Comparative evaluation of the Job Club program with welfare recipients

About 1000 WIN welfare clients were selected in five cities: Harlem, New Brunswick, Milwaukee, Wichita, and Tacoma, and half were randomly assigned to the Job Club program. Of the continuing clients, 87% of the Job Club sample obtained jobs vs 59% of the Control sample at the 12-month follow-up and 80 vs 48% at 6 months. The Job Club was more effective in each of the five cities, for men and women, for high school graduates or dropouts, for blacks, whites, and Spanish, for handicapped or nonhandicapped, veterans or nonveterans, the young and the older, and for those required to participate as well as those who volunteered. The jobs obtained by the Job Club clients were comparable to the Control clients' jobs in terms of mean salary, full-time status, and type of job, and were more likely to be enduring, nonsubsidized, and obtained by the job-seeker's own efforts. Job Club members obtained employment in a median of six sessions (mean of 11); 90% obtained jobs within 23 sessions. Follow-up questionnaire data indicated comparable job retention in the two samples but slightly greater advancement and job satisfaction for the Job Club clients. The method appears to assure employment to virtually all participating welfare clients.     

Follow-up on welfare benefits received by Job Club clients

A follow-up was made of the welfare payments received by AFDC clients who had received job-finding counseling. At the 6th-month follow-up, welfare payments had been reduced by about one-half for the Job Club clients vs 15% for the control group.     

Reinforcement of visual attending in classrooms for deaf children

The efficacy of immediate tangible reinforcement in increasing appropriate visual attending for entire classes of deaf children was examined. The subjects were three classes (seven children each) in a residential school for the deaf. Boxes were installed on each child's desk, with lights that were flashed immediately contingent upon 10 sec of visual attending. Light flashes were backed up by M & M's, cereal bits, or tokens. In two of the classes, extinction sessions were also scheduled. For all classes, the reinforcement procedure increased visual attending by 50% or more, maintaining it at rates above 82%. Withdrawal of tangibles decreased attending back to baseline levels. The results support analysis of attending as operant behavior and demonstrate the applicability of reinforcement procedures in modifying these behaviors for young deaf children in a classroom setting.     

Does Motivational Interviewing (MI) Work With Nonaddicted Clients? A Controlled Study Measuring the Effects of a Brief Training in MI on Client Outcomes

This study investigated the relationships between motivational interviewing (MI) and client symptoms, attendance, and satisfaction. Seventy‐nine clients attending a university‐based counseling center were purposefully assigned to treatment or control conditions. Statistical analyses revealed client symptoms in both groups improved. However, clients assigned to treatment conditions attended more sessions and missed fewer sessions than clients in the control group. Implications for using MI and suggestions for additional research are explored within the study.     

Bias-free improvement in wine discrimination.

Over three test sessions alternated with two training sessions, accuracy of 'same'/'different' judgments of four dry, white wines improved 14%. Confidence ratings were obtained so that the area under the isosensitivity curve could be computed as a bias-free measure of accuracy while the wine used for same pairs was held constant. An initial bias for 'different' judgments persisted, rather than disappearing as Walk found. While perceptual learning did occur, the problem of attending to irrelevant differences was not overcome.     

Use of Reinforcement Technique with a First Grade Boy

A reinforcement technique in counseling was used to modify a first grader's attending behavior. Pre- and post-counseling measurements were made and cumulative records were kept of attending time in counseling sessions and in arithmetic lessons, and a record was kept of completion vs. noncompletion of arithmetic assignments. The assessments made in regard to the arithmetic lessons enabled an investigation of transfer effects from counseling to the academic area. An investigation of transfer effects was also informally made relative to other school situations. Results showed increased attending behavior in counseling and in the classroom, and a marked improvement in completion of assignments, and were interpreted as supporting the use of a behavioral approach in elementary school counseling.     

Increasing engagement in a home for the elderly by providing an indoor gardening activity.

This project investigated the effect of a new recreational activity on the generally low level of engagement of residents in two lounges of a Local Authority home for the elderly physically frail. Indoor gardening sessions open to all residents were held on one afternoon each week in the dining room of the home. In the setting-up phase a researcher ran the gardening sessions, developed a set of written instructions on how to organize the activity and used these. plus performance feedback, to train a volunteer to run the sessions. The experimental phase evaluated the residents' level of engagement during the weekly gardening sessions and on another afternoon each week when there were no planned recreational activities. The results show that indoor gardening was very successful in producing sustained activity by the residents attending and that engagement of the residents was significantly higher on gardening than on non-gardening days.     

Families Leaving Family Therapy After One or Two Sessions: A Multiple Descriptive Case Study

A multiple case study design was used to discover something of the experiences of families, therapists, and members of the reflecting team of the first and or second session of family therapy in an attempt to answer questions regarding why families drop out after only one or two sessions. It was found that the families attending these sessions found them to be ineffective in assisting them to re-author the stories of their lives. There many reasons for this being the case.     

All Absences Are Not the Same: What Happens to the Group Climate When Someone is Absent From Group?

Clinical wisdom dictates that group member absences are harmful to the group; however, this has not been empirically examined. How do group member absences affect the group’s climate, and do absences earlier or later in a group’s life differentially impact group climate? The current study examined the relationship between group member absence and the climate perceptions for attending members, during earlier and later sessions in a group’s development. As hypothesized, a significant interaction was found for group climate and time such that absences during early sessions were significantly related to higher levels of engagement and lower levels of avoidance (a more productive group atmosphere), while absences during later sessions were related to lower levels of engagement and higher levels of avoidance. Implications are discussed.     

Increasing Anger Log Use During School Among Middle School Students with Emotional/Behavioral Disorders

ABSTRACT

Although anger management programs often promote the use of anger logs as an alternative to aggressive behavior, researchers have not studied whether or not these programs actually increase anger log use. Thus, this study examines the impact of In Control, a classroom-based curriculum with 10 weekly 30-minute sessions, on the frequency of anger log use between sessions. Study participants were all of the students attending a middle school for emotional/behavioral disorders. Twenty-seven students received the In Control program, and 19 equivalent students did not. While anger logs were visibly available in all of the classrooms, the students who received the In Control program completed significantly more logs between sessions than did the nonprogram students. During a 4-month follow-up, the 19 program students who received monthly booster sessions continued to fill out significantly more logs than did the nonprogram students. These findings suggest that In Control can increase the use of a log to record anger-provoking episodes by middle school students with serious emotional/behavioral disorders, both in between training sessions and during follow-up, if booster sessions are provided.     

An Investigation of the Rate and Predictors of Initiating and Attending Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia After Referral

Although group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) is an efficacious and well-studied treatment, relatively less is known about its clinical effectiveness in community outpatient settings. Prior research has suggested that dropout from CBT-I may be high in treatment settings vs. clinical trials. The current study therefore investigated the rates and predictors of initiating and attending CBT-I group within an outpatient psychiatry clinic. Participants were 75 consecutive outpatients presenting for treatment at a specialty sleep and anxiety clinic who completed an evaluation and were referred to CBT-I group. Participants completed self-report measures at initial evaluation, and their attendance throughout treatment was tracked. The majority of patients attended ≥1 session, with a mean of 3/5 sessions completed for initiators. Those with poorer global sleep quality and longer sleep onset latency were less likely to attend group and attended fewer sessions. Those with more severe anxiety and depression were less likely to initiate attendance and attended fewer sessions. The majority of patients referred to CBT-I initiated group and attended at least half of the sessions. Further, demographics do not seem to impact these rates. Unfortunately, those with the most severe symptoms, and thus in most need for treatment, are least likely to initiate and attend. This may be due to comorbid anxiety or depression symptoms. Future research should replicate these findings, as well as explore how to encourage those most in need of treatment to initiate and attend CBT-I.     

Predicting Length of Stay in the Job Corps

This study attempted to isolate psychosocial variables having predictive value regarding enrollee length of stay in a Job Corps training center. Correlation and multiple discriminant-function analyses were emphasized to test relationships between seven psychosocial variables and the dependent variable, length of stay. Results demonstrated that the Stanford Achievement Test's paragraph-meaning subtest was a significant predictor to the dependent measure and that the combination of paragraph meaning and the manifest-aggression subscale from the Jesness inventory formed the strongest set of multiple predictor variables. Conclusions beyond those applicable to the population studied were limited; however, I encourage Job Corps personnel to consider these findings as potential guidance tools and as stimuli for similar study in other Job Corps settings.     

Lateral eye-movements and indices of nonanalytic attending in right-handed females.

24 right-handed females were assessed on left-moving after participating in a study wherein they were presented on hypnotic susceptibility and absorption and then attended "nonanalytically" for 20 sessions. Although no significant correlations were found between left-moving and other variables, further analyses indicated a non-linear relationship between left-moving and susceptibility, absorption and self-rated "depth" of attending.     

Competitive factors of electronic dance music festivals with Social Networking Service (SNS) citizenship behaviour of international tourists

This study examined the comparative advantages of prestige service labelling (VIP), online marketing, and image differentiation when applied as marketing strategies to build tourist loyalty as a component of citizenship behaviour. The participants were 220 African tourists attending the World Club Dome Korea 2017 festival event. Following data collection, we conducted a hierarchical regression analysis to determine how VIP, online marketing, and image differentiation influenced tourist social networking service (SNS) citizenship behaviour. The results suggest that VIP and image differentiation to positively predict SNS citizenship behaviour, whereas this was not the case for online marketing. VIP had a higher influence on tourist SNS citizenship behaviour than image differentiation. In summary, strategies to attract tourists with high purchasing power should include prestige service branding with clear image differentiation. This exclusivity could be applied to online ticketing services for their added value to tourism promotion.     

An empirical study of some demographic and work-related variables on job satisfaction of academics in a Turkish university

The Job Satisfaction Survey was administered to 610 faculty in a university in North Cyprus. As expected, job satisfaction increased with rank, and those who held administrative positions were more satisfied than staff who did not. The longer the participants had served in the current university, the higher their rated job satisfaction. Job satisfaction of women in higher academic positions was higher than that of their male peers. Age was not correlated with increases in job satisfaction.     

An intervention program for adolescents with behavior problems

Adolescents with behavior problems (aged 12 to 14) attending a regular public high school were in need of an intervention program. The purpose was to enhance their personal and interpersonal functioning as well as to structure a stimulating learning environment. In order to improve their social, educational, and psychological functioning, program objectives were established to help students develop the ability to listen to one another, respect others as well as their opinions, become aware of their own emotions and those of their peers, and recognize and minimize derogatory remarks toward one another. To attain these objectives, relaxation sessions, magic circle activities, art sessions, future planning groups, and decision-making groups were used. Meetings with teachers enabled them to examine and improve their attitudes and relationship with students. Upon completion of the program, the adolescents manifested less disruptive classroom behavior, increased their class participation, and displayed a more positive attitude toward school. The achievement of these behavioral changes indicates that a psychologically oriented intervention program is a feasible addition to a conventional curriculum. Teachers learned the basic skills of program formation, implementation, and evaluation, and most importantly, revitalized their attitude toward troubled students and their profession.     

The effects of teacher attention on following instructions in a kindergarten class

A kindergarten class, composed of five girls ages 4.8 to 6 yr, participated in the study. In each of 20 daily sessions a sequence of 10 simple instructions was given to the class, In baseline sessions, the teacher did not interact with the students, other than to give instructions. During these sessions, the children followed the teacher's instructions 60% of the time. When the teacher began attending to each child if she followed an instruction, the mean percentage of instructions followed increased to 78%. Subsequently, the teacher again employed the baseline procedures and the percentage of instructions followed decreased to 68.7%. When the teacher again provided attention dependent on the children's following the instructions, the percentage of instructions followed increased to 83.7%. The results are consistent with research that has treated instructions as discriminative stimuli. The general findings are that consequences of instructed behavior determine the extent to which the instructions are followed.     

RELIABILITIES OF RATINGS AVAILABLE FROM THE DICTIONARY OF OCCUPATIONAL TITLES

Job analysts who collect occupational information for the Dictionary of Occupational Titles observed and interviewed job incumbents representing 20 diverse occupations and rated each occupation on a wide variety of characteristics following standard United States Employment Services procedures. On the basis of four ratings, the large majority of 70 scales were found to have coefficient alpha (or KR-20) reliabilities in excess of .SO, and 25 scales had reliabilities ranging from .90 to .98; a variance ratio procedure yielded largely consistent estimates. Reliabilities were similar to those found in an earlier study using different procedures and were similar to those from a well-developed, occupa-tionally anchored scale of "Job Complexity," developed for this study. Scales representing broad, abstract job characteristics tended to have higher reliabilities than scales representing more concrete job characteristics.     

Systemic Practice

In this paper we propose to develop a methodology, based on a set of isomorphic patterns of practice, for studying the operational competencies of systemic therapists. By attending to the therapists' actions at the level of practice, we have identified unifying principles that run across the different models of systemic family therapy. This is a pattern of action that we call "systemic practice." In order to show the application of this methodology in the art of practice, we have analyzed excerpts from two videotaped sessions.     

From Intent to Enrollment,Attendance, and Participation in Preventive Parenting Groups

Applying the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to the process of engagement in preventive parenting groups, we tested the ability of family and child measures to predict intent to enroll, enrollment, attendance, and quality of participation in PACE (Parenting Our Children to Excellence). PACE is a prevention trial testing the efficacy of a structured program to promote effective parenting and reduce risk of adverse child outcomes. Mothers of preschoolers (N=451) from diverse ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds participated at two sites. Results showed that mothers who stated their intent to enroll reported relatively few time constraints but high levels of stress, as did mothers who enrolled. The latter also experienced elevated levels of oppositional defiant child behaviors, indicating that the program reached families who stood to benefit from it. Attendance, which was also best predicted by few time constraints, was high (with 49% of mothers who enrolled attending 5 or more of 8 sessions). In turn, attendance predicted quality of participation (at 1 site only), with mothers attending more sessions participating more actively and enthusiastically. Ethnicity and, with a few exceptions, socioeconomic circumstances and site, were not significant predictors of intent, enrollment, or attendance. Results provide qualified support for the TPB and illustrate its relevance to preventive research and interventions.