The supervisory alliance: Comparison of measures and implications for a supervision toolkit

Background Clinical supervision lies at the core of the professional development of clinicians providing services within a range of service settings. The supervisory alliance is regarded as the most important construct in effective supervision which underlies the importance of metrics to assess this construct. Aims materials and Method A cross‐sectional self‐report questionnaire design was used to examine clinical supervision constructs. The study used two scales measuring the supervisory alliance (SRQ and SWAI‐T), a scale measuring supervision satisfaction (SSQ) and a scale measuring disclosure (TDS). The questionnaires were administered to 127 clinical psychology trainees who were undertaking a practicum placement. Results Both scales measuring the alliance were positively correlated with satisfaction with supervision and disclosure, with similar sizes of correlation for each alliance scale. There was also a large, positive correlation between the two scales of measuring the alliance. Discussion Both scales were designed for use in supervision and are related to supervision outcome measures in the expected directions. Conclusion The SRQ has some distinct advantages over the SWAI‐T that lend the SRQ to be potentially more useful in clinical and research settings.     

Incremental Validity of Leaderless Group Discussion Ratings Over and Above General Mental Ability and Personality in Predicting Promotion

Leaderless group discussions (LGDs) constitute one of the oldest assessment center exercises. In recent times, their added value has sometimes been questioned in light of trends to streamline assessment centers. The purpose of the present study is to examine the incremental validity of LGD ratings over cognitive ability scores and personality ratings for the prediction of extrinsic career success (i.e., promotion speed and number of promotions). We investigated this issue in the context of the promotion of French naval officers (N = 93) in an academy for high‐level executive positions over a 10‐year period. Results indicated that LGD ratings accounted for incremental variance in the prediction of promotion criterion measures, beyond cognitive ability and personality test scores. These results confirm that LGD ratings provide a unique contribution to the prediction of extrinsic career success in high‐level executive positions.     

Fooled by the brain: Re-examining the influence of neuroimages

A series of highly-cited experiments published in 2008 demonstrated a biasing effect of neuroimages on lay perceptions of scientific research. More recent work, however, has questioned this bias, particularly within legal contexts in which neuroscientific evidence is proffered by one of the parties. The present research moves away from the legal framework and describes five experiments that re-examine this effect. Experiments 1 through 4 present conceptual and direct replications of some of the original 2008 experiments, and find no evidence of a neuroimage bias. A fifth experiment is reported that confirms that, when laypeople are allowed multiple points of reference (e.g., when directly comparing neuroimagery to other graphical depictions of neurological data), a neuroimage bias can be observed. Together these results suggest that, under the right conditions, a neuroimage might be able to bias judgments of scientific information, but the scope of this effect may be limited to certain contexts.     

Parental experience of childhood cancer using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis

Whilst survival rates for childhood cancer have improved dramatically over the past three decades, it is still a devastating diagnosis for family members and an illness which severely disrupts the lifestyle of the family unit. Developing an understanding of the impact of the illness on the family is crucial to better support families’ deal with the demands of the illness. In this study nine families in which a child was diagnosed with cancer were interviewed twice over a 12 month period, approximately 6 months apart. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, a semi-structured interview was used to explicate parent's experience of childhood cancer. The results revealed five super-ordinate themes; (1) a pivotal moment in time, (2) the experience of adaptation in relation to having a sick child, (3) the nature of support, (4) re-evaluation of values during a critical life experience and (5) the experience of optimism and altruism. Findings indicate that parents express both negative and positive experiences as they re-evaluate the meaning and purpose of life, seek to redefine themselves, often in terms of priorities, relationships, sense of community and achieve degrees of optimism and altruism. Implications for addressing the needs of parents and for further research are discussed.     

The search for freedom in extreme sports: A phenomenological exploration

Participation in extreme sports is continuing to grow, yet there is still little understanding of participant motivations in such sports. The purpose of this paper is to report on one aspect of motivation in extreme sports, the search for freedom. The study utilized a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. Fifteen international extreme sport participants who participated in sports such as BASE jumping, big wave surfing, extreme mountaineering, extreme skiing, rope free climbing and waterfall kayaking were interviewed about their experience of participating in an extreme sport. Results reveal six elements of freedom: freedom from constraints, freedom as movement, freedom as letting go of the need for control, freedom as the release of fear, freedom as being at one, and finally freedom as choice and responsibility. The findings reveal that motivations in extreme sport do not simply mirror traditional images of risk taking and adrenaline and that motivations in extreme sports also include an exploration of the ways in which humans seek fundamental human values.     

“Not in My Back Yard”: The Situational and Personality Determinants of Oppositional Behavior1

The present study considered situational and dispositional factors underlying behavioral opposition characteristic of a “not‐in‐my‐back‐yard” (NIMBY) response to a change having adverse personal consequences. Students considered the proposition of comprehensive exams required for graduation taking effect in the near or distant future (high and low vested interest, respectively). Although both groups had similarly negative attitudes toward the idea, the high vested interest group perceived greater personal consequence and expressed greater intention to oppose the plan. From a situational‐dispositional interactionist perspective, it was the impact of the situation (perceived stake), rather than personality traits presumed to underlie a NIMBY response, that proved to be the primary determinant of oppositional behavior.