Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Peer-Administered Psychosocial Interventions on Symptoms of Depression

Many community mental health centers have implemented peer treatment models that employ recovered former clients as cost‐efficient adjunct providers. The effectiveness of these and other peer‐administered interventions (PAIs) for treating depression symptoms has not been well‐established. The current study is a meta‐analysis of PAIs’ effects on depression symptoms. Twenty‐three eligible studies were identified. Study characteristics were coded by multiple raters, random‐effects models were used to compare mean effect sizes, and mixed‐effects models were used to test for moderation. PAIs produced significant pre‐post reductions in depression symptoms (d = .5043 [95 % CI .3675–.6412]). In direct comparisons, PAIs performed as well as non‐peer‐administered interventions (.0848 [?.1455–.3151]), and significantly better than no‐treatment conditions (.2011 [.0104–.3918]). PAIs that involved a professional in a secondary treatment role were significantly less effective than those that were purely peer‐administered, and educational/skills‐based PAIs produced better outcomes than those that were mainly supportive. Follow‐up data, when available, indicated that PAIs’ benefits were maintained. PAIs reduce depression symptoms and warrant further study. The clinical significance of PAIs’ benefits, and whether they are better suited as stand‐alone or adjunct treatments, remain to be established. Implications for the roles of mental health professionals are discussed.     

Keeping it Between the Buoys: Assessing Self-Reported Boating Under the Influence (BUI) in a Young Adult Population

Boating Under the Influence (BUI) has recently become a topic of significant concern. Employing a sample of 1,082 young adult boaters, we explore demographic characteristics of those who seek various levels of intoxication while boating and apply several of the leading criminological theories to the study of BUI. We evaluate self-report measures of intoxicated boating, buzzed boating, and BUI. Results indicate that social learning theory and low self-control are leading predictors of BUI. We conclude that given the social nature and cultural acceptance of drinking while boating, simply lowering the blood alcohol content legal limit may not solve the BUI problem.     

Detecting eye movements in dynamic environments

To take advantage of the increasing number of in-vehicle devices, automobile drivers must divide their attention between primary (driving) and secondary (operating in-vehicle device) tasks. In dynamic environments such as driving, however, it is not easy to identify and quantify how a driver focuses on the various tasks he/she is simultaneously engaged in, including the distracting tasks. Measures derived from the driver’s scan path have been used as correlates of driver attention. This article presents a methodology for analyzing eye positions, which are discrete samples of a subject’s scan path, in order to categorize driver eye movements. Previous methods of analyzing eye positions recorded in a dynamic environment have relied completely on the manual identification of the focus of visual attention from a point of regard superimposed on a video of a recorded scene, failing to utilize information regarding movement structure in the raw recorded eye positions. Although effective, these methods are too time consuming to be easily used when the large data sets that would be required to identify subtle differences between drivers, under different road conditions, and with different levels of distraction are processed. The aim of the methods presented in this article are to extend the degree of automation in the processing of eye movement data by proposing a methodology for eye movement analysis that extends automated fixation identification to include smooth and saccadic movements. By identifying eye movements in the recorded eye positions, a method of reducing the analysis of scene video to a finite search space is presented. The implementation of a software tool for the eye movement analysis is described, including an example from an on-road test-driving sample.     

Psychopathy, aggression, and the processing of emotional stimuli in non-referred girls and boys

Research shows that individuals with psychopathic traits differ in how they process negative emotional stimuli. However, it is unclear whether these differences are specific to certain types of negative emotional stimulus and whether they are more strongly associated with psychopathic traits or aggression. Further, it is not clear whether or not deficits in emotional processing generalize to females and ethnic minority individuals with psychopathic traits. In this study, we examined the emotional processing of visual stimuli using a dot-probe task in 50 non-referred girls and boys (mean age of 9.30; SD = 2.00). Overall, there was a significant association between proactive aggression and reduced responsiveness to distressing stimuli. In addition, the predicted association between psychopathic traits and reduced responsiveness to distressing stimuli was only found for children high on aggression. Also, the associations among aggression, psychopathic traits, and responsiveness to distressing stimuli did not differ for boys and girls.     

Social discounting

The amount of money a person was willing to forgo in order to give 75 dollars to another person decreased as a hyperbolic function of the perceived social distance between them. Similar hyperbolic functions have previously been shown to describe both time and probability discounting.     

Relationships among team ability composition, team mental models, and team performance

This study examined the relationship between the similarity and accuracy of team mental models and compared the extent to which each predicted team performance. The relationship between team ability composition and team mental models was also investigated. Eighty-three dyadic teams worked on a complex skill task in a 2-week training protocol. Results indicated that although similarity and accuracy of team mental models were significantly related, accuracy was a stronger predictor of team performance. In addition, team ability was more strongly related to the accuracy than to the similarity of team mental models and accuracy partially mediated the relationship between team ability and team performance, but similarity did not.     

The Meontic and the Militant: On Merleau-Ponty’s Relation to Fink∗

Abstract

This paper clarifies the relationship between Merleau-Ponty’s Phenomenology of Perception and Fink’s Sixth Cartesian Meditation with regard to ‘the idea of a transcendental theory of method’. Although Fink’s text played a singularly important role in the development of Merleau-Ponty’s postwar thought, contrary to recent claims made by Ronald Bruzina this influence was not positive. Reconstructing the basic methodological claims of each text, in particular with regard to the being of the phenomenologist, the nature of the productivity that makes phenomenology possible, and the problem of methodological self-reference, I show that Phenomenology of Perception is premised on a decisive rejection of the main theses affirmed in the Sixth Cartesian Meditation. In contrast to Fink’s speculative reinterpretation of phenomenology as an absolute science, Merleau-Ponty viewed it as participating in the historical realization of the world, and hence as ultimately based on a practical faith. Albeit with a Marxian inflection, Merleau-Ponty thus related phenomenology much more closely to Kant. This may not be a better philosophical position, but circa 1945 it was Merleau-Ponty’s, whose work must be approached accordingly.