Convergent Validity with the BERS-2 Teacher Rating Scale and the Achenbach Teacher’s Report Form: A Replication and Extension

In the present study, we sought to extend instrument validation research for a strength-based emotional and behavior rating scale, the Teacher Rating Scale of the Behavior and Emotional Rating Scale-Second Edition (BERS-2; Epstein, M. H. (2004). Behavioral and emotional rating scale (2nd ed.). Austin, TX: PRO-ED) through the use of convergent validation techniques. The associations between the strength-based domains of the BERS-2 were examined in relation to problem syndrome subscales of the Teacher’s Report Form (TRF; Achenbach, T. M. (1991b). Manual for the teacher’s report form and 1991 profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry). Both measures were conducted with 58 students with emotional disturbance in grades 2 through 12. The overall convergent validity of the BERS-2 and the TRF was strong, particularly for TRF externalizing problems and associated syndromes. However, less evidence emerged for the convergence of domain subscales characterized by behaviors of an internalizing nature. These results provide further support for the use of the BERS-2 in the assessment of the social and behavioral functioning of students with emotional disturbance.     

Using diffusion models to understand clinical disorders

Sequential sampling models provide an alternative to traditional analyses of reaction times and accuracy in two-choice tasks. These models are reviewed with particular focus on the diffusion model (Ratcliff, 1978) and how its application can aid research on clinical disorders. The advantages of a diffusion model analysis over traditional comparisons are shown through simulations and a simple lexical decision experiment. Application of the diffusion model to a clinically relevant topic is demonstrated through an analysis of data from nonclinical participants with high- and low-trait anxiety in a recognition memory task. The model showed that after committing an error, participants with high-trait anxiety responded more cautiously by increasing their boundary separation, whereas participants with low-trait anxiety did not. The article concludes with suggestions for ways to improve and broaden the application of these models to studies of clinical disorders.     

LIFE ON THE ISLAND

Walker Percy was both a medical doctor and a serious Catholic—a scientist and a religious believer. He thought, however, that science had become hegemonic in the twentieth century and that it was incapable of answering the most fundamental needs of human beings. He thus leveled a critique of the scientific method and its shortcomings in failing to address the individual person over against the group. In response to these shortcomings Percy postulates a religious understanding of human life, one in which man's life is understood as a pilgrimage or a search. The person who searches may not find the “object” of his search during his earthly life, but it is likely that he will come to a better understanding of himself by means of it.     

An Approach to Teaching Ethics Courses in Human Services and Counseling

This article presents multiple facets of a team approach to teaching and facilitating an ethics course for undergraduate human services students and a graduate ethics course for students majoring in counseling. Starting with general points, this article describes a specific, week‐to‐week approach to a 1‐semester course, concluding with sample student evaluative comments and an experienced professor/author's processing of the experience of preparing and teaching this course for many years.     

Improving the interview skills of college students using behavioral skills training

Obtaining a job as a college graduate is partly dependent on interview performance. We used a multiple baseline design across skills to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training with self‐evaluation for five college students. Training effects were evaluated using simulated interviews as baseline and posttraining assessments. All participants acquired targeted skills, but we observed some individual differences. Participants were satisfied with training outcomes and rated the procedures as acceptable. Furthermore, ratings from university staff who provide interview training indicated that training improved performance across several skills for the majority of participants.     

Differential incidence of procrastination between blue and white-collar workers

The present study compared chronic procrastination tendencies claimed by “whitecollar” working adults (n = 141) with rates reported by Harriott and Ferrari ( 1996) of “blue-collar” working adults (n - 211). Participants completed reliable and valid measures of everyday procrastination tendencies (decisional, arousal, and avoidant), and socio-demographic items at one of several public forums. Results showed no significant difference between classes of working adults on age, gender, marital status, or the number of children, although “white-collar” workers claimed higher levels of education than “blue-collar” workers. “White-collar” workers also reported significantly higher scores on all three forms of chronic procrastination than “blue-collar” workers. It seems that professional employees report procrastination more frequently than unskilled workers. Further research is needed to explore the causes and consequences associated with differences in chronic procrastination by occupational group.     

Self-enhancement and belief perseverance

Belief perseverance—the tendency to make use of invalidated information—is one of social psychology’s most reliable phenomena. Virtually all of the explanations proffered for the effect, as well as the conditions that delimit it, involve the way people think about or explain the discredited feedback. But it seems reasonable to assume that the importance of the feedback for the actor’s self-image would also influence the tendency to persevere on invalidated feedback. From a self-enhancement perspective, one might ask: Why would people persist in negative self-beliefs, especially when the basis for those beliefs has been discredited? In the present study, actors and observers completed a word-identification task and were given bogus success or failure feedback. After success feedback was discredited, actors and observers persevered equally in beliefs about the actor’s abilities. However, following invalidation of failure feedback, actors provided significantly higher performance evaluations than observers, thus exhibiting less perseverance on the negative feedback. These results suggest that the motivation to maintain a relatively favorable self-image may attenuate perseverance when discredited feedback threatens an important aspect of the self-concept.     

The Quality of Response Time Data Inference: A Blinded,Collaborative Assessment of the Validity of Cognitive Models

Psychonomic Bulletin & Review - Most data analyses rely on models. To complement statistical models, psychologists have developed cognitive models, which translate observed variables into...