Listening for Avoidance: Narrative Form and Defensiveness in Adolescent Memories

Abstract

We describe a linguistic clue to speakers' states of mind that has utility for psychotherapists and counselors, and summarize the theoretical and empirical support for using this clue in clinical practice. Specifically, we posit that the degree to which people relate stressful episodes from their lives as a chronological sequence of events is negatively associated with the extent to which they self-protectively avoid experiencing negative affect. We review relevant discussions and findings from linguistics and psychology, and then present a new study that replicates previous research. In this study of the relationship between defensive avoidance and the narrative structure of stressful memories in non-clinical adolescents, 168 high school students spoke for 10 min into a tape recorder about "your most stressful life event." Transcribed interviews were analyzed for narrative immersion, the extent to which the past is retold in chronological order, using a method adopted from Labov and Waletzky. A negative association was found between narrative immersion and avoidance (as operationalized by scores on the Marlowe Crowne Social Desirability Scale). Listening for narrative immersion in the speech of clients discussing past stressful times may therefore represent a useful tool in exploring defensive avoidance of stressful episodic memories.

Emotional expressiveness and avoidance in narratives of unaccompanied refugee minors

“…In terms of word count, the URMs cohort showed significant differences in comparison to the adolescent norm population (Nelson et al, 2009 ; Steiner et al, 2002 ). Word count, in both FA and STR conditions, was significantly lower for the URMs cohort than for the general adolescent population ( p< 0.05) (see Table 2 ).…”

“…Moving to the third sentence in the list, the same judgment was made: “Does this sentence refer to events or states happening chronologically later than those in sentence 2?” (in case of a sequential sentence); or (if sentence 2 was not judged as sequential), “Does sentence 3 refer to a situation happening chronologically later than the situations reported by the set of sentences 1 and 2?” Again, if yes, one TJ was counted, if no, it was not, thus judging the entire list of story sentences. The number of TJs were then summed for each interview (Nelson, Bein, Huemer, Ryst, & Steiner, 2009 ).…”

“…We know that a high degree of defensiveness is indicative of a capacity for repressive adjustment while at the same time it is negatively associated with the degree of narrative immersion (Nelson et al, 2009 ). We have found such repressive adjustment in a cohort of URMs (Huemer et al, 2011 ).…”

Letting Oneself Go Isn't Enough: Cognitively Oriented Expressive Writing Reduces Preadolescent Peer Problems

“…Participants who had few preintervention peer problem levels in the CEW condition had lower positive affect at the 2‐month follow‐up. Combining this fact with the finding that those in traditional EW had lower positive affect at this longer term follow‐up, we can surmise that retelling a negative peer experience while focusing on the emotional aspects of the experience or without having specific emotional issues to disclose may interfere with the normal psychological distancing processes often used by adolescents (Kross et al., ; Nelson, Bein, Huemer, Ryst, & Steiner, ). In other words, among those adolescents without significant peer problems, emotional disclosure (even in a cognitive format) may create distress rather than resolve it.…”

Resiliência e insucesso empresarial: um estudo exploratório sobre o comportamento resiliente e os estilos de enfrentamento do empreendedor em situações de insucesso empresarial, especificamente em casos de descontinuidade do negócio

“…Geralmente é usada com a finalidade de coletar informações sobre como o indivíduo está reagindo ao tratamento analítico. Porém, com a evolução dos estudos, o conceito de níveis de defesa vem sendo empregado em outros focos de pesquisa que não de caráter psicológico ou psicanalítico (VELLA e FRIEDMAN, 2007;CICHOCKI, 2008;LÉVESQUE, MOSKOWITZ et al 2010;PORCERELLI et al, 2009;NELSON et al, 2009;RAMCHANDANI, 2006;PAREKH MA et al, 2010;SUKUL YR et al, 2009;PETRAGLIA J et al, 2009;ZANARINI MC et al, 2009;HYPHANTIS TN et al, 2008).…”