Alternative Methodologies in Research Literature Review: Links Between Clinical Work and MFT Effectiveness

Traditionally, "good outcome research" has referred to laboratory-based, controlled studies that report the efficacy of a given treatment on a specific population. Although useful and needed in the struggle to establish MFTs as accepted mental health service providers, this type of research does not address whether MFT is effective in "real world" settings. In order to highlight the clinical and professional relevance of existing effectiveness research, this article reviews 15 years of clinical research in three major family therapy journals. The results suggest that 1) MFT effectiveness is under-represented in major review articles, 2) clinicians can use a variety of methodologies to establish the effectiveness of their work, and 3) more research is needed that investigates how and why MFT works in "real world" settings. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.     

Quantum Interactive Dualism, II: The Libet and Einstein–Podolsky–Rosen Causal Anomalies

Replacing faulty nineteenth century physics by its orthodox quantum successor converts the earlier materialist conception of nature to a structure that does not enforce the principle of the causal closure of the physical. The quantum laws possess causal gaps, and these gaps are filled in actual scientific practice by inputs from our streams of consciousness. The form of the quantum laws permits and suggests the existence of an underlying reality that is built not on substances, but on psychophysical events, and on objective tendencies for these events to occur. These events constitute intrinsic mind-brain connections. They are fundamental links between brain processes described in physical terms and events in our streams of consciousness. This quantum ontology confers upon our conscious intentions the causal efficacy assigned to them in actual scientific practice, and creates a substance-free interactive dualism. This putative quantum ontology has previously been shown to have impressive explanatory power in both psychology and neuroscience. Here it is used to reconcile the existence of physically efficacious conscious free will with causal anomalies of both the Libet and Einstein–Rosen–Podolsky types. This article is a sequel to Stapp [2005, Journal of Consciousness Studies 12(11), 43–58] but strives to be largely self-contained.     

Attachment in Psychotherapy

Abstract

Basic psychotherapy techniques are necessary for trauma intervention, including the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. The importance of these techniques is reviewed within various settings in the New York City area immediately following the World Trade Center disaster. The purpose included debriefing of practitioners, as well as the education of trauma symptoms and assessment for client intervention. Perhaps most importantly was the therapeutic technique modeled by the social work leader in these vignettes, since she and other practitioners simultaneously experienced symptoms of trauma. The practice of creating and maintaining a therapeutic atmosphere at this time was an essential challenge for all.     

A Short Review of School Field Trips: Key Findings from the Past and Implications for the Future

ABSTRACT

This review of the literature on field trips to out-of-school settings will briefly summarize key findings and discuss implications for future research and field trip practice. Cognitive and affective learning can occur as a result of class visits to out-of-school settings, and learning outcomes are fundamentally influenced by the structure of the field trip, setting novelty, prior knowledge and interest of the students, the social context of the visit, teacher agendas, student experiences during the field trip, and the presence or absence and quality of preparation and follow-up. Field trips, however, are not ideal for teaching complex concepts or even isolated facts, they are not “better classroom settings”; instead, they serve best as opportunities for exploration, discovery, first-hand and original experiences. Despite systemic pressures to the contrary, teachers and informal educators tend to agree on this broader vision of field trips and this article makes a variety of suggestions for putting such a vision into practice.     

Event perception as a control process for visual awareness

ABSTRACT

We present evidence demonstrating that the structure of everyday events guides attention to and representation of visual properties. Incidental change detection increases dramatically at the boundaries between events, whereas individuals are largely unaware of the sequence of actions within a single event. Observers demonstrate a limited capacity for representing events, and inducing cognitive load by presenting two simultaneous events decreases detection of sequence errors. These studies support emerging evidence that the event perception network operates as a control process that guides attention and awareness in real-world settings.     

Current and Future Education and Practice

SUMMARY

This article describes a national study conducted by the American Occupational Therapy Association Mental Health Special Interest Section to assess the adequacy of mental health content and fieldwork experiences in occupational therapy educational programs preparing graduates for current and future mental health practice. The results of the study indicate that occupational therapists, especially those who practice in mental health settings, must become more “business-oriented.” This orientation includes educating occupational therapy students about reimbursement issues, legal and political systems, marketing strategies, and advocacy roles. Other recommendations are discussed as possible ways to prepare future practitioners more effectively for roles in community-based settings.     

Mindfulness Training for Elementary School Students

Abstract

Mindfulness is the cognitive propensity to be aware of what is happening in the moment without judgment or attachment to any particular outcome. This concept flies in the face of modern, Western philosophical outcomes-based thinking about events and activities. This article presents results of a formative evaluation of whether participation in a mindfulness training program affected first, second, and third grade students' outcomes on measures of attention. The training was designed and intended to help students learn to focus and pay attention. The 24-week training employed a series of exercises including breathwork, bodyscan, movement, and sensorimotor awareness activities. Results from three attentional measures administered to the students show significant differences between those who did and did not participate in mindfulness practice training. Results are discussed and recommendations are made for future work in this developing field of interest.     

The Spirituality of Compassion: A Public Health Response to Ageing and End-of-Life Care

SUMMARY

The recent revival of interest in spirituality in later life marks a significant step forward in the person-centred care of ageing people. The benefits will, however, be of limited value if we do not attend to the settings in which spirituality is to be lived. In contemporary society many aged people are located in environments unsympathetic to spiritual belief and practice. Health care settings focus on professionally-assessed physical needs and are dominated by concerns about the cost of services. The national social policies that direct health care services and less directly shape older people's place in contemporary society are strongly influenced by globalised neoliberal economic policies characterised by individualism, competition, and greed. For robust and viable spirituality to develop at the individual level we need compassionate social policies that support interdependence within communities and between nations.     

Pragmatic Concerns and Images of the World

I defend a pragmatist reinterpretation of Sellars’s famous manifest-scientific distinction. I claim that in order to do justice to this important distinction we must first recognize, despite what philosophers—including, arguably, Sellars—often make of it, that the distinction does not draw an epistemological or metaphysical boundary between different kinds of objects and events, but a pragmatic boundary between different ways in which we interact with objects and events. Put differently, I argue that the manifest-scientific distinction, in my view, can be best understood, not as a metaphysical distinction between apparent and real objects and events, or an epistemological distinction between perceptible and imperceptible objects and events, but rather as a distinction, which is not necessarily rigid over time, between distinct ways in which we collectively deal, in practice, with objects and events.     

The effects of smart phone video analysis on focus of attention and performance in practice and competition

ObjectivesResearch has consistently found that focus of attention (FOA) affects motor learning and performance. However, much of the previous work has used artificially manipulated FOA of novice participants performing laboratory tasks. There is a paucity of work that has tested transfer to more complex competition environments. We aimed to investigate the effects of smart phone video analysis, which commonly occurs in natural practice settings in golf, on skilled player’s FOA and performance in both practice and competition.DesignThis study employed a mixed experimental design. The between participants factor was the use of video analysis (practice with video vs practice only) and the repeated measures factor was time point (pre-intervention vs post-intervention).MethodAltogether, 19 skilled golfers (handicap: M = 5.79, SD = 5.80) took part in a four-week practice intervention with (n = 10) or without (n = 9) the use of smart phone video analysis. Driving range performance and competition performance were measured pre- and post-intervention. Practice diaries provided measures of FOA during the intervention period.ResultsThe practice with video group displayed a significantly more internal FOA throughout the intervention period than the practice only group. This resulted in a significant time by group interaction for driving range performance that showed an increase in performance for the practice only group and a decrease for the practice with video group. However, the performance effects did not transfer to competition scores.ConclusionsFindings enhance our understanding of the effects of video analysis on FOA and question whether FOA effects transfer from on range practice to on course performance.     

CULTIVATING LOVING KINDNESS: A TWO‐STAGE MODEL OF THE EFFECTS OF MEDITATION ON EMPATHY,COMPASSION, AND ALTRUISM

Abstract. We explore the role of meditative practice in cultivating experiences of compassion, empathy, and altruism and address an apparent paradox: Meditation often is associated with solitary retreat, if not preoccupation with one's own concerns. How, then, does such a practice promote compassion for others? We propose a two‐stage model. The first stage involves disengagement from usual preoccupation with self‐reinforcing, self‐defeating, or self‐indulgent behaviors and reactions; the second involves a focused engagement with a universal human capacity for altruistic experience, love, and compassion. Reference is made to the limited research literature and to clinical applications of loving kindness (metta) meditation in cultivating these processes.     

Back to the basics: Rethinking partial correlation network methodology

The Gaussian graphical model (GGM) is an increasingly popular technique used in psychology to characterize relationships among observed variables. These relationships are represented as elements in the precision matrix. Standardizing the precision matrix and reversing the sign yields corresponding partial correlations that imply pairwise dependencies in which the effects of all other variables have been controlled for. The graphical lasso (glasso) has emerged as the default estimation method, which uses ℓ₁-based regularization. The glasso was developed and optimized for high-dimensional settings where the number of variables (p) exceeds the number of observations (n), which is uncommon in psychological applications. Here we propose to go ‘back to the basics’, wherein the precision matrix is first estimated with non-regularized maximum likelihood and then Fisher Z transformed confidence intervals are used to determine non-zero relationships. We first show the exact correspondence between the confidence level and specificity, which is due to 1 minus specificity denoting the false positive rate (i.e., α). With simulations in low-dimensional settings (p ≪ n), we then demonstrate superior performance compared to the glasso for detecting the non-zero effects. Further, our results indicate that the glasso is inconsistent for the purpose of model selection and does not control the false discovery rate, whereas the proposed method converges on the true model and directly controls error rates. We end by discussing implications for estimating GGMs in psychology.     

School Psychology: Training Individuals for One of the Best Kept Secrets in Professional Psychology

Abstract

School psychology training at the doctoral level is discussed. Given the increasing diversity in the schools as well as the varied education and mental health needs of the population, school psychology training is necessarily broad, involving traditional skills such as assessment, intervention, consultation, and counseling, all of which are taught within a context of a changing school population with changing needs. Because there is compulsory education, school psychologists’ interface with a broad cross-section of individual children, their parents, and their teachers. Moreover, school psychological practice is not limited to schools, as doctoral school psychologists are health service providers; many of these individuals work in other settings for which they are trained to provide services. The complexities and challenges of training school psychologists within this broad agenda effectively across domains are discussed.     

Exercise Stage of Change and Self-Efficacy in Primary Care: Implications for Intervention

Multiple chronic diseases are caused or complicated by a sedentary lifestyle. Thus, an important and challenging application of psychology in clinical settings is changing the behavior of sedentary primary care patients. This study focused on exercise stage of change and self-efficacy in a sample of adult family practice patients recruited while waiting for their scheduled physician appointment. Regarding exercise stage of change, 15% of respondents were in the Precontemplation stage, 26% in the Contemplation stage, 50% in the Preparation stage, 7% in the Action stage, and 13% in the Maintenance stage. Mean self-efficacy scores for exercise were significantly higher among respondents in the Action and Maintenance stages of change. These cross-sectional data are consistent with the hypothesis that movement through the exercise stages of change could be encouraged by clinical interventions that increase exercise self-efficacy. The identification of multiple personal opportunities for increasing exercise self-efficacy may be clinically useful in this context. Recommendations for psychologists in primary care settings in their work with physicians are offered.     

Psychoanalysis and evaluation: a stratified model focused on the uniqueness of the case

ABSTRACT

Objectives: This article addresses the methodological controversies surrounding the issue of how to evaluate the psychotherapies. It proposes to identify the principles of an integrative and stratified model in order to report the results of analytical therapy (its efficacy) based on the very effectiveness of its processes. Thus, the uniqueness of the case is put at the center of the evaluation setting.

Methods: Drawing on science studies, the authors engage in a reflexive exercise on the problem of psychoanalysis’ evaluation based on methodological questions raised in the field over time and current issues related to practice.

Results: First, the regularly asserted opposition between the norms of analytical practice and those governing standard evaluation procedures is reinterpreted as the effect of a lack of intermediate epistemic patterns.

Second, the fundamental principles of an integrative model are considered so as to translate and articulate a set of heterogeneous requirements into distinct strata.

Discussion: Since psychoanalysis is fundamentally a case-by-case practice characterized by inequivalence and unexpectedness, its utmost aim is to use a type of effectiveness based on the singularity of the case. However, this does not prevent it from being evaluable provided that the epistemic levels of the evaluation are clearly differentiated.     

The Inter-Life project: researching the potential of art,design and virtual worlds as a vehicle for assisting young people with key life changes and transitions

ABSTRACT

Careers work in the twenty-first century faces a key challenge in terms of digital technologies: to evaluate their potential for careers work in challenging settings. Given the rapidity of developments, technologies require evaluation in research innovations and naturalistic settings. Virtual worlds offer potential for careers and guidance work, and the therapeutic domain. To illustrate this, we present examples in which young people explore their feelings and ideas, plans and difficulties, while preparing for film-making. During this they develop important life transition skills. We argue that the power of virtual worlds – to support emotional and cognitive engagement – could be utilised in practice settings. We conclude that they are serious candidates as digital tools in the careers and guidance domain.     

Role of Constant,Random and Blocked Practice in an Electromyography-Based Oral Motor Learning Task

Purpose: The role of principles of motor learning (PMLs) in speech has received much attention in the past decade. Oral motor learning, however, has not received similar consideration. This study evaluated the role of three practice conditions in an oral motor tracking task.

Method: Forty-five healthy adult participants were randomly and equally assigned to one of three practice conditions (constant, blocked, and random) and participated in an electromyography-based task. The study consisted of four sessions, at one session a day for four consecutive days. The first three days sessions included a practice phase, with immediate visual feedback, and an immediate retention phase, without visual feedback. The fourth session did not include practice, but only delayed retention testing, lasting 10–15 minutes, without visual feedback.

Results: Random group participants performed better than participants in constant and blocked practice conditions on all the four days. Constant group participants demonstrated superior learning over blocked group participants only on day 4.

Conclusion: Findings indicate that random practice facilitates oral motor learning, which is in line with limb/speech motor learning literature. Future research should systematically investigate the outcomes of random practice as a function of different oral and speech-based tasks.     

Treatment of Insomnia within an Interdisciplinary Pain Rehabilitation Program: A Randomized Trial

Background/ObjectivePrior research indicates interdisciplinary pain rehabilitation program (IPRP) usual care (UC) does not sufficiently address sleep problems among individuals with comorbid chronic pain and clinical levels of insomnia. Cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is an evidence-based insomnia intervention. The current study investigates the translation of CBT-I into an IPRP.MethodIn this single-site, prospective, randomized controlled pilot study, insomnia and pain-related outcomes were examined for adults participating in a 10-week IPRP (N = 79) who were allocated to a 4-session group-based CBT-I (IPRP+CBT-I) or usual care (IPRP-UC) condition.ResultsPatients in the IPRP+CBT-I group showed improvements in insomnia symptoms at the end compared to the beginning of the CBT-I group; however, there were no IPRP outcome differences relative to the IPRP-UC condition. Both groups reported statistically significant reductions in insomnia, pain severity, pain-related life interference, and depressed mood. Fewer than one-third of participants reported clinically meaningful reductions in insomnia symptoms following IPRP participation.ConclusionsFurther efforts are needed to address sleep problems in pain rehabilitation settings.     

Attribution in sport psychology: seeking congruence between theory,research and practice

ObjectivesThis paper urges revision of the way attributions are conceptualised, investigated, and applied in sport psychology. There has been a recent decline in attribution research in sport psychology, despite the generally accepted relevance of attributions in applied settings. In seeking closer links between attribution theory, research, and practice, we argue that there is a mismatch between research and practice in sport psychology.MethodsRelevant literature is reviewed and theoretical arguments offered within seven sub-headings: attribution theory in practice; linking consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus information to attribution dimensions; controllability as the primary attribution dimension; the generalisability of controllability; assessing attributions; implications for practice; and the social context.Results and conclusionsResearch within sport psychology should focus on the central issue of how controllability attributions generalise across time, situations, and people. Measurement should reflect this approach to research within the field of attributions and, to this end, researchers might consider using a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods of inquiry. Practitioners should use consistency, distinctiveness, and consensus information to challenge clients' attributional thinking and help them attain adaptive perceptions of controllability. Practitioners should also help clients to be their own psychologist. Future research and practice should include a consideration of the social context in which attributions are shaped.     

The experiences of transgender and non-binary children and young people and their parents in healthcare settings in England,UK: Interviews with members of a family support group

Abstract

Background: Transgender and non-binary children and young people and their parents in England, UK are poorly served across a range of healthcare settings. Whilst UK equalities legislation and international guidance on transgender healthcare pathways protects this group from discrimination and mandates an affirmative approach, services in England are not keeping pace.

Aims: This study aims to draw on the experiences of transgender and non-binary children, young people and their parents in a support group in England in order to investigate their experiences of healthcare provision, and to develop some ideas for improvement.

Method: Data was collected with participants in a family support group which offers a parent helpline service, social groups for children and parents, and training for schools and other organizations. 65 parents and children from 27 families from the family support group attended participatory workshops where they were given a range of briefs: “health,” “family,” “friends,” and “education.” Their participation involved being asked to define their own interview questions and collect data by interviewing each other. Their interview notes constituted the raw data. Data was coded inductively by the author with respondent checking as a second stage.

Results: Results constitute the views of a small group of people, so cannot be generalized. However, they do illustrate some of the issues which may arise. Participants’ experiences elicited five key themes: professionals’ perceived lack of clinical and therapeutic knowledge; mental distress caused by excessive waiting lists; professionals’ stereotyped gender assumptions; direct discrimination within healthcare settings; and a lack of attention to parent and child voice, especially in terms of school-based experiences and where a patient had a diagnosis of autism.