Learning disabilities: an appraisal of Rorschach response patterns

Recent developments with the Rorschach invite research concerning cognitive and coping styles of learning disabled students. This study, based on an N of 25 (12 learning disabled and 13 controls), was designed to assess group differences in perceptual accuracy, self-concept, and reactivity. Analysis showed that learning disabled students represent a diverse population for which highly individualized understanding is required if appropriate schooling strategies are to be devised. Such students, compared with controls, were more inclined to have lower self-confidence, to be more reactive, to avoid emotionally-laden stimuli, to manifest a higher proportion of responses involving perceptual inaccuracies, and to be less spontaneous and less inclined to take risks. Some curricular implications of the findings are discussed.     

Pediatric Psychology: Child Psychological Health in the Next Century

The future of pediatric psychology is reviewed and placed in brief historical context in relation to children's psychological health care. Contemporary trends affecting the delivery of psychological services, research, and clinical training are highlighted, with suggestions for future development. Pediatric psychology is a child-based, developmentally-focused multidisciplinary practice directed toward psychosocial and neuropsychological issues of health and illness in children and youth. Pediatric psychologists need to develop strong professional identities as health care psychologists combined with a collegial and collaborative arrangement with physicians to ensure the future growth and development of pediatric psychology in the next century as a major vehicle to promote children's health care.     

Late Adolescents' Experiences With and Attitudes Toward Videogames1

A total of 229 late adolescents (a large majority 15 to 19 years of age) completed a questionnaire that assesses a broad range of videogame-relevant experiences, preferences, and attitudes. Videogame playing was found to be a more popular, and a more highly regarded, activity among males than females. Gender differences were also found in participants' ratings of their motivations for playing videogames, their evaluations of particular characteristics of videogames, and their selection of their “most favorite” videogame. The differences between frequent and infrequent videogame players appeared to be limited to differences in the extent to which videogame playing is pursued and evaluated as a positive leisure activity, rather than reflecting broad differences in interest or personality. Some relations were found between participants' self-reported personality characteristics (i.e., self-esteem, empathy, conscientiousness, and introversion) and their attitudes toward videogames.     

Lateralized Changes in Regional Cerebral Blood Flow during Performance of Verbal and Facial Recognition Tasks: Correlations with Performance and “Effort”

Functional neuroimaging has been used to investigate neural substrates of mnemonic processes, and cerebral blood flow (CBF) measures have been sensitive to activation with memory tasks. Studies of memory with two-dimensional¹³³Xenon clearance techniques found that word and face recognition tasks produced contralateral CBF changes in mid-temporal cortical regions. This study replicated the activation paradigm, expanding to the three-dimensional resolution of positron emission tomography (PET). Word and face recognition, and a control baseline task were administered to 19 healthy right-handed volunteers (11 men, 8 women) during successive 10 min PET¹⁵O-water measures of CBF. Quantitative CBF rates were calculated with the arterial input function and the equilibrium model. Redistributions of blood flow were compared across tasks using both absolute and relative (region/whole brain) CBF.Replicating the¹³³Xenon clearance findings, CBF was “appropriately” lateralized during task performance (left–right for words > left–right for faces) in the mid-temporal region. Contrary to predictions, the recognition tasks did not activate expected mesolimbic or prefrontal areas. The task-induced CBF changes also correlated with performance. Bilateral CBF in mid-temporal and parahippocampal gyrus regions of interest correlated with the ability to correctly identify word targets (sensitivity). Left-lateralized CBF in the amygdala and hippocampus correlated with better word sensitivity as well as specificity (ability to correctly reject foils). Complementally, right-lateralized CBF in the parahippocampal gyrus correlated with better face specificity performance. In addition, left-lateralized CBF in the amygdala and right-lateralized CBF in the parahippocampal gyrus and hippocampus correlated with “mental effort” indices (task performance relative to basal ability) for word and face memory tasks, respectively. Thus, whereas this recognition task showed the expected lateralized increase in the mid-temporal region and not in frontal and limbic areas, lateralized activation in some of these areas was associated with better performance. Exploratory analyses on other regions showed lateralized changes in one additional temporal region, the occipital-temporal, and several limbic regions.     

New Directions for Performance Appraisal: Some Findings and Observations

The changing emphasis on the aims of performance appraisal systems is discussed, with particular reference to the notion of appraisal as a motivating mechanism. The contention of the Total Quality school that the traditional focus on the assessment function of appraisal is counterproductive is supported, and some data are presented illustrating the doubtful value and accuracy of appraisal ratings, both for evaluating staff and as validation criteria for personality measures. Some implications of recent organizational changes for the development role of performance appraisal are reviewed, with particular reference to upward feedback and competency-based appraisal. Finally, the emerging shape of a new approach to meeting the purposes formerly served by appraisal systems is described.     

Anxious attachment and psychological distress in cardiac rehabilitation patients

This study investigated the relevance of anxious attachment to the differentiation of psychologically distressed and non-psychologically distressed cardiac patients. Attachment is a biologically based behavioral system in which proximity to a special other is sought or maintained to achieve a sense of safety and security. Anxious attachment, as the name denotes, fails to achieve the function of attachment in the sense of individuals having little or no confidence in the availability of their attachment figures. Empirically, three scales (feared loss of the attachment figure, proximity seeking and separation protest) capture the features of anxious attachment as elaborated by Bowlby. These scales were administered to 178 cardiac rehabilitation patients drawn from the cardiac rehabilitation program of the Calgary General Hospital. The results indicate that feared loss and proximity seeking differentiated psychologically distressed from non-psychologically distressed patients. The implications of this finding for the understanding of psychologically distressed cardiac patients are discussed.     

Failure, mistakes, regret and other subjugated stories in family therapy

This paper discusses the notions of failure and mistakes in family therapy, arguing that there are insufficient accounts in the literature which reflect the untidiness and disorder of everyday practice. The idea of dominant and subjugated stories is invoked to map the influence of notions of failure upon family therapy practice. It is argued that our practice would benefit if more accounts of our work routinely included stories of failure, mistakes and regret.     

Interviewee perceptions of an organisational careers guidance scheme

A study was carried out during the early stages of the introduction of a career development scheme in a large government department. Information relating to aspects of various careers counselling issues was gathered from staff who had received such counselling and from personnel staff responsible for its provision. The study shows, amongst other things, that the interviewers were perceived to use some counselling skills, that the interviewers claimed they experienced few problems of role conflict, but that the staff tended to identify the interviewers with management. The findings are discussed relation to the appropriateness of interviewing style and to the broader context of how individuals might influence their career development within the opportunities provided by the organisation.     

TEACHING CONVERSATION-RELATED SKILLS TO PREDELINQUENT GIRLS1

The use of conversation-related skills by youthful offenders can influence social interactions with adults. These behaviors are also likely to be useful to adolescents after their release from a treatment program (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1972, 5 , 343–372). Four girls, aged 13 to 15 yr, residing at Achievement Place for Girls in Lawrence, Kansas, received training on conversation-related behaviors. A multiple-baseline design across youths and across behaviors was used. Youth answer-volunteering in response to questions and three youth nonverbal components (“hand on face”, “hand at rest”, and “facial orientation”) were measured during daily 10-min sessions with a simulated guest in the group home's living room. Answer-volunteering was scored each session as the per cent of 13 “secondary” questions that the simulated guest did not have to ask following 10 “primary” questions. The three nonverbal components were scored according to their occurrence during 10-sec intervals and the resultant scores were averaged per session for an overall appropriate nonverbal score. The girls individually earned points within the home's token economy for participating in each session and additional points were awarded after training if preselected behavioral criteria were achieved for each of the two behavior categories per girl. Some of the training sessions were led by a “teaching-parent” (specially trained houseparent) while others were led by individual girls. Point consequences were administered by both the teaching-parent and by the “peer-trainers”. The average observed rate of answer-volunteering by the girls during pretraining sessions was 30% for S₁, 30% for S₂, 23% for S₃, and 68% for S₄. The average rate of answer-volunteering during posttraining sessions was: S₁ = 92%, S₂ = 89%, S₃ = 90%, and S₄ = 98%. The average nonverbal score during pretraining sessions was 82% for S₁, 53% for S₂, 60% for S₃, and 82% for S₄. The average nonverbal score during posttraining sessions was: S₁ = 98%, S₂ = 98%, S₃ = 98%, and S₄ = 100%. Videotapes of the sessions were shown in a random sequence to four adults (probation officer, social worker, etc who represented “significant others” for the youths' future success in the community. The adults judged posttraining tapes on the average as more appropriate 100% of the time for S₁, 100% of the time for S₂, 90% of the time for S₃, and 70% of the time for S₄. The study demonstrated that training of conversation-related skills is feasible with predelinquent girls, that the girls can help train each other, and that social validation of the training results is possible.