Stress counselling in the Post Office

This paper highlights a unique experiment in stress counselling in industry. It will provide the background to an in-house stress counselling service for postal employees in the north-west and north-east of England. The structure of the counselling service, its location within the organization, the problems of setting it up, the terms of reference, the client base and many more issues will be discussed. In addition, systematic evaluation of the effectiveness of the service has also been independently undertaken and will be discussed. Preliminary findings on the impact of stress counselling on sickness absence and psychosocial measures of job stress are presented and discussed.     

Contrast, induction, facilitation, suppression, and conservation

Ten rats received all of their water in daily 1-hr sessions. Following a baseline phase in which lever and water spout were freely available throughout each session, subjects were trained to press the lever for water on mixed schedules composed of two alternating components. Each component gave access to water for a fixed cumulation of drinking time every time the rat cumulated a fixed amount of lever-pressing time. Changes in one component produced contrast and induction effects, both positive and negative, with respect to both lever pressing and drinking in the unchanged component. All schedules facilitated lever pressing relative to baseline. All schedules suppressed drinking relative to baseline, even though contingency sessions allowed ample time to perform the baseline amount of drinking. The entire pattern of results was predicted in quantitative detail by assuming that the total amount of a dimension apportioned to lever pressing and drinking is conserved between baseline and contingency sessions. Conservation theory was shown to predict several effects produced by simple fixed-ratio schedules, and was compared favorably with probability-differential (Premack, 1971) and response-deprivation (Timberlake and Allison, 1974) theory.     

Spatial phase differences can drive apparent motion

Can shape differences drive apparent motion? Results from previous research are equivocal. Much of the confusion may be due to the use of relatively complex stimuli: letters or geometric shapes, comprising many spatial frequencies, phases, orientations, and contrasts. We focus on relatively simple stimuli: Gaussian dampedf+nf compound sinewave gratings. We examine whether relative phase differences, which are critical for shape perception, can drive apparent motion. We find that some, but not all, phase differences can drive apparent motion. Specifically, stimuli that are easily discriminable and perceptually dissimilar can affect the solution of the correspondence problem. In this case, observers consistently perceive stimuli in one frame moving to the position of perceptually similar stimuli in the next frame. This general result holds over a wide range of spatial frequencies, orientations, and contrasts. Implications for theories of motion processing are discussed.     

A methodological review of preference displacement research

The purpose of this review was to identify and compare methodological components of preference displacement research and outcomes. We coded, categorized, and defined patterns of preference displacement for a total of 133 participants across 10 studies. We found that patterns of displacement differed within and across studies, and over 46% of participants did not engage in patterns of displacement. Therefore, the commonly held notion that edible stimuli are more likely to displace tangible stimuli is not as ubiquitous as once thought. However, due to considerable variation in methodology and reporting across reviewed studies, it is difficult to determine what variables may be responsible for obtained study outcomes. We conclude that future researchers consider the importance of each methodological variable coded in our review, and make methodological decisions in the context of the research question they are looking to answer. We also provide additional suggestions for future research and clinical practice.     

The Development and Process Evaluation of PEER: A Camp-based Programme for Adolescents Impacted by Cancer

Journal of Child and Family Studies - Adolescents impacted by their own or a relative’s cancer diagnosis experience significant psychosocial needs. Residential programmes provide...     

Study Preregistration: An Evaluation of a Method for Transparent Reporting

Study preregistration promotes transparency in scientific research by making a clear distinction between a priori and post hoc procedures or analyses. Management and applied psychology have not embraced preregistration in the way other closely related social science fields have. There may be concerns that preregistration does not add value and prevents exploratory data analyses. Using a mixed-method approach, in Study 1, we compared published preregistered samples against published non-preregistered samples. We found that preregistration effectively facilitated more transparent reporting based on criteria (i.e., confirmed hypotheses and a priori analysis plans). Moreover, consistent with concerns that the published literature contains elevated type I error rates, preregistered samples had fewer statistically significant results (48%) than non-preregistered samples (66%). To learn about the perceived advantages, disadvantages, and misconceptions of study preregistration, in Study 2, we surveyed authors of preregistered studies and authors who had never preregistered a study. Participants in both samples had positive inclinations towards preregistration yet expressed concerns about the process. We conclude with a review of best practices for management and applied psychology stakeholders.

     

The Development and Validation of the Memory Support Treatment Provider Checklist

Patient memory for the contents of treatment is staggeringly poor, and poor memory for treatment is associated with worse treatment outcome. Accordingly, the Memory Support Intervention was developed to improve patient memory for treatment as an adjunct to treatment as usual. As plans to disseminate the Memory Support Intervention are developed, it is important to have efficient, accurate methods of measuring fidelity to the intervention. However, the existing method of assessing fidelity to the Memory Support Intervention, the Memory Support Rating Scale (MSRS), is burdensome and requires trained independent-raters to spend multiple hours reviewing session recordings, which is not feasible in many routine mental health care settings. Hence, a provider-rated measure of fidelity to the MSI has been developed. The goal of this study is to examine the reliability and validity of scores on this measure—the Memory Support Treatment Provider Checklist. A sample of Memory Support Treatment Provider Checklists (N = 319) were completed by providers (N = 8) treating adults with depression (N = 84). Three metrics of the Memory Support Treatment Provider Checklist were evaluated: (a) the internal consistency and structural validity using confirmatory factor analysis based on prior research on the MSRS and the Memory Support Intervention, (b) construct validity, and (c) predictive validity. Results indicate that the Memory Support Treatment Provider Checklist yields reliable and valid scores of fidelity to the Memory Support Intervention. Overall, this checklist offers a viable, brief method of evaluating fidelity to the Memory Support Intervention.     

A replication of preference displacement research in children with autism spectrum disorder

The purpose of this paper was to replicate previous research on preference displacement with edible and leisure stimuli. In the present study, the experimenters evaluated preference displacement in 25 children with autism spectrum disorder using combined multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessments that consisted of highly preferred edible and leisure stimuli. In addition, the experimenters used a block randomization procedure to evaluate if assessment order influenced displacement outcomes. The experimenters observed patterns of complete displacement by edible stimuli for four participants and complete displacement by leisure stimuli for two participants; assessment order did not influence outcomes. The results and implications are discussed.     

An alternative approach to calculating Area‐Under‐the‐Curve (AUC) in delay discounting research

Applied to delay discounting data, Area‐Under‐the‐Curve (AUC) provides an atheoretical index of the rate of delay discounting. The conventional method of calculating AUC, by summing the areas of the trapezoids formed by successive delay‐indifference point pairings, does not account for the fact that most delay discounting tasks scale delay pseudoexponentially, that is, time intervals between delays typically get larger as delays get longer. This results in a disproportionate contribution of indifference points at long delays to the total AUC, with minimal contribution from indifference points at short delays. We propose two modifications that correct for this imbalance via a base‐10 logarithmic transformation and an ordinal scaling transformation of delays. These newly proposed indices of discounting, AUC_{log d} and AUC_{or d,} address the limitation of AUC while preserving a primary strength (remaining atheoretical). Re‐examination of previously published data provides empirical support for both AUC_{log d} and AUC_{or d} . Thus, we believe theoretical and empirical arguments favor these methods as the preferred atheoretical indices of delay discounting.