Confirmatory factor analysis of ITPA models with language-impaired children

The major objective of the current investigation was to provide an evaluation of the validity of the ITPA for language-impaired children using confirmatory factor analysis. In addition to an examination of the validity of the traditional ITPA models, a new model is tested. The new model is based on considerations of the structural complexity of the ITPA subtests. and allows one to interpret ITPA results in processing terms. The results suggest that four-factor models provided the best representation of the ITPA scores in language-impaired children. Compared with the traditional ITPA models, the new model showed either an improved or equal goodness of fit. Language-impaired children tested with the ITPA (n = 100) exhibited a profile pattern suggesting that subtests with low processing demands are "easier" than tests with high processing demands. Thus, the present study supports the contention that language-impaired children suffer from constraints on information processing.     

Speech treatment and support group experiences of people who participate in the National Stuttering Association

Support groups are rapidly becoming an important part of the recovery process for many people who stutter, and a growing number of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are encouraging their clients to participate in support groups. At present, however, little is known about the individuals who join stuttering support groups and the benefits they derive from their participation. This study surveyed members of the National Stuttering Association (NSA) to learn about their experiences in support groups, as well as their experiences in speech therapy. Respondents were 71 people who attended the 1999 NSA conference in Tacoma, WA. The majority of respondents had participated in treatment several times during their lives, using a variety of techniques. Respondents who had participated in fluency-shaping treatments were more likely to report that they had experienced a relapse than those who had participated in stuttering modification or combined treatments. Also, there was a strong positive correlation between respondents' satisfaction with treatment and their judgments of clinicians' competence, suggesting that improved training for SLPs should lead to improved treatment for people who stutter. Results will be used to provide a foundation for further evaluations of the benefits of support group participation for people who stutter. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: The reader will learn (a) that many people who participate in the NSA have had numerous and varied experiences with speech treatment throughout their lives, (b) which aspects of treatment and support group participation are seen as most beneficial for people who participate in the NSA.     

Clinical conversations between psychoanalysis and imaginative literature

A literary form created by an imaginative writer captures something of the way the author shapes emotional experience and psychologically engages with it. The manner in which experience is created and contained in an imaginative literary text has much in common with the way experience is generated and worked with in the psychoanalytic situation. The author describes a clinical experience in which there was a collapse of the analytic (imaginative) space. He then discusses how he made use of a "conversation" he created with a short story and his own analytic experience to restore his imaginative capacities and to resume psychological work with the patient.     

暴力的哲学还是哲学的暴力?--与冈特·嫩宁的谈话

布洛赫重申自己是一个马克思主义哲学家.对他来说,唯物主义问题并不是简单的唯物主义问题,马克思主义中一开始就包含了唯心主义,哲学的最伟大业绩多半是唯心主义思想家完成的.暴力是阶级社会特有的现象,国家乃是暴力的潜力本身,国家的消亡是一个无暴力的、和平的过程.被压迫者的革命运动依然存在,大学生运动不会消亡.无神论与基督教并不是二者择一的问题,无神论与基督教的对话也不是一场徒劳的对话.世界过程本身处于过程之中,而这一过程尚未被获取,但也尚未被挫败."已知的希望"取决于把科学投入于希望的国度之中.存在第二真理,即乌托邦的-具体的真理问题,这是真理所固有的问题.     

Mood-congruent attentional bias in dysphoria: maintained attention to and impaired disengagement from negative information

Attentional bias to negative information has been proposed to be a cognitive vulnerability factor for the development of depression. In 2 experiments, the authors examined mood-congruent attentional bias in dysphoria. In both experiments, dysphoric and nondysphoric participants performed an attentional task with negative, positive, and neutral word cues preceding a target. Targets appeared either at the same or at the opposite location of the cue. Overall, results indicate that dysphoric participants show maintained attention for negative words at longer stimulus presentations, which is probably caused by impaired attentional disengagement from negative words. Furthermore, nondysphoric participants maintain their attention more strongly to positive words. These results are discussed in relation to recent developments in the pathogenesis and treatment of depression.