A biopsychosocial model for treating infertility

With approximately one out of six married couples experiencing infertility, having a basic knowledge of infertility is important to marriage and family therapists. This paper presents important themes that infertile couples often struggle with and stresses the importance of having a biological, psychological, and social understanding of infertility. In addition, the paper suggests possible interventions that family therapists can use in helping infertile couples.     

Diathesis-stress models of psychopathology: A quantitative genetic perspective

When genetics is considered in diathesis-stress models of psychopathology, it is often assumed that heredity provides the diathesis and environmental factors are responsible for the stressor. We discuss two quantitative genetic models relevant to the diathesis-stress construct. One model focuses on genotype-environment interaction, which is the usual way in which genetic influence is represented in diathesis-stress models. A second model—genotype-environment correlation—provides an alternative that represents both genetic and environmental influences relevant to the development of psychopathology. Implications of these models for clinical research are discussed.     

Integrating scientist and practitioner training in counseling psychology: Practicum is the Key

Recently, revitalized interest has been shown in the scientist-practitioner approach to training counseling and other applied psychologists. The counseling practicum is proposed as potentially the most influential and effective forum in which students can learn to integrate science and practice within the counseling psychology training sequence. A series of recommendations are presented for the more effective integratin of training in science and practice through students' clinical preparation experiences in general and the counseling practicum in particular.     

Components of phonemic processing and the beginning reader

This study primarily investigated various aspects of phonemic processing and memory in relation to reading in 74 5- and 6-year-old British children. A principal components analysis revealed a major connection between reading and aspects of phonemic processing for both age groups. For the 5-year-olds the processing of the initial phoneme was important for reading, whereas for the 6-year-olds processing of initial and final phonemes appeared to be equally related on this factor. A second factor for both groups was intelligence, which was related to reading only for the 6-year-olds; but this intelligence factor was more associated with phonemic processing for the 5-year-olds. An analysis involving clustering individual readers with similar patterns across the experimental variables showed some consistent profiles for disabled readers across the two age groups. These profiles suggested potential areas for remediation according to subgroup membership.     

Comparison of simultaneous prompting and constant time delay procedures in teaching sight words to elementary students with moderate mental retardation

Simultaneous prompting (a type of antecedent prompt and test procedure) and constant time delay were compared with four students with moderate mental retardation learning expressive sight words. A parallel treatments design across word sets and replicated across students was used. For acquisition, the simultaneous prompting procedures required fewer trials, sessions, and training time to criterion and resulted in fewer student errors during daily probe and training sessions. However, maintenance data indicated mixed results across the two procedures. Reliability data (both dependent and independent variables) revealed no differences between the two procedures in terms of the teacher's accuracy in recording student responses and implementing each procedure. Future research issues are discussed.     

The utilization of genetic counselors within a newborn screening program

Genetic counselors have participated in the Michigan Newborn Screening Program on a contractual basis since 1988. Their role includes newborn screening education and training, newborn nursery site visits, and monitoring newborn screening in hospitals. Their impact has been to improve the quality of newborn screening services by reducing errors and increasing completion of data fields on newborn screening cards, improving hospital nursery cooperation and problem solving, and enhancing health department response to specific problems.