Moving from Principles to Practice: Recommended Policy Changes to Promote Family-Centered Care

This paper emphasizes the value of family-centered care. Discussion highlights family-centered philosophies (e.g., Systems of Care [SOCs]) and practice models (i.e., wraparound) and identifies discrepancies between conceptualizations and actual practice. Data from multiple sources detail issues in fidelity to family-centered values and needs and risks experienced by siblings of children with severe emotional disturbance and their caregivers. This discussion provides a springboard for policy recommendations to strengthen family support programming and enhance family-centered care, from modifying funding streams such that systems extend their reach beyond children with full-blown, diagnosable problems (those meeting standards of "medical necessity), to supporting prevention and early intervention initiatives that address families as targets for intervention. Recommendations include ensuring that communities with SOC funding address the needs of families; broadening Medicaid rules and definitions; expanding the range of reimbursable activities and services; and increasing funding for evaluating family-centered care models and family support programming.     

An Approach to Use of Color on the Rorschach through Individual Color Preferences

More must be learned of color and its possible relationships with the Rorschach before its interpretation may be taken with assurance. Twenty Ss were administered the Rorschach and a Color Battery of four tasks chosen to tap color preference. Preferences were analyzed for use of the color on the Rorschach plates; color response scores and form-level scores; relationship with color meaning for the subject. Significances were found between: (1) preference and use of color; (2) preference and CF and C scores; (3) plus form-level and preferences. Color meanings varied with each subject. Color preference may influence the subject's use of color on the Rorschach, as well as scores, regardless of what the preferred color may be or the amount available. Generalizations are not warranted on the basis of color or color use, especially as regards differential diagnosis.     

Threat of Shock,State Anxiety,and the Holtzman Inkblot Technique

To study the relationship of selected Holtzman Inkblot Technique (HIT) scores and anxiety, Ss were matched on the basis of A-Trait scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI). The HIT was administered to Ss under neutral and threat of shock conditions. State anxiety was monitored by means of the A-State scale of the STAI. None of the HIT variables reflected changes in A-State due to the experimental conditions. HIT anxiety correlated significantly with STAI A-Trait. Results are discussed in terms of Trait-State Anxiety theory and previous research.     

A social learning analysis of couples during the second postnatal month

Abstract

This study examined the marital satisfaction and behaviors of 32 couples at one and two months following the births of their first children. Self-report measures of daily satisfaction and daily spouse-observed behaviors were analyzed for patterns approximating those associated with distressed marital interaction identified through earlier social learning studies. Over the time period from 30 to 60 days postnatally, increases were found in spouses' tendency to reciprocate one another's behavior. Except for helpful behaviors involved with care of the infant, spouses at two months postnatally were more likely to reciprocate both irritating and rewarding behaviors than at one month. Nonsignificant decreases in marital satisfaction were accompanied by a mixed pattern of change for spouse-observed behaviors. Predicted changes over time in the proportions of pleasing and displeasing behaviors were evident in only half the comparisons. Increases over time were found for the predictability from spouse-reported daily behaviors to marital satisfaction, but an expected increase in the importance of negative behaviors to the multiple correlation with satisfaction was not obtained. Cross-lagged panel correlation analysis indicated that, for wives, increases in satisfaction at 30 days preceded a parallel increase in their reports of rewarding behaviors and a decrease in aversive behaviors from their husbands at 60 days postnatally. Implications of these findings for identification of couple risk factors for later clinical problems and for early family intervention are discussed.     

How Bias Reduction Is Affected by Covariate Choice,Unreliability, and Mode of Data Analysis: Results From Two Types of Within-Study Comparisons

This study uses within-study comparisons to assess the relative importance of covariate choice, unreliability in the measurement of these covariates, and whether regression or various forms of propensity score analysis are used to analyze the outcome data. Two of the within-study comparisons are of the four-arm type, and many more are of the three-arm type. To examine unreliability, simulations of differences in reliability are deliberately introduced into the 2 four-arm studies. Results are similar across the samples of studies reviewed with their wide range of non-experimental designs and topic areas. Covariate choice counts most, unreliability next most, and the mode of data analysis hardly matters at all. Unreliability has larger effects the more important a covariate is for bias reduction, but even so the very best covariates measured with a reliability of only .60 still do better than substantively poor covariates that are measured perfectly. Why regression methods do as well as propensity score methods used in several different ways is a mystery still because, in theory, propensity scores would seem to have a distinct advantage in many practical applications, especially those where functional forms are in doubt.     

A look at how we look at others: Orientation inversion and photographic negation disrupt the perception of human bodies

Although disproportionate inversion effects have often been considered manifestations of the special processes recruited by upright faces, several papers using sequential matching tasks have reported that body postures also produce sizeable inversion effects. However, comparison of inversion effects observed with transient body postures and effects elicited by judgements of facial structure is complicated by qualitative differences between the stimuli and the tasks. Here we report a series of experiments that use attractiveness judgements to provide a better comparison of the effect of inversion as well as contrast negation on face and body perception. Significant effects of inversion and negation were observed for both face and body stimuli. While the magnitude of the inversion effects was broadly comparable, the negation effect was considerably larger for faces. These effects converge with evidence from cognitive neuroscience to suggest that both faces and bodies recruit similar orientation-specific processes distinct from processes used for generic objects.     

IN DEFENSE OF THE BODY: THE EFFECT OF MORTALITY SALIENCE ON FEMALE BODY OBJECTIFICATION

Previous research has illustrated the negative psychological consequences of female body objectification. The present study explores how female body objectification may serve as a defense against unconscious existential fears. Drawing from terror management theory, an experiment was designed to test the potential functionality of female body objectification. Men and women were primed to think about either their own mortality or an aversive control topic, and levels of body objectification were then assessed for both self- and other (women)-objectification. Findings supported the hypothesis that priming mortality would increase both self- and other-objectification among women, and self-objectification among those who derive self-esteem from their body. Implications for this research are discussed.