Genetic Counseling Supervisor Competencies: Results of a Delphi Study

Clinical supervision is a critical component of genetic counseling student preparation, yet empirically-determined competencies for genetic counseling supervisors are lacking. In this study a modified, two-round Delphi method was used to gain consensus about important genetic counseling supervisor knowledge, characteristics, and skills. Program directors and assistant directors of American Board of Genetic Counseling accredited genetic counseling programs in North America (N?=?33) were invited to participate and to recruit three experienced supervisors. Seventy-four individuals completed Round 1 and, of these, 61 completed Round 2. Approximately two-thirds were clinical supervisors from prenatal, pediatrics, cancer, and adult clinics; one-third were program directors. Participants rated the importance for genetic counseling supervisors of 158 items derived from supervision literature in allied health professions. They rated 142 items (89.9 %) as highly important. Content analysis of these items yielded six supervisor competency domains: Personal traits and characteristics; relationship building and maintenance; student evaluation; student centered supervision; guidance and monitoring of patient care; and ethical and legal aspects of supervision. The results provide a basis for training genetic counseling supervisors and for further research to refine and validate supervisor competencies.     

Are all experiences of fit created equal? Two paths to persuasion

Regulatory fit influences the effectiveness of persuasion through two paths: 1) a “feeling right” as “feeling good about the target” effect where feeling right is a positive feeling that transfers positivity directly to the target, similar to “feelings as information” or fluency effects, and 2) a “feeling right” as “feeling confident about the evaluation” effect where feeling right is feeling confident about one's evaluative judgments of the target that increases reliance on those evaluations. We propose that the involvement with an attitude-related issue in a persuasion message is one key factor that determines when each effect will occur. Five studies demonstrate that under high involvement, fit increased reliance on evaluative reactions to the target, making a target of a positive advocacy message evaluated as more positive and a target of a negative advocacy message evaluated as more negative; and under low involvement, fit increased the positivity of feelings toward the target regardless of the valence of the message advocacy, making the evaluation of the target more positive for either a positive or negative advocacy message.     

Brief treatment with alprazolam and behavioral guidance in panic disorder

Abstract

Thirty-two patients with panic disorder, with or without agoraphobic limitations, were treated with alprazolam (mean dose 3.5 mg/d) plus brief behavioral guidance in an open study during eight weeks. The sample had a notorious severity in the frequency of panics and phobic avoidance but was only mildly depressed. Before starting treatment the presence of demoralized mood and extensive avoidance were significant indicators of clinical severity, whereas the presence of dizziness as a relevant somatic complaint was not related to higher severity. After eight weeks of treatment a clinical improvement equal to or exceeding 80% of change was obtained in all cases (29) who completed treatment. Ninety-two percent of the patients were panic free at the end of treatment. There were significant reductions in all the scales with comparable declines in the subgroups formed according to the presence or absence of agoraphobic avoidance and demoralization. The data suggested that moderate doses of alprazolam could be a quick and effective treatment for panic-agoraphobic patients in the short term. The behavioral guidance probably helped in reducing agoraphobic avoidance and in obtaining global good effectiveness although this awaits controlled tests. Finally, the similarity in the response to treatment regardless of the presence of extensive avoidance or demoralized mood argues in favor of not considering the different variants of panic-agoraphobic syndrome differently, at least in samples with similar severity to the present one.     

The fate of originally presented surface information following recall errors in sentence memory tasks

Pictures are remembered better than their names. This picture superiority effect in episodic memory has been attributed either to the greater sensory distinctiveness of pictures or to their greater conceptual distinctiveness. Weldon and Coyote (1996) tested the conceptual distinctiveness hypothesis by comparing how well pictures as opposed to words primed in two conceptual implicit memory tasks (category production and word association). They found no picture superiority in priming and concluded that the basis of the picture superiority effect must then be pictures' greater sensory distinctiveness. Using the same logic, we compared how well pictures as opposed to words primed in a perceptual implicit memory task (picture and word fragment identification). The sensory distinctiveness theory would predict that pictures should prime picture fragment identification better than words prime word fragment identification, a result we call the picture superiority in within-form priming. Across three experiments which manipulated the encoding task at study, only one showed picture superiority in within-form priming. In contrast, in all three experiments there was robust picture superiority in recall, and exposure to pictures and words at study and test produced independent effects in which both study and test exposure to pictures was more effective for recall than exposure to words. We consider how these results might be reconciled by differences in retrieval demands between recall and fragment identification.     

On the Standard and Rational Completeness of some Axiomatic Extensions of the Monoidal T-norm Logic

The monoidal t-norm based logic MTL is obtained from Hájek's Basic Fuzzy logic BL by dropping the divisibility condition for the strong (or monoidal) conjunction. Recently, Jenei and Montgana have shown MTL to be standard complete, i.e. complete with respect to the class of residuated lattices in the real unit interval [0,1] defined by left-continuous t-norms and their residua. Its corresponding algebraic semantics is given by pre-linear residuated lattices. In this paper we address the issue of standard and rational completeness (rational completeness meaning completeness with respect to a class of algebras in the rational unit interval [0,1]) of some important axiomatic extensions of MTL corresponding to well-known parallel extensions of BL. Moreover, we investigate varieties of MTL algebras whose linearly ordered countable algebras embed into algebras whose lattice reduct is the real and/or the rational interval [0,1]. These embedding properties are used to investigate finite strong standard and/or rational completeness of the corresponding logics.     

Structural Universals And Formal Relations

I will consider Armstrong's problems in trying to account for structural universals,i.e., a kind of complex universal whose instantiation by particulars involves differentparts of those particulars instantiating several basic properties and relations, such asthe property of being a molecule of methane. I present and criticise Armstrong's mostrecent attempt to explain structural properties by means of the identification of universals with types of states of affairs and I state my own solution to the problem by appealing to formal relations holding between particulars.     

Frequency and Impact of Interpersonal Trauma in Older Women

Interpersonal violence impacts the lives of many women in society. However, despite the proliferation of research in this area, there is limited information about the frequency and impact of interpersonal trauma experiences in late life. This study investigated the relationship between a history of interpersonal trauma and subsequent adjustment difficulties, including psychological distress and physical health, in women over the age of 60. Findings demonstrate that interpersonal trauma has a significant impact on later-life functioning. Additionally, the presence of multiple traumatization experiences was a critical factor in determining which individuals manifested long-term trauma symptoms.     

The development of face and location processing: an fMRI study

Although a few developmental fMRI studies have shed some light on the neurological development of either object or spatial processing we still know very little about the development of the ‘what’ and ‘where’ processing systems. The present study is the first to address this issue by comparing, concurrently and within the same behavioral paradigm, patterns of functional activation for face processing and location processing in 12 children (10–12 years old) and 16 adults. For both tasks this study found a developmental shift from a more distributed pattern of activation in children to a more focused pattern of activation in adults. Furthermore, the type of developmental redistribution of activation in children varied depending on the task. The present findings have important implications for theories of visuospatial development. They suggest that the neural systems involved in face and location processing may undergo development and fine‐tuning well into late childhood.