Improvements to Suicide Prevention Training for Prison Staff in England and Wales

Suicide prevention training for the prison service in England and Wales has been criticized. STORM is a package emphasizing the practice and review of interactions with suicidal persons and was evaluated in a pilot study for use in prisons. Trainees completed questionnaires immediately before and after training and at 6 to 8 months follow‐up. Training significantly improved attitudes, knowledge, and confidence, and improvements were maintained at follow‐up. Satisfaction with training was very high. STORM was successfully adapted for prison settings, and showed good effects among staff trained. It should be provided to the wider prison estate, with regular refresher training.     

Sex Differences in Parental Estimates of Their Children's Intelligence

A series of previous studies with studentparticipants has shown that females' self-IQ estimatesare significantly lower than those of males. In thisstudy, 184 mostly white British adults estimated their own IQ and that of their children. The resultswere in line with previous studies, in that males ratedtheir IQ higher than females (108 vs. 104). Both sexesrated their male children higher than their female children (109 vs. 102). Males tendedmore than females to believe there is a greaterdifference between the intelligence of female and malechildren, but this was not significant. Results wereconsidered in terms of the current sociobiological andsociocultural explanations for sex differences inability.     

Tolerance for Inequity In Buyer-Seller Relationships1

Customers who purchased a household cleaning product from a door-to-door salesman were offered a monetary rebate after the sale. Customers accepted the rebate when it came from a company, but not when it came from the salesman. A second study replicated these findings and also showed that customers were reluctant to accept rebates that came from middlemen (suppliers). It seems likely that customers were more willing to accept money from the company than from other donors becausc they believed the company had higher income.     

Automorphisms of the Lattice of Classical Modal Logics

In this paper we analyze the propositional extensions of the minimal classical modal logic system E, which form a lattice denoted as CExtE. Our method of analysis uses algebraic calculations with canonical forms, which are a generalization of the normal forms applicable to normal modal logics. As an application, we identify a group of automorphisms of CExtE that is isomorphic to the symmetric group S₄.     

Comparison of the Effects of Telephone Suicide Prevention Help by Volunteers and Professional Paid Staff: Results from Studies in the USA and Quebec,Canada

Research since the 1960s has consistently found that lay volunteers are better at helping suicidal callers than professionals. Yet, professional degrees are increasingly becoming requirements for helpline workers. In our first study, we conducted post hoc comparisons of U.S. helplines with all professional paid staff, all lay volunteers, and a mix of both, using silent monitoring and standardized assessments of 1,431 calls. The volunteer centers more often conducted risk assessments, had more empathy, were more respectful of callers, and had significantly better call outcome ratings. A second study of five Quebec suicide prevention centers used silent monitoring to compare telephone help in 1,206 calls answered by 90 volunteers and 39 paid staff. Results indicate no significant differences between the volunteers and paid employees on outcome variables. However, volunteers and paid staff with over 140 hours of call experience had significantly better outcomes. Unlike the United States, Quebec paid employees were not required to have advanced professional degrees. We conclude from these results and previous research that there is no justification for requiring that suicide prevention helpline workers be mental health professionals. In fact, the evidence to date indicates that professionals may be less effective in providing telephone help to suicidal individuals when compared to trained lay volunteers.     

Developing Dyadic Evaluation for Supervision: An Exploratory Factor Analysis

This study addresses the need for empirically validated tools to support the training, supervision, and the discovery of best practices in Marital and Family Therapy (MFT). This project represents a first step in developing the Dyadic Supervision Evaluation (DSE), an assessment tool that is grounded in developmental and systemic theory and is psychometrically strong. An Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) approach was applied to data from 88 trainee-supervisor dyads across four time periods during the first year of clinical training, resulting in 20 factors, including 9 factors for trainees and 11 factors for supervisors with internal reliabilities ranging from α’s = .82–.98. Discussion addresses the utility of the DSE in documenting the developmental and dyadic progression of supervision during the first year of MFT training.     

Distinguishing CEOs from Top Level Management: A Profile Analysis of Individual Differences,Career Paths and Demographics

Purpose

Identifying the characteristics of chief executive officers (CEOs) has been a longstanding goal in leadership and individual differences research. The purpose of this exploratory study was to consider which individual difference and career path variables differentiate CEOs from other senior managers.

Design/Methodology/Approach

Participants (N = 1152) were UK-based senior managers (n = 1040) and CEOs (n = 112) who completed a self-report measure of the Five Factor Model of personality (NEO-PI-R), a measure of cognitive ability (graduate and management aptitude test), and answered a number of additional questions on their career paths as part of development centres. Analyses comprised inter-individual mean difference tests, intra-individual external profile analysis and logistic regression.

Findings

Results indicated that personality facets of impulsiveness, vulnerability, activity and dutifulness showed the largest mean differences. No significant effects were found for the criterion profile pattern, but significant effects were found for profile level. Of the additional predictors, career path variables were the strongest predictors of CEO status.

Implications

The combination of significant effects across domains of individual differences and career path variables emphasizes the importance of a multivariate approach in the study of leadership, top management teams and career progression.

Originality/Value

The current study combines personality, cognitive ability, demographic and career path variables, and applies intra-individual methodologies to explore the characteristics of the very top level of organisational hierarchy.

     

Recognition of facial expressions of different emotional intensities in patients with frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Behavioural problems are a key feature of frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). Also, FTLD patients show impairments in emotion processing. Specifically, the perception of negative emotional facial expressions is affected. Generally, however, negative emotional expressions are regarded as more difficult to recognize than positive ones, which thus may have been a confounding factor in previous studies. Also, ceiling effects are often present on emotion recognition tasks using full-blown emotional facial expressions. In the present study with FTLD patients, we examined the perception of sadness, anger, fear, happiness, surprise and disgust at different emotional intensities on morphed facial expressions to take task difficulty into account. Results showed that our FTLD patients were specifically impaired at the recognition of the emotion anger. Also, the patients performed worse than the controls on recognition of surprise, but performed at control levels on disgust, happiness, sadness and fear. These findings corroborate and extend previous results showing deficits in emotion perception in FTLD.     

Personality,Intelligence and Assessment Centre Expert Ratings

Just under 3000 middle managers were rated on seven dimensions/competencies by consultants after a 1‐day assessment centre and structured interview. They also completed two cognitive ability tests and two well‐established personality tests (NEO PI‐R; MBTI). Correlational analysis showed that the rated dimensions of ‘drive to achieve’, ‘internal locus of control’ and ‘resilience’ all modestly negatively correlated with Neuroticism. All seven ratings were significantly correlated with Extraversion and three each with Openness and Agreeableness. There were few significant correlations with the MBTI but the Thinking–Feeling dimension correlated significantly with combined ratings. Correlations with the intelligence test scores were mostly non‐significant. The seven ratings factored into three identifiable factors: labelled personal assertiveness, toughness and determination and curiosity. Regressions using both a total, overall computed rating of general aptitude, as well as the three scores as criterion variables and ability, personality, participant‐gender and management level as predictor variables demonstrated that they accounted for between a quarter and a third of the variance. Predictors varied considerably as a function of the different criteria measures but ability and gender accounted for little of the variance.