failure, and end-stage renal disease), derived from published data. Costs and benefits were discounted at 3%. RESULTS: For 60-year-old diabetic persons with hypertension, treating to the lower BP goal increases life expectancy by 0.48 (discounted) years and lowers (discounted) lifetime medical costs by $1450 compared with treating BP to less than 140/90 mm Hg. The lower treatment BP goal results in an overall cost savings over a wide range of initial conditions, and for nearly all analyses for patients older than 60 years. CONCLUSIONS: Any incremental treatment for 60-year-olds that costs less than $414 annually and successfully lowers BP from below 140/90 to below 130/85 mm Hg would be cost saving in the long term, due to the reduction in attendant costs of future morbidity. The lower treatment goal recommended for high-risk hypertensive patients compares favorably in cost-effectiveness with many other frequently recommended treatment strategies, and saves money overall for patients aged 60 years and older.

Aged↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Triple-goal estimates for disease mapping.

Maps of regional morbidity and mortality rates play an important role in assessing environmental equity. They provide effective tools for identifying areas with potentially elevated risk, determining spatial trend, and formulating and validating aetiological hypotheses about disease. Bayes and empirical Bayes methods produce stable small-area rate estimates that retain geographic and demographic resolution. The beauty of the Bayesian approach lies in its ability to structure complicated models, inferential goals and analyses. Three inferential goals are relevant to disease mapping and risk assessment: (i) computing accurate estimates of disease rates in small geographic areas; (ii) estimating the distribution of disease rates over the region; (iii) ranking the disease rates so that environmental investigation can be prioritized. No single set of estimates can simultaneously optimize these three goals, and Shen and Louis propose a set of estimates that perform well on all three goals. These are optimal for estimating the distribution of rates and for ranking, and maintain a high accuracy in estimating area-specific rates. However, the Shen/Louis method is sensitive to choice of priors. To address this issue we introduce a robustified version of the method based on a smoothed non-parametric estimate of the prior. We evaluate the performance of this method through a simulation study, and illustrate it using a data set of county-specific lung cancer rates in Ohio.

Algorithms↗
PubMed1997

Changes in Achievement Goal Orientations, Perceived Academic Competence, and Grades across the Transition to Middle-Level Schools

Goal orientation theory was used to examine changes in student motivation during the transition from elementary to middle school. Surveys were given to 341 students in the fifth grade in elementary and again in sixth grade in middle school. Students were more oriented to task goals (wanting to improve their competency), perceived a greater emphasis on task goals during instruction, and felt more academically competent in fifth grade in elementary school than in sixth grade in middle school. They perceived a greater emphasis on performance goals (an emphasis on relative ability and right answers) in middle school than in elementary school. Several interactions emerged between year (fifth grade, sixth grade), and both student level of ability (higher, lower, based on standardized achievement tests) and subject domain (math, English).

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Student Goal Orientation and Interest: Effects on Students' Use of Self-Regulated Learning Strategies.

This study examined how goal orientation and interest together affected students' use of learning strategies. Ninety-three Grade 11 students participated in this study. This study was a 2 x 2 between-groups factorial using a post-test-only control group design. There were two independent variables, Goal orientation and Interest. There were three dependent variables: Total Main Ideas, Use of Other Cognitive Strategies, and Metacognition. There were significant main effects for Interest and Goal Orientation on the main-idea selection measure: high-interest students selected more main ideas than low-interest students, and rewarded students outperformed learning goal-oriented students. There was a main effect for Interest on Metacognition: high-interest students reported using more metacognitive strategies than low-interest students. Interpretation of these results is discussed from a theoretical perspective and practical applications are offered as well. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2001

Conceptions of Ability and Achievement Goals in Physical Education: Comparisons of American and Chinese Students.

This study focused on comparisons of American and Chinese students in conceptions of ability and achievement goals in physical education. Three hundred eight American students and 371 Chinese students in 4th, 8th, and 11th grades completed questionnaires assessing their conceptions of ability and achievement goals. Results indicated that for both American and Chinese students, as they progressed through the grades they tended to develop a differentiated conception of ability and to become more ego-oriented. Achievement goals were related to conceptions of ability. Cultural differences were found in the two variables. The findings offer additional empirical support to the view that goal theory is relevant to physical education settings and that achievement-related cognitions vary as a function of children's age and cultural background. Copyright 2001 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1998

The Impact of Perceived Loafing and Collective Efficacy on Group Goal Processes and Group Performance.

This paper presents two studies investigating the influence of social perceptions (perceived loafing, collective efficacy, and cohesion) on group goal processes (difficulty and commitment) and group performance. The role of group goal processes as mediators of the relationships between social perception variables and group performance was also tested. The first study involved a sample of 247 college students in 59 groups working on a team interdependent, divisible academic task. Results supported all but one hypothesis. The mediation hypothesis was not supported as both group goal and social perception variables related similarly to group performance. The second study employed a different design to address some limitations of the first study and to extend those findings. Results from the second study, using 383 college students in 101 groups, were consistent with Study 1 with two exceptions. First, the mediation hypothesis was supported in Study 2, replicating the findings of Klein and Mulvey (1995). Second, anticipated lower effort and the sucker effect, additional intervening variables examined in Study 2, partially mediated the relationship between perceived loafing and collective goal difficulty as hypothesized. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1987

The use of visual landmarks by gerbils: reaching a goal when landmarks are displaced.

Gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) can specify the location of a goal by means of visual landmarks and will return to such a goal from different starting positions in the vicinity of the landmarks. To discover whether landmark-cues are used continuously during an approach to the goal, gerbils were trained to forage for sunflower seeds close to a single illuminated light-bulb on the floor of an arena. As they approached the bulb, it was switched off and another bulb in a variable position with respect to the first turned on. On 52 out of 71 trials the gerbils changed their trajectory (latency ca. 240 ms) to aim for the newly lit bulb (Fig. 1 A, B). On the remaining trials, gerbils maintained their original course towards the first bulb as though it were still lit and then paused after a longer delay before eventually changing direction (Fig. 1 C). Thus, an approach to a beacon is usually under continuous visual control. This ensures that the gerbil will reach its goal correctly despite any inaccuracies in its initial computation of its approach. When switches were made between more complex arrays of landmarks, the gerbils' behaviour was less clear-cut. Possible reasons for this difference are suggested.

Animals↗
PubMed2004

Task goal and grip force dynamics.

This study examined the effect of task goal on the structure of isometric force variability during precision grasping. In general, variability of isometric force production decreases when participants are asked to maintain a particular force output and are provided with visual feedback, although the irregularity of force output tends to increase under these conditions. In the current study we compared the tasks of holding an object using a precision grip and holding an object using a precision grip while matching a force target. Adults held an object between the index finger and thumb and force output was measured using load cells. The mass (92, 276, 460 g) and the grip aperture (5.5 and 8.5 cm) of the object were varied producing six different object conditions. The goal of the task was to either: (a) hold the object comfortably in a stable position (holding task) or (b) hold the object comfortably in a stable position while maintaining a constant target force level that matched the grip force of the holding condition (target task). The results showed that the amount of force variability in the target condition was lower than during the holding condition, while the force output was more regular in the holding condition. Increments in object mass increased force regularity in the holding condition whereas increments of force level decreased regularity in the target condition. The level of coherence between the two digits was very high (approximately 0.98) and maximum coherence occurred at a higher frequency during the target (0.94 Hz) as opposed to the holding (0.70 Hz) condition. The findings reveal that the goal of the task can qualitatively change the dynamical organization of the force output in prehension, even when the average force level produced is the same. This effect on the control strategy was mediated by visual information processes that interact with level of force output in determining the structure of variability. Theorizing about the organization of isometric force output should include the effects of task goals as well as the level of force per se.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

The properties of goal-directed eye movements evoked by microstimulation of the cerebellar vermis in the cat.

The properties of eye movements evoked by microstimulation of the cerebellar vermis, lobules V VII, were investigated in encéphale isolé cats. The evoked eye movements tended to reach the same final goal in the orbit irrespective of initial eye position. The goal position depended on stimulus intensity. In contrast with the monkey, the goal of the eye movement lay within the oculomotor range. The goal position of the eye movements evoked by simultaneous stimuli delivered to two sites corresponded with the point which was obtained by the vectorial addition of the two eye movements evoked by the stimulation of each site. These findings suggest that the cat vermal lobules V VII play an important role in the control of horizontal and vertical eye position in the orbit.

Animals↗