Testing multiple motives in feedback seeking: The interaction of instrumentality and self protection motives

Research indicates that information received from feedback seeking is valuable for both individual and organizational outcomes. Previous research examining the feedback seeking process has consistently suggested that individual's feedback behaviors are directly influenced by three motives. Specifically, individuals are instrumentally motivated to obtain valued information but are also motivated to protect and/or enhance their ego and to protect others' impressions of them (Ashford, Blatt and VandeWalle, 2003). The current study simultaneously examined these motives by testing the interactive effects of them on feedback seeking behavior. As predicted, they did significantly interact and the results present a deeper understanding of these motives and how employees weigh various factors in deciding whether to seek feedback within the organization.     

A DBT Skills training group for family caregivers of persons with dementia

A Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills training manual (DBT Skills) was adapted for use with caregivers of individuals with dementia. Implementation occurred in a community clinic with a heterogeneous caregiver group at risk for elder abuse. Sixteen caregivers completed the 9-week group. The results point to improved psychosocial adjustment, particularly increased problem-focused coping, enhanced emotional well-being, and less fatigue. Caregivers tended to utilize individual therapeutic services at a higher rate during the period of group attendance, indicative of appropriate help-seeking behavior in highly demanding situations. Six of the 16 caregivers repeated the training sequence in “booster” groups. Follow-up data from the booster groups suggest that high-risk caregivers may require continuing support to maintain treatment gains. In addition to demonstrating the feasibility of DBT Skills with caregivers, the results warrant a controlled outcome evaluation.     

A Video Life-world Approach to Consultation Practice: The Relevance of a Socio-Phenomenological Approach

This article discusses the [development and] use of a video life-world schema to explore alternative orientations to the shared health consultation. It is anticipated that this schema can be used by practitioners and consumers alike to understand the dynamics of videoed health consultations, the role of the participants within it and the potential to consciously alter the outcome by altering behaviour during the process of interaction. The study examines health consultation participation and develops an interpretative method of analysis that includes image elicitation (via videos), phenomenology (to identify the components of the analytic framework), narrative (to depict the stories of interactions) and a reflexive mode (to develop shared meaning through a conceptual framework for analysis). The analytic framework is derived from a life-world conception of human mutual shared interaction which is presented here as a novel approach to understanding patient-centred care. The video materials used in this study were derived from consultations in a Walk-in Centre (WiC) in East London. The conceptual framework produced through the process of video analysis is comprised of different combinations of movement, knowledge and emotional conversations that are used to classify objective or engaged WiC health care interactions. The videoed interactions organise along an active or passive, facilitative or directive typical situation continuum illustrating different kinds of textual approaches to practice that are in tension or harmony. The schema demonstrates how practitioners and consumers interact to produce these outcomes and indicates the potential for both consumers and practitioners to be educated to develop practice dynamics that support patient-centred care and impact on health outcomes.     

The ABCs of CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy): Evidence‐Based Approaches to Child Anxiety in Public School Settings

This study evaluated a locally developed cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) intervention program in a public elementary school. In the prevention approach, 118 children were randomly assigned either to an 8‐week intervention or to a waitlist control. Results of statistical analysis indicated that the manualized CBT intervention did not reduce symptoms of anxiety on either self‐reports or parent reports of anxiety symptoms in the general school population. Challenges to translational efforts to public school settings are discussed.     

Computer scoring of the Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale

The Levels of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS; Lane, Quinlan, Schwartz, Walker, & Zeitlan, 1990) is the most commonly used measure of differentiation and complexity in the use of emotion words and is associated with important clinical outcomes. Hand scoring the LEAS is time consuming. Existing programs for scoring open-ended responses cannot mimic LEAS hand scoring. Therefore, Leaf and Barchard (2006) developed the Program for Open-Ended Scoring (POES) to score the LEAS. In this article, we report a study in which the reliability and validity of POES scoring were examined. In the study, we used three participant types (adult community members, university students, children), three LEAS versions (paper based, computer based, and the LEAS for children), and a diverse set of criterion variables. Across this variety of conditions, the four POES scoring methods had internal consistencies and validities that were comparable to hand scoring, indicating that POES scoring can be used in clinical practice and other applied settings in which hand scoring is impractical.     

An intimate mode of looking: Francesca Woodman's photographs

This essay considers the intimacy between Francesca's Woodman's self representation and her exploration of the photographic medium. I argue that the small scale of Woodman's photographs, combined with their examination of the workings of photography via a picturing of the self, works to produce an intimate experience between viewer and photograph.     

The mental representation of music notation: notational audiation

This study investigated the mental representation of music notation. Notational audiation is the ability to internally "hear" the music one is reading before physically hearing it performed on an instrument. In earlier studies, the authors claimed that this process engages music imagery contingent on subvocal silent singing. This study refines the previously developed embedded melody task and further explores the phonatory nature of notational audiation with throat-audio and larynx-electromyography measurement. Experiment 1 corroborates previous findings and confirms that notational audiation is a process engaging kinesthetic-like covert excitation of the vocal folds linked to phonatory resources. Experiment 2 explores whether covert rehearsal with the mind's voice also involves actual motor processing systems and suggests that the mental representation of music notation cues manual motor imagery. Experiment 3 verifies findings of both Experiments 1 and 2 with a sample of professional drummers. The study points to the profound reliance on phonatory and manual motor processing--a dual-route stratagem--used during music reading. Further implications concern the integration of auditory and motor imagery in the brain and cross-modal encoding of a unisensory input.     

Intra-group aggression among prisoners: bullying intensity and exploration of victim-perpetrator mutuality

A new multiple indicator method of assessing bullying behaviour is employed (Direct and Indirect Prisoner behaviour Checklist - Scaled version [DIPC-SCALED]) with 605 adult prisoners (487 men and 118 women). The study explores if the DIPC-SCALED is a reliable method comprising of identifiable aggression factors; if prisoners can be classified into groups based on behavioural frequency; and if there is evidence for mutual victim/perpetrator groups. The DIPC-SCALED proved reliable, comprising of a number of aggression factors. Prisoners could be classified into groups based on behavioural frequency with one-fifth classified into an "intense" perpetrator and/or victim group. Evidence for mutual perpetrator/victims was found. Results are discussed with regards to the method used and the value in accounting for behavioural frequency in group classification.     

Age-related changes in multi-finger interactions in adults during maximum voluntary finger force production tasks

This study aimed to continue our characterization of finger strength and multi-finger interactions across the lifespan to include those in their 60s and older. Building on our previous study of children, we examined young and elderly adults during isometric finger flexion and extension tasks. Sixteen young and 16 elderly, gender-matched participants produced maximum force using either a single finger or all four fingers in flexion and extension. The maximum voluntary finger force (MVF), the percentage contributions of individual finger forces to the sum of individual finger forces during four-finger MVF task (force sharing), and the non-task finger forces during a task finger MVF task (force enslaving), were computed as dependent variables. Force enslaving during finger extension was greater than during flexion in both young and elderly groups. The flexion-extension difference was greater in the elderly than the young adult group. The greater independency in flexion may result from more frequent use of finger flexion in everyday manipulation tasks. The non-task fingers closer to a task finger produced greater enslaving force than non-task fingers farther from the task finger. The force sharing pattern was not different between age groups. Our findings suggest that finger strength decreases over the aging process, finger independency for flexion increases throughout development, and force sharing pattern remains constant across the lifespan.