The Role of Object Relations in the Physician-Patient Relationship in a Primary Care Setting.

A good physician-patient relationship is essential for the delivery of quality health care and is associated with better health outcomes. This study explored the association between patients' object relations and the physician-patient relationship. Primary care patients (n = 72) and physicians (n = 21) participated in the study.

Dependency, Detachment, and Health-Related Behavior in Adult Primary Care Patients.

This investigation examined links between three related personality styles as assessed with the Relationship Profile Test-destructive overdependence, dysfunctional detachment, and healthy dependency-and indices of health and health-related behavior in a mixed-sex (74% female) sample of 100 primary care patients with a mean age of 38.62 (SD = 12.99).

Assessing the Impact of Relationship Profile Test Scores, Self-Identified Ethnic Group, and Gender on Adult Attachment Style.

Research shows that the subscales of the Relationship Profile Test (RPT) are related to adult attachment. Gender differences have been implicated, but findings are inconsistent in terms of replication. A limited amount of research has been conducted on ethnic differences in the context of interpersonal dependency.

Changes in Defense Mechanisms in Mothers From Pregnancy to 2 Years Postpregnancy.

The objective of this study was to assess changes in maternal defensive functioning from the third trimester of pregnancy to 2 years postpregnancy. A community sample of at-risk mothers ( N = 84; non-White [61%], unmarried [67%], high school or less education [72%], and income less than $20,000 [50%]) were recruited for this longitudinal study. Mothers responded to a semistructured interview during pregnancy and at 2 years postpregnancy about the parent-infant relationship; interview transcripts were coded using the Defense Mechanism Rating Scale (DMRS).

Impaired self-awareness and denial of disability in a community sample of people with traumatic brain injury.

Purpose: To examine the nature and severity of impaired self-awareness (ISA) and denial of disability (DD) in a community-dwelling traumatic brain injury (TBI) population. Additionally, to investigate reliability, internal consistency, and feasibility of the Clinician's Rating Scale for evaluating Impaired Self-Awareness and Denial of Disability after brain injury (CRS-ISA-DD).

Materials And Methods: ISA and DD were studied using the CRS-ISA-DD in a cross-sectional study with 78 TBI patients (3.

Malevolent object relations: A multimethod study of female survivors of childhood abuse.

Although childhood victimization is associated with impairments in object relations, it is not clear how different measures comparatively perform in assessing this relationship. This study examined the connection between emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in childhood and three methods of assessing malevolent object representations. Sixty adult women, recruited from an urban primary-care clinic, were administered the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT), the Object Relations Inventory (ORI) interview, and a version of the Early Memories Test (EMT)/interview.

Integration Between Cerebral Hemispheres Contributes to Defense Mechanisms.

Defense mechanisms are mental functions which facilitate coping when real or imagined events challenge personal wishes, needs, and feelings. Whether defense mechanisms have a specific neural basis is unknown. The present research tested the hypothesis that interhemispheric integration plays a critical role in defense mechanism development, by studying a unique sample of patients born without the corpus callosum (agenesis of the corpus callosum; AgCC).

Language style matching in psychotherapy: An implicit aspect of alliance.

In an attempt to operationalize an implicit aspect of the therapeutic alliance, this article proposes the use of the innovative, objective, and time-efficient analysis of language style matching (LSM; Niederhoffer & Pennebaker, 2002). LSM, defined as the degree of similarity in rates of function words in dyadic interactions, is thought to reflect the extent to which conversational partners are automatically coordinating language styles to achieve a common goal. Although LSM has often been researched in the context of everyday conversations, little is known about the matching of clients and therapists' language style in the psychotherapy process.

Assessment of Personality and Psychopathology in Healthcare Settings: Introduction to the Special Section.

Healthcare in the United States has increasingly benefited from the adoption of multidisciplinary providers. Many multidisciplinary teams include psychologists who often conduct psychological and personality assessments in their practice. This special section highlights areas of personality and psychological assessment in applied healthcare contexts.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Self-Report and Performance-Based Assessment of Object Relations.

This study evaluated the Social Cognition and Object Relations Global Rating Method (SCORS-G; Stein, Hilsenroth, Mulford, & Pinkser, 2011; Stein and Mulford, 2018; Westen, 1995) and the Bell Object Relation and Reality Testing Inventory (BORRTI; Bell, 1995) to determine the extent to which the measures were correlated with each other and their relationships with 2 disorders characterized by disrupted object relations: borderline personality disorder (BPD) and depressive personality disorder (DPD). One hundred sixty-nine psychiatric outpatients and 171 undergraduate students were assessed with the Personality Disorder Interview for DSM-IV (Widiger, Corbett, Ellis, Mangine, & Tomas, 1995) and the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis II Disorders (First et al., 1997) for BPD and DPD.

Convergent and Discriminant Validity of Personality Inventory for -BF in a Primary Care Sample.

A growing body of research supports the validity of the Personality Inventory for (PID-5) in evaluating community and psychiatric samples. Although maladaptive personality also has significant relevance in primary care settings, research on the PID-5 in primary care samples is limited. In this study, the authors examined the intercorrelations, convergent validity, and discriminant validity of the brief form of the PID-5 (PID-5-BF) in 100 primary care outpatients.

Behavioral Health Assessments and Interventions of Psychology Trainees and Residents During Dual Interviewing: Replication and Extension.

The integration of psychologists and other behavioral health providers in primary care practice continues to evolve and reshape approaches to patient care. This study is a replication and extension of a 2013 study describing dual interviewing encounters involving psychology trainees and family medicine residents within an integrated primary care clinic as it relates to behavioral health assessments and interventions. Psychology trainees provided descriptions of 400 collaborative patient encounters involving 337 single and 63 repeat encounters.

Assessing Level of Personality Organization With the Psychodiagnostic Chart: A Validity Study.

Heterogeneity within diagnostic types and comorbidity across diagnostic groups render a specific personality disorder anything but specific, leading researchers and clinicians to increasingly focus on the general severity of personality pathology. Personality pathology severity is reflected in one's level of personality organization (LPO) and research has demonstrated that LPO is a significant predictor of treatment response. This investigation examined the reliability and validity of the Psychodiagnostic Chart (PDC) in assessing the LPO dimension of the Psychodynamic Diagnostic Manual (PDM; PDM Task Force, 2006).

A life-stress, emotional awareness, and expression interview for primary care patients with medically unexplained symptoms: A randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Lifetime trauma, relationship adversities, and emotional conflicts are elevated in primary care patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), and these risk factors likely trigger or exacerbate symptoms. Helping patients disclose stressors, increase awareness and expression of inhibited emotions, and link emotions to physical symptoms may improve health. We developed an emotional awareness and expression interview that targets stressful life experiences and conflicts and then tested its effects on primary care patients with MUS.

Childhood abuse in adults in primary care: Empirical findings and clinical implications.

In the healthcare setting, adult patients with histories of childhood abuse are of significant concern and are frequently encountered in the primary care setting. However, there is a dearth of studies investigating the relationships between psychopathology, overall health, healthcare utilization, physician ratings of patient difficulty, and childhood abuse. The present study examines these relationships in primary care patients with (N = 45) and without (N = 129) histories of childhood abuse (physical, sexual, and both).

The Use of the Social Cognition and Object Relations Scale in a Primary Care Setting.

Research has indicated that as many as 10% to 15% of primary care patients have symptoms that are not well explained medically. These patients could be labeled as "somatizers." This study assessed the extent to which underlying psychological characteristics contribute to a person's level of somatization and service utilization.

Defense Mechanisms and Utilization in Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy: A Pilot Study.

A group of 49 patients who had been diagnosed with cancer during the preceding year and who were receiving radiation therapy were assessed for their use of defense mechanisms, as well as for their level of psychological distress. In addition, their utilization of medical services was determined. It was predicted that the use of services that were under the patients' control-namely, requesting extra outpatient visits and making trips to the emergency department-would be related to the patients' use of defense mechanisms, whereas a treatment option not under the patients' control-overnight hospitalization based on physicians' assessment of condition-would not be related to defense use.

Convergent Validity of the Early Memory Index in Two Primary Care Samples.

Karliner, Westrich, Shedler, and Mayman (1996) developed the Early Memory Index (EMI) to assess mental health, narrative coherence, and traumatic experiences in reports of early memories. We assessed the convergent validity of EMI scales with data from 103 women from an urban primary care clinic (Study 1) and data from 48 women and 24 men from a suburban primary care clinic (Study 2). Patients provided early memory narratives and completed self-report measures of psychopathology, trauma, and health care utilization.

Sidney Blatt's Object Relations Inventory: Contributions and Future Directions.

In this article, we provide a historical overview of the Object Relations Inventory (ORI) and related methods for the assessment of object relations constructed by Sidney Blatt and colleagues (e.g., Blatt, Bers, & Schaffer, 1992 ; Blatt, Wein, Chevron, & Quinlan, 1979 ; Diamond, Kaslow, Coonerty, & Blatt, 1990 ).

Resident Ratings of Communication Skills Using the Kalamazoo Adapted Checklist.

Background: The Kalamazoo Essential Elements Communication Checklist-Adapted (KEECC-A) is a well-regarded instrument for evaluating communication and interpersonal skills. To date, little research has been conducted that assesses the accuracy of resident self-ratings of their communication skills.

Objective: To assess whether residents can accurately self-rate communication skills, using the KEECC-A, during an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE).

Personality Assessment Screener, Childhood Abuse, and Adult Partner Violence in African American Women Using Primary Care.

This study assessed the relationship between psychopathology with the Personality Assessment Screener (PAS) and childhood physical and sexual abuse and adult physical and sexual partner violence in a primary care sample of 98 urban-dwelling African American women. Patients completed the PAS, the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire, and the Conflict Tactics Scale. The PAS total score significantly correlated with all measures of childhood and adult abuse.

Defense Mechanisms of Pregnant Mothers Predict Attachment Security, Social-Emotional Competence, and Behavior Problems in Their Toddlers.

Objective: For at-risk (single parent, low income, low support) mothers, healthy adaptation and the ability to manage stress have clear implications for parenting and the social-emotional well-being of their young offspring. The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine associations between defense mechanisms in pregnant women and their toddlers' attachment security, social-emotional, and behavioral adjustment.

Method: Participants were 84 pregnant women during their last trimester of pregnancy, recruited from community agencies primarily serving low-income families.

Factor Structure of the Assessment of Qualitative and Structural Dimensions of Object Representations (AOR) Scale.

The Assessment of Qualitative and Structural Dimensions of Object Representations assessment instrument (AOR; Blatt, Chevron, Quinlan, Schaffer, & Wein, 1992 ) is one measure of parental representations used in the literature that assesses nonconscious processes while minimizing self-presentation biases. However, only 2 studies have considered the latent factor structure, with mixed findings reported that raise questions about the constructs being assessed. This study used archival data from 4 previous studies containing clinical and nonclinical samples, totaling 722 participants.

The complex role of personality in cancer treatment: impact of dependency-detachment on health status, distress, and physician-patient relationship.

Personality traits have been associated with positive and negative adjustment to a cancer diagnosis. No studies have assessed trait dependency and detachment and their relationship to health, distress, and the doctor-patient relationship in patients undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. Fifty adults (32 women; mean [SD], 60.