Empowerment praxis in community coalitions

Community coalitions address a wide variety of community problems, espousing a community development processes that promotes individual and collective self-determination. They offer a promising venue for the study of empowerment of individuals and organizations. This study utilizes data from members of 35 community coalitions organized for the prevention of alcohol and other drug problems to address the following questions: What individual characteristics are related to the psychological empowerment of coalition members? What organizational characteristics are related to the collective empowering of members? What organization characteristics are related to a coalition being organizationally empowered to succeed in achieving its objectives? At the individual level, psychological empowerment was most strongly related to individuals' participation levels, sense of community, and perceptions of a positive organizational climate. At the group level, the strongest predictors of collective empowering (our operationalization of the empowering organization) were net benefits of participation, commitment, and positive organization climate. Psychological empowerment and positive organizational climate were the two predictors of organizational effectiveness (the empowered organization). Implications and limitations of these findings are discussed.     

An appraisal of the validity of the factor loadings employed in the construction of the primary social attitude scales

In this article the authors examine the effect of including alternate test forms in a factor matrix upon the validity of the resultant factor loadings, finding that in this particular instance the effect is negligible. Comparisons of the factor loadings derived from matrices in which only one of the alternate test forms is included with those in which both forms are included reveal practically no difference in the magnitude of either the original or rotated factor loadings, or in that of the computed communalities.     

The factorial interpretation of test difficulty

This paper discusses the influence of test difficulty on the correlation between test items and between tests. The greater the difference in difficulty between two test items or between two tests the smaller the maximum correlation between them. In general, the greater the number of degrees of difficulty among the items in a test or among the tests in a battery, the higher the rank of the matrix of intercorrelations; that is, differences in difficulty are represented in the factorial configuration as additional factors. The suggestion is made that if all tests included in a battery are roughly homogeneous with respect to difficulty existing hierarchies will be more clearly defined and meaningful psychological interpretation of factors more readily attained.     

Tactile Prompting and Weekly Performance Feedback for Increasing Teachers’ Behavior-Specific Praise

The school-based consultation literature includes a variety of empirically supported procedures for increasing teachers’ implementation of classroom management strategies. However, teachers may respond differently to empirically supported consultation procedures. This study used a multiple baseline design across three elementary teachers to test the effects of a tactile prompting and weekly performance feedback consultation procedure for increasing teachers’ behavior-specific praise. Additionally, this study included data for teachers’ rate of reprimands and their classrooms’ appropriately engaged behavior and disruptive behavior. Results indicated that tactile prompting and weekly performance feedback increased behavior-specific praise for all three teachers. However, a functional relation between tactile prompting and weekly performance feedback and changes in teachers’ reprimands and their classrooms’ appropriately engaged and disruptive behavior was not established. Implications for applied practice, and limitations and directions for future research are discussed.     

Pick Your Poison: Choice of Activity Determines Mood Management Following a Stressful Task

People routinely seek out activities they believe will relieve stress. There has always been debate regarding the extent to which different activities, particularly those with aggressive content, successfully manage mood or worsen it. It is routinely believed that engaging in highly aggressive activities after becoming stressed worsens mood. However, unlike experiments, in real life people generally select activities that match their interests. In the present study, 105 university students were exposed to an acute stressor then randomized to either (a) a time filler control task; (b) to hit a bobo doll; or (c) given a choice of five different activities, some aggressive, some not. Results indicated that those who were given a choice of activities experienced the greatest reductions in stress and hostility. Furthermore, evidence did not suggest that more aggressive activities made participants more hostile, stressed, or aggressive.     

Virtual reality goes to war: a brief review of the future of military behavioral healthcare

Numerous reports indicate that the incidence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in returning OEF/OIF military personnel is creating a significant healthcare challenge. These findings have served to motivate research on how to better develop and disseminate evidence-based treatments for PTSD. Virtual Reality delivered exposure therapy for PTSD has been previously used with reports of positive outcomes. This article details how virtual reality applications are being designed and implemented across various points in the military deployment cycle to prevent, identify and treat combat-related PTSD in OIF/OEF Service Members and Veterans. The summarized projects in these areas have been developed at the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies, a U.S. Army University Affiliated Research Center, and this paper will detail efforts to use virtual reality to deliver exposure therapy, assess PTSD and cognitive function and provide stress resilience training prior to deployment.