Being transformed: Delivering a psychotherapeutic group intervention targeting repeat suicide attempts

Clients who make repeat suicide attempts have complex needs, are at high risk of completed suicide and pose a range of challenges for clinicians. Targeted interventions are required. Acceptability, the perceived appropriateness of an intervention, is associated with successful implementation, engagement and effectiveness of interventions. Despite the advantages of group interventions, there is limited research into the acceptability of groups with this population. Using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, this paper reports on facilitators’ experiences (n = 9) of the acceptability of a therapeutic group intervention (PISA – a Psychoeducational/psychosocial Intervention for persons who make recurrent Suicide Attempts). Analysis of focus group data revealed how involvement with the intervention profoundly influenced facilitators’ perceptions of and approach to their work with this client group. They embraced the model, developed a deeper appreciation of clients’ resources and became unburdened from sole responsibility for the clients, the therapeutic process and outcomes. PISA provided a model that helped facilitators to work in a focused, compassionate and creative manner as they addressed the central concern of these clients, their suicidal desire, with newly found confidence and eagerness. PISA was experienced as acceptable to facilitators as it was useful to them and deemed appropriate and beneficial to the target population.     

TV or not TV? Does the immediacy of viewing images of a momentous news event affect the quality and stability of flashbulb memories?

The flashbulb accounts of 38 participants concerning the September 11th 2001 terrorist attack reported at both 28 hours and 6 months following the event were examined for quantity, quality, and consistency as a function of the time lapse between first learning of the event and initial viewing of media images. The flashbulb accounts of those who reported seeing images at least an hour after learning of the event differed qualitatively, but not quantitatively, from accounts of participants who reported seeing images at the same time as or within minutes of learning of the event. Delayed viewing of images resulted in less elaborate and generally less consistent accounts across the 6-month interval. The results are discussed in terms of factors affecting flashbulb memory formation and individual differences in connectedness to the event.     

Hopelessness as a predictor of attempted suicide among first admission patients with psychosis: a 10-year cohort study

Little is known about the longitudinal relationship of hopelessness to attempted suicide in psychotic disorders. This study addresses this gap by assessing hopelessness and attempted suicide at multiple time-points over 10 years in a first-admission cohort with psychosis (n = 414). Approximately one in five participants attempted suicide during the 10-year follow-up, and those who attempted suicide scored significantly higher at baseline on the Beck Hopelessness Scale. In general, a given assessment of hopelessness (i.e., baseline, 6, 24, and 48 months) reliably predicted attempted suicide up to 4 to 6 years later, but not beyond. Structural equation modeling indicated that hopelessness prospectively predicted attempted suicide even when controlling for previous attempts. Notably, a cut-point of 3 or greater on the Beck Hopelessness Scale yielded sensitivity and specificity values similar to those found in nonpsychotic populations using a cut-point of 9. Results suggest that hopelessness in individuals with psychotic disorders confers information about suicide risk above and beyond history of attempted suicide. Moreover, in comparison with nonpsychotic populations, even relatively modest levels of hopelessness appear to confer risk for suicide in psychotic disorders.     

Microgenetic patterns of children's multiplication learning: confirming the overlapping waves model by latent growth modeling

Variability in strategy selection is an important characteristic of learning new skills such as mathematical skills. Strategies gradually come and go during this development. In 1996, Siegler described this phenomenon as "overlapping waves." In the current microgenetic study, we attempted to model these overlapping waves statistically. In addition, we investigated whether development in strategy selection is related to development in accuracy and to what degree working memory is related to both. We expected that children with poor working memory are limited in their possibilities to make the associations that are necessary to progress to more mature strategies. This limitation would explain the often-found relationship between working memory and mathematical abilities. To this aim, the strategy selection and accuracy of 98 children who were learning single-digit multiplication was assessed eight times on a weekly basis. Using latent growth modeling for categorical data, we confirmed Siegler's hypothesis of overlapping waves. Moreover, both the intercepts and the slopes of strategy selection and accuracy were strongly interrelated. Finally, working memory predicted both strategy selection and accuracy, confirming that working memory is related to mathematical problem solving in two ways because it influences both the maturity of strategy choice and the probability of making procedural mistakes.     

THE EARTH CHARTER AND JOURNEY OF THE UNIVERSE: AN INTEGRATED FRAMEWORK FOR BIODEMOCRACY

The principles of the Earth Charter and the cosmological story of Journey of the Universe provide a unique synergy for rethinking a sustainable future. The Great Story inspires the Great Work of the transformation of the political, social, and economic orders. Such a synergy can contribute to the broadened understanding of sustainability as including economic, ecological, social, and spiritual well‐being. This integrated understanding may be a basis for creating biodemocracies, which will involve long‐term policies, programs, and practices for a planetary future that is not only ethically sustainable, but also sustaining for human energies.     

ESTABLISHING DERIVED TEXTUAL ACTIVITY SCHEDULES IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Children with autism are frequently taught to follow picture activity schedules to increase independence in task engagement and transitions. As textual behavior allows for greater independence and efficiency in responding, schedules should rapidly become textual in form. Previous research has shown the effectiveness of conditional discrimination training and superimposition and fading procedures in establishing textual control. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of these procedures in establishing derived textual control in activity schedules. Participants included two children with autism (ages 3 and 8 years). Following the demonstration of proficiency in picture activity schedules, participants were exposed to superimposition and fading and conditional discrimination training in an alternating treatments design. Pretest–posttest measures were used to evaluate emergent relations among stimuli. Conditional discrimination training was superior to stimulus fading for emergent relations. The participants showed no clear difference between the procedures related to derived textual control. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Investigation into Unethical Behavior Intentions Among Undergraduate Students: A Malaysian Study

The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of the dimensions of the theory of planned behavior, gender and course majors on unethical behavior intentions among Generation Y undergraduates. The sample of this study comprises 245 undergraduates from a private higher education institution (PHEI) in Malaysia. The instrument of this study is developed based on concepts developed from extant literature. Reliability and validity is accessed using Cronbach’s Alpha and Exploratory Factor Analysis respectively. Social desirability bias was monitored utilizing concepts adapted from Phillips and Clancy (American Journal of Sociology, 77(5), 921–940, 1972). Multiple Linear Regression and Independent sample T-tests were used for hypotheses testing. As a whole, results indicate that egoism, utilitarianism and magnitude of consequences exerted significant influence on unethical behavior intentions. Peer influence was not significant. In terms of gender, unethical intentions among males were influenced by egoism and peer influenced while females by utilitarianism and magnitude of consequences. Business majors did not consider magnitude of consequences significant in unethical behavior intentions. Ethical values form the fundamentals of ethical culture within organizations and a business environment which is increasingly based on self-regulation. Ethics is an essential part of the holistic personal development of future business leaders. As such, by understanding ethical attitudes and perceptions, we can draw implications for the further enhancements of teaching and learning of Business Ethics in academia as well as the development of ethical culture in the Malaysian context. Educators, parents and society also need to realise their role in the ethical development of these future Malaysian leaders. The framework of this study could be extended to actual behaviors, adult samples and also account for religiosity and age. This study utilizes the established dimensions and framework of the Theory of Planned Behavior in bridging the gap of research in unethical behavior within the context of a PHEI in Malaysia.     

Text Comprehension in Middle Aged Adults: Is There Anything Wrong?

Two experiments tested text comprehension skills in adults varying in age from 20 to 69 years. A coherence judgment task (n = 39), in which the pragmatic connection of two sentences had to be evaluated, did not yield any age effects. Both error rates and reaction times were largely independent of age. In a word recognition paradigm (n = 60), testing the strength of different text representation levels, there was a gradual, linear decrease in performance with age, accompanied by a similarly gradual increase in processing times. The results confirm that aging affects comprehension under high memory demands, but spares the conceptual, situation-based levels. Most importantly, it was shown that these changes become apparent during middle age already. Implications for education and neuropsychology are discussed.     

Analyzing Components of Reading On Performance Assessments: An Expanded Simple View

This research examined the validity of the theoretical model of reading outlined by the Simple View of Reading when measuring reading ability with a performance-based reading test. Participants were 95 fourth-grade, students randomly sampled from four schools in an urban district. The test we studied employed a mixture of traditional (multiple-choice) and performance assessment approaches (constructed-response items that required written responses). Our findings indicated that writing ability emerged as an important source of individual differences in explaining overall reading ability, even when we deconstructed the test into a multiple-choice-only score.