The meaning of time-related concepts across the life-span: an Israeli sample.

Three-hundred-thirty-eight Israeli participants rated five time-related concepts on Semantic Differential Scales. Participants constituted six, age-based, groups, representing different life stages: childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, adulthood, late adulthood, and old age. The concepts rated were: time, past, present, and future. In addition, each group rated its own life stage. Results were analyzed in terms of the relationship between age and attributed meaning of these concepts, as denoted by the three Semantic Differential dimensions: evaluation, potency, and activity. The results indicate that people of different ages differ significantly in the way they construe most of the time-related concepts. Past ratings show a significant tendency to increase with progressive age, while future ratings decrease with progressive age. The ratings of present tend to remain stable across the life-span, and the ratings of life stages are significantly lower in older groups as compared to the younger ones. Results are discussed in light of developmental processes, the role that meaning of time-related concepts play in psychological adjustment, and methodological aspects.

Describing the third person: some difficulties in therapeutic communication.

Attempts to clarify structural differentiations in human experience and, more relevantly, in psychotherapy, have been many. These clarifications have depended, in part, on examining the limits of what is abstract in specific experiential areas. Personal history has often been structurally delineated and used as an apparently nonabstract vehicle for describing the patient, the therapist, and as a basis for communicating an understanding of the therapeutic encounter. This paper examines the concept of personal history as one example of a kind of abstraction that suggests communicative understanding when in fact it is often only the maintenance of an illusion.

A Hebrew version of the Depression Adjective Check Lists.

In order to develop a Hebrew version of the Depression Adjective Check Lists (DACL) for use in research, the lists were translated by linguists and the adequacy of the translations determined. Reliability (split-half, alternate form, internal consistency, and test-retest) of translated lists E, F, and G were sufficiently high in the case of the first three and sufficiently low in the case of test-retest reliability of the state DACL. Concurrent validity was determined in three separate samples: correlations with (a)a 7-point self-rating scale of depression, (b)the MMPI-D Scale, (c)the Bradburn Scale of Psychological Well-being, the Cantril Self-anchoring Striving Scale, and the Katz Social Adjustment Symptom Subscale, and demographic variables. Magnitude of correlations were sufficiently high and in the expected direction. Also, correlations with part scores of the Bradburn Scale of Well-being demonstrated the discriminant validity of the Hebrew version of the DACL.

Norms for the revised Hebrew version of the Depression Adjective Check List.

In order to reduce the readability level of the Hebrew version of the DACL, a new list of words with high frequency of usage in the Hebrew language was created from the translations of E, F, and G. Ninety-four Ss completed the revised form and the translated standard form E in randomized order; the correlation was .90 (p less .001). Split-half reliability for the revised form was .83 (N = 1,230, p less than .001). The revised DACL was included in a national probability sample survey (N = 1253; 699 females and 544 males). T score and percentile norm distributions are skewed toward the left. Raw scores above 20 are rare.

Aspects of differential role perception of Israeli medical school students.

Attitudes of first year Israeli Medical School students are investigated using the Semantic Differential technique to differentiate their perceptions of the roles of doctor, patient and the mentally ill. Students also selected from among thirty-four behavioural traits those roles considered most characteristic of doctor and/or patient. A high degree of certainty and of role stereotyping is found of doctor image. This may be associated with past experiences as child-patient, with idealizations and identifications and with future aspirations. There is less consensus with the role of patient but there are clear attitudinal boundaries among students between roles. The doctor is perceived as an idealized, if authoritarian, person meeting with a rather negatively but more flexibly perceived person of the patient. Behavioural traits selected by the students are consonant with this finding. The results are discussed in the context of identification patterns and the educational process.

Gossip and psychotherapy.

Gossip, a phenomenon as old as history itself, is reflected upon in terms of its need-fulfilling functions for persons and social groups. It is seen as one of the sources of knowledge about life that has potentials for wisdom, and its interpersonal and intrapsychic functions are shown to have similarities to many salient functions of psychotherapy.