Effects of two levels of treatment intensity on a young child with severe disabilities

This single-case study evaluated the effects of two levels of center-based behavioral intervention for a young child with diagnoses of autism, severe attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, bipolar disorder, and severe developmental delay. The child entered an applied behavior analysis school and residential program at age 4 years. At that time he was receiving fluoxetine and valproic acid for control of challenging behavior. Six other medication trials had been attempted previously. Assessments completed just before the child entered the behavioral program estimated his overall functioning at the 8–16 month level. Throughout the study, the child participated in comprehensive behavioral programming for about 30 hours per week. For the first (A) phase of the study, the teacher:student ratio was 1:1. This phase lasted 12 months. At that point resource limitations necessitated changing the teacher:student ratio to 1:2 (the B Phase), which continued for 9 months. Then 1:1 intervention was reinstated. Dependent variables included out-of-seat behavior, aberrant behavior, motor imitation, stereotypic responses, matching to sample, and appropriate communication (recognizable signs and pictures used as mands). By the end of the first A phase (1:1 intervention), substantial improvements were documented in five of six dependent variables, and fluoxetine was discontinued. These improvements were maintained for all dependent variables three months into the B phase, but after an additional six months of 1:2 intervention gains were maintained on only one dependent variable. Nine months after a return to 1:1 intervention, improvements over B-phase levels were evident for five dependent variables, four of which returned to levels comparable to those at the end of the first 1:1 phase. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EFFECTS OF A FIXED‐TIME SCHEDULE ON ABERRANT AND ADAPTIVE BEHAVIOR

Fixed‐time (FT) schedules of reinforcement have been used to decrease destructive behavior. However, the effects of FT schedules on acquisition and maintenance of appropriate behavior remain unclear. In this study, we present a case in which an FT schedule produced an increase in adaptive behavior and resulted in a significant decrease in destructive behavior.     

Stability of scores for the Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test

The test-retest stability of the Slosson Full-Range Intelligence Test by Algozzine, Eaves, Mann, and Vance was investigated with test scores from a sample of 103 students. With a mean interval of 13.7 mo. and different examiners for each of the two test administrations, the test-retest reliability coefficients for the Full-Range IQ, Verbal Reasoning, Abstract Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, and Memory were .93, .85, .80, .80, and .83, respectively. Mean differences from the test-retest scores were not statistically significantly different for any of the scales. Results suggest that Slosson scores are stable over time even when different examiners administer the test.     

Racial microaggressions in everyday life: implications for clinical practice

Racial microaggressions are brief and commonplace daily verbal, behavioral, or environmental indignities, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative racial slights and insults toward people of color. Perpetrators of microaggressions are often unaware that they engage in such communications when they interact with racial/ethnic minorities. A taxonomy of racial microaggressions in everyday life was created through a review of the social psychological literature on aversive racism, from formulations regarding the manifestation and impact of everyday racism, and from reading numerous personal narratives of counselors (both White and those of color) on their racial/cultural awakening. Microaggressions seem to appear in three forms: microassault, microinsult, and microinvalidation. Almost all interracial encounters are prone to microaggressions; this article uses the White counselor--client of color counseling dyad to illustrate how they impair the development of a therapeutic alliance. Suggestions regarding education and training and research in the helping professions are discussed.     

In Search of Serenity: Religious Struggle Among Patients Hospitalized for Suspected Acute Coronary Syndrome

Hospitalization for a sudden cardiac event is a frightening experience, one that is often marked by uncertainty about health status, fear of recurrent cardiac problems, and related existential, religious, and spiritual concerns. Religious struggle, reflecting tension and strain regarding religious and spiritual issues, may arise in response to symptoms of acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The present study examined the prevalence and types of religious struggle using the Brief RCOPE, as well as associations between religious struggle, psychological distress, and self-reported sleep habits among 62 patients hospitalized with suspected ACS. Fifty-eight percent of the sample reported some degree of religious struggle. Questioning the power of God was the most frequently endorsed struggle. Those struggling religiously reported significantly more symptoms of anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbance. Non-White participants endorsed greater use of positive religious coping strategies and religious struggle. Results suggest that patients hospitalized for suspected ACS experiencing even low levels of religious struggle might benefit from referral to a hospital chaplain or appropriately trained mental health professional for more detailed religious and spiritual assessment. Practical means of efficiently screening for religious struggle during the often brief hospitalization period for suspected ACS are discussed.     

Measuring Tactical Innovation in Terrorist Attacks

Terrorism provides a unique context for examining innovation, as the generation of novel, effective, and complex ideas are essential for survival in destructive and malevolent groups. Despite this, innovation remains an underdeveloped concept in terrorism research, at least from the creativity scholars. One reason for this is the limited empirical data about this phenomenon, making it unclear which tenets of creativity research hold versus which do not translate in the domain of terrorism. This two-part study explores this rich domain by examining the dimensions of innovation in a robust sample of terrorist attacks. Findings indicated that three dimensions of innovation (i.e., novelty, relevance, and elegance) emerged from the attack data and that these dimensions were related to different attack characteristics. This article expands our understanding of terrorist innovation by drawing from established theory and methods from creativity research and highlights their manifestations in this understudied domain.     

Power Within the Counselor Identity Development of African American Women in Pastoral Counseling

This study explored experiences of power among 11 African American female pastoral counselors‐in‐training. Limited research exists within the field of pastoral counseling regarding the dynamics of power within the development of minority counselors‐in‐training. Experiences of power such as microaggressions and empowerment were evidenced in the art created by participants during their qualitative interviews. Use of a heuristic arts‐based research design resulted in 6 final essences (major themes): symbolic analysis of the journey of identity development, empowerment, powerlessness, ownership of power, integration, and pervasive spirituality. Practical implications for counselor educators and pastoral counseling programs are provided.     

An Evaluation of Occupational Behavior in Individuals with and without Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is now conceptualized as a life-course persistent disorder, including impairments in the occupational functional domains. Occupational impairment is one of the considerations in contemporary diagnostic criteria for ADHD. This study compares the workplace behavior of 26 young adults without ADHD to 24 young adults with ADHD in a simulated pizza restaurant and delivery setting on a job application completion task, in a job interview, and on job performance tasks. Results indicated that there were significant differences in masked ratings of job interview performance, favoring the performance of individuals without ADHD. No significant differences were obtained for job applications and job performance. Results suggest that job interviewing skills may be an important area to address for individuals with ADHD entering the workforce.     

On "risk" and reward: investigating state anhedonia in psychometrically defined schizotypy and schizophrenia

Anhedonia, defined as dysfunction in the experience of pleasant emotions, is a hallmark symptom of the schizophrenia spectrum. Of interest, it is well documented that patients with schizophrenia, at least as a group, do not show reductions in their state experience of pleasant stimuli. However, there is emerging evidence to suggest that individuals with schizotypy--defined as the personality organization reflecting the latent vulnerability for schizophrenia--do show these state deficits. This is paradoxical in that schizophrenia reflects a more pathological state in virtually every conceivable domain as compared with schizotypy. The present study examined self-reported affective reactions to neutral-, bad-, and good-valenced stimuli in individuals with psychometrically defined schizotypy and schizophrenia. Two separate control groups were also included, comprising psychometrically defined controls and stable outpatients with affective disorders. With no exceptions, the schizotypy group reported significantly less pleasant affect for each of the three conditions than each of the other groups. Conversely, the schizophrenia group did not statistically differ from the control groups for any of the conditions. Within both the schizotypy and schizophrenia groups, severity of negative symptoms/traits was associated with less pleasant report. We found that individuals with prominent negative symptoms and traits from the schizophrenia and schizotypy groups resembled each other in terms of state anhedonia. The present findings did not appear to reflect comorbid depression or anxiety. Our discussion centers on this apparent paradox in the schizophrenia spectrum--that individuals with schizotypy exhibit state anhedonia, whereas patients with schizophrenia do not.     

Modal preferences in creative problem solving

Embodied cognitive science appeals to the idea that cognition depends on the body as well as on the brain. This study looks at whether we are more likely to engage just the brain or enlist the body for complex cognitive functioning such as creative problem solving. Participants were presented with a puzzle based on De Bono’s lateral thinking puzzles. The puzzle consisted of rotating and joining two-dimensional shapes to make a three-dimensional one. In one condition, participants were given the choice of either solving the puzzle mentally or through manipulation of the images on a computer screen. In another condition, the subjects had to solve the puzzle first mentally and then report which mode they would have preferred to solve the puzzle. Two more conditions were applied with slight variations. In all conditions, an overwhelming majority of participants chose to solve the puzzle by manipulation, even though there was not a significant increase on performance. It appeared that participants were making a conscious choice for the body to play a feedback-driven role in creative cognitive processing. This strong preference for manual manipulation over just mental representation, regardless of the impact on performance, would seem to suggest that it is our natural tendency to involve the body in complex cognitive functioning. This would support the theory that cognition may be more than just a neural process, and that it is a dynamic interplay between body, brain and world. The experiential feedback of the body moving through space and time may be an inherently important factor in creative cognition.