Civilian Response Corps Force Review: The Application of Multi‐Criteria Decision Analysis to Prioritize Skills Required for Future Diplomatic Missions

Created by the State Department's Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization, the Civilian Response Corps (CRC) contains a diverse pool of qualified and ready‐to‐deploy civilian professionals that support conflict prevention and response efforts in countries or regions that are at risk of, are currently in, or are transitioning from conflict or civil strife. As such, it is vital to optimize the CRC's skill groupings to maximize adaptability and responsiveness to highly uncertain and trying political conditions and crises across the globe. The nature of the CRC value proposition is such that determining which skill set compositions deliver the greatest benefit requires a multi‐faceted perspective that looks at a number of attributes and factors, both tangible and intangible. To meet these needs, an organizational decision‐making approach utilizing multi‐criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was applied to ensure that skill‐grouping allocations were determined in a logical and robust manner. The MCDA analysis allowed for a wide range of worldviews and perspectives, drawn from select members of academia and partner agencies of the CRC who provided their expert opinions on the expected demand for skill groupings commonly identified as most necessary in a civilian ‘surge’ capacity. These skills were assessed with reference to a values hierarchy of representative country scenarios, missions and sub‐missions identified by the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization. Of particular interest was the use of the MCDA method to prioritize CRC skill groupings and to help inform the Department of State's understanding of the ‘ideal’ proportion and types of civilian skills for inclusion in the CRC. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modifying CBT for Perinatal Depression: What Do Women Want?: A Qualitative Study

The evidence for the efficacy of CBT for depression during the perinatal period is mixed. This was a qualitative study that aimed to understand the perinatal-specific needs of depressed women in an effort to inform treatment modifications that may increase the relevance and acceptability of CBT during this period. Stratified purposeful sampling resulted in 23 participants selected by pregnancy, socioeconomic, and depression status. Participants completed semistructured interviews exploring their experiences of pregnancy and the postpartum period and its relationship to mood, and perspectives on ideal treatment content. Thematic analysis revealed a number of perinatal-specific themes that were relevant to CBT in three key domains: self, motherhood, and interpersonal. Mothers particularly struggled with: internalization of “motherhood myths,” self-sacrifice, and managing social support during this period. Shifts in women's themes across the perinatal period, and between racial and socioeconomic groups are discussed as are implications for modification of CBT to improve relevance for perinatal depression.     

Dating Violence Prevention Programming: Directions for Future Interventions

Dating violence among college students is a widespread and destructive problem. The field of dating violence has seen a substantial rise in research over the past several years, which has improved our understanding of factors that increase risk for perpetration. Unfortunately, there has been less attention paid to dating violence prevention programming, and existing programs have been marred with methodological weaknesses and a lack of demonstrated effectiveness in reducing aggression. In hopes of sparking new research on dating violence prevention programs, the current review examines possible new avenues for dating violence prevention programming among college students. We discuss clinical interventions that have shown to be effective in reducing a number of problematic behaviors, including motivational interventions, dialectical behavior therapy, mindfulness, and bystander interventions, and how they could be applied to dating violence prevention. We also discuss methodological issues to consider when implementing dating violence prevention programs.     

Class matters: 12‐month‐olds’ word–object associations privilege content over function words

A fundamental step in learning words is the development of an association between a sound pattern and an element in the environment. Here we explore the nature of this associative ability in 12‐month‐olds, examining whether it is constrained to privilege particular word forms over others. Forty‐eight infants were presented with sets of novel English content‐like word–object pairings (e.g. fep) or novel English function‐like word–object (e.g. iv) pairings until they habituated. Results indicated that infants associated novel content‐like words, but not the novel function‐like words, with novel objects. These results demonstrate that the mechanism with which basic word–object associations are formed is remarkably sophisticated by the onset of productive language. That is, mere associative pairings are not sufficient to form mappings. Rather the system requires well‐formed noun‐like words to co‐occur with objects in order for the linkages to arise.     

Assuming too much from 'familiar' brain potentials

Familiarity is sometimes associated with midfrontal old/new (FN400) signals, but investigators assume too much by inferring familiarity whenever they identify these signals. We describe how Rosburg and colleagues (2011) made this assumption, yielding potentially faulty conclusions about the recognition heuristic. We provide an alternative interpretation emphasizing implicit processing that can underlie decision-making.     

The emergence of untrained mands and tacts in children with autism

Despite Skinner's (1957) assertion that verbal operants are initially functionally independent, recent studies have suggested that in some cases the acquisition of one verbal operant (e.g., mand) gives rise to the other (e.g., tact) without explicit training. The present study aimed to evaluate the functional independence of mands and tacts during instruction with children with autism. Four boys with autism (3 to 6 years old) were taught to construct two 4‐piece structures. Two participants were taught directly to mand, whereas the other 2 were taught to tact the names of the pieces. The effects of training were evaluated in a multiple probe design across verbal operants and tasks. Three of the 4 participants demonstrated an immediate transfer of control from 1 verbal operant to the other. These results were consistent with previous research with typically developing young children.     

A test of the circumvention-of-limits hypothesis in scientific problem solving: the case of geological bedrock mapping

Sources of individual differences in scientific problem solving were investigated. Participants representing a wide range of experience in geology completed tests of visuospatial ability and geological knowledge, and performed a geological bedrock mapping task, in which they attempted to infer the geological structure of an area in the Tobacco Root Mountains of Montana. A Visuospatial Ability × Geological Knowledge interaction was found, such that visuospatial ability positively predicted mapping performance at low, but not high, levels of geological knowledge. This finding suggests that high levels of domain knowledge may sometimes enable circumvention of performance limitations associated with cognitive abilities.     

Positive fantasies predict low academic achievement in disadvantaged students

Unlike other forms of positive thinking (e.g., expectations), research finds that positive fantasies (experiencing one's thoughts and mental images about the future positively) predict low effort and little success in several domains. However, for vocational education students of low socioeconomic status and minority ethnicity, for whom the present environment is especially difficult, perhaps it would be appropriate to indulge in positive fantasies that depict the future as bright and easily attained. Three studies show that this is not the case. Positive future fantasies measured early in the program predicted more days absent (Studies 2–3) and lower grades at the end of the program (Studies 1–3), even when adjusting for initial academic competence, expectations of successful achievement, and self‐discipline. Expectations of successful achievement predicted fewer days absent and higher grades only when measured midway through the school year, once participants had experience with their own academic standing (Study 3). Results indicate that positive fantasies, which allow people to indulge in images of a bright future, predict poor achievement even in vocational students immersed in a particularly difficult environment. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Orthogonal dreams in an oblique world: A meta-analysis of the association between attachment anxiety and avoidance

The association between attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance) can influence measurement creation and statistical analyses. Our goal was to test the assumption that anxiety and avoidance was orthogonal in two popular measures: the ‘Experience in Close Relationships Scale - Revised’ (ECR-R) and the original ‘Experiences in Close Relationships Scale’ (ECR). Our meta-analysis of 242 studies revealed that despite both scales being highly reliable, the anxiety-avoidance correlation was higher for the ECR-R than the ECR. Other variables also moderated the association. Implications include methods of statistical analysis and recommendations for future measurement creation and use.     

Social exclusion and pain sensitivity: why exclusion sometimes hurts and sometimes numbs

Some research indicates that social exclusion leads to increased emotional- and physical-pain sensitivity, whereas other work indicates that exclusion causes emotional- and physical-pain numbing. This research sought to examine what causes these opposing outcomes. In Study 1, the paradigm used to instantiate social exclusion was found to moderate the social exclusion-physical pain relation: Future-life exclusion led to a numbing of physical pain whereas Cyberball exclusion led to hypersensitivity. Study 2 examined the underlying mechanism, which was hypothesized to be the severity of the "social injury." Participants were subjected to either the standard future-life exclusion manipulation (purported to be a highly severe social injury) or a newly created, less-severe version. Supporting our hypothesis, the standard (highly severe) future-life exclusion led to physical-pain numbing, whereas the less-severe future-life exclusion resulted in hypersensitivity. Implications of these results for understanding the exclusion-pain relation and other exclusion effects are discussed.