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This study aims to investigate the presence of intuition and responsiveness in early students and in experienced students and psychotherapists, which is understood as the ability to integrate bodily sensitivity and cognition of what is experienced with the patient (aesthetic relational knowing—ARK). The study compares how the therapist’s felt sense of the phenomenological intersubjective field and aesthetic relational competence differs between a group of experienced students and psychotherapists and a group of beginners. The sample consisted of 128 participants (20 M; 108 F), finally divided into two groups: “experienced students and psychotherapists” and “beginners”. The Aesthetic Relational Knowledge Scale (ARKS), a questionnaire consisting of 58 items targeting three factors (empathy, body awareness, and resonance), was administered. Statistical analyses were conducted to assess (i) differences between the two groups (through Student’s t and Cohen’s d for effect sizes), (ii) the influence of the level of training for each ARK factor using analyses of covariance for testing the possible influence of demographic variables, and (iii) logistic regressions to compare the influence of the three factors of the ARK model on the group variable with groups as a categorical variable. Significant differences between the two groups were found in body awareness and resonance. Body awareness was found to be the variable best discriminating between the beginners and the experienced students and psychotherapists. Despite being non-significant, there is a tendency suggesting that empathy appears more relevant at the beginning of training. The study shows the importance of training for the development of the therapist’s intuition and responsiveness, especially in the factors of body awareness and resonance. The results indicate the importance of assessing and supporting the aesthetic and field resonance of therapists in training, increasing quality and depth of the therapist’s responsiveness. This study is limited by a correlational design using self-report and on a limited sample, but it shows that the ARKS can monitor the effectiveness of training related to Gestalt therapeutic competencies.

The evaluative research is an important goal of applied research in psychology, and can constitute a link between scientific research and the definition of an evidence-based profession, in many fields of psychology: e.g., educational, social, work, clinical psychology. But to make a good evaluative research some methodological considerations are needed. First of all, the complexity of this field of study overwhelms the traditional methods based on laboratory research, which defines and manages variables, sampling, and statistical analyses in a reductive way.

- Preferences for university courses and second-best choices: effects on academic performance - The article deals with the academic choices and the factors determining risks for possible negative outcomes such as unsuccessful career, delays and early drop-out.After a review of the variables pertaining to the access to academic courses, with particular reference to the Italian system, an empirical analysis will be presented, regarding the consequences of makeshift of the choices on the academic performance, differentiating courses specific for contents and methods.The database of the students matriculated in the same academic year in the degree courses of the University of Catania was collected and analysed. A total number of 6341 students enrolled in the first year was considered, with reference to the order of choice of courses, the credits acquired in the three sessions of the first year, the number of exams passed and the marks obtained.Results show that the overall level of “congruence” (students enrolled in a course which was the first choice for him/her) is high, near 80%. The students “inactive” (i.e., no credits acquired in the first year of frequency) sum up to 24%, that is near 1/4 of the total.When the course has been chosen as a second best academic performance is worse, but some students presumably compensate their initial lower interest with a re-motivation fostered by appropriate teaching strategies and/or effective tutoring.

L’immaginazione, questa particolare forma di rappresentazione della realtà che produce ed elabora un oggetto di conoscenza senza che gli stimoli relativi ad esso siano effettivamente presenti nel sistema senso-percettivo, gioca nella vita quotidiana un ruolo importante quanto - e forse più - delle idee e delle parole. Immaginare aiuta a ricostruire la memoria e a sostanziare l’auto-biografia. La conoscenza è troppo complessa per attuarla solo con le parole. Per conoscere occorrono strumenti diversi, concorrenti: e tra questi l’immaginario è tanto importante che, come diceva Federico Fellini, “nulla si sa, tutto s’immagina”. L’immaginazione è uno strumento potente per ridefinire i veri confini della dimensione passata, riscoprendo una dimensione essenziale della memoria, non solo attraverso le parole ma attraverso le immagini. Ed in effetti, il mental imagery è una associazione di linguaggio verbale e figurativo. L’antico dibattito sulle “immagini nella mente”, che metteva in contrasto la teoria proposizionale (basata su concetti e verbalizzazioni) e la teoria analogica (pittorica, analoga alla elaborazione percettiva), è stato superato dalla constatazione che entrambe le teorie sono valide in differenti condizioni.

La “comunicazione esistenziale” è lo sforzo di fare emergere i nuclei più autentici nell’interazione fra due persone (tra questi nuclei abbiamo visto quanto siano essenziali i valori personali): e la narrazione è appunto un modo adeguato per far emergere questi nuclei di senso, gli unici capaci di ‘ri-significare’ i valori in modo autentico e senza imposizioni di schemi prefissati e costruttivi. Grazie a questo metodo di ‘ascolto’ dell’altro senza filtri potenzialmente pre-giudiziali, chi fa ricerca e/o intervento in ottica fenomenologica può sospendere la propri schemi di conoscenza pregressi, per consentire alla realtà della persona di manifestarsi nella sua vera essenza.

Proprio le metodologie qualitative di verifica del lavoro clinico, quelle narrative in particolare [...] offrono un potente strumento di mediazione tra il rigore scientifico e la possibilità di condividere principi e criteri nella comunità dei ricercatori, e l’accettazione di una complessità di approccio al lavoro clinico che solo metodologie olistiche e non riduttive possono garantire. Le scuole di formazione alla psicologia clinica possono ampiamente avvalersi di queste metodologie, con sicuro beneficio sulla qualità complessiva della formazione stessa.