Correlations for scores on the 180-item version of the MMPI-2 and the Neuroticism scale of the NEO-Personality Inventory

64 normal adult controls (53 men, 11 women; M age 45.2 yr.) in a study of an estuary-associated syndrome were administered the MMPI-2-180 and the Neuroticism scale from the NEO-Personality Inventory. Pearson product-moment correlations between MMPI-2 scales and the Neuroticism scale were similar to those reviously reported using the full-length MMPI. Correlations between MMPI-2 scales, D, Pt, Sc, and Si, and NEO-PI Neuroticism (range .44 to .52) suggest that many psychiatric conditions are associated with psychological distress of the type individuals high in trait neuroticism are prone to experience.     

Externalizing Symptomatology Among Adoptive Youth: Prevalence and Preadoption Risk Factors

The extent of symptomatology related to attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) was examined in a statewide sample of adopted youth, aged 4–18 years (n = 808). The use of normed questionnaires in a nonclinical sample decreased biases associated with past research on adopted children. According to parental report, a striking number of the youth qualified as manifesting significant symptom levels of externalizing behavior problems: 21% met symptom cutoffs for ADHD (with or without ODD) and 20% met criteria for ODD (with or without ADHD), for a combined total of 29% of the sample. A number of parent-reported, preadoptive risk factors distinguished these groups from one another and from the nonexternalizing youth. The clearest associated factors included histories of preadoption abuse/neglect, later age of adoption, prenatal drug exposure, and placement in multiple foster homes prior to adoption. We discuss implications regarding both etiology and current controversies surrounding the disproportionate levels of behavioral difficulties in adopted youth.     

Spontaneous Self‐Practice of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) by Aboriginal Counsellors During and Following CBT Training: A Retrospective Analysis of Facilitating Conditions and Impact

Previous cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) training studies have suggested that therapists who practice CBT strategies on themselves during training may experience professional and personal benefits. However, it has also been reported that some CBT trainees are reluctant to engage in self‐practice. The present study reports an incidental finding from a CBT training study with Aboriginal counsellors: all five counsellors reported that they practiced CBT techniques on themselves without specific encouragement by the trainers to do so. This paper therefore posed three questions: (a) Why—in contrast to some other trainees—did this group choose to apply CBT to themselves? (b) How did they apply it—with what purpose, in what contexts, and which skills? (c) What was the impact of CBT self‐practice? Data from the group's reflections were qualitatively analysed by two of the researchers, and “member checked” by the remainder. Results indicated that the counsellors were motivated to practice CBT on themselves for two principal reasons: the value they placed on CBT, and their personal need resulting from the high number of crises experienced while living and working in their communities. The counsellors reported practicing CBT in a wide variety of contexts as part of their learning. As in previous studies, the impact of CBT self‐practice was that it increased their confidence and competence as therapists. It also appeared to be a valuable burnout prevention strategy. If the results are generalisable, they suggest that self‐experiential training in CBT may be a culturally responsive and adaptive way for Aboriginal counsellors to enhance their learning of CBT skills.     

Problems and solutions for a hybrid approach to grounding practical normativity

Source Hybridism about practical reasons is the position that facts that constitute reasons sometimes derive their normative force from external metaphysical grounds, and sometimes from internal. Although historically less popular than either Source Internalism or Source Externalism, hybridism has lately begun to garner more attention. Here, I further the hybridist's cause by defending Source Hybridism from three objections. I argue that we are not warranted in rejecting hybridism for any of the following reasons: that hybridists cannot provide an account of normative weight, that hybridists are committed to implausible results concerning practical deliberation, or that Source Hybridism is objectionably unparsimonious.     

Bridging Science and Religion: How Health‐Care Workers as Storytellers Construct Spiritual Meanings

Contrary to the notion that medical science has supplanted religious understandings of human suffering, recent research suggests that health‐care workers like nurses can still portray their confrontations with illness and death in spiritual terms through storytelling. However, scholars have yet to systematically analyze the rhetorical devices used to construct spiritual meanings. Drawing on a symbolic interactionist perspective, we theorize that front‐line health professionals can deploy various rhetorical devices to infuse their workplace interactions with a spiritual significance. We also propose novel fuzzy set analysis techniques for determining which configurations of devices are most important in developing spiritual meanings. This approach was illustrated by examining 173 stories elicited from nurses at a nonsectarian, teaching hospital about encounters at work that significantly impacted their understanding of spirituality. Consistent with our expectations, the way in which nurses tell stories about their experiences not only shapes whether they attach spiritual significance to them, but whether they perceive spirituality and medicine to be compatible. We discuss the implications of our findings for future research on lived religion, conflicting identities, and institutional boundaries.     

Token Causal Powers

This paper proposes that the relation between property instances and token causal powers is akin to the relation between primary substances and property instances on the Aristotelian account of property instantiation. This view permits an individual to have two tokens of the same type of causal power. Paul Audi has argued that this cannot be: two tokens of the same power type are discernible, he claims, only if they are borne by discernible individuals (Audi 2012, 666). In the context of this criticism, he proposes that power tokens are individuated in part by the individuals bearing them. This paper responds to Audi’s criticism and argues against his preferred view. This paper thus establishes a theory of token causal powers where previously the literature contained only a presumed view and Audi’s objections.     

Sequential detection of learning in cognitive diagnosis

In order to look more closely at the many particular skills examinees utilize to answer items, cognitive diagnosis models have received much attention, and perhaps are preferable to item response models that ordinarily involve just one or a few broadly defined skills, when the objective is to hasten learning. If these fine‐grained skills can be identified, a sharpened focus on learning and remediation can be achieved. The focus here is on how to detect when learning has taken place for a particular attribute and efficiently guide a student through a sequence of items to ultimately attain mastery of all attributes while administering as few items as possible. This can be seen as a problem in sequential change‐point detection for which there is a long history and a well‐developed literature. Though some ad hoc rules for determining learning may be used, such as stopping after M consecutive items have been successfully answered, more efficient methods that are optimal under various conditions are available. The CUSUM, Shiryaev–Roberts and Shiryaev procedures can dramatically reduce the time required to detect learning while maintaining rigorous Type I error control, and they are studied in this context through simulation. Future directions for modelling and detection of learning are discussed.     

Gender differences in supervisors’ multidimensional performance ratings: Large sample evidence

We examined gender differences in supervisor ratings of overall job performance and 37 performance dimensions. Based on data from a large, diverse sample of managers (N = 3,367) and nonmanagers (N = 9,670), we found that gender had only minimal effects on ratings for a small number of specific job performance dimensions. This was generally true regardless of whether the job performance dimension was more agentic or communal in nature, whether the job was a managerial or a nonmanagerial position, and regardless of the proportion of men or women that traditionally occupy a specific job. Overall, our results are more consistent with the gender similarities hypothesis than the agency/communion paradigm, role congruity theory, and the lack of fit model. We discuss future research avenues and implications.     

Therapists’ Perspectives of the Cotherapy Experience in a Training Setting

The experience of cotherapy has been sparsely addressed in the literature. This qualitative study’s goals were to explore (a) the usefulness of cotherapy as a training model (b) the impact of cotherapy on services provided; (c) the impact of being trained in a cotherapy model; and (d) factors that both facilitated and hindered the process of cotherapy. The authors conducted a focus group interview with seven participants who graduated from a COAMFTE accredited MFT master’s program. Participants unanimously reported they believed cotherapy impacted client outcomes and training. They also expressed that cotherapists’ unwillingness to address issues within the cotherapy team negatively impacted the cotherapy relationship and client outcomes. Data analysis yielded four main themes, including cotherapy as a vehicle for personal growth, accountability in the cotherapy relationship, need for safety in the cotherapy relationship, and cotherapy team’s need for supervision.