Cognitive counselling intervention: treatment effectiveness in an Italian university centre

Offering counselling to students is increasingly considered as a key academic service. However, the reduction of resources allocated to Italian universities emphasises the need to assess the quality of interventions. This paper presents data reporting the effectiveness of a university counselling service. A sample of 45 undergraduate students completed a cognitive-relational intervention at a counselling service in a University in the North of Italy. The project focused on the development of reappraisal skills and problem-solving strategies to manage difficult situations. The results showed a significant pre and post-intervention reduction in self-reported psychopathological symptoms (measured with Symptoms Check List 90-Revised) as well as in general levels of distress (measured with Clinical Outcome in Routine Evaluation-Outcome Measure). A significant increase in reappraisal levels, measured with the Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, was observed, which is a focal element of the counselling intervention. There were no detectable changes in the level of suppression.     

Editorial: Evidence on Questionable Research Practices: The Good,the Bad,and the Ugly

Purpose

Questionable research or reporting practices (QRPs) contribute to a growing concern regarding the credibility of research in the organizational sciences and related fields. Such practices include design, analytic, or reporting practices that may introduce biased evidence, which can have harmful implications for evidence-based practice, theory development, and perceptions of the rigor of science.

Design/Methodology/Approach

To assess the extent to which QRPs are actually a concern, we conducted a systematic review to consider the evidence on QRPs. Using a triangulation approach (e.g., by reviewing data from observations, sensitivity analyses, and surveys), we identified the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Findings

Of the 64 studies that fit our criteria, 6 appeared to find little to no evidence of engagement in QRPs and the other 58 found more severe evidence (91 %).

Implications

Drawing upon the findings, we provide recommendations for future research related to publication practices and academic training.

Originality/value

We report findings from studies that suggest that QRPs are not a problem, that QRPs are used at a suboptimal rate, and that QRPs present a threat to the viability of organizational science research.

     

Intoxicated Witnesses: Testing the Validity of the Alcohol Myopia Theory

In an assessment of the Alcohol Myopia Theory (AMT), the effects of alcohol on an eyewitness's recall of high‐salience and low‐salience details were investigated. In a laboratory, Study 1 participants watched a staged videoed theft whilst either sober (control or placebo), above (M_BAC = 0.09%) or below (M_BAC = 0.06%) the UK drink‐drive limit. A week later, a free recall and recognition tests were completed. Intoxication was not found to reduce recall accuracy using either recall task. In Study 2, whilst on a night out, participants watched the videoed theft with high (M_BAC = 0.14%) or low (M_BAC = 0.05%) blood alcohol concentrations (BACs). A week later, the free recall and recognition tests were attempted. High BACs were seen to impair recall when memory was assessed through free recall but not with the recognition test. Neither study found the attention narrowing predicted by AMT using either recall technique, although poor recall for low‐salience details in all groups may have contributed to this result. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Psychopathic Traits Mediate the Relationship Between Exposure to Violence and Violent Juvenile Offending

Exposure to violence (ETV) has emerged as a key and stable predictor of violent offending. However, not all youth offenders who experience ETV go on to chronic violent offending. Consequently, it is possible that individual differences, such as psychopathic traits, may be an important factor in the link between ETV and violent offending. These traits are associated with exposure to violence and, separately, to violent offending. The present study used data from Pathways to Desistance, a multisite, longitudinal study of serious juvenile offenders (N = 1170, Mean_age = 16.05, SD = 1.16) to explore these relationships, simultaneously. First, autoregressive cross-lagged path models were used to examine the longitudinal bivariate relations among violent offending, ETV, and psychopathic traits. Second, latent class growth analysis was used to determine trajectories ETV. And third, the mediating influence of psychopathic traits was examined. Results indicated that ETV predicted later engagement in violence, but there was some degree of reciprocity between ETV and violence over time. Additionally, respondents with stable high or increasing trajectories of ETV reported more instances of violent offending. Finally, psychopathic traits mediated the relationship between ETV and violent offending. Together these findings support the notion that individuals with psychopathic traits perceive and internalize their environment differently than others and that this difference guides their own violent offending. Given the importance of psychopathic traits for understanding the influence of ETV on violent offending, prevention and intervention strategies must be developed that take into account both individual differences and environmental factors.     

Adolescent Health Care Training in Predoctoral Psychology Internship Programs: A Model of Interdisciplinary Training Needs in Health Care

This needs assessment of predoctoral psychology programs in a large southeastern state reveals that although many programs include adolescent health issues and often involve the psychiatry discipline in their curricula, many trainees do not have exposure to medicine, nutrition, or nursing disciplines. Opportunities for greater interdisciplinary adolescent health care training exist in psychology training programs in this southeastern state. Integrating such training into psychology programs may enhance psychology's ability to function as a vital component of adolescent health care teams within academic medical centers across the country.     

ANGER AND DEPRESSION IN GIRLS AND BOYS A Study of Gender Differences

A growing body of literature supports the link between anger suppression and depression and females'greater likelihood than males of demonstrating both. Anger suppression was hypothesized to be involved in the development of gendered identity for girls, specifically by rendering girls more likely to experience depression. Employing an ethnically diverse sample of public school children, differences between fifth through ninth grade girls and boys in anger suppression and depression were investigated using self-report data. Results supported the hypothesis that girls suppress anger at higher rates than boys but not the related hypothesis that this suppression results in higher levels of depression. Age was not related to either anger suppression or depression, and no significant relationship was found between suppressed anger and depression for either sex. The impact of girls'anger suppression on their emotional and gender development is discussed.     

The influence of suggestions on children's reports of a unique experience versus an instance of a repeated experience

In Experiment 1 we compared the influence of misleading suggestions on 4‐, 6‐, and 8‐year‐olds' reports of details of an instance of a repeated experience versus a unique experience. For children who experienced the event repeatedly, some components remained constant across instances (fixed) whereas others varied (variable). Relative to children who had experienced the event only once, those who had experienced it repeatedly were less affected by suggestions regarding fixed details and more affected by suggestions regarding variable details. In Experiment 2 a misinformation effect was observed in responses to questions about variable details but not in responses to questions about fixed details. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Choices and opportunities: another effect of framing on decisions

Many decisions can be framed either as ‘choices’ between alternative courses of action (e.g. Should I move to New York or stay in Chicago?) or as ‘opportunities’ to pursue a particular course of action (i.e. Should I move to New York?). Although there is no logical difference between these two different decision frames, there may be important psychological differences between them. In four studies, we explore the differences between ‘choices’ and ‘opportunities’. The results of Studies 1 and 2 show that college students view many of the decisions they typically face as opportunities, rather than choices. Further, the results of Study 2 suggest that the frame students adopt is systematically related to the preferences they express. The latter finding led to Studies 3 and 4, where we show that preferences can be influenced by encouraging people to adopt one decision frame rather than another. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Issues in the treatment of depressed children

Basic research into the cognitive, behavioral, familial, and physiological disturbances associated with depressive disorders during childhood is reviewed. Implications for the development of a treatment program are discussed and a comprehensive treatment model is proposed. The proposed model includes intervention strategies for the child, parents, family, and school. The child component consists of intervention strategies for the affective, cognitive, behavioral, and physiological disturbances that are evident from the existing research. The parent training component is designed to address disturbances in parenting due to cognitive disturbances and skills deficits. The family therapy component emphasizes changing interaction patterns that communicate schema-consistent maladaptive interactions. A school consultation component is proposed in which school personnel support the skills training through prompting use of the skills and reinforcement of the use of the coping skills.     

Ages of Mankind

As we move through life in the world, the quality of our participation changes. Initially, as newborns, we are not even aware of a difference between ourselves and everything, everyone else. In the small domestic world (“home”), we experience parental care and accept being taught how to behave, how to be. This process continues into school years and the adjustments that allow life with our peers. Ultimately, in adolescence there is felt a beginning need for independence of action and feeling. With adulthood, making a life in the bigger world requires the force of will against obstacles and for goals. At midlife, there comes another gradual shift to the question of meaning in life and of old age and death. All these changes reflect a procession of ways in which the ego or consciousness relates to inner and outer worlds.