Relateline: An evaluation of a telephone helpline counselling service for marital problems

A year's entries in the log-book of a Relate (Marriage Guidance) Helpline telephone service were examined and analysed. The data recorded there enabled the researchers to collect and evaluate information about the callers, their problems and the responses made by the counsellors. The aims of the service were to offer a prompt response to people whose relationships were in difficulty and were unable to wait for a face-to-face appointment, and to relieve the pressure on the normal counselling service. An assessment of the value of the telephone service is made in the light of these aims. Some of the results are presented and discussed.     

An introduction to structured programming

Structured programming (SP) is a technique devised to improve the reliability and clarity of programs. In SP, control of program flow is restricted to three structures, sequence, IF THEN ELSE, and DO WHILE, or to a structure derivable from a combination of the basic three. Thus, a structured program does not need to use GO TOs or branches (unless it is written in a language that does not have statement forms corresponding to the SP structures, in which case, GO TOs may be used to simulate the structures). The result is a program built of modules that are highly independent of each other. In turn, this allows a programmer to be more confident that the code contains fewer logic errors and will be easier to debug and change in the future. However, SP may be less efficient than an unstructured counterpart. Another disadvantage is the relative difficulty of using SP with a language that doesn’t support it, although this situation is changing as languages are updated (e.g., FORTRAN 77).     

Computer game playing in adolescence: Prevalence and demographic indicators

Computer game playing is a popular activity among adolescents yet there have been no systematic studies in the U.K. on its prevalence and its demographics. A questionnaire study was undertaken with 387 adolescents (12–16 years of age) to establish the time spent playing computer games, who they first started playing with, the reasons why they first started and why they play now and negative consequences of play. Results revealed that for many adolescents, home computer game playing can take up considerable time with 7% of the sample playing for at least 30 hours a week. Although there were no differences between males and females in who played computer games, it was established that males were found to play significantly more regularly than females.     

The visual influence of ostracism

Reflecting the fundamental human need to establish and maintain positive connections with others, it has been suggested that an Ostracism Detection System is sensitized to targets by which one has been ostracized. Evidence supporting the operation of this system has yet to be provided, however. Accordingly, using binocular rivalry to explore attentional processing, here, we considered the extent to which targets previously associated with ostracism dominate visual awareness. Participants initially performed a virtual ball‐tossing game (i.e., Cyberball) in which they were “ostracized” or “included” by the other players. Afterwards, the faces of these players were presented together with houses in a binocular rivalry task. The results revealed that targets associated with ostracism (vs. inclusion) dominated longest in visual awareness.     

Recruitment modeling applied to longitudinal studies of group differences in intelligence

In longitudinal studies data is collected in a series of waves. Each wave after the first suffers from attrition. Therefore it can be difficult to discriminate between changes in sample parameters due to a longitudinal process (e.g. ageing) and changes due to attrition. The problem is particularly vexing if one of the purposes is to compare differences between two or more groups over time, because there may be differential attrition across groups. We refer to this as a recruitment problem, because the sample studied in any wave after the first can be thought of as having been recruited from a preceding wave. We present a mathematical model of the recruitment process. We then apply it to two large longitudinal studies, the British Cohort Survey 1970 and the National Child Development Study (1958), to demonstrate how we can identify effects expected from recruitment alone. As an illustration we show that differential recruitment would predict increasing differences between estimates of men's and women's intelligence as the studied sample ages.     

Brief cognitive-behavioral internet therapy for irritable bowel syndrome

While cognitive-behavioral therapy for IBS is quite effective, the limited availability of competent therapists and lack of access to treatment remain problematic. This paper reports on a small, randomized, controlled trial of a five week internet based cognitive-behavioral intervention for IBS with limited therapist feedback via e-mail. Fifty-four IBS patients were recruited via the internet and randomly assigned to either immediate treatment or a wait-list control group. Thirty-one subjects completed the post-treatment assessment. 77% of treatment completers also completed a 3-month follow-up assessment. Treatment completers experienced statistically and clinically significant declines in IBS symptoms and improvements in quality of life. Those gains were substantially maintained at follow-up. Treatment efficacy was partially mediated by reductions in the tendency to catastrophize the social and occupational implications of symptoms, suggesting that catastrophizing may be an important target for treatment.