Applying multiple models to predict clinicians’ behavioural intention and objective behaviour when managing children's teeth

This study used multiple theoretical approaches simultaneously to predict an objectively measured clinical behaviour. The six theoretical approaches were: The Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), Common Sense Self-Regulation Model (CS-SRM), Operant Learning Theory (OLT), Action Planning (AP) and the Precaution Adoption Process (PAP), with knowledge as an additional predictor. Data on variables from these models were collected by postal survey. Data on the outcome behaviour, the evidence-based practice of placing fissure sealants, was collected from clinical records. Participants were 133 dentists (64% male) in Scotland. Variables found to predict the behaviour were: intention, attitude, perceived behavioural control, risk perception, outcome expectancies, self efficacy, habit, anticipated consequences, experienced consequences and action planning. The TPB, SCT, AP, OLT and PAP significantly predicted behaviour but the CS-SRM did not. A combined (Stepwise) regression model included only intention and action planning. Post hoc analyses showed action planning mediated effect of intention on behaviour. Taking a theory-based approach creates a replicable methodology for identifying factors predictive of clinical behaviour and for the design and choice of interventions to modify practice as new evidence emerges, increasing current options for improving health outcomes through influencing the implementation of best practice.     

Searching for integration in counselling practice

The search for integration in counselling practice is addressed. It is argued that this necessarily involves a process of dialectical thinking, brought to bear in reconciling different visions of reality encapsulated within divergent therapeutic traditions. A model is offered of integration based upon the superordinate concept of 'the vicious circle' derived from an ironic world-view. The model is heated in Wachtel's theory of cyclical psychodynamics and Bowlby's attachment theory. An illustrative case-study is provided.     

I Love to Tell the Story: Reshaping the Narrative of Adoption

Abstract : This article argues that a Christian theological understanding of adoption can be a helpful corrective to some of the negative interpretations and assumptions around adoption that continue to circulate in secular culture. The article proceeds as follows: First, I argue that the way in which Christians understand and describe the experience of being adopted into God's family counters the idea that one's birth family is one's “real” family. Second, I argue that a Christian understanding of adoption mitigates the tendency to view adoption as a sort of “Plan B.” Finally, I argue that because of the value Christians place on caring for those in need, and the replacement of kin relationships with relationships of love and faith, the metaphor of adoption can and should be used more widely, to create broader networks of family that encompass far more than mere blood ties.     

The Optimality of Tax Transfers: What does Life Satisfaction Data Tell Us?

This paper addresses an important policy question: who gets the largest utility gain from income and does the tax system adequately reflect this? We address this question by using Australian panel data and taking life satisfaction as a proxy for utility, allowing us to identify the marginal utility of additional income for different groups of individuals. We find that optimal transfers consist of transfers from the old to the middle aged, and from the married to the unmarried. This optimal utilitarian welfare policy is then contrasted with information on who actually receives transfers and who pays for them in Australia, where we find that taxes are too high for some groups, like the young, and that they are too low for other groups, like the elderly. We believe that the methodology developed in this paper could be fruitfully applied to the issue of optimal taxation in other countries.     

Successive teacher expectation effects across the early school years

The capacity for teacher expectation effects to interact and compound across a child's schooling offers a largely untested mechanism for magnifying or minimizing effects. This study examined four types of long-term teacher expectation effects: within-year effects of single teachers, cross-year effects of single teachers, mediated effects of single and multiple teachers, and compounded effects of multiple teachers. Participants were 110 students tracked from preschool through Grade 4 on measures of achievement and teacher expectations. Evidence was found for within-year but not direct cross-year effects. However, path models demonstrated enduring indirect effects of teacher expectations on cross-year achievement. Multiple years of teacher expectation effects were additive in predicting student achievement at fourth grade, with similar effects for teachers' over- and underestimates of student ability. The study extends understanding of longer-term teacher expectation effects.     

Parenting and Conduct Problems: Moderation by Child Empathy

Child empathy was examined as a moderator of the relations between positive and negative parenting behavior and child conduct problems. Participants were 56 mother-child dyads (child age M?=?10.8 years; 64 % male) and children were recruited with a range of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) symptoms. Parenting was assessed by direct observations of mothers’ praise and criticism during parent–child interactions and child empathy was measured with mother report. Child conduct problems were assessed via observation and mother-report measures, and a composite variable was created. In regression analyses, child ADHD symptoms were uniquely related to child conduct problems. Second, as hypothesized, child empathy moderated the relations between parenting and conduct problems. Mother praise was negatively related to child conduct problems at lower levels of child empathy, but this relation was not significant at higher levels of child empathy. On the contrary, mother criticism was positively related to child conduct problems at high levels of child empathy, but this relation was not significant at low levels of empathy. The results suggest that different types of parenting behavior may be differentially beneficial to children, depending on their level of empathy.     

Cross-modal information integration in category learning

An influential theoretical perspective describes an implicit category-learning system that associates regions of perceptual space with response outputs by integrating information preattentionally and predecisionally across multiple stimulus dimensions. In this study, we tested whether this kind of implicit, information-integration category learning is possible across stimulus dimensions lying in different sensory modalities. Humans learned categories composed of conjoint visual–auditory category exemplars comprising a visual component (rectangles varying in the density of contained lit pixels) and an auditory component (in Exp. 1, auditory sequences varying in duration; in Exp. 2, pure tones varying in pitch). The categories had either a one-dimensional, rule-based solution or a two-dimensional, information-integration solution. Humans could solve the information-integration category tasks by integrating information across two stimulus modalities. The results demonstrated an important cross-modal form of sensory integration in the service of category learning, and they advance the field’s knowledge about the sensory organization of systems for categorization.