Group Session Rating Scale: Preliminary psychometrics in substance abuse group interventions

Background: Although ultra‐brief outcome and process measures have been developed for individual therapy, currently there are no ultra‐brief alliance measures for group therapy. Method: The current study examined 105 clients in group therapy for issues related to substance abuse or with issues related to the substance abuse of a significant other. We tested whether a newly developed group therapy alliance measure – the Group Session Rating Scale would be related to other commonly used group process measures (Working Alliance Inventory, Group Cohesion, Group Climate) and early change (change over the first four sessions of group therapy). Results: The findings provided support for reliability based on Cronbach alphas and test‐retest coefficients. Additionally, the GSRS was a one‐factor measure that was related to other group process measures as well as predicted early change. Discussion: Clinical implications for how to utilise ultra‐brief outcome and alliance measures are provided.     

The Ways Paradigm: A Transtheoretical Model for Integrating Spirituality Into Counseling

Research suggests that an emphasis on spirituality and religion in counseling has increased awareness but not translated into changes in practice. The authors contend that part of this challenge is the lack of a broad, heuristic model for integration that seeks to embrace the complex, fluid, and negotiated nature of spirituality and religion. Cheston's ( 2000a ) Ways Paradigm for teaching counseling theory provides such a model, leading to new perspectives on counselor education, research, and practice.     

Predicting the Development of Analytical and Creative Abilities in Upper Elementary Grades

In some models, intelligence has been described as a multidimensional construct comprising both analytical and creative abilities. In addition, intelligence is considered to be dynamic rather than static. A structural equation model was used to examine the predictive role of cognitive (visual short-term memory, verbal short-term memory, selective attention) and socio-emotional (motivation, self-concept, well-being) child characteristics in the development of analytical and creative abilities in 116 Dutch children over the course of 5th and 6th grade. Results showed increasing levels of both analytical and creative abilities over the grades with the 2 types of abilities developing more or less independently. The development of analytical abilities was predicted by visual and verbal short-term memory and self-concept, the development of creative abilities by visual short-term memory and well-being. These results show that analytical and creative abilities have highly independent developmental trajectories, each with specific cognitive and socio-emotional predictors.     

Demonstration of an Integrated Treatment for Smoking Cessation and Anxiety Symptoms in People With HIV: A Clinical Case Study

Despite high rates of co-occurring tobacco use and anxiety symptoms and disorders among persons with HIV, evidence-based interventions for these individuals are not yet available. The present study sought to evaluate an integrated treatment model addressing smoking cessation and anxiety sypmtoms among HIV-positive smokers. Treatment was an 8-week intervention integrating a standard smoking cessation protocol (i.e., cognitive-behavioral therapy [CBT], nicotine replacement therapy) with CBT for anxiety. Inclusion criteria were 18–65 years of age, ≥ 10 cigarettes/day, State–Trait Anxiety Inventory [STAI-T] score of > 39, and moderate motivation (i.e., ≥ 5 out of 10 on a 10-point Likert scale) to quit smoking. Primary outcomes included scores on the Anxiety Sensitivity Index (ASI) and cigarettes smoked per day. Self-reported abstinence was biochemically verified by carbon monoxide breath analysis. Three male participants (mean age 49.3, SD = 9.1) completed through 2-month follow-up. At baseline all participants reported smoking an average of 20 cigarettes per day. Two participants quit smoking and maintained abstinence by the 2-month follow-up, and demonstrated a reduction in ASI scores. Participant 3 continued to smoke but at a reduced rate. Participants’ response to cognitive and behavioral strategies (e.g., creating balanced thoughts, interoceptive exposures) will be discussed. Clinical lessons learned include use of a flexible approach to cognitive restructuring, use of imaginal and in vivo exposures in session to better prepare patients for homework practice, and flexibility in delivering the treatment in an individual or group format. This clinical presentation provides preliminary support for the feasibility and initial effectiveness of an integrated treatment to reduce anxiety symptoms and aid in smoking cessation in anxious, HIV-positive smokers.     

The role of the Five Factor Model of personality in the perceptions of negative and positive forms of work–nonwork spillover: A meta-analytic review

The present meta-analysis examines the relationships between the Five Factor Model (FFM) of personality and negative and positive forms of work–nonwork spillover (e.g., work-family conflict and facilitation). Results, based on aggregated correlations drawn from 66 studies and 72 independent samples (Total N = 28,127), reveal that the FFM is predictive of work–nonwork spillover. More specifically, meta-analytic structural equation modeling indicated that extraversion (β = −.08), agreeableness (β = −.06), conscientiousness (β = −.13), and neuroticism (β = .29) are related to negative work–nonwork spillover, while extraversion (β = .27), agreeableness (β = .11), conscientiousness (β = .12), and openness to experience (β = .20) are related to positive work–nonwork spillover. FFM personality variables were equally predictive of both directions of spillover (i.e., work-to-nonwork and nonwork-to-work). Collectively these results suggest a moderate amount of variance in negative (R² = .15) and positive (R² = .18) work–nonwork spillover is accounted for by personality.     

Judging a book by its cover and its contents: the representation of polysemous and homophonous meanings in four-year-old children

Unlike homophonous meanings, which are semantically unrelated (e.g., the use of bat to refer to a baseball bat and a flying rodent), polysemous meanings are systematically related to one another (e.g., the use of book, CD, and video to refer to physical objects, as in ‘the leather book’, or to the intellectual content they contain, as in ‘the profound book’). But do perceived relations among polysemous meanings reflect the presence of generative lexical or conceptual structures that permit the meanings of these words to shift? If so, these structures may also support children’s early representations of polysemous meanings. In four studies, we demonstrate (1) that four-year-old children can understand both the concrete and abstract meanings of words like book, (2) that when taught a novel label for one of these meanings, children can readily understand an extension of that label to the other meaning, and (3) that extension does not occur between two homophonous meanings, which share a common phonological form but are otherwise unrelated. We conclude that the polysemous meanings of words like book rely on a common representational base early in development, and suggest that this may be the result of foundational, generative properties of the lexicon or conceptual system.     

Client and therapist variability in clients' perceptions of their therapists' multicultural competencies

This study examined therapist differences in their clients' ratings of their therapists' multicultural competencies (MCCs) as well as tested whether therapists' who were rated as exhibiting more MCCs also had clients who had better therapy outcomes (N = 143 clients and 31 therapists). All clients completed at least 3 sessions. Results demonstrated that therapists accounted for less than 1% of the variance in their clients' Cross-Cultural Counseling Inventory–Revised (CCCI-R; T. D. LaFromboise, H. L. K. Coleman, & A. Hernandez, 1991) scores, suggesting that therapists did not differ in terms of how clients rated their MCCs. Therapists accounted for approximately 8.5% of the variance in therapy outcomes. For each therapist, their clients' CCCI-R scores were aggregated to provide an estimate of therapists' MCCs. Therapists' MCCs, based on aggregate CCCI-R scores, did not account for the variability in therapy outcomes that were attributed to them. Additionally, clients' race/ethnicity, therapists' race/ethnicity, or the interaction of clients'–therapists' race/ethnicity were not significantly associated with clients' perceptions of their therapists' MCCs.     

Mapping the moral domain

The moral domain is broader than the empathy and justice concerns assessed by existing measures of moral competence, and it is not just a subset of the values assessed by value inventories. To fill the need for reliable and theoretically grounded measurement of the full range of moral concerns, we developed the Moral Foundations Questionnaire on the basis of a theoretical model of 5 universally available (but variably developed) sets of moral intuitions: Harm/Care, Fairness/Reciprocity, Ingroup/Loyalty, Authority/Respect, and Purity/Sanctity. We present evidence for the internal and external validity of the scale and the model, and in doing so we present new findings about morality: (a) Comparative model fitting of confirmatory factor analyses provides empirical justification for a 5-factor structure of moral concerns; (b) convergent/discriminant validity evidence suggests that moral concerns predict personality features and social group attitudes not previously considered morally relevant; and (c) we establish pragmatic validity of the measure in providing new knowledge and research opportunities concerning demographic and cultural differences in moral intuitions. These analyses provide evidence for the usefulness of Moral Foundations Theory in simultaneously increasing the scope and sharpening the resolution of psychological views of morality.