Work–Home Interaction and Psychological Strain: The Moderating Role of Sleep Quality

Sleep has been considered crucial for recovery, but little is known about the specific associations between the work–family interface and sleep quality. Based on COR theory, the goal of this study is to examine the moderating role of sleep quality on the relationship between work–home interaction (i.e. negative work–home interaction, negative home–work interaction, positive work–home interaction, and positive home–work interaction) and psychological strain. A total of 273 ambulance workers from Spain participated in the study. Multiple regression analyses revealed that sleep quality moderated the relationship between negative and positive home–work interaction and psychological strain. Findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical and practical implications.     

The Closing of a Ward: A Group Experience

The potential for psychotherapy in a large-group format has been discussed since the 1960s. Day treatment programs provide optimal support for such groups. One program type, which has maintained large-group psychotherapy as a central feature for over twenty years, is described. Essential features include an integrated therapeutic team, with clearly defined leadership, that is open to examination of its own process. Such groups may not only provide effective therapy, but are also readily amenable for teaching and research in psychotherapy.     

Acquiring Foreign Language Vocabulary Through Meaningful Linguistic Context: Where is the Limit to Vocabulary Learning?

The present studies examined the effects of varying degrees of unfamiliar vocabulary within written discourse on individuals’ abilities to use linguistic context for the purposes of translation and comprehension (i.e., lexical inferencing). Prose varied in the number of foreign words introduced into each sentence (e.g., 0 through 7 content words per sentence). Furthermore, Krashen’s Input Hypothesis and the Evaluation component of the Involvement Load Hypothesis were tested to determine the degree at which non-comprehensible input hinders the ability of a learner to successfully use linguistic context for translation and comprehension. Results indicated that, as the number of foreign words per sentence, i.e., non-comprehensible input, increased the ability to successfully translate foreign words and create situational models for comprehension begins to decrease especially beyond five unfamiliar words per sentence. This result suggests that there is an optimal level of effectiveness in the use of a linguistic context strategy for learning foreign language vocabulary, but also that there is a limit to the strategy’s effectiveness. Implications and applications to the field of foreign language learning are discussed.