Treatment of adolescents in a residential facility: a study of three approaches

This study examined the preferred professional treatment approach at a residential treatment center for socially and emotionally maladjusted girls. The dorm child-care workers and the clinical and educational staff responded to a questionnaire composed of statements reflective of three theoretical orientations: psychoanalytic, person-centered, and cognitive-behavioral therapy. No significant differences were found between the three departments (clinical, school, dorm) for each model of therapy. The results also indicated that the professional personnel employed at this treatment facility were all in agreement that the cognitive-behavioral model of therapeutic intervention is the one preferred. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Words: A computer system for the analysis of content

WORDS is a computer-oriented system for content analysis designed to elicit major content themes without recourse to a priori categorization systems. The system consists of a number of modular and independent programs that the user can configure in any fashion to process the data to be analyzed. This paper presents current information on WORDS, WORDS programs, WORDS systems logic, and on the availability of the system.     

Marital therapy outcome measured by therapist, client, and behavior change

The present research examined marital therapy outcome, in a sample of 88 couples and 22 therapists, through the use of multidimensional criteria from multiple perspectives. Three paper-and-pencil patient self-report instruments were used to measure different aspects of the couple relationship. In addition, therapist post-therapy ratings and objective observer ratings of the couple behavior during therapy were obtained. Past debates about what the "right" criteria might be for measuring therapeutic change prompted our strategy. Special attention was focused on those criteria that could be classified as "inside" or "outside" of the couple relationship. Data analysis revealed a significant relationship between the couples' and therapists' ratings of improvement in therapy. Additionally, husband and wife negative acts (behaviors) in therapy were also significantly correlated with therapists' ratings of improvement. Both statistically significant and clinically significant criteria were employed to evaluate the therapy outcome. Improvement due to therapy as measured by the three self-report instruments varied from 38% to 58%. These differences appeared to stem from the different kinds of information yielded by the specific tests.     

Reaching Our 75th Anniversary: A History of AGPA 1992–2017—Part 1

This is the first in a series of three articles that chronicle and examine the 25-year history of the American Group Psychotherapy Association from 1992 to 2017. This time period has been divided into three naturally occurring eras: the pre–9/11 era, the 9/11 era, and the post–9/11 era. To permit meaningful comparisons across time, an effort has been made to contextualize events and to examine each era using the same set of seven facets/dimensions: (1) mission(s); (2) structure and administration; (3) jewels in the crown; (4) membership; (5) financial health; (6) organizational tensions and family dynamics; and (7) relationships with the outside world. This account, while based on objective data, like all such histories, is inherently subjective. Choices about which specific events to chronicle, as well as their meaning and significance, are filtered through the authors’ perceptual and conceptual lenses. This first section focuses on the pre–9/11 era.     

The Scope of Inclusion of Academic Conflict of Interest Policies

We analyzed whether institutions training physicians and advanced practice registered nurses (APRNs) have conflict of interest policies (COIP) specific to pharmaceutical relationships and if present do such policies extend to students, other clinicians, personnel, sites, and curriculum. The 2014 Association of Academic Health Centers list of US members (n=92) identified 65 eligible universities. A 10-item web-based survey was distributed to potential participants. Initial contact was to institutional Directors of Nursing Research, with sequential contacts if no response to Nursing Deans or Department Chairs, Clinical Placement Coordinators, Institutional Research Board Directors, Bioethics Departments, and Legal Counsel. Contacts received 2 email reminders before initiating the next level of contact. Reminder postcards were sent to Dean or Department Chair non-responders. 20 institutions fully completed the survey, a 30% response. Most (90%) reported COIP for continuing education or industry funded speaking but 40.5% were "unsure" or "unclear" whether this included curriculum. 55.6% were "unsure" or "did not know" if preceptors were included. Website confirmation noted COIP most frequently covered research funding or trials (95%) or gifts and meals (90%). Policies least frequently covered curriculum (10%). 25% included all clinicians in their COIP. No institution covered clinical preceptors unless they were employees. Gaps exist in knowledge of COIP and their scope related to the education of nurse prescribers. While most policies cover research funding or trials in accordance with federal law, they are not explicit or known regarding their extension to nonphysician clinicians, curriculum, or preceptors.     

The independence of endogenous and exogenous temporal attention

Temporal attention is the focusing of perceptual resources at a particular point in time. Valid temporal cue information has the capability to improve performance by reducing reaction times, while invalid information has the possibility of impairing performance. The performance difference between valid and invalid conditions is called a temporal cueing effect (TCE). We explored how different alerting mechanisms interact with a participant’s ability to utilize temporal information cues, using the Kingstone (The Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 44(1), 69–104, 1992) temporal cueing paradigm. Extracting the alerting procedure from Lawrence and Klein (Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 142(2), 560–572, 2013), one of two different temporally contingent warning signals were presented to participants during a trial. The “hi-intensity” warning signal increases intensity and elicits both exogenous and endogenous alerting mechanisms. The “no-intensity” warning signal is isointense relative to baseline and elicits only endogenous alerting mechanisms. Two experiments conducted previously using a discrimination task showed interference between the signal intensity and task difficulty, where the “no-intensity” signal failed to elicit TCEs. In the present study, we implemented a detection task, reducing the mental effort required for a response. The results showed equal TCEs in both signal conditions. We argue for independence of these alerting mechanisms, by way of Sternberg’s (Acta Psychologica, 30, 276–315, 1969) additive factor method. Arguments contrasting what mechanism is being impacted by this paradigm are further outlined.     

Two components in IOR: evidence for response bias and perceptual processing delays using the SAT methodology

Inhibition of return (IOR) occurs when reaction times (RTs) are slowed to respond to a target that appears at a previously attended location. We used the speed-accuracy trade-off (SAT) procedure to obtain conjoint measures of IOR on sensitivity and processing speed by presenting targets at cued and uncued locations. The results showed that IOR is associated with both delays in processing speed and shifts in response criterion. When the target was briefly presented, the results supported a criterion shift account of IOR. However, when the target was presented until response, the evidence indicated that, in addition to a response bias effect, there was an increase in the minimal time required for information about the target to accumulate above chance level. A hybrid account of IOR is suggested that describes effects on both response bias and perceptual processing.