A profile of counsellors working in non-statutory alcohol services

There are 39 voluntary sector alcohol agencies in the UK who meet minimum standards of counselling set out by the national organization Alcohol Concern through their Volunteer Alcohol Counsellors Training Scheme (VACTS). This paper reports on a study to create a profile of volunteer counsellors who work in VACTS-recognized agencies. Fifeen agencies agreed to take part in the study, and 141 counsellors completed and returned a mailed survey questionnaire, to elicit information about demographic characteristics, current and previous counselling training, reasons for undertaking the VACTS training and level of experience within agencies. The results suggest that this cohort of counsellors tend to conform to the volunteer stereotype of the middle-aged middle-class woman. Many counsellors utilize their experience within agencies to develop counselling skills, often in connection with further counselling courses, or to consider a change in career direction. Some counsellors wish to use personal experience of alcohol problems to help others undergoing similar difficulties. In contrast to those in the generic volunteer field, counsellors appear to retain long-term involvement with their agencies. The study concludes that alcohol services in the UK rely greatly upon a group of committed and competent volunteers to deliver individual counselling to problem users of alcohol.     

The Familial Cancer Program of the Vermont Cancer Center: Development of a Cancer Genetics Program in a Rural Area

In response to many scientific discoveries linking cancer in certain families to inherited factors, the Vermont Cancer Center established the Familial Cancer Program (FCP) in December 1993. This multifaceted program combines the expertise of clinicians and researchers in many disciplines, including genetics, oncology, psychology, and molecular biology. The program's goals are identification of families in its region with excess cancer, provision of clinical services to such families, and use of research protocols when available and appropriate. This article describes the experience of setting up a familial cancer program in a rural area and discusses both successes and challenges in such an endeavor.     

An adaptive psychophysical method for subject classification

In psychophysical experiments, one’s goal is usually to measure some continuous parameter hypothesized to determine the statistical properties of a subject’s responses. Methods are well developed that adaptively manipulate stimulus characteristics in such a way that the reliability of the parameter estimate is maximized. However, such methods are inapplicable in situations in which the goal is to assign subjects to discrete categories, rather than to measure a continuous parameter. This paper introduces a technique that is directly applicable to efficient categorization and that adaptively manipulates stimulus characteristics in such a way that the information obtained from each trial is maximized. This technique is based on the principle of minimum estimated expected entropy, whereby stimulus parameters on each trial are chosen in order to minimize the estimated expected entropy of the a posteriori probability distribution that expresses how likely a subject is to belong to each of a group of mutually exclusive categories. A sample implementation of the technique—the classification of infant subjects according to their audiograms—is then described and evaluated via computer simulation.     

Integrity Testing and Deviance: Construct Validity Issues and the Role of Situational Factors

Two studies were conducted to investigate relationships among several types of preemployment integrity tests and situational factors which could play a role in employee deviance. In one study, three integrity measures were administered to subjects who were told to assume the role of job applicant for a position in either a large, small, or unspecified organization. Moral development stage, social desirability, and demographic data were collected. While there was some construct consistency across the different integrity measures, the expected relation between honesty and moral development was not found. There was also no difference in integrity test scores as a function of the organizational size manipulation. In a second laboratory study in which subjects were asked to play the role of job incumbents, both size and perceived equity of organizational climate were experimentally manipulated. The dependent measure was a scale of likelihood of engaging in organizationally proscribed behaviors. While again no effect was found for organizational size, those individuals who perceived themselves as employed in an organization in which employees are mistreated tended to report greater likelihood of engaging in organizational deviance. Implications for integrity testing in personnel selection are discussed.     

Effects of Deviant Child Behavior on Parental Distress and Alcohol Consumption in Laboratory Interactions

Levels of adult distress and ad lib alcohol consumption following interactions with child confederates were investigated in parents of children with no diagnosable psychiatric disorders. Sixty parents (20 married couples and 20 single mothers) interacted with boys trained to enact behaviors characteristic of either normal children or deviant children with externalizing behavior disorders — attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), conduct disorder (CD), and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD). Relative to the normal child role, interactions with deviant confederates were rated as significantly more unpleasant, resulted in feelings of role inadequacy, and produced significantly more anxiety, depression, and hostility. After the interactions, parents were given the opportunity to drink as much of their preferred alcoholic beverage as they desired while anticipating a second interaction with the same child. The participants consumed more alcohol following exposure to deviant as opposed to normal confederates.     

Convergence of clinically derived diagnoses and parent checklists among inpatient children

The extent to which parent rating scales differentiated children according to DSM III diagnoses was examined. A total of 113 psychiatric inpatient boys (ages 6–11) were rated by their mothers or maternal figures on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) and the Behavior Problem Checklist (BPC). Children with DSM III diagnoses of conduct disorder or depression were compared to children without these diagnoses. Externalizing and internalizing scales of the parent checklists and additional measures of child aggression and depression differentiated children according to major diagnoses. The use of parent checklists to classify children indicated a high level of sensitivity for both CBCL and BPC scales for diagnosing conduct disorder and depression. However, specificity of the subscales, particularly for the CBCL, was relatively low, indicating a high rate of false positives. The need for further work that extends the range of diagnosis, that examines subtypes of disorders, and that increases the specificity of the measures for diagnostic purposes is discussed.Completion of this project was supported by a Research Scientist Development Award (MH00353) and a grant (MH35408) from the National Institute of Mental Health, and by a Clinical Research Center Grant for the Study of Affective Disorders (5 P50 MH30915) from the National Institute of Mental Health. The authors are grateful to Elaine Meyer, Karen Esveldt-Dawson, Antoinette Rodgers, and the clinical research team and staff of the Child Psychiatric Treatment Service.     

Measurement of recovery of function in the hemiparetic upper limb following stroke: A preliminary report

Although stroke poses major problems to the rehabilitation professions, little is understood about the processes of recovery of movement. We report here on research in progress aimed at documenting in detail the restitution of movement in the upper limb. The results presented are preliminary in nature since our main aim is to detail the methods by which we have embarked on this study.