Ethnicity, Culture, and Group Psychotherapy

Ethnicity and culture have great therapeutic import in the practice of group psychotherapy, especially given the increasing diversity of the population of North America, and this issue has not received appropriate recognition in the literature. In this paper these terms are defined, and the literature is reviewed. Ethnicity, culture, and psychopathology are discussed, focusing on treatment issues including transference, countertransference, resistance, group cohesion, group process, and multi-ethnic groups. The group therapist must be knowledgeable about ethnic and cultural issues in the lives of the group members in order to promote group cohesion and therapeutic effectiveness. The recognition and exploration of ethnic/cultural differences enhances the work of the group. Recommendations for treatment are discussed.     

Assessing Culturally Different Students for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Using Behavior Rating Scales

Behavior rating scales are commonly used in the assessment of attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). However, there is little information available concerning the extent to which scales are valid with culturally different students. This study explored the use of the ADHD-IV Rating Scale School Version with male Caucasian (CA) and African American (AA) students from ages 5 to 18 years. Teachers rated AA students higher on all symptoms across all age groups. LISREL analysis indicated that scale does not perform identically across groups. This was supported by the results of multidimensional scaling with suggested that there is a different relation between items across groups. Implications for research and practice are discussed.     

“To Err is Human”: An Examination of the Effectiveness of Error Management Training

This research explores how the effectiveness of word-processing training is impacted by a trainee's goal (learning vs. performance) and whether the training program is designed to encourage or discourage errors (error management vs. error avoidant). Ninety-four trainees were randomly assigned to one of four word processing training programs. Results indicated several beneficial effects of both error management training and learning goals including enhanced performance, increased intrinsic motivation, and decreased frustration. Results are discussed in terms of how error management principles might be implemented as well as which worker groups might be most responsive to this type of training.     

A Comparison of Computer-Assisted Psychotherapy and Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Groups

This study is the first independent, randomized controlled study in a clinical setting of a computer-assisted therapy program (Therapeutic Learning Program; TLP) developed to permit individualized therapy in a group setting. This software differs from other computer-assisted approaches in that targets for change are chosen by the patient rather than determined by the software. TLP was compared to a standard cognitive-behavioral treatment in 109 patients with 6-month follow-up. Although both treatments were associated with a significant reduction in symptoms of anxiety and depression at posttreatment and follow-up, no differences were found between treatments with respect to patient-rated satisfaction and effectiveness, clinician ratings of improvement, and scores on measures of anxiety and depression. At treatment midpoint patients tended to give more neutral ratings of satisfaction and treatment effectiveness of the TLP treatment, perhaps suspending judgment about this more novel treatment until its completion. It is concluded that at least one form of computer-assisted psychotherapy is as effective and acceptable to patients in a clinical setting as standard short-term cognitive-behavioral therapy conducted by experienced clinicians.     

Development of the Critical Elements of Genetic Evaluation and Genetic Counseling for Genetic Professionals and Perinatologists in Washington State

We present a method for the development of consensus documents describing the components of genetic evaluation and genetic counseling for various diagnoses. These documents were developed to encourage consistency among genetic professionals in Washington State. Other possible uses of these documents are to provide information regarding genetic evaluations for health care practitioners and payers, and to assist in quality assurance and genetic training programs. A working group of six genetic professionals developed two templates for the critical elements of genetic evaluation and genetic counseling, for clinical (nonprenatal) and prenatal patients. The working group then completed prototype templates for several specific genetic disorders. The templates and prototypes were sent to interested genetic professionals and perinatologists who submitted a total of 76 draft critical elements (CE's) to the working group. At two statewide meetings, participating practitioners modified and unanimously approved the CE templates, then unanimously approved the 21 draft CEs that had been finalized in small group discussions. Approved CE's were distributed to genetic professionals and perinatologists within the state.     

Never cross the path of a traveling salesman: The neural network generation of Halstead-Reitan trail making tests

The Halstead-Reitan Trail Making Test (TMT) is one of the most widely used neuropsychological instruments for the assessment of brain damage. Despite its usefulness, however, the TMT has two major disadvantages. It has not been constructed in a principled manner that would facilitate systematic investigation, and there is no established procedure for generating equivalent, but stochastically different, test forms. The reason is that the generation of self-avoiding TMT pathways resembles the finding of near-optimal solutions to the Euclidean Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) and constitutes a computational problem that is NP-complete. This article describes a practical approach to the problem of generating stochastically different test forms. This approach employs anelastic net neural network to generate TMT forms based on self-avoiding, near-optimal paths, and closed circuits. The usefulness and limitations of this solution are discussed briefly in relation to alternative and complementary problems and procedures.     

Gender-Related Jokes in the Workplace: Sexual Humor or Sexual Harassment?1

When does a joke become sexual harassment? In a partial test of an integrative model of gender-related humor in the workplace, the role of personal and situational variables in perceptions of sexual harassment was examined. Other implications of sexual humor in the office were also studied.     

Differential inheritance of mental abilities in the Texas adoption project

Correlations on subscales of Wechsler IQ tests and the Revised Beta Examination were obtained for biologically related and unrelated individuals in 181 adoptive families in the Texas Adoption Project. Scores were also available for many of the birth mothers of the adopted children. In general, correlations were higher for biologically related individuals, suggesting the importance of genetic influences on intellectual abilities. To examine effects specific to subscales, an analysis of residualized subscale scores was carried out using the Revised Beta. After partialling out from each of the scales the variance predictable from the rest, a model was fit to family correlations among the residuals. Of the six Beta subscales, three showed specific genetic variance, two showed specific shared environmental variance, and one showed neither.     

Counseling Older Japanese American Clients: An Overview and Observations

Older Japanese American clients bring a unique set of historical and cultural characteristics to the counseling setting. Several important aspects of providing counseling to this group are discussed, including ethical issues based on cultural differences and nontraditional approaches to counseling.