An Evaluation of Pharmacological Treatment Combined with Stress Inoculation Training in the Management of oral Lichen Planus

The aim of this pilot study was to examine the effects of the inclusion of a cognitive-behavioral intervention to the pharmacological treatment of oral lichen planus (OLP). Using a randomized controlled clinical trial, 16 patients affected by OLP were treated either with a potent corticosteroid in addition with stress inoculation training or with the drug alone. There were significant differences between the groups regarding the severity of the pathology both at the end of the treatment as well as at one-month follow-up. It is concluded that a cognitive-behavioral intervention might be usefully combined with pharmacological treatment for OLP.     

Kinship Foster Care from the Perspective of Quality of Life: Research on the Satisfaction of the Stakeholders

A quality of life studies perspective has guided the design and implementation of research on kinship care as a placement resource within the child protection system in Catalonia (Spain). This research was carried out gathering the points of view of the three main stakeholders: kinship caregivers, children who are placed in extended family and practitioners of the EAIAs (Childhood and Adolescence Interdisciplinary Care Teams). Satisfaction involved in kinship care has been explored. In this article the main stakeholders’ satisfaction with kinship care is presented, and on the other hand, children’s satisfaction with life as a whole and with five specific domains in life is analysed: Education received from their caregiver, their school, their friends, their time enjoyment and their health. As expected, practitioners show the lowest evaluations with this kind of service. Surprisingly, evaluations by children referred to kinship care and to education received by caregivers are higher than those in the normative population aged 12–16 in relation to their own natural family. The findings show implications for practice and they imply challenges for quality-of-life research.     

Consensual validity parameters of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman personality questionnaire: evidence from self-reports and spouse reports

One way of validating questionnaire responses is correlating them with ratings made by external assessors who know the ratee well: This is known as consensual validity. In this study, we assessed the consensual validity of the Zuckerman-Kuhlman Personality Questionnaire (ZKPQ; Zuckerman, 2002; Zuckerman, Kuhlman, Joireman, Teta, & Kraft, 1993). A multitrait-multimethod matrix of self-reported and spouse reported personality ratings was used to establish convergent and discriminant validity by means of Campbell and Fiske's (1959) evaluative criteria. Self-reports of 86 men and 85 women were correlated with their spouses' reports. Intraclass correlations ranged from .47 to .63 for the 5 dimensions, providing strong evidence of convergent and discriminant validity. The results obtained favor the use of the ZKPQ as a valid self-report measure of personality traits.     

On the nature of consonant/vowel differences in letter position coding: Evidence from developing and adult readers

In skilled adult readers, transposed‐letter effects (jugde ‐JUDGE ) are greater for consonant than for vowel transpositions. These differences are often attributed to phonological rather than orthographic processing. To examine this issue, we employed a scenario in which phonological involvement varies as a function of reading experience: A masked priming lexical decision task with 50‐ms primes in adult and developing readers. Indeed, masked phonological priming at this prime duration has been consistently reported in adults, but not in developing readers (Davis, Castles, & Iakovidis, 1998). Thus, if consonant/vowel asymmetries in letter position coding with adults are due to phonological influences, transposed‐letter priming should occur for both consonant and vowel transpositions in developing readers. Results with adults (Experiment 1) replicated the usual consonant/vowel asymmetry in transposed‐letter priming. In contrast, no signs of an asymmetry were found with developing readers (Experiments 2–3). However, Experiments 1–3 did not directly test the existence of phonological involvement. To study this question, Experiment 4 manipulated the phonological prime‐target relationship in developing readers. As expected, we found no signs of masked phonological priming. Thus, the present data favour an interpretation of the consonant/vowel dissociation in letter position coding as due to phonological rather than orthographic processing.     

Description of Exemplar Cases in the Intensive Mental Health Program: Illustrations of Application of the Therapeutic Model

We describe cases from the clinical records in the Intensive Mental Health Program to illustrate the diverse presenting problems, intervention strategies, therapeutic process, and outcomes for children receiving services in this school-based, community-oriented treatment model. Cases reflect varying degrees of treatment response and potential factors that influence the fluctuating levels of emotional disturbance and impaired functioning in the home, school, and community.     

Prosocial and antisocial aspects of personality in women: a replication study

Several studies seem to favour the existence of a continuum between prosociality and antisociality. The aim of the present study was to replicate the functions found in men in a sample of women. Physical-risk taking activities can be classified along a continuum ranging from prosociality to antisociality, the risky sports being in an intermediate point of that hypothetical dimension. The sample consisted of 43 antisocial risk takers incarcerated for having committed armed robbery, 52 risk-taker sportswomen, 74 prosocial risk takers, and 58 women not engaged in any risky activity. Subjects were administered the Sensation Seeking scale, the Eysenck Personality Questionnaire, the Impulsiveness scale of the Impulsiveness–Venturesomeness–Empathy Questionnaire, the Socialization scale of the California Psychological Inventory, and the Susceptibility to Punishment and Reward scales. Discriminant analysis identified in females the same three different profiles of physical risk-taking personality found in males: (1) the Impulsive Unsocialized Sensation Seeker; (2) the Venturesomeness; and (3) the Seeker of Experiences by a nonconforming life style. Moreover, the results seem to support the validity and generalizability across gender of the model being considered. The four personality variables that best discriminate among the risk-taking types are: Socialization, Thrill and Adventure Seeking, Experience Seeking, and Neuroticism.     

The ERP signature of the contextual diversity effect in visual word recognition

Behavioral experiments have revealed that words appearing in many different contexts are responded to faster than words that appear in few contexts. Although this contextual diversity (CD) effect has been found to be stronger than the word-frequency (WF) effect, it is a matter of debate whether the facilitative effects of CD and WF reflect the same underlying mechanisms. The analysis of the electrophysiological correlates of CD may shed some light on this issue. This experiment is the first to examine the ERPs to high- and low-CD words when WF is controlled for. Results revealed that while high-CD words produced faster responses than low-CD words, their ERPs showed larger negativities (225–325 ms) than low-CD words. This result goes in the opposite direction of the ERP WF effect (high-frequency words elicit smaller N400 amplitudes than low-frequency words). The direction and scalp distribution of the CD effect resembled the ERP effects associated with “semantic richness.” Thus, while apparently related, CD and WF originate from different sources during the access of lexical-semantic representations.     

Individual differences in hypothetic-deductive reasoning: importance of cognitive skills and flexibility

Recent investigations show that people's differential performance when solving reasoning tasks is due to differences not only at computational level, but also at the rational or intentional level. This study is within the framework of this context and it specifically analyses individual differences in hypothetic-deductive reasoning, taking into account the characteristics associated with the task itself (content and instructions) as well as the individuals' differential characteristics. Two hundred and seventy-six students from the University of Santiago de Compostela participated in this study. Several psychometric tests were administered and participants were requested to solve various reasoning tasks. The results obtained confirm that, in effect, the differences between competent and non-competent reasoners are observed at both the above-mentioned levels: cognitive skills and abilities (algorithmic level) and cognitive flexibility (intentional level).     

aPRIDIT Unsupervised Classification with Asymmetric Valuation of Variable Discriminatory Worth

Abstract

Sometimes one needs to classify individuals into groups, but there is no available grouping information due to social desirability bias in reporting behavior like unethical or dishonest intentions or unlawful actions. Assessing hard-to-detect behaviors is useful; however it is methodologically difficult because people are unlikely to self-disclose bad actions. This paper presents an unsupervised classification methodology utilizing ordinal categorical predictor variables. It allows for classification, individual respondent ranking, and grouping without access to a dependent group indicator variable. The methodology also measures predictor variable worth (for determining target behavior group membership) at a predictor variable category-by-category level, so different variable response categories can contain different amounts of information about classification. It is asymmetric in that a “0” on a binary predictor does not have a similar impact toward signaling “membership in the target group” as a “1” has for signaling “membership in the non-target group.” The methodology is illustrated by identifying Spanish consumers filing fraudulent insurance claims. A second illustration classifies Portuguese high school student’s propensity to alcohol abuse. Results show the methodology is useful when it is difficult to get dependent variable information, and is useful for deciding which predictor variables and categorical response options are most important.