Group CBT for Externalizing Disorders in Urban Schools: Effect of Training Strategy on Treatment Fidelity and Child Outcomes

Public schools are an ideal setting for the delivery of mental health services to children. Unfortunately, services provided in schools, and more so in urban schools, have been found to lead to little or no significant clinical improvements. Studies with urban school children seldom report on the effects of clinician training on treatment fidelity and child outcomes. This study examines the differential effects of two levels of school-based counselor training: training workshop with basic consultation (C) vs. training workshop plus enhanced consultation (C +) on treatment fidelity and child outcomes. Fourteen school staff members (counselors) were randomly assigned to C or C +. Counselors implemented a group cognitive behavioral therapy protocol (Coping Power Program, CPP) for children with or at risk for externalizing behavior disorders. Independent coders coded each CPP session for content and process fidelity. Changes in outcomes from pre to post were assessed via a parent psychiatric interview and interviewer-rated severity of illness and global impairment. Counselors in C + delivered CPP with significantly higher levels of content and process fidelity compared to counselors in C. Both C and C + resulted in significant improvement in interviewer-rated impairment; the conditions did not differ from each other with regard to impairment. Groups did not differ with regard to pre- to- posttreatment changes in diagnostic severity level. School-based behavioral health staff in urban schools are able to implement interventions with fidelity and clinical effectiveness when provided with ongoing consultation. Enhanced consultation resulted in higher fidelity. Enhanced consultation did not result in better student outcomes compared to basic consultation. Implications for resource allocation decisions with staff training in EBP are discussed.     

ESID,Dissemination, and Community Psychology: A Case of Partial Implementation?

Dissemination, the second stage of Experimental Social Innovation and Dissemination (ESID) is a critical, if not defining, element of this social change model. This paper attempts to assess the extent to which community psychology has adopted and implemented ESID's dissemination focus in its training and publications. We identify four levels of commitment to dissemination: dissemination advocate, dissemination activist, dissemination researcher, and experimental dissemination researcher. Content analyses of textbooks, journal publications, and conference papers and a brief survey of doctoral training in the field were conducted. Findings suggest that the dissemination aspects of ESID have been modestly and partially implemented within the field. That is, although there is some evidence of a commitment to dissemination practice (advocate, activist), there is much less evidence of a commitment to dissemination research. The implications of these findings for the effectiveness of the ESID model and for training and practice in community psychology are discussed.     

FIELD REPLICATION OF CLASSWIDE PEER TUTORING

We conducted a large-scale field replication study of classwide peer tutoring applied to spelling instruction (Greenwood, Delquadri, & Hall, 1984). Two hundred and eleven inner-city students in four schools participated during their first- and second-grade school years. The effects of classwide peer tutoring were compared to teacher instructional procedures and pretest probes using a group replication design (Barlow, Hayes, & Nelson, 1984). Analysis of group and individual results indicated that (a) both teacher instructional procedures and classwide peer tutoring were effective in increasing spelling performance above pretest levels, (b) peer tutoring produced statistically greater gains relative to the teachers' procedures for both low and high student groups formed on pretest levels, (c) these outcomes were representative of groups, classes, individuals, and years during the project, and (d) participant satisfaction with the program was generally high. A separate analysis of the social importance of treatment outcome revealed differential findings for low and high groups related to pretest levels. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

SOCIAL VALIDITY ASSESSMENTS: IS CURRENT PRACTICE STATE OF THE ART?

The use of evaluative feedback from consumers to guide program planning and evaluation is often referred to as the assessment of social validity. Differing views of its role and value in applied behavior analysis have emerged, and increasingly stereotyped assessments of social validity are becoming commonplace. This paper argues that current applications of social validity assessments are straying from the point originally proposed for them. Thus, several suggestions for improving current social validity assessment are proposed, including (a) expanding the definition of consumers to acknowledge the variety of community members able and likely to affect a program's survival, (b) increasing the psychometric rigor of social validity assessments, (c) extending assessment to heretofore underrepresented populations, (d) implementing widespread application of well-designed social validity assessments, (e) increasing meaningful consumer involvement in the planning and evaluation of behavioral programs, and (f) educating consumers to make better informed programming decisions.     

Evaluating the heat‐aggression hypothesis: The role of temporal and social factors in predicting baseball related aggression

We examined the role that season progression and social threats play in the heat‐aggression hypothesis within Major League Baseball put forward by Reifman, Larrick, and Fein (1991). Box score data from 38,870 Major League Baseball games between the years of 2000 and 2015 was used to test the heat‐aggression relationship, while accounting for temporal and social factors that may be simultaneously exerting influence on player behavior. Controlling for a number of other variables, we observed that the effect of temperature on aggressive behavior is partially contingent on the point of the season in which the game took place. Aggressive behavior was also more likely to occur when teams played divisional (compared to league and inter‐league) rivals, however this relationship was contingent on season progression. We provide potential boundary conditions relating to the heat‐aggression relationship, indicating this may not be a ubiquitous phenomenon.

     

Dragon Training and Changing Culture: A Review of DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon

DreamWorks' How to Train Your Dragon is an animated coming-of-age story in which the hero uses behavioral techniques to befriend and then to train an adversary. This movie provides an example of the successful dissemination of behavioral principles and technologies to the general population. Although it does not represent best practices in every instance, the movie may be an indication of a broader social acceptance of behavioral approaches to conflict resolution.     

社会实践在卫生法教学中的应用

在卫生法教学中采用社会实践的方法尤为重要,通过开展社会调查等实践活动,有利于激发学生的积极性和创造性,提高学生的创新能力、实践能力,提高学生的素质.从而为社会提供合适的人才,满足社会的需要.     

论曾国藩的忠孝观

在中国传统伦理文化中 ,忠孝是两个重要的范畴。曾国藩的“先于孝而后于忠”忠者观是值得研究的。     

Sidman or statistics?

Murray Sidman's statements regarding variability, experimental control, and generality are interwoven with examples from the literature on conditional discrimination. Sidman's position was that statistical inferences from group studies produce no information about the behavior of individual subjects and that statistical treatment of individual subject data masks variability which may represent conditions that are not controlled. Sidman's work on conditional discrimination provides excellent examples of how complex discriminations should be examined in detail with accuracy levels obtained for each type of discrimination within an experiment. Sidman made important contributions to the foundation of behavior analysis with extensive basic research as well as applications of methods and principles to clinical and educational settings.     

A Closer Look at Eyespot Effects on Voter Turnout: Reply to Matland and Murray

Implicit social pressure, applied via exposure to eyespots in nonpartisan, direct‐mail blandishments to vote, has been shown using randomized field experiments to raise turnout in elections. Similar eyespot effects have been observed across a wide range of prosocial behaviors. A series of recent replications conducted by Matland and Murray (2015) have failed to consistently produce statistically significant eyespot effects on voter turnout, however, leading the authors to conclude the effects observed in previous research were likely illusory. In this article, I rebut this claim, arguing that an alternative, more circumspect interpretation of the authors’ key results points to a different conclusion that supports the notion that eyespots likely stimulate voting, especially when taken together with previous findings.     

Communicating evidence‐based mental health care to service users

There is a significant gap between evidence‐based mental health care and patients, their family members and carers. To inform preventative mental health care among existing and potential service users, this review identifies effective methods for communicating evidence. A systematic review located 14 publications that met search criteria. Several methods can effect behavioural and/or intermediary change among existing and/or potential service users: namely, mass media; health warning labels; policy change; community interventions; school‐based programs; parent programs; and psychoeducation. Robust evidence, however, is lacking. Although effective approaches are likely to be founded on several factors, the review concludes with a discussion of a research agenda, and appropriate methodologies that could strengthen the knowledge base that guides the communication of evidence‐based mental health care to service users. This agenda has important implications for practitioners, policymakers, and researchers, which are also discussed.