Intimate Relationships and How to Improve Them: Integrating Theoretical Models with Preventive and Psychotherapeutic Applications

(Hardback)

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This volume intergrates one contextual, developmental, and relational theory of personality socialization in the family and other settings with a complementary model of relational styles. Both the theory and the model share complementary characteristics of replicable operations in laboratory evaluation and in preventative and psychotherapeutic interventions in problems with intimate relationships. Further, both the theory and the model are linked to two major models of personality and intimate relationships, the circumplex and attachment, respectively. The theory's 15 models are derived from a variety of social psychological sources, including the social comparison model and resource exchange theory in social psychology. The complementary model, Elementary Pragmatic, owes its origins to communication and systems theories, going beyond them in specificity and applications. Scholars and researchers looking for novel and original ideas demonstrating how to link theory with practice and evaluation with interventions will find this volume of interest.

Reviews

For graduate students in clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, counseling, and pastoral counseling, and professionals in the various mental health disciplines, including rehabilitation.-SciTech Book News
L'Abate and De Giacomo describe, evaluate, and apply a theoretical model that integrates contextual, developmental, and relational theories of interpersonal competence and personality socialization in the family and other settings. Influenced by humanism, psychodynamic theory, behaviorism, and systems thinking via attachment, circumplex, and family paradigms, the authors propose a supermodel to facilitate a better understanding of functional and dysfunctional relationships and to suggest more effective intervention methods in preventative and psychotherapeutic settings....the proposed integrated model is a major achievement and signals a positive direction for the family life education and psychotherapy community. The authors eschew "flavor of the month" clinical approaches for an empirically driven model that incorporates the best of all theoretical models. A rich source for discussion and analysis in clinical psychology, family studies, and family therapy programs. Recommended. Graduate and research collections.-Choice
"For graduate students in clinical psychology, social work, psychiatry, counseling, and pastoral counseling, and professionals in the various mental health disciplines, including rehabilitation."-SciTech Book News
"L'Abate and De Giacomo describe, evaluate, and apply a theoretical model that integrates contextual, developmental, and relational theories of interpersonal competence and personality socialization in the family and other settings. Influenced by humanism, psychodynamic theory, behaviorism, and systems thinking via attachment, circumplex, and family paradigms, the authors propose a supermodel to facilitate a better understanding of functional and dysfunctional relationships and to suggest more effective intervention methods in preventative and psychotherapeutic settings....the proposed integrated model is a major achievement and signals a positive direction for the family life education and psychotherapy community. The authors eschew "flavor of the month" clinical approaches for an empirically driven model that incorporates the best of all theoretical models. A rich source for discussion and analysis in clinical psychology, family studies, and family therapy programs. Recommended. Graduate and research collections."-Choice

Author Bio

LUCIANO L'ABATE is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Georgia State University. PIERO DE GIACOMO is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Institute of Psychiatry at the Medical School of Bari University, Italy.