Testing a new cognitive behavioural treatment for obesity: A randomized controlled trial with three-year follow-up

It is remarkably difficult for people with obesity to maintain a new lower weight following weight loss. The aim of the present study was to examine the immediate and longer-term effects of a new cognitive behavioural treatment that was explicitly designed to minimise this post-treatment weight regain. One hundred and fifty female participants with obesity were randomized to the new treatment, behaviour therapy (the leading alternative psychological treatment) or guided self-help (a minimal intervention). Both of the main treatments resulted in an average weight loss of about ten percent of initial weight whereas weight loss was more modest with guided self-help. The participants were subsequently followed-up for three years post-treatment. The great majority regained almost all the weight that they had lost with the new treatment being no better than the behavioural treatment in preventing weight regain. These findings lend further support to the notion that obesity is resistant to psychological methods of treatment, if anything other than a short-term perspective is taken. It is suggested that it is ethically questionable to claim that psychological treatments for obesity “work” in the absence of data on their longer-term effects.     

Increasing response diversity in children with autism

Repetitive and invariant behavior is a diagnostic feature of autism. We implemented a lag reinforcement schedule to increase response diversity for 6 participants with autism aged 6 to 10 years, 4 of whom also received prompting plus additional training. These procedures appeared to increase the variety of building-block structures, demonstrating that an intervention that includes differential reinforcement can increase response diversity for children with an autism spectrum disorder.     

Specific Features of After-School Program Quality: Associations with Children’s Functioning in Middle Childhood

This longitudinal study examined associations between three after-school program quality features (positive staff–child relations, available activities, programming flexibility) and child developmental outcomes (reading and math grades, work habits, and social skills with peers) in Grade 2 and then Grade 3. Participants (n = 120 in Grade 2, n = 91 in Grade 3) attended after-school programs more than 4 days per week, on average. Controlling for child and family background factors and children’s prior functioning on the developmental outcomes, positive staff–child relations in the programs were positively associated with children’s reading grades in both Grades 2 and 3, and math grades in Grade 2. Positive staff–child relations also were positively associated with social skills in Grade 2, for boys only. The availability of a diverse array of age-appropriate activities at the programs was positively associated with children’s math grades and classroom work habits in Grade 3. Programming flexibility (child choice of activities) was not associated with child outcomes.     

Agreeableness as a predictor of aggression in adolescence

This multi‐method research linked the Big Five personality dimensions to aggression in early adolescence. Agreeableness was the personality dimension of focus because this dimension is associated with motives to maintain positive interpersonal relations. In two studies, middle school children were assessed on the Big Five domains of personality. Study 1 showed that agreeableness was associated with both indirect and direct aggression. In addition, the link between agreeableness and aggression was strongest for direct strategies. Study 2 examined the hypotheses that agreeableness predicts social cognitions associated with aggression, peer reports of direct aggression, and teacher reports of adjustment. Agreeableness predicted peer reports of aggression and social cognitions associated with aggression. In addition, aggression mediated the link between agreeableness and adjustment. Results suggest that of the Big Five dimensions, Agreeableness is most closely associated with processes and outcomes related to aggression in adolescents. Aggr. Behav. 30:43–61, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Racial Stereotypes and Gender in Context: African Americans at Predominantly Black and Predominantly White Colleges

In this study, relationships among stereotype expectations, gender, and academic self-concept and performance of African American students in predominantly White and predominantly Black college contexts were examined. Stereotype expectations are students' perceptions of biased treatment and evaluation within their major classroom settings (SE). Findings indicated that students' majors were related to stereotype expectations, as well as to their academic competence. Our results also provide evidence of gender and institutional interactions in the relationships between stereotype expectations and academic outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the need to examine issues of race and gender in the academic experiences of African Americans, as well as how their specific school and classroom contexts may influence their experiences.     

Predictors Of Self-Reported Physical Symptoms in Low-Income, Inner-City African American Women: The Role of Optimism, Depressive Symptoms, and Chronic Illness

In this study we examined the association of optimism and depressive symptoms with self-reported physical symptoms in 241 low-income, inner-city African American women with or without a chronic illness (HIV). Although optimism was not a unique predictor of self-reported physical symptoms over and above depressive symptoms, optimism interacted with depressive symptoms and health status. In the community sample, but not the chronically ill sample, optimism buffered the association between depressive symptoms and self-reported physical symptoms. Clinical implications and directions for future research are discussed.     

Psychometric and behavioral measures of central auditory function: the relationship between dichotic listening and digit span tasks.

We hypothesized that the Digit Span (DS) subtest and component tasks (Wechsler, 1991) would show strong relationships with a dichotic listening test (Musiek, 1983). In two sets of archival clinical data (N = 74 and N = 51) we demonstrated that: (a) individuals with central auditory deficits had lower DS scores, F(1, 72) = 7.34, p = .008; eta2 = .09; and (b) left-ear dichotic deficits impacted forward span, F(2, 48) = 8.45, p = .001. Right-ear dichotic listening performance also accounted for significant variance in digit forward span (R2 = 0.17, p = .003). While limited in scope, the studies conclude that forward but not reverse span performance is strongly related to dichotic listening, and can serve as a marker for possible central auditory deficits.     

Experiences and perceptions of multicultural counselling scholars: a qualitative examination

This study explored the experiences and perceptions of 12 multicultural counselling scholars with regard to the field of multicultural counselling. Based on a qualitative analysis, many of our participants noted that aspects of being a multiculturally competent counsellor included open-mindedness, flexibility, a commitment to the field, active listening, knowledge and awareness of cultural issues, skillfulness in making cultural interventions, commitment to social justice issues, self-awareness, and exposure to broad and diverse life experiences. Most of the participants also stated that a challenge associated with being a multicultural psychologist was colleagues’, institutions’, and others’ resistance toward and lack of support for multicultural counselling issues. Moreover, many participants indicated that the multicultural counselling movement has had good to great impact on the larger field of applied psychology. Future research directions for the area of multicultural counselling are discussed.     

Aging and Language Production

Experimental research and older adults' reports of their own experience suggest that the ability to produce the spoken forms of familiar words declines with aging. Older adults experience more word-finding failures, such as tip-of-the-tongue states, than young adults do, and this and other speech production failures appear to stem from difficulties in retrieving the sounds of words. Recent evidence has identified a parallel age-related decline in retrieving the spelling of familiar words. Models of cognitive aging must explain why these aspects of language production decline with aging whereas semantic processes are well maintained. We describe a model wherein aging weakens connections among linguistic representations, thereby reducing the transmission of excitation from one representation to another. The structure of the representational systems for word phonology and orthography makes them vulnerable to transmission deficits, impairing retrieval.