The present study examined how mothers signal shared feeling-states to their infants. Affect attunement and imitation were investigated cross-culturally in 39 mother-infant dyads from Sweden (N = 22) and the former Yugoslavia (N = 17) during the first year of life. Video-recordings of playful interaction between mothers and their infants were analysed using the Affect Attunement Protocol. A significant negative association between imitation and age was found, while there was a significant positive association between affect attunement and age. Single occurrences of affect attunement appeared already at two or three months of age, and by 6 months of age episodes of affect attunement were more common than imitation. Frequencies of imitation and affect attunement were similar cross-culturally and in terms of gender, although there was a significant interaction between age and gender. The results suggest that the signalling of shared feeling-states is not a static process. Mothers do not signal shared feeling-states in the same manner at different ages. Imitation is the most important process during the earliest months, but is superseded by affect attunement earlier than previously thought. The functional implications of this developmental variation are discussed.

A modified Swedish version of Buckley's Self-Evaluation Scale for psychotherapeutic skill was used in this study. An extensive sample of students from three universities was investigated. Two types of scale were used, Skill and Change in skill. Skill was rated by the supervisees both before and after supervision. Furthermore, Change after supervision was rated both by supervisees and supervisors. After Principal Component analyses, Varimax rotation, three dimensions (Containing emotionally loaded issues; Psychodynamic understanding; Mastery of working alliance) were interpreted in the supervisee ratings. However, the supervisors differentiated their ratings to a much higher degree than the supervisees. The factor structure of Skill, supervisee ratings before supervision, was used for calculating scales for all four rat-Marie-Louise Ögren, PhD, is Senior Lecturer, ing formats corresponding to the three factors. There were significant increases in Skill and positive Changes of skill after group supervision. The supervisors evaluated supervisees' Changes of skill higher than the students did themselves. Significant correlations of slightly more than medium size between supervisor and supervisee ratings of Change were obtained, and this was interpreted as confirming the validity of the supervisee ratings. Skill, in the dimension Mastery of working alliance, differed between groups depending on the group supervisors according to supervisee ratings after supervision.

This study examined supervisees and supervisors' view on focus and group climate in group supervision and their relationship with supervisees' attained skill. After supervision, supervisees completed a revised version of Buckley's measure of psychotherapeutic skill. Supervisees and supervisors' experience of focus and climate in the supervision was measured with a questionnaire, Topics and Climate (TAC). The results showed that supervisors' ratings of the extent to which different foci were used in the supervision were significantly higher compared to supervisees' ratings. Hierarchical regression analysis showed that differences in supervisor style were related to supervisees' experience of attained skill. Supervisees' experience of the degree to which focus in supervision was on psychodynamic processes was positively related to perceived attained skill, whereas focus on Theoretical aspects was negatively related. These findings underline the importance of research work with topics and group processes in group supervision.

There has been considerable theoretical interest in the developmental importance of affect mirroring and attunement, but little empirical attention has been directed toward the topic. The present study systematically explored the sorts of infant behaviour that elicit affect attunement in mothers. Written descriptions of video-recorded sequences of interaction in 27 mother-infant dyads were used to examine 141 instances of affect attunement in samples from Sweden and the former Yugoslavia. Infants were aged between 2 and 12 months. Behaviour that elicited affect attunement from mothers was rated in terms of 10 behavioural themes, which were used to cluster episodes of affect attunement. Cluster analysis suggested that mothers attuned to six distinct forms of infant behaviour: pleasurable motoric behaviour, effect initiation, focusing, loss of balance, uncontrolled behaviour and displeasure. Incidents of affect attunement elicited by categorical affects comprised only 20% of the instances examined. Most importantly, affect attunement was often elicited by infant exploration and play in relation to the non-social world. Affect attunement may function to reinforce and regulate ongoing behaviour that is largely explorative in nature. How mothers respond to the infant's interaction with the external, non-social world may be more important for intrapsychic development than previously thought.

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