Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) for treatment-resistant compulsive washing

Five intractable cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder were treated with the Danger Ideation Reduction Therapy (DIRT) program. All five cases: (1) had displayed excessive washing/cleaning behaviour for at least 10 years; (2) had failed to respond to a minimum of two separate, 12-week drug trials with serotonergic agents; (3) failed to respond to at least 15 sessions of exposure and response prevention at the beginning of the present trial, and; (4) satisfied the DSM-IV criteria for OCD with Poor Insight. DIRT was conducted in 14, weekly, individual sessions or until, in the judgement of the treating clinician: (1) clinically significant gains were apparent with minimal symptomatology remaining, and (2) clients displayed a sound grasp of the cognitive model underpinning DIRT procedures. At post-treatment, substantial reductions in scores on the Padua Inventory (PI), Maudsley Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (MOCI), Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and two global rating scales were apparent for four of the five subjects. These improvements were maintained at 4-to-6 month follow-up, with four of the five cases meeting Jacobson and Truax's (1991) criteria for 'recovery' on the MOCI and the PI by this assessment stage. While one subject remained non-responsive, the present findings suggest that DIRT may be a viable option for treatment-resistant cases of compulsive washing. The theoretical implications of the findings are discussed.     

An examination of the MMPI-2 Wiener-Harmon Subtle subscales for D and Hy: implications for parent scale and neurotic triad interpretation

This research explores the scale development process for the MMPI-2 Wiener and Harmon (1946) Subtle subscales for Depression (D) and Hysteria (Hy) to provide insight into why certain items were included on these scales and were subsequently but inappropriately assumed to be subtle indicators of the same pathology that the Obvious items measure. In this research, I also explore what the Subtle scales on D and Hy measure and their potential utility for the interpretation of their parent scales and the "neurotic triad." It was hypothesized that the D and Hy Subtle subscales are related to denial, repression, or both and this hypothesis was supported. In a sample of 1,240 inpatient and outpatient psychiatric patients at a large Army medical center, it was found that these subscales had strong positive correlations with othe scales on the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory-2 (MMPI-2; Butcher, Dahlstrom. Graham, Tellegen, & Kaemmer, 1989) related to denial, repression, or both. It was also found that they had strong negative correlations with scales on the MMPI-2 and Millon Clinical Multiaxial Inventory (MCMI-II; Millon, 1987) that are related to symptom endorsement, which can be considered the opposite of denial or repression. In addition, ratings of the Subtle items on D and Hy by clinical psychology residents were consistent with the hypothesis that these items reflect a denial of psychological or physical dysfunction.     

Exploring the Recovery of Non-offending Parents after a Child’s Sexual Abuse Event

A variety of factors influence a child’s recovery from a child sexual abuse (CSA) event including the non-offending parent’s role in the healing process of their child. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of how non-offending parents recuperate from a CSA occurrence. By better understanding non-offending parents’ perspectives related to the healing process, health professionals can provide effective supports, programs, and services. We recruited and conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 16 non-offending parents to explore their risk factors, protective factors, stressors, coping strategies, and perceptions of healing following their child’s sexual abuse event. We also invited parents to contribute specific ideas to improve programs and services offered to families of sexual abuse served by a child advocacy center located in an urban pediatric hospital. Our findings included five themes: (1) a variety of emotions are present; (2) family context influences recovery; (3) coping is different for everyone; (4) navigating the justice system is frustrating; and (5) healing is a process. The results of our study revealed that the non-offending parents that were managing their child’s sexual abuse event more productively were further along in the healing process (as compared with their counterparts) and had successfully processed their emotions, described less chaos in their family unit, employed positive coping strategies, and had found a way to move forward and accept a “new normal”. The findings of our study can be used to promote recovery and provide better services to non-offending parents following a CSA event.

     

Preliminary investigation of two functional assessment methods for people with dementia: Effectiveness and acceptability

Many functional assessment procedures have been developed and validated for use with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. However, there is a paucity of research exploring the utility and social acceptability of functional assessment methods for people with dementia. We conducted direct observations in the natural environment to produce data for conditional probability analyses and an experimental functional analysis of the behavior of two women with dementia. We found that the conditional probability analysis yielded similar conclusions about function as the data from the experimental functional analysis for both participants. Importantly, staff rated the direct observations as more socially acceptable. We also report barriers to conducting both methods in older adult settings that warrant further exploration, including the use of the assessments with people with dementia and intact vocal verbal repertoires.     

Immoral,Incompetent, and Lacking Warmth: How Stereotypes of Teenage Fathers Compare to Those of Other Parents

Sex Roles - Constructions of teenage fathers largely portray them as absent, criminal, and violent (Johansson and Hammarén 2014; Kiselica and Kiselica 2014), with their identity tied to the...     

Being ostracized versus out of the loop: Redundant or unique predictors of variance in workplace outcomes?

Based on the existing research, being excluded from information (i.e., being out of the loop) produces similar consequences as being ignored or excluded from activities. Consequently, one might wonder whether it is necessary to measure or study different types of exclusion in the workplace context, rather than just assessing a single type of exclusion. The current research investigated the associations between two types of workplace exclusion (i.e., being ostracized and being left out of the loop) and various workplace outcomes, with the purpose of determining whether these different types of exclusion predict unique or redundant variance in these workplace outcomes. In Study 1, we obtained a better model fit when we assigned items measuring out-of-the-loop experiences at work to a different factor than items assessing experiences with ostracism at work. In Study 2, we observed that measuring employees' experiences with being out of the loop predicted unique variance in workplace outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction), above and beyond experiences with ostracism at work. Relative weight analyses suggested that both ostracism and out-of-the-loop experiences were equally important predictors of these outcomes. Together, these studies indicate that being ostracized and being left out of the loop may be distinct exclusion experiences and better predictions about workplace outcomes can be made by assessing both types of exclusion. On a practical level, measuring different types of exclusion may prove useful, because organizations may need to implement different interventions for addressing distinct types of exclusion.     

Positive facial affect looks healthy

A healthy appearance is linked to important behavioural outcomes. Here we investigated whether positive facial affect is a cue for perceived health. In study one, two groups of participants rated the perceived health or perceived happiness of a large set of faces with neutral expressions. Perceived happiness predicted perceived health, as did anthropometric measures of expression. In a second experimental study, we collected ratings of perceived health for a wide age range of target faces with either neutral or smiling expressions. Smiling faces were rated as being much healthier looking than neutral faces, confirming that facial expression plays a role in the perception of health. A third study investigating attractiveness as a possible mediator found that expression still had a significant direct effect on perceived health, after accounting for attractiveness. Together, these studies systematically show that facial affect plays a critical role in shaping our perceptions of health in others.     

The development of perceptual averaging: learning what to do,not just how to do it

The mature visual system condenses complex scenes into simple summary statistics (e.g., average size, location, orientation, etc.). However, children, often perform poorly on perceptual averaging tasks. Children's difficulties are typically thought to represent the suboptimal implementation of an adult‐like strategy. This paper examines another possibility: that children actually make decisions in a qualitatively different way to adults (optimal implementation of a non‐ideal strategy). Ninety children (6–7, 8–9, 10–11 years) and 30 adults were asked to locate the middle of randomly generated dot‐clouds. Nine plausible decision strategies were formulated, and each was fitted to observers' trial‐by‐trial response data (Reverse Correlation). When the number of visual elements was low (N < 6), children used a qualitatively different decision strategy from adults: appearing to “join up the dots” and locate the gravitational center of the enclosing shape. Given denser displays, both children and adults used an ideal strategy of arithmetically averaging individual points. Accounting for this difference in decision strategy explained 29% of children's lower precision. These findings suggest that children are not simply suboptimal at performing adult‐like computations, but may at times use sensible, but qualitatively different strategies to make perceptual judgments. Learning which strategy is best in which circumstance might be an important driving factor of perceptual development.     

Understanding the factors that determine workplace coaching effectiveness: a systematic literature review

Meta-analytic results have established that workplace coaching is effective, however, little is known about the determinants of coaching effectiveness. This paper reports an inclusive systematic literature review, covering the quantitative and qualitative research on workplace coaching. We focus on seven promising areas in the current workplace coaching literature that emerged by the synthesis of 117 empirical studies: self-efficacy, coaching motivation, goal orientation, trust, interpersonal attraction, feedback intervention, and supervisory support. The major contribution of our paper is the systematic integration of well-established theoretical constructs in the workplace coaching context and the new insights we provide in the synthesis of these literatures. Based on our review, we provide specific recommendations to be addressed in future research, including recommended research methodologies, which we propose will significantly progress the field of workplace coaching theory and practice.     

The role of spousal relationships in fibromyalgia patients’ quality of life

Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic pain syndrome that includes debilitating symptoms such as widespread pain and tenderness, fatigue, and poor physical functioning. Research has shown FM patients’ choice of coping style and relationship quality with their spouse can impact their mental quality of life (QoL), but no known study has examined the protective nature of relationship quality and coping behaviors on both patient physical and mental QoL in the context of chronic pain. We examined 204 patients with FM on the (a) roles of coping styles and relationship quality on patient quality of life, and (b) moderating effect of relationship quality on the association between negative coping style and patient QoL. A series of multiple regressions found patients’ coping styles were not significantly associated with physical QoL, but were significantly associated with mental QoL. Patients’ relationship quality with their spouse was significantly associated with mental QoL, but not physical QoL and no significant interactions with negative coping style were found. Our results emphasize the importance of coping styles and relationship quality between patients and their spouses in the context of chronic pain. Clinicians can incorporate the patient’s relationship as part of a more holistic approach to care and improving outcomes.