Measuring Outcome Expectancies for Specific Coping Behaviors: the Coping Expectancies Scale (CES)

Outcome expectancies for specific coping strategies may help explain why people vary in their choices of coping strategies (e.g., whether to smoke a cigarette or talk to a friend). These choices have relevance to both physical and mental health. The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of a new measure of mood regulation expectancies for specific explicit coping strategies, the Coping Expectancies Scale (CES). 552 adults completed the CES and other measures online. Factor analysis of the CES using Maximum Likelihood Extraction with promax rotation revealed three factors: Expectancies for Passive/Avoidant Coping, Expectancies for Active Behavioral Coping, and Expectancies for Active Cognitive Coping. Concurrent, discriminant, and predictive validity for these factors were strong, as was retest reliability. The CES enables researchers to measure expectancies for specific coping strategies, which may in turn help to explain people’s choices of strategies. In addition, the ability to measure these expectancies may allow for the development of treatment interventions that directly target them, ultimately enabling clients to adjust their expectancies and their choices of coping behavior, with implications for health and well-being.     

Thriving,burnout, and coping strategies of early and later career counseling center psychologists in the United States

We interviewed seven early career psychologists (ECPs) and seven later career psychologists (LCPs) employed at university counseling centers in the United States about their experiences with thriving, burnout, and coping. We analyzed the data using Consensual Qualitative Research. Typical factors that contributed to thriving included recognition for achievement and the climate of counseling center and campus, although the latter was more important for ECPs than LCPs. Typical factors that contributed to burnout included challenges with tasks and responsibilities and challenges related to professional relationships. Finally, interpersonal support (general), self-care, cognitive strategies, and behavioral strategies (typical) were coping strategies used by both ECPs and LCPs, but only ECPs identified using personal therapy. Implications for counseling centers and for research are presented.     

Using the Model Statement to Elicit Information and Cues to Deceit from Native Speakers,Non‐native Speakers and Those Talking Through an Interpreter

We examined how the presence of an interpreter during an interview affects eliciting information and cues to deceit, whilst using a method that encourages interviewees to provide more detail (model statement, MS). Sixty native English speakers were interviewed in English, and 186 non‐native English speakers were interviewed in English or through an interpreter. Interviewees either lied or told the truth about a mock security meeting, which they reported twice: in an initial free recall and after listening to the MS. The MS resulted in the native English speakers and those interviewed with an interpreter providing more reminiscences (additional detail) than the non‐native English speakers interviewed without an interpreter. As a result, those interviewed through an interpreter provided more detail than the non‐native English speakers, but only after the MS. Native English participants were most detailed in both recalls. No difference was found in the amount of reminiscences provided by liars and truth tellers. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Cholinergic Responsiveness of Rat CA1 Hippocampal Neurons In Vitro: Modulation by Corticosterone and Stress

Corticosterone can activate two corticosteroid receptor types in rat hippocampus: low doses activate mineralocorticoid receptors (MR) while high doses additionally activate glucocorticoid receptors (GR). We found that corticosterone, administered to adrenalectomized rats in vivo, dose-dependently modulates carbachol responsiveness of CA1 hippocampal neurons, recorded subsequently in vitro. Thus, the carbachol (3 μM) induced membrane depolarization in CA1 neurons was relatively large in hippocampal slices where either (almost) no corticosteroid receptors were activated (0-1 μg corticosterone/100g body weight) or where both MRs and GRs were occupied by high corticosterone doses (100-1000 μg/100g). Slices from rats that received intermediate doses of corticosterone (10-30 μg/100g) resulting in predominant MR occupation, displayed significantly suppressed carbachol responses. In adrenally intact rats with MRs and GRs fully activated by a very high dose of corticosterone (1 mg/100g), carbachol responses were increased compared to rats that received only the vehicle or that were untreated. When endogenous corticosterone levels were elevated by ether stress, carbachol responses were not increased. These findings suggest that a shift in the relative occupation of MRs and GRs occurring under physiological conditions is associated with modulation of acetylcholine sensitivity in CA1 neurons. After stress, however, the sensitivity to acetylcholine is rather low, although MRs and GRs are fully activated by endogenous corticosterone; this may point to the involvement of additional stress-induced factors modulating the cholinergic responses.     

Caregiver-patient dyads: Documenting the verbal instructions caregivers provide in joint cognitive tasks

Thirty spousal caregivers and their partners (who had been diagnosed as having primary degenerative dementia) jointly performed four cognitive tasks: Block Design (from the WAIS-R), the Token Test, and two memory tasks. Two of the tasks were unstructured, and two were structured. Caregivers served as the instructor on all tasks. Interactions were videotaped. Results showed that caregivers provided appropriate verbal instructions to a greater extent on the unstructured nonverbal task (Block Design) than on the unstructured memory task. Results are discussed in terms of implications for dyadic cognition research and intervention in dementia.     

WORD GENERATION: A REPLICATION

R ommetveit , R. & K leiven , J. Word generation: a replication. Scand J. Psychol ., 1968, g, 277–81.–Binocular rivalry was examined in a word perception task with printed Norwegian stimulus material. Two types of resolution—choice of one image only or combination of both images—were again observed. The letter pair r/g tended to be seen as r only, g only, rg, or gr, depending upon which resolution yielded a word. Perceptual strategy was thus apparently determined in part by a superordinate search for word meaning. Fully confident generations of words from monocular non-word strings were not obtained very often.a     

EVALUATION OF A SOCIAL INTERACTION COACHING PROGRAM IN AN INTEGRATED DAY-CARE SETTING

We used a multiple baseline design across teachers (with a reversal phase for 1 teacher) to evaluate the direct and indirect effects of a structured coaching procedure on the teaching behaviors of 3 day-care teachers. Structured coaching preceding daily caregiver routines resulted in (a) substantial increases in adult delivery of behavioral support of social interaction during group activities with 2- and 4-year-old children and (b) marked collateral increases in positive interactions of socially withdrawn children. Long-term maintenance effects were demonstrated by both the teachers and target children, and social validity measures indicated that the teachers rated coaching very positively on several dimensions. The results are discussed in relation to in-service training of day-care staff, the concept of coaching as a setting event, and the dissemination of teaching technology related to social interaction of young children.     

Crisis intervention and the prevention of institutionalization: An interrupted time series analysis

In the context of the community mental health movement in Illinois, the evolution and development of a crisis intervention program aimed at avoiding state hospitalization and bringing more appropriate and efficacious resources to bear on the difficulties of the individual and/or family is described. This intervention program is characterized by a more active-seeking style of delivering mental health services. With the novel application of interrupted time series analysis to both the targeted and matched nonequivalent control communities the efficacy of this more active intervention in reducing the number of state hospital administrations diagnosed as "mentally ill" is highlighted. The cost/benefit to the taxpayer is also discussed.