Supervising counsellors and psychotherapists who work with trauma: a Delphi study

In this study the Delphi technique was used to identify the main supervision issues that require attention and consideration when supervising counsellors and psychotherapists working with trauma. A panel of supervisors, who were additionally experienced in working with trauma in adulthood, completed a series of three questionnaires comprising two qualitative and one quantitative round. Themes and key concepts were identified from the data, and the respondents rated the importance of the themes using a visual analogue scale. This iterative process identified areas where there was consensus amongst the respondents and areas where contention was apparent. The results revealed significant issues pertinent to the supervision of trauma therapists, with a particularly strong emphasis around training, experience and organisational issues. Directions for further research emerging from the study are also discussed.     

The Effect of Participating in Suicide Research: Does Participating in a Research Protocol on Suicide and Psychiatric Symptoms Increase Suicide Ideation and Attempts?

The effect of engaging in an intensive research protocol that inquired extensively about psychiatric and suicide symptoms and exposed participants to a number of images, including suicide-related content was explored. Individuals experiencing a major depressive episode were called at 1 and 3 months after the initial protocol. Participants were asked about changes in suicide ideation and the occurrence of self-harm or suicide attempts following participation. Participants reported experiencing reductions in suicide ideation at the first follow-up and no changes at the second follow-up. No participant reported having engaged in self-harm or having attempted suicide at either follow-up. Results suggest that basic science/nontreatment research can be conducted safely with suicidal participants and in a manner that does not increase suicide symptoms or suicide risk.     

Differential age effects for implicit and explicit conceptual associative memory

Older adults show disproportionate declines in explicit memory for associative relative to item information. However, the source of these declines is still uncertain. One explanation is a generalized impairment in the processing of associative information. A second explanation is a more specialized impairment in the strategic, effortful recollection of associative information, leaving less effortful forms of associative retrieval preserved. Assessing implicit memory of new associations is a way to distinguish between these viewpoints. To date, mixed findings have emerged from studies of associative priming in aging. One factor that may account for the variability is whether the manipulations inadvertently involve strategic, explicit processes. In two experiments we present a novel paradigm of conceptual associative priming in which subjects make speeded associative judgments about unrelated objects. Using a size classification task, Experiment 1 showed equivalent associative priming between young and older adults. Experiment 2 generalized the results of Experiment 1 to an inside/outside classification task, while replicating the typical age-related impairment in associative but not item recognition. Taken together, the findings support the viewpoint that older adults can incidentally encode and retrieve new meaningful associations despite difficulty with the intentional recollection of the same information.     

Self–Observer Rating Discrepancies of Managers in Asia: A study of derailment characteristics and behaviors in Southern and Confucian Asia

Antecedents to self–observer rating discrepancies in multisource instruments have been established at the individual and organizational level. However, research examining cultural antecedents is limited, which is particularly relevant as multisource instruments gain popularity around the world. We investigated multisource ratings of 860 Asian managers from the regions of Southern Asia (n=261) and Confucian Asia (n=599) and analyzed cultural differences in self–observer rating discrepancies. Multivariate regression procedures revealed that the self–observer rating discrepancy was wider for managers from Southern Asia as compared with Confucian Asia. The reason for the discrepancy was driven by managers' self‐ratings being different across cultures than by observer ratings from managers' bosses, direct reports, or peers; the predictor is related to self‐ratings not observer ratings, producing differential self–observer ratings due to self‐ratings. We discuss cultural differences in self‐ and observer ratings within Asia and provide implications for the practice of multisource assessments.     

The humbling experience of treating obesity: Should we persist or desist?

Obesity has humbled one research group after another. Some of the field’s brightest scientists have attempted to subdue obesity by treating it, but now, after decades of work, treatment gains remain small, maintenance is poor, and the field produces effects far below what patients want or expect. This can be explained by strong biological and environmental forces that oppose weight loss and foster regain. Attempts to improve treatment must continue, but with recognition that treatment is a clinical measure and will not affect prevalence (because treatments are too expensive to be used broadly). Policy change and prevention will be necessary to improve public health.     

Using perceptrons to explore the reorientation task

The reorientation task is a paradigm that has been used extensively to study the types of information used by humans and animals to navigate in their environment. In this task, subjects are reinforced for going to a particular location in an arena that is typically rectangular in shape. The subject then has to find that location again after being disoriented, and possibly after changes have been made to the arena. This task is used to determine the geometric and featural cues that can be used to reorient the agent in the arena. The purpose of the present paper is to present several simulation results that show that a simple neural network, a perceptron, can be used to generate many of the traditional findings that have been obtained using the reorientation task. These results suggest that reorientation task regularities can be explained without appealing to a geometric module that is a component of spatial processing.     

Encouraging electricity savings in a university residential hall through a combination of feedback, visual prompts, and incentives

This experiment investigated the combined use of visual prompts, daily feedback, and rewards to reduce electricity consumption in a university residential hall. After a 17-day baseline period, the experimental intervention was introduced in the intervention hall, and no change was made in the control hall. Energy usage decreased in the intervention hall, but energy usage did not change appreciably in the control hall. In the intervention hall, mean daytime and nighttime savings were 16.2% and 10.7%, respectively, compared to savings of 3.8% (day) and 6.5% (night) in the control hall.     

Applying signal-detection theory to the study of observer accuracy and bias in behavioral assessment

We evaluated the feasibility and utility of a laboratory model for examining observer accuracy within the framework of signal-detection theory (SDT). Sixty-one individuals collected data on aggression while viewing videotaped segments of simulated teacher-child interactions. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to determine if brief feedback and contingencies for scoring accurately would bias responding reliably. Experiment 2 focused on one variable (specificity of the operational definition) that we hypothesized might decrease the likelihood of bias. The effects of social consequences and information about expected behavior change were examined in Experiment 3. Results indicated that feedback and contingencies reliably biased responding and that the clarity of the definition only moderately affected this outcome.     

A Case Series of Family-Based Therapy for Weight Restoration in Young Adults with Anorexia Nervosa

This case series aims to examine the preliminary efficacy, acceptability and feasibility of Family-Based Treatment to promote weight restoration in young adults with anorexia nervosa. Four young adults with sub/threshold anorexia nervosa were provided 11–20 sessions of Family-Based Treatment for young adults with pre-, post- and follow-up assessments. At post- and follow-up, 3/4 participants were in the normal weight range, 3/4 were in the non-clinical range on the Eating Disorders Examination and reported being not/mildly depressed. At post-treatment, 2/4 were in the good psychosocial functioning range and by follow-up, 3/4 were in this range. These results suggest that Family-Based Treatment for young adults with anorexia nervosa is a promising treatment.