Psychological Thought

132-141

Authors: Dilwar Hussain

Over the last few decades there has been a substantial increase in the research and applications of meta-cognition and mindfulness. The concept of meta-cognition and mindfulness seems different and their research literature evolved independent of each other. However, meta-cognition and mindfulness share many commonalities and are conceptually related in many ways. Evidently, there has been relatively little research addressing this relationship. The research tradition of meta-cognition and mindfulness may strengthen and benefit each other. Specific aspects, such as development of ‘meta-awareness’ can be integrated with each other in a complementary as well as supplementary manner in applied settings such as psychotherapy. This paper describes the nature of meta-cognition and mindfulness and reviews their conceptual relationships. Finally, theoretical and applied implications of this relationship are discussed.

148-172

Authors: Eva Papazova, Raymond Moody, John Bathurst

Emerging adulthood exists only in cultures that allow young people a prolonged period of independent social roles and exploration during the late teens and twenties. It is a period of the course of life that is culturally constructed, not universal or immutable (Arnett, 2000). This assumption led to the idea for comparison of this age in three cultures - Bulgarian, Hawaiian and New Zealand. The Myers-Briggs type indicator, Form G, was administered (Myers et al., 1998). The sample consisted of 289 respondents, aged 18-29, respectively the Bulgarians were 100, the Hawaiians were 89 and the New Zealanders were 100. Six SRTT comparisons were made. The results show that there were typological differences that distinguished the group of Bulgarians, aged 18-29, from their peers from Hawaii, USA and New Zealand. The specificity was expressed in preference to N, P, T, IN, NP, NT, IP, TP and INTP. This finding is largely consistent with the pursuit of new experience and opportunities, typical for the years of emerging adulthood. As well, there were some typological differences between the gender groups.

189-201

Authors: Thomas H. Dozier

Misophonia is a condition in which a person has an acute emotional response of anger or disgust to a commonly occurring innocuous auditory or visual stimulus referred to as a trigger. This case details the effective treatment of misophonia in a young woman that included a counterconditioning treatment called the Neural Repatterning Technique (NRT), which combines a continuous positive stimulus and a reduced intensity, intermittent trigger. The treatment was delivered via the Misophonia Trigger Tamer smartphone app and all treatments were conducted independently by the patient. In this patient, the trigger elicited a physical reflex of contraction of the flexor digitorum profundus, which caused her to clench her fist. To enhance the effect of the NRT treatment, Progressive Muscle Relaxation was incorporated to increase her ability to deliberately relax the affected muscle during treatment. During NRT treatment sessions, the patient experienced a weak physical reflex to the reduced trigger stimulus but no emotional response. Her emotional response of misophonia was not treated, but when the physical reflex extinguished, the emotional response also extinguished. This case indicates that the misophonic response includes a Pavlovian-conditioned physical reflex. It is proposed that the trigger elicited the physical reflex and the physical reflex then elicited the conditioned emotional response that is characteristic of misophonia. Because of the conditioned reflex nature of misophonia, it is proposed that a more appropriate name for this disorder would be Conditioned Aversive Reflex Disorder.