Efficacy of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy on Depression Among Children with Learning Disabilities: Implications for Evaluation in Science Teaching

Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy - Owing to the prevalence of mental health issues among Nigerian in-school children, the effect of Rational Emotive Behavior...     

Individual characteristics and response to Contingency Management treatment for cocaine addiction

Voucher-based contingency management (CM) research has demonstrated efficacy for treating cocaine addiction, but few studies have examined associations between individual baseline characteristics and response to CM treatments. The aim of this study, involving 50 cocaine outpatients receiving CM for cocaine addiction, was to assess the impact of baseline characteristics on abstinence outcomes after six months of treatment. Patients who were abstinent after six months of treatment accounted for 58% of the sample. Patients with higher scores on the Alcohol area of the EuropASI and patients that were non-abstinent during the first month of treatment were less likely to achieve abstinence. These outcome predictors have implications both for treatment research and for clinical practice. Patients who do not respond early to treatment may need a more intensive intervention, and concomitant problematic alcohol use should be detected and treated. The remaining baseline variables examined were not statistically significant predictors of abstinence. This finding is important for the generalizability of CM across the range of individual characteristics of treatment-seeking cocaine abusers.     

Web-based, psychosocial treatment for substance use disorders in community treatment settings

The purpose of this multisite clinical trial was to evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based version of the Community Reinforcement Approach, plus motivational incentives, within community-based, outpatient substance abuse treatment. This ongoing study is being conducted within the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Midway through the enrollment of 500 participants, the study is being implemented in 10 treatment programs across the United States. Information is provided on design, sample, intervention and technology, and preliminary lessons learned.     

Separating global and specific factors in developmental dyslexia

The general goal of the study was to identify global and specific components in developmental dyslexia using various manipulations based on the rapid automatization paradigm (RAN). In two experiments, we used both factor analysis and the Rate-and-Amount Model to verify if one (or more) global factor(s) and a variety of specific effects contribute to the naming (and visual search) deficits in children with dyslexia. Results of Experiment 1 indicated the presence of three global components: pictorial naming, detailed orthographic analysis, and visual search. Pictorial naming is predicated by typical RAN tasks (such as naming colors or objects), independent of set size, but also from a variety of other tasks including Stroop interference conditions. The detailed orthographic analysis factor accounts for naming of orthographic stimuli at high set size. Visual search marked tasks requiring the scanning of visual targets. Results of Experiment 2 confirmed the separation between the pictorial naming and detailed orthographic analysis factors both in the original sample and in a new group of children. Furthermore, specific effects of frequency, lexicality, and length were shown to contribute to the reading deficit. Overall, it is proposed that focusing on the profile of both global and specific effects provides a more effective and, at the same time, simpler account of the dyslexics' impairment.     

Psychosocial predictors of relapse in cocaine-dependent patients in treatment

Relapses in cocaine abusers in treatment are an important problem. The majority of patients are incapable of sustaining abstinence over any length of time. To identify the factors associated to relapses risk in the cocaine use can be an optimal choice to improve the treatment strategies. The aim of this study was to analyze relapse-risk factors in cocaine-dependent patients on treatment. Participants were 102 patients who had begun outpatient treatment at a public health center in Spain. Some functional areas and cocaine use are evaluated for a period of six months. A structural equations model was used to identify possible predictive variables. The results show that social-family environment and economic-employment situation were associated with greater risk of relapse. Likewise, the social-family environment was related to severity of addiction. It is concluded that the incorporation of family intervention strategies and vocational/employment counseling may help to reduce relapse rates in cocaine addicts receiving treatment.     

Fostering Moral Development Through Creative Dramatics

Wallin used creative dramatics to stimulate the moral development of students in inner-city schools. Moral dilemma situations were dramatized. At first, the source of the dilemmas was commercially available materials, but later the students created their own materials, three of which Wallin summarizes. The dramatic presentations, followed by discussion, may be a method for growth in moral judgments and ultimately in advanced moral behavior.     

INGROUP REJECTION AMONG WOMEN: THE ROLE OF PERSONAL INADEQUACY

We examined predictors and outcomes of women's hostility toward other women. Based on a projection model, we hypothesized and tested the theory via structural equation modeling that women's sense of personal inadequacy, the tendency to stereotype, and general anger would predict hostility toward women, and hostility toward women would predict blaming victims of violence and poor relationships with a female friend. Participants were 464 college women with an average age of 28.08. All measures were pencil and paper. Women's hostility toward women served as an intervening variable between a personal sense of inadequacy, tendency to stereotype, blaming women victims of violence, and intimacy with one's best female friend.     

COGNITIVE STYLE AND ATTITUDINAL CORRELATES OF THE PERCEIVED CAUSES OF RAPE SCALE

This study examines the relations between beliefs about the causes of rape and attitudinal and cognitive style (the tendency to think about social problems systemically, the view of people as complex and changeable, and an intellectual personality) measures in a sample of 270 community-college students. The Perceived Causes of Rape (PCR) Scale included the following subscales: Male Dominance, Society and Socialization, Female Precipitation, Male Sexuality, and Male Hostility. Beliefs about the causes of rape varied on three dimensions: individual versus sociocultural causes of rape, those causes that focus on the perpetrator versus those that focus on the victim, and rape myths versus feminist beliefs. The causes of rape identified as rape myths were associated with male sexuality stereotypes, a version of Burt's (1980) Rape Myth Acceptance Scale, attitudes toward feminism, and self-identification as a feminist. Agreement with the sociocultural causes of rape was associated with cognitive style measures and age. We suggest that belief in sociocultural causes of rape may require a predisposition to think systemically as much as an ideological stance.