Psychological Development
In the DAPP framework, psychological development refers to a client’s transformations in cognitive and emotional organization that occur in the context of adaptation to the physical and social world. A DAPP analysis tracks as a client’s psychological schemas change from more global and undifferentiated ones, to increasingly differentiated and integrated ones (Basseches & Mascolo, 2011, pg. 14). This process of development can be seen in change over time in a person’s meaning-making and activity structures, or how s/he makes sense of and interacts with the world.
Basseches and Mascolo’s model of development also provides a method of tracking microdevelopmental movement, wherein development occurs in the context of mutual adaptation in which systems move from more global and undifferentiated states to increasingly more differentiated and integrated states. This is a reiterative process composed of three steps: differentiation, conflict, and synthesis. This process is tracked throughout DAPP analyses using codes for thesis, antithesis, conflict, and synthesis. A thesis is an expression of an element of action, experience or meaning, and its antithesis is an expression of differentiation from the thesis.
Conflict refers to the process of attending simultaneously to a thesis and its antithesis, and either one party or both parties in a therapeutic relationship can hold the conflict. It is similar to the Piagetian process in which differentiation increases disequilibrium and attention to the disequilibrium (or conflict) is necessary for equilibration to be achieved. This process is a continuous undercurrent throughout the developmental dialogue represented by therapy. Conflict exists whenever differentiated elements have not yet been integrated into a whole, and can range from being highly distressing or not distressing at all; thus an important aspect of DAPP coding involves selecting the most important conflicts.
A synthesis marks the resolution or transcending of the conflict through the emergence of a higher-order organization of activity and meaning-making. In Piagetian terms, synthesis can be thought of as an accommodation process that leads to an equilibration through the development of greater differentiation and complexity. It is through syntheses that we see the micro-development that results in the client being able to use more complex skills, or have more nuanced understandings, to more effectively interact with her life challenges.
On the flipside of psychological development, when a client is unable to grow in the face of conflict, we refer to the client as being stuck. This stuckness can be seen in psychotherapy when a client struggles to make use of therapeutic resources offered by the therapist, and there is a marked lack of synthetic understandings or actions. This can be due to the limitations of the context of psychotherapy, in that he distress or circumstances become so overwhelming that even the additional resources offered by a therapist does not lead to the emergence of more adaptive, synthetic understandings or actions. Conversely, sometimes in the therapy session itself, the resources offered by the therapist are outside of the client’s capacity to make use of them. So while it is important to recognize the limited role of the psychotherapist, it is also important to recognize that sometimes a clinician is not meeting the client where she is at, developmentally. This ability of a therapist to offer a resource that a client can use is what we refer to as attunement.
Basseches and Mascolo’s model of development also provides a method of tracking microdevelopmental movement, wherein development occurs in the context of mutual adaptation in which systems move from more global and undifferentiated states to increasingly more differentiated and integrated states. This is a reiterative process composed of three steps: differentiation, conflict, and synthesis. This process is tracked throughout DAPP analyses using codes for thesis, antithesis, conflict, and synthesis. A thesis is an expression of an element of action, experience or meaning, and its antithesis is an expression of differentiation from the thesis.
Conflict refers to the process of attending simultaneously to a thesis and its antithesis, and either one party or both parties in a therapeutic relationship can hold the conflict. It is similar to the Piagetian process in which differentiation increases disequilibrium and attention to the disequilibrium (or conflict) is necessary for equilibration to be achieved. This process is a continuous undercurrent throughout the developmental dialogue represented by therapy. Conflict exists whenever differentiated elements have not yet been integrated into a whole, and can range from being highly distressing or not distressing at all; thus an important aspect of DAPP coding involves selecting the most important conflicts.
A synthesis marks the resolution or transcending of the conflict through the emergence of a higher-order organization of activity and meaning-making. In Piagetian terms, synthesis can be thought of as an accommodation process that leads to an equilibration through the development of greater differentiation and complexity. It is through syntheses that we see the micro-development that results in the client being able to use more complex skills, or have more nuanced understandings, to more effectively interact with her life challenges.
On the flipside of psychological development, when a client is unable to grow in the face of conflict, we refer to the client as being stuck. This stuckness can be seen in psychotherapy when a client struggles to make use of therapeutic resources offered by the therapist, and there is a marked lack of synthetic understandings or actions. This can be due to the limitations of the context of psychotherapy, in that he distress or circumstances become so overwhelming that even the additional resources offered by a therapist does not lead to the emergence of more adaptive, synthetic understandings or actions. Conversely, sometimes in the therapy session itself, the resources offered by the therapist are outside of the client’s capacity to make use of them. So while it is important to recognize the limited role of the psychotherapist, it is also important to recognize that sometimes a clinician is not meeting the client where she is at, developmentally. This ability of a therapist to offer a resource that a client can use is what we refer to as attunement.