Issue 15: Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 4 Thoughts On Psychotherapy, Mental Health, Abnormal Psychology and More: Psychology Worlds, #15

By Connor Whiteley

Over 50,000 words of psychological knowledge, theory and practice by bestselling writer Connor Whiteley in one great collection. If you want great, fascinating information covering a wide range of psychological topics you NEED to buy this issue!

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Issue 15 contains two brilliant full-length psychology books:

• Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 3: Thoughts On Psychotherapy, Mental Health, Abnormal Psychology and More
• Clinical Psychology Reflections Volume 4

AND contains 5 enthralling blog posts:

• Why Do Children Start Fires?
• Why Are Careers In Psychology Important To Investigate?
• Why Most Online Trolls Have Subclinical Sadism?
• How To Precent Burnout In Autistic People?
• 5 Things Therapists Shouldn't Do In Therapy

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• Language: English
• Publisher: CGD Publishing
• Release date: Mar 1, 2024
• ISBN: 9798223435389

Connor Whiteley

Hello, I'm Connor Whiteley, I am an 18-year-old who loves to write creatively, and I wrote my Brownsea trilogy when I was 14 years old after I went to Brownsea Island on a scout camp. At the camp, I started to think about how all the broken tiles and pottery got there and somehow a trilogy got created.Moreover, I love writing fantasy and sci-fi novels because you’re only limited by your imagination.In addition, I'm was an Explorer Scout and I love camping, sailing and other outdoor activities as well as cooking.Furthermore, I do quite a bit of charity work as well. For example: in early 2018 I was a part of a youth panel which was involved in creating a report with research to try and get government funding for organised youth groups and through this panel. I was invited to Prince Charles’ 70th birthday party and how some of us got in the royal photograph.Finally, I am going to university and I hope to get my doctorate in clinical psychology in a few years.

Book preview

INTRODUCTION

As we start to move into the Spring (at least in the Northern hemisphere) and the temperatures start to warm up, the snow and icy coldness starts to become a distant memory and we all start making our plans for the summer, I cannot help but start to feel hopeful again.

And if there is any theme of this issue of the Psychology Worlds Magazine, it is certainly a great sense of hope for the future.

This positivity and sense of hope mainly comes from the two main psychology books in this issue, but it is reflected to different extents in the psychology articles too.

For instance, articles like Why Do Children Start Fires? Isn’t written to be depressing and to blame young people for firesetting behaviours, it shows how if we understand what’s happening then we can come up with ideas to improve things and decrease the sheer number of children setting fires. The same applies to Why Most Online Trolls Have Subclinical Sadism? And 5 Things Therapists Shouldn’t Do In Therapy?

Secondly, Why Are Careers In Psychology Important to Investigate? the entire point of that psychology article is to help you understand, help inspire you and help to give you the tools and advice you need to start investigating your potential future careers. Allowing you to go out into the world and use psychology as a force for good, for change and to improve lives.

Finally for the articles, I love the article How To Prevent Burnout In Autistic People? Because this is a massive problem that causes people a lot of distress, but because of research, because of positivity and because of people’s drive to improve things, we have an understanding about how to make life better for autistic people.

And that is certainly something I am continuing to realise. Psychology is an immensely, extremely powerful force for good if we make use of it. We can help people in so many thousands of ways if we’re determined to help them.

That’s why I greatly enjoyed writing the two volumes of my Clinical Psychology Reflections series in this issue including the brand-new Volume 4. Since it has that positivity, it has that focus and it gives you so much food for thought and unofficial tips and tricks that will serve you well going into the future.

So let’s turn over the page and let’s start reading and learning about the amazing world of psychology.

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WHY DO CHILDREN START FIRES?

To kick off the new year I really wanted to return our focus to the amazing world of forensic psychology and fire-setting behaviours. In this fascinating episode of the podcast, we’ll look at why children start fires and commit arson. If you love learning about youth offending and criminal psychology then you’re bound to love this brilliant episode.

Why Do We Need To Look At Why Children Start Fires?

Whilst I’ve written about the topic before, youthful offending when it comes to arson is hardly rare because according to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1,200 adolescents and children were arrested on fire-setting-related charges in 2020. Also research from the Department of Justice shows that over 50% of arson cases were committed by youth offenders. Therefore, this is important to look at because the vast majority of fires are started by children.

Another reason why this is an important area is because deliberate firesetting by everyone often results in death or injury and around $1.4 billion in property damage each year. As a result, if we can understand why children set fires then we can hopefully prevent them and stop some of the injuries, death and sheer amount of damage from happening in the first place.

Nonetheless, given how much I hate Criminal Profiling as I explain in my book, I’m hardly surprised that there’s limited research for a so-called psychology profile, but there is research showing that most perpetrators are motivated by instrumental factors. For instance, a strong desire for some kind of financial gain.

Why Children Start Fires: Motivations

Abuse and Neglect As Child Firesetting Factors and What Targets Do Children Set Fire To?

Firstly, one reason why children set fires can be found in Root et al. (2008) because the researchers found that abused and neglected children were more likely to be involved in firesetting when compared to children that weren’t treated in this disgusting way. Also the researchers found that the abused children who set fires were more motivated by anger and rage as well as more flexible in their firesetting targets, with their firesetting behaviours being more likely linked to immediate family stressors than other factors.

Moreover, most commonly children set fire to isolated wooded areas and abandoned structures but a 2015 study from Ekbrand and Uhnoo analysed tons of cases of school firesetting with them finding that many offenders engage in school firesetting to obstruct school activities, commit vandalism and eliminate evidence of school burglary.

The Notion of Mental Health and Child Firesetting

It was towards the end of this post when I realised that there were so many myths and misconceptions about firesetting and mental health that this just needed its own section so we could really focus on it.

Consequently, research shows that adult firesetters can be motivated by anger and rage or they engage in typical behaviours as a cry for help. Yet researchers have also determined that certain antisocial behaviours, communications and self-regulation problems play, as well as certain mental health conditions, could underpin some of these criminal offences. As a result of a person who engages in these abnormal firesetting practices could be suffering from a pyromania. Which is an impulse-control disorder with the hallmark of a pattern of firesetting that functions as an avenue of gratification or to release their anxiety.

However, I have to admit, the literature is go vague on the idea of pyromania and to be honest, there seems to be such a limited amount of research that even suggests pyromania is a mental health condition. As well as even psychologists like Robert Stadolnik who has performed firesetting risk assessment for over 30 years points out how he has never ever met a child that fits the diagnosis of pyromania because the very notion that a child has an innate urge to set fire is a complete myth.

So again I think that is a tedious claim to say that pyromania motivates children.

Additionally, returning to the 2015 study we looked at earlier, they also found that people diagnosed with severe mental health conditions and targeted schools had no educational relationship with the school at the time of the offence. Which I would personally imagine sounds a little weird because you would have imagined they might want to burn down a school because they were angry with it, but this isn’t the case according to the 2015 study.

In addition, when it comes to mental health of youth firesetters, Michael and Slavkin (2014) found this group of offenders often has difficulties in communicating with their family members, peers and people at school. Then these social deficits could have a negative impact on their mental health, possibly leading to an amplifying of their firesetting behaviour. Which could effectively co-occur with conduct or antisocial difficulties.

Another mental health condition that is also of interest to arson researchers is Conduct Disorder. Which is characterised by a pattern of behavioural and emotional problems including disregarding others. As well as firesetting with intent to cause property damage is listed as an example of problematic behaviour for Conduct Disorder in the DSM-5. Finally, when it comes to child firesetters many of them have a history of PTSD, victimisation and generalised anxiety disorder as well. Due to all of these are extremely common in this offender demographic too.

However, it is critical to note here that just because a child sets a fire, it doesn’t mean that they have a mental health condition or that mental health is even remotely a primary cause of firesetting by children.

Overall, I think of course mental health plays a role in child firesetting because to say it is the only factor, or even a major factor isn’t a good idea, and it is very reductionist. Therefore, let’s talk about some other reasons for child firesetting now.

Gender and Child Firesetting Behaviour

Furthermore, when it comes to gender and gender differences in firesetting behaviour, research and experience from Stadolnik, shows that firesetters are mainly males yet researchers are seeing an increase in female firesetting in adolescent populations. As well as there isn’t any exact research at the moment on the gender differences in firesetting, but Stadolnik affirms that young people set fires for the thrill, as coping mechanisms for past experiences and they want to experiment with fire with the psychologist saying Some kids will set fires as a means to self-soothe... Many of the children we see have a history of trauma or neglect.

Personally, I would prefer to see more research into this area because there is such a lack of it at the moment and that’s one of the things that I realised when I was writing the arson section of the book. Therefore, I do hope that this improves over time and more researchers conduct research that will help us to really understand why they do it and what are the gender differences. Especially as right now I sort of feel like sometimes research and opinions in this area just read like guesswork.

Forensic Psychology Conclusion

In today’s episode, we’ve looked at a lot of reasons for why children set fires. Some of them are related to mental health, some aren’t and there is a lot of evidence that mental health isn’t as major of a factor as everyone thinks it is.

However, the point of today’s episode is that firesetting is a dangerous behaviour and a potential feature of a mental health condition. Yet without more research into the area, we just will not know the full extent and how major any of these factors actually are. As well as clinical psychologists will have to be involved at some point because even if this firesetting behaviour isn’t a part of a mental health condition, we still have the knowledge to hopefully help the child to change their behaviour, thoughts and desires so they will hopefully set fires less and stop committing so much damage.

That is the hope anyway, and everything good in the world always starts with a little hope.

Forensic Psychology References

Apsche, J. A., Siv, A. M., & Bass, C. K. (2005). A case analysis of MDT with an adolescent with conduct personality disorder and fire setting behaviors. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 1(4), 312.

Garry, E. M. (1997). Juvenile firesetting and arson. US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.).

Root, C., Mackay, S., Henderson, J., Del Bove, G., & Warling, D. (2008). The link between maltreatment and juvenile firesetting: Correlates and underlying mechanisms. Child Abuse & Neglect, 32(2), 161-176.

Ekbrand, H., & Uhnoo, S. (2015). Juvenile firesetting in schools. Journal of Youth Studies, 18(10), 1291-1308.

Slavkin, M. L. (2002). Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: What Every Clinician Needs to Know About Juvenile Firesetters. Psychiatric services, 53(10), 1237-1238.

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). (n.d). Estimated number of juvenile arrests, 2020. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Retrieved November 25, 2022, from https://www.ojjdp.gov/ojstatbb/crime/qa05101.asp

Dalhuisen, L., Koenraadt, F., & Liem, M. (2017). Subtypes of firesetters. Criminal behaviour and mental health, 27(1), 59-75.

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WHY ARE PSYCHOLOGY CAREERS IMPORTANT TO INVESTIGATE?

Psychology students and professionals are often told by parents and others that psychology is useless because you can’t get a job in it. That is the biggest lie I have ever had the displeasure of hearing because there are tons of fascinating career options for you with a psychology degree. That’s why in this psychology podcast episode I’ll introducing you to Careers In Psychology so you can realise just what is possible with an amazing psychology degree.

Note: as always nothing on the podcast is ever any sort of official, professional or career advice or guidance.

Extract From Careers In Psychology By Connor Whiteley. COPYRIGHT 2023.

As much as I and everyone else reading this book probably wants to get onto the good bits about careers in psychology. It is critical that we actually focus on why it is important to look at?

Since everyone reading this book probably does psychology in one form or another, and I can promise you that we all have certain areas of psychology that we aren’t very keen on. For me, it’s business psychology because it flat out doesn’t interest me. For you, it might be social or biological or cognitive psychology.

Yet the thing that helps us get through these difficult areas is the fact we know why it is important. The reason tends to be as simple as knowing we need the information for our exams, but it still helps us to focus.

Therefore, that’s why this chapter is needed, so in case you find a chapter you aren’t too interested later on then you know why it is still good to read it.

I now know that from writing this book how some career options can really take you up surprise.

The Most Important Reason:

As you’ll see throughout the book, knowing where you want to go in psychology is critical from an early start because if know where you want to go then you can aim for it, make decisions that will help you get there and do the requirements that that particular career route requires.

For example, if you wanted to do clinical psychology in the future (forgetting how massive all areas of psychology are) then it is a good idea to start taking clinical psychology modules in your undergraduate degree so you can start to show extra interest and learn more about your future career.

Therefore, if you learn about career options sooner rather later, then this can give you a great goal to aim for when it comes to making decisions about your degree and modules.

Personally, this is what I did with my undergraduate degree because I knew I wanted to work in clinical psychology in the future. Leading me to find a degree with clinical psychology modules and I went from there.

In fact, I managed to find a degree that was a lot more specialised in clinical psychology than a normal psychology degree. Due to my undergraduate degree has a lot more compulsory clinical psychology modules than non-specialised psychology degrees.

Overall, because I made a decision about my possible future career early, it really did help me understand the type of courses, extra things and experiences that I needed to try to do in an effort to improve my employability skills.

Don’t worry.

We will talk about a lot more these things in this book, so