Collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations: ideas for a relationally responsive practice

The author presents a set of philosophical assumptions that provide a different language for thinking about and responding to the persistent questions: “How can our therapy practices have relevance for people's everyday lives in our fast changing world, what is this relevance, and who determines it?” “Why do some shapes of relationships and forms of talk engage while others alienate? Why do some invite possibilities and ways forward not imagined before and others imprison us?” The author then translates the assumptions to inform a therapist's philosophical stance: a way of being. Next, she discusses the distinguishing features of the stance and how it facilitates collaborative relationships and dialogic conversations that offer fertile means to creative ends for therapists and their clients.     

Effects of early bilingualism on learning phonological regularities in a new language

Drawing on structural sensitivity theory, the current study investigated monolingual and bilingual children's ability to learn how phonemes combine to form acceptable syllables in a new language. A total of 186 monolingual and bilingual kindergarteners, first graders, and second graders in Taiwan participated in the study. Bilingual children, regardless of whether they actively used a second language at home or simply had exposure to it, showed an advantage over their monolingual peers in learning the phonological patterns in the new language. The study provides empirical support for structural sensitivity theory and calls for the need to reconceptualize the effects of early bilingualism.     

Using efficacy information to manipulate proxy efficacy in novice exercisers

ObjectivesTo examine whether proxy efficacy could be increased through an intervention targeting the four sources of efficacy using a written message.DesignPhase 1 (N = 33) tested the stimulus materials to ensure that the intervention message contained significantly more sources of efficacy than the controls. Phase 2 (N = 86) was an intervention assessing the effectiveness of the stimulus materials in increasing proxy efficacy.MethodIn Phase 1, female novice exercisers were randomly assigned to read either an attention control (AC) or proxy efficacy-enhancing (PEE) message about an exercise class leader. Participants completed manipulation checks assessing content, readability, and inclusion of the sources of efficacy. In Phase 2, participants were randomly assigned to AC or PEE groups and read the stimulus materials tested in Phase 1. In order to establish baseline efficacy, all participants read an AC message at Time 1. At Time 2 one week later, the PEE group read the PEE message while the AC group read a second AC message. Participants' proxy efficacy was assessed at both time points in Phase 2.ResultsIn Phase 1, results revealed that the participants who read the PEE message agreed that their stimulus material contained significantly more efficacy-enhancing information than did participants who read the AC messages. In Phase 2, MANCOVA revealed that, after controlling for Time 1 proxy efficacy, the PEE group had significantly greater proxy efficacy at Time 2 than the AC group.ConclusionsResults suggest that proxy efficacy can be increased through targeted written messages.     

Cognitive vulnerability to depression: a comparison of the weakest link, keystone and additive models

Multiple theories of cognitive vulnerability to depression have been proposed, each focusing on different aspects of negative cognition and utilising different measures of risk. Various methods of integrating such multiple indices of risk have been examined in the literature, and each demonstrates some promise. Yet little is known about the interrelations among these methods, or their incremental validity in predicting changes in depression. The present study compared three integrative models of cognitive vulnerability: the additive, weakest link, and keystone models. Support was found for each model as predictive of depression over time, but only the weakest link model demonstrated incremental utility in predicting changes in depression over the other models. We also explore the correlation between these models and each model's unique contribution to predicting onset of depressive symptoms.     

A gender difference in the false recall of negative words: women DRM more than men

Gender differences in susceptibility to associative memory illusions in the Deese/Roediger-McDermott paradigm were investigated using negative and neutral word lists. Women (n=50) and men (n=50) studied 20 lists of 12 words that were associates of a non-presented critical lure. Ten lists were associates of negatively valenced lures (e.g., cry, evil) and ten were associates of neutral lures (e.g., chair, slow). When asked to recall the words after each list, women falsely recalled more negative lures than men, but there was no gender difference in the false recall of neutral lures. These findings suggest that women reflect on associations within negative lists to a greater degree than men and are thereby more likely to generate the negative critical lures.