Innovating With the Model of Human Occupation in Mental Health

This article describes a new approach in a group of National Health Service trusts in the United Kingdom. The assessment and intervention were focused on using the Model of Human Occupation in Mental Health services. An occupation focused assessment and intervention protocol were developed based on the Model of Human Occupation Screening Tool Single-Observation Form (MOHOST-SOF). The aim was to develop a guide to treatment and monitoring to support efficient practice while maintaining an occupation and client-centered focus. Implementation has been successful to date.     

Naturalistic Experience and the Early Use of Symbolic Artifacts

Experience with a variety of symbolic artifacts has been proposed as a mechanism underlying symbolic development. In this study, the parents of 120 2-year-old children who participated in symbolic object retrieval tasks completed a questionnaire regarding their children's naturalistic experience with symbolic artifacts and activities. In separate regressions predicting children's use of video and pictures for information in experimental tasks, predictor variables such as children's exposure to live video and their emerging understanding of graphic representation were significant, even after accounting for the effects of children's vocabulary and birth order and parents' education and occupation. The results support the role of experience in children's early detection of symbolic relations.     

Students’ Academic Cheating in Chinese Universities: Prevalence, Influencing Factors, and Proposed Action

Quantitative research about academic cheating among Chinese college students is minimal. This paper discusses a large survey conducted in Chinese colleges and universities which examined the prevalence of different kinds of student cheating and explored factors that influence cheating behavior. A structural equation model was used to analyze the data. Results indicate that organizational deterrence and individual performance have a negative impact on cheating while individual perceived pressure, peers’ cheating, and extracurricular activities have a positive impact. Recommendations are proposed to reduce the level of academic cheating in China. Many of these are universal in nature and applicable outside of China as well.     

Who Benefits from Couple Relationship Education? Findings from the Largest German CRE Study

In evaluation studies on couple relationship enhancement (CRE) programs, researchers are encouraged to also investigate which couples benefit from program participation. The authors qualified 104 university students to offer an evidence-based CRE program. Up to a 15-month follow-up, the participating couples (N = 234) reported a significant decrease in unsolved relationship conflicts. A 2-day-long intensive training led to better results compared with a weekly format regarding dropouts. Couples with lower pretest satisfaction ratings reported significant improvements over time, whereas couples with initial higher ratings reported no change or a deterioration. Further predictors were identified. The findings should be taken into account in future research.     

Encouraging Prosocial Decisions: The Role of Fairness Salience and Uncertainty

Although the decision to engage in prosocial behavior has received research attention, the literature offers a limited understanding of fairness and uncertainty as antecedents. We propose that one can encourage prosocial decision making simply by invoking the notion of fairness because of its effects on the perceived trustworthiness of the invoking party. We also elucidate the complex role of uncertainty in prosocial decisions in that it has a negative effect while also serving to strengthen the positive effect of fairness salience. Our ideas are tested in two prosocial decision contexts, including participative pricing (i.e., “pay what you want”) and charitable giving. Data from an archival study of a naturally occurring event and two controlled experiments offer support for our arguments. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The role of delight in driving repurchase intentions

A channel differentiator for brick-and-mortar retail stores is the availability of salespeople to assist customers directly in their purchase decision. This research considers two aspects of customer interactions with retail salespeople that lead to perceptions of extraordinary service and enhance repurchase intentions: customer comfort and salesperson expertise. Retail customers desire value-added informational assistance from the salesperson to minimize ambiguity associated with the product and to reduce the risk associated with a purchase decision. A retail salesperson needs to make customers feel comfortable so that the customer will share specific needs during the interaction, and the salesperson can recommend appropriate products and services. Our findings reveal that while both customer comfort and salesperson expertise positively influence satisfaction with the salesperson and customer delight, only customer delight leads to repurchase intentions. While satisfaction is a commonly asserted goal for retailers; the present research suggests that in a transaction-based environment, elevated emotions such as customer delight represent a more powerful predictor of repurchase intentions. This research provides evidence of trainable salesperson behaviors that enhance customer perceptions of extraordinary service and offer firms an opportunity for significant performance gains.     

Sharing specific “We” autobiographical memories in close relationships: the role of contact frequency

Sharing memories in conversations with close others is posited to be part of the social function of autobiographical memory. The present research focused on the sharing of a particular type of memory: Specific memories about one-time co-experienced events, which we termed Specific We memories. Two studies with 595 total participants examined the factors that lead to and/or are influenced by the sharing of Specific We memories. In Study 1, participants reported on their most recent conversation. Specific We memories were reportedly discussed most often in conversations with others who were close and with whom the participant had frequent communication. In Study 2, participants were randomly assigned either to increase or to simply record the frequency of communication with a close other (parent). Increases in the frequency of reported sharing of Specific We memories as well as closeness to the parent resulted. Mediation analyses of both studies revealed causal relationships among reported sharing of Specific We memories and closeness. We discuss the relevance of these results for understanding the social function of autobiographical memory.     

Physical and Sexual Victimization Predicts Suicidality among Women in Prison: Understanding Ethnic and Trauma-Specific Domains of Risk

Few studies have addressed the association between specific forms of trauma and suicidality among incarcerated women. This study examined domains of trauma as predictors of suicidality, and also evaluated ethnicity as a moderator of the association between physical and sexual victimization and suicidality. Participants were 224 treatment-seeking incarcerated women who completed self-report measures of trauma exposure, suicidal behavior, and ethnicity. Women in this sample reported significant histories of trauma exposure and suicidal behavior, and physical and sexual victimization significantly predicted suicidality. Ethnicity moderated this association such that there was a significant positive association between victimization and suicidality for European-American women; however, this association was not statistically significant for ethnic minority women. These findings demonstrate the specific risk conferred by physical and sexual victimization and European-American ethnicity among women in prison.     

Caregivers of School-aged Children with Autism: Social Media as a Source of Support

Support groups provide parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) with additional support which they may not receive from health care professionals. Rapid technological growth has increased the opportunity for parents to access information and support. In this study, we used a qualitative phenomenological design to explore the use of a social media support group, on WhatsApp, to provide support to parents of children with ASD. We used convenience sampling to select six participants who had a child diagnosed with ASD who was in the foundation or intermediate phase at school and between the ages of 5 and 12 years, had been a part of the WhatsApp support group for 6 months or longer, and lived in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Data analysis revealed eight emergent themes, (a) communication support, (b) behavior support, (c) feeding support, (d) emotional support, (e) informational support, (f) the presence of a professional, (g) positive experiences in the group, and (h) limitations of the group. Findings indicate managing behavioral difficulties and emotional support for caregivers were the core functions of the group, and having a professional on the group served as a valuable resource. The use of a social media support group on WhatsApp provided ongoing support to parents of children with ASD, implying that such a group may have clinical significance for use by practitioners as well as the creation of similar groups on other platforms.     

Power comparisons of significance tests of location using scores,ranks, and modular ranks

The Type I error probability and the power of the independent samples t test, performed directly on the ranks of scores in combined samples in place of the original scores, are known to be the same as those of the non‐parametric Wilcoxon–Mann–Whitney (WMW) test. In the present study, simulations revealed that these probabilities remain essentially unchanged when the number of ranks is reduced by assigning the same rank to multiple ordered scores. For example, if 200 ranks are reduced to as few as 20, or 10, or 5 ranks by replacing sequences of consecutive ranks by a single number, the Type I error probability and power stay about the same. Significance tests performed on these modular ranks consistently reproduce familiar findings about the comparative power of the t test and the WMW tests for normal and various non‐normal distributions. Similar results are obtained for modular ranks used in comparing the one‐sample t test and the Wilcoxon signed ranks test.