Longitudinal examination of teachers' burnout in a school district.

Teachers in a rural school district were administered the Maslach Burnout Inventory three times over a five-year period. Teachers scoring high on emotional exhaustion and low on personal accomplishment were classified as "experiencing burnout." Across the three waves, the proportion of teachers meeting these criteria for burnout were 7%, 11%, and 11%, respectively. By grade, burnout was noted among 3%, 8%, and 9%, respectively, over time for senior high-school teachers; 7%, 7%, and 11% for junior high-school teachers; and 9%, 17%, and 12% for elementary school teachers. Interventions must consider grade-taught and are probably most cost-effective for elementary school. It is important to establish norms across time and across school settings to determine high-risk groups deserving interventions.     

The effect of the leader-therapist's style on the therapeutic community's large group

Summary The behaviors of 23 leader-therapists, conducting the Community Meetings of various Therapeutic Communities for psychiatric patients were observed and scored. Observations were focused on the behaviors themselves, the values suggested by them, the ways in which the values were transmitted and characteristics of leadership styles. The results show that leadership behaviors, styles and the values they reflect are very much dependent on the ward and its atmosphere. In the way in which the values are transmitted, however, leaders maintained their own personal habits even when working on different wards. The authors conclude that ward-atmosphere and leadership personality are determining the leaders' behavior in therapeutic community ward meetings more than their theoretical orientation and therapy experience.This article was based on a paper presented at the World Congress of Social Psychiatry, Athens, Greece, 7975.Currently, Dr. Mérei is retired.     

Diaries of significant events: socio-linguistic correlates of therapeutic outcomes in patients with addiction problems

The principles of narrative therapy imply that autobiographical diaries written by patients in treatment will not only facilitate but also elucidate progress. The relationship between the linguistic content of diaries and progress in treatment was examined in this study. Complete sets of daily diaries of ‘significant events’ written by 16 patients receiving treatment for drug, alcohol and food addictions at a residential centre, using the 12-step approach of the Anonymous fellowships, were typed up for analysis. Three forms of socio-linguistic enquiry were employed: narrative characterization; evaluative statement coding and computer analysis of word strategies. Results indicated that success in treatment as rated by counselling and psychiatric staff was associated with the following characteristics of diary narratives. They are (a) focused on individual progress, whether adopting a ‘positive interpretative’ or ‘negative reactive’ style; (b) less critical of self over time and more positive about others external to the treatment centre; (c) both positive about the treatment programme and critical of self; (d) using words indicative of ‘insight’ and ‘negativity’ as assessed by Pennebaker's LIWC programme. It is concluded that autobiographical material can usefully be employed to assess progress in treatment, and that its intrinsic value in effecting change should be further explored. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Positive evidence for neonatal imitation: A general response,adaptive engagement

The study employed four gestural models using frame‐by‐frame microanalytic methods, and followed how the behaviours unfolded over time. Forty‐two human newborns (0–3 days) were examined for their imitation of tongue protrusion, ‘head tilt with looking up’, three‐finger and two‐finger gestures. The results showed that all three gesture groups were imitated. Results of the temporal analyses revealed an early and a later, second stage of responses. Later responses were characterized by a suppression of similar, but non‐matching movements. Perinatal imitation is not a phenomenon served by a single underlying mechanism; it has at least two different stages. An early phase is followed by voluntary matching behaviour by the neonatal infant.     

Applying a Process-Oriented Model of Cultural Competence to Behavioral Activation for Depression

Efforts to integrate cultural competence and evidence-based treatments (EBTs) typically take the form of cultural adaptations of EBTs, characterized by modifications to the existing treatment based on presumed cultural notions of a given race or ethnic group. Much less attention has been given to ways EBTs can integrate a process model of cultural competence, which focuses on what clinicians do in-session to identify and integrate key cultural factors for a given individual in the treatment. Our objective is to consider how a process model of cultural competence (Shifting Cultural Lenses) can be integrated with an EBT (Behavioral Activation). We present a theoretical rationale for integrating the SCL model with BA and illustrate this integration, which provides an additional approach to bringing culture to treatments and shows promise for identifying clinicians’ in-session behaviors that reflect cultural competence.     

The landscape of time in literary reception: Character experience and narrative action

Abstract

This experiment examined responses to excerpted episodes from short stories that either focused on action or on the experiences of the characters. The effects of instructional sets to approach the texts from the viewpoint of subjective involvement or objective detachment were also studied. The two story types and two reading sets were factorially combined in a within-subjects design. Scale ratings of the story excerpts and reading times (syllables per second) were measured. A total of subjects (20 males and 20 females) read six segments from each of the episodes as quickly and accurately as possible. Pretest data were obtained for each segment indicating how much it “provided insight into the characters' experiences”, and its level of suspense and surprise. Segments which “provided in sight” were read more slowly, whereas surprising segments were read more quickly. Under the Subjective Set, subjects slowed the pace of reading if they judged the text to be “rich in meaning about life”. For the Objective Set, stories that were judged to have evoked “images” were read more slowly. Females were more responsive to the Subjective Set than were the males, finding the stories to be “richer in meaning” and more “personally relevant”. Females also slowed their reading pace for segments that they judged to be “rich in meaning about life”, while males slowed down if the stories evoked “images”.     

A tutorial on hierarchically structured constructs

Many psychological constructs are conceived to be hierarchically structured and thus to operate at various levels of generality. Alternative confirmatory factor analytic (CFA) models can be used to study various aspects of this proposition: (a) The one-factor model focuses on the top of the hierarchy and contains only a general construct, (b) the first-order factor model focuses on the intermediate level of the hierarchy and contains only specific constructs, and both (c) the higher order factor model and (d) the nested-factor model consider the hierarchy in its entirety and contain both general and specific constructs (e.g., bifactor model). This tutorial considers these CFA models in depth, addressing their psychometric properties, interpretation of general and specific constructs, and implications for model-based score reliabilities. The authors illustrate their arguments with normative data obtained for the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and conclude with recommendations on which CFA model is most appropriate for which research and diagnostic purposes.