Erik Rautalinko’s research while affiliated with Uppsala University and other places

Objectives This study of directiveness draws on the literature on patient-therapist matching, neutrality, and resistance. Our aim was to investigate how psychotherapists conceptualize directiveness as an attitude, with a focus on pantheoretical aspects of directiveness. Design and methodsOur data are narratives from 18 interviews with psychotherapists of different theoretical orientations (cognitive-behavioural, family-systems, humanistic-experiential, and psychodynamic), and from focus-group discussions with six other psychotherapists. ResultsThe analysis yielded four general themes: expression of directiveness (behaviour, agency, structure), its presence (depending on phase of and goals for therapy), its positive and negative outcomes (for patients and therapists, respectively), and therapist awareness (initial and shifting, depending on theoretical orientation). Conclusions Directiveness may be construed as an attitude. It supposedly increases via certain responses, but only a few of these are considered positive by therapists at large. Directiveness may be more present in early and late phases of therapy, and more warranted with patients that function poorly. There are both positive and negative outcomes of directiveness, but therapists are more prone to disclose the former.

Aims: We examined how nondirective counselling skills affect the evaluation of counsellors and the observed working alliance, and how evaluators' social skills and cognitive ability moderate evaluations. Method: In a first analogue experiment, counselling transcripts containing more or less restatements, reflections and open-ended questions were audio-taped and rated by evaluators (n=52) who self-reported social skills. In a second experiment, a different sample of evaluators (n=63) rated transcripts and self-reported social skills and were tested on cognitive ability. Results: Restatements and reflections improved ratings of the counsellors and the observed working alliance, but open-ended questions did not. Ratings were moderated by evaluators' social skills and cognitive ability. Discussion: The results agree with previous evidence on restating–reflecting and open-ended questions. That certain evaluators preferred open-ended questions more than others can be understood as an issue of matching between conceptual level, social skills, and counselling structure.

Virtually all horses are infected with helminth parasites. For some decades, the control of parasites of Swedish horses has been based on routine treatments with anthelmintics, often several times per year. Since anthelmintic resistance is becoming an increasing problem it is essential to develop more sustainable control strategies, which are adapted to different types of horse management. The aim of this study was to obtain information on practices used by Swedish horse owners for the control of endoparasites. A questionnaire with 26 questions about management practices and parasite control routines was posted to 627 randomly selected horse establishments covering most types of horse management in Sweden. The response rate was good in all categories of respondents (66-78%). A total of 444 questionnaires were used in the analyses. It was found that virtually all horses had access to grazing areas, usually permanent. Generally, pasture hygiene was infrequently practiced. Thirty-six percent of the respondents clipped or chain harrowed their pastures, whereas weekly removal of faeces from the grazing areas was performed by 6% of the respondents, and mixed or rotational grazing with other livestock by 10%. The number of anthelmintic treatments per year varied from 1-8 with an average of 3.2. Thirty-eight percent considered late autumn (Oct-Dec) to be the most important time for deworming. This finding, and an increased use of macrocyclic lactones in the autumn, suggests a concern about bot flies, Gasterophilus intestinalis. Only 1% of the respondents stated that faecal egg counts (FEC) were performed on a regular basis. The relatively high cost of FEC analyses compared to purchase of anthelmintics was thought to contribute to the preference of deworming without a previous FEC. From the study it was evident that all categories of horse owners took advice mainly from veterinarians. The results show that routines for endoparasite control can be improved in many horse establishments. To increase the knowledge of equine endoparasite control and follow the recommendations for how to reduce the spread of anthelmintic resistance, a closer collaboration between parasitologists and veterinary practitioners is desirable.

Psychology students received a 14-, 28-, or 42-hour training course in reflective listening. Before and after training, the students participated in role-played counseling conversations with confederates, who rated them. The conversations were captured on audio- or videotape, categorized, and rated by external evaluators. Results suggested that the students used reflective listening equally after different lengths of training. However, longer training resulted in the confederates disclosing more emotion, the psychology students remembering the information relayed better, and the evaluators perceiving the therapeutic relationship as better. This was especially true among the evaluators who self-reported high social skills.

A communication skills training of insurance company employees was devised and evaluated. Study 1 compared trained and untrained employees on their Reflective listening (RL; Rogers, 1951) skills before and after a 16-hr training, as they conversed with a confederate who rated them, and their responses were categorized. In a follow-up Study 2, some of the employees audiotaped conversations with customers, and their responses were categorized as well. In a validation Study 3, students rated conversations by employees who used more or less RL. Results showed that training increased RL, and that the skills were subsequently transferred to an authentic setting. Results did not show that trained employees were evaluated differently than untrained. Implications of the results are discussed.

Different modes of training active listening (AL) were assessed in an experiment and a quasi-experiment. The experiment compared supervised role-play (6 hr; N= 6), written exercices (6 hr; N= 3), and discussion (2 hr; N= 3) conditions. The quasi-experiment compared partly supervised role-play (6 hr; N= 6), and no training control (N= 6) conditions. As an evaluation, all participants had a 7-min counselling with a fictitious help-seeker. Their responses were categorized into AL, and other responses, and the help-seeker gave an evaluation of the participants. The result was that role-play participants used AL more than the control participants did. However, the help-seeker reported no differences in the evaluation of the participants.