Interventions with care givers of dementia patients: comparison of two approaches

We compared the effect of two approaches, family counseling and support groups, for relieving the stress and burden experienced by care givers of dementia patients. Both treatments are designed to implement features of a stress-management model that have been identified in prior research with this population: providing information about the patient's disease and its effects on behavior, teaching behavioral problem solving for managing difficult behavior, and identifying potential support for care givers. Subjects were primary care givers of dementia patients living in the community; they included husbands, wives, daughters, and other relatives. Although subjects in the treatment groups made significant gains over time, they did not differ from wait-list subjects who showed similar improvements. One-year follow-up interviews indicated that gains made during the treatment period were maintained.     

Automaticity and the capture of attention by a peripheral display change

The proposal that peripheral visual changes (cues) tend to summon attention automatically was tested by studying the effect of peripheral cueing on simple detection latency. Delay between cue onset and target onset, the contingent relationship between cue location and target location, and instructions to subjects were manipulated. Results showed that a peripheral display change could capture attention even when the target was far more likely to appear at an uncued location. When subjects were explicitly informed that targets were likely to appear away from the cued location they were able to suppress this effect, but were unable completely to reverse it by rapidly orienting attention towards the uncued side. Hence the process appears to be automatic in the sense that it occurs unless there are explicit instructions to the contrary. With explicit instructions the processing operation can be suppressed, but not completely reversed. This work was supported by the U.K. Admiralty Research Establishment (Research Agreement No. 53482).     

THE MEETING OF TWO CULTURES: ETHNIC IDENTITY AND PSYCHOSOCIAL ADJUSTMENT OF ITALIAN-AUSTRALIAN ADOLESCENTS*

The present study was designed to explore both the predictors of ethnic identity and the relationship between ethnic identity and psychosocial adjustment. Perceptions of ethnicity and ethnic identity and measures of psychosocial adjustment were obtained from 82 Italian-Australian adolescents. Parents' maintenance of cultural ties was associated with a strong sense of ethnic identity, however ethnic identity was relatively unimportant in predicting psychosocial adjustment. Cultural variables such as parents' embeddedness in the Italian community, the desire to assimilate into the Australian culture, and the perception of problems arising from minority group membership were of greater significance.     

The role of phonemes and syllables in the perceived similarity of speech sounds for children

In two experiments, we investigated the factors that influence the perceived similarity of speech sounds at two developmental levels. Kindergartners and second graders were asked to classify nonsense words, which were related by syllable and phoneme correspondences. The results support the existence of a developmental trend toward increased attention to individual phonemic segments. Moreover, one significant factor in determining the perceived similarity of speech sounds appears to be the position of the component correspondences; attention to the beginning of utterances may have developmental priority. An unexpected finding was that the linguistic status of the unit involved in a correspondence (whether it was a syllable or a phoneme) did not seem particularly important. Apparently, the factors which contribute to the perceived similarity of speech sounds in the classification task are not identical to those which underlie performance in explicit segmentation and manipulation tasks, since in the latter sort of task, syllables are more accessible than phonemes for young children. The present task may tap a level of processing that is closer to the one entailed in word recognition and lexical access.     

Self-reported assessment practices of school psychologists: Implications for training and practice

This study reports the results of an investigation of the assessment views and practices of school psychologists in the United States. Results of the investigation indicated that respondents are predominantly behavioral and cognitive behavioral in orientation; spend most of their professional time in the public schools; and engage in a great deal of assessment. Behavioral assessment and projective testing occupies the greatest amount of their social-emotional assessment time. Behavioral interviewing is the most used behavioral technique, followed by behavioral observation, which is reportedly used by approximately one third of the respondents with from 41% to 100% of clients. Although most of the respondents report a preference for continuing to do approximately the same amount of the various social-emotional assessment activities as they are presently doing, very high percentages of respondents indicate that their use of behavioral assessment strategies would increase with development of published instrumentation, normative standards, and standardized out-of-setting behavioral procedures.     

Performance differences following exposure to predictable and unpredictable noncontingent outcomes in high and low achievers

Two experiments are described in which subjects rated as high or low in achievement motivation were exposed to uncontrollable outcomes on a cognitive task. Effects on subsequent performance on a different cognitive task were shown to depend on level of achievement motivation, on whether the uncontrollable outcomes were predictable or unpredictable, and on whether the uncontrollable outcomes were positive or negative. These findings have important theoretical implications which are discussed.     

Successful psychotherapy

This paper develops an existential explanation for the position that different psychotherapeutic modalities enjoy comparable success rates. The explanation provides necessary and sufficient conditions for a successful outcome, related to the actualization level of both client and therapist, and is shown to imply equal theoretical probability of success across modalities.     

When left hands touch: shadow vows and Jung’s quaternity

Is there a connection between the exchange of vows and the fighting and suffering of couples that are unique to the institution of marriage? This essay introduces the concept of Shadow Vows, the unacknowledged assumptions, agreements, and obligations each partner brings to the relationship, which the authors believe are often responsible for longstanding marital discord and strife. The authors ground the existence of shadow vows in Jung’s quaternity, alchemy, typology, archetypal theory, and depth approaches to couple therapy. The essay concludes with a list of themes indicative of shadow vow enactments in clinical work with couples.     

A review on equivalence-based procedures to teach food-portion estimation skills

This review involved a systematic analysis of equivalence-based instruction (EBI) that aimed to improve food-size interventions in diverse populations. Systematic searches identified seven studies published since 2010 that met inclusion criteria. These studies were analyzed according to their participants, design, setting, content taught, training structures, training protocol, testing format, treatment integrity, and outcomes. Results showed EBI procedures for teaching food estimation skills have been mostly implemented with adults. The type of content taught in the identified studies included carbohydrate ranges, portion size with food and non-food items, measuring cups and nutritional content of calories. Majority of included studies used one-to-many training structure and simultaneous protocols for teaching stimulus relations. Five studies completed a generalization probe and three studies reported treatment integrity data. Overall, all participants demonstrated skill acquisition of novel relations between food and portion measurement aides. Recommendations for future research and clinical applications of EBI in teaching food portion estimation are presented.