Variable-interval reinforcement schedule value influences responding following REM sleep deprivation

The effects of rapid-eye movement sleep deprivation (REMSD) in rats were studied in relation to variable-interval (VI) reinforcement schedule value. Initially, lever pressing was maintained on a VI 30-s schedule of food pellet delivery. After a baseline was established, rats were repeatedly exposed to 96 hr of REMSD and control conditions of an equivalent duration. Responding decreased following REMSD but not after exposure to control conditions. Lever pressing was then maintained on a VI 15-s schedule of food pellet delivery and exposure to the REMSD and control conditions was repeated. Under this condition following repeated REMSD exposures, rates of lever pressing became similar to baseline responding. A VI 30-s schedule of food pellet delivery was then reinstated and REMSD and control conditions were repeated. Lever pressing following exposure to the REMSD condition decreased for 3 of 4 rats. Results suggest that VI schedule value influences the effects of REMSD on responding.     

Therapist perspectives on working with fears,blocks and resistances to compassion in compassion focused therapy

Objective

A core aspect of compassion focused therapy (CFT) is addressing fears, blocks, and resistances (FBRs) to compassion. How CFT therapists do this with clients remains unclear. This study aims to explore the perspectives of well-trained, experienced CFT therapists regarding how they work with FBRs in the context of CFT.

Methods

A qualitative study was conducted. Participants were asked five open-ended questions regarding (a) their experiences of working with FBRs to compassion, (b) how they understand and formulate FBRs, (c) specific ways they address FBRs, (d) how other therapists might learn about working with FBRs, and (e) their top recommendations. A total of 64 participants completed the online questionnaire, and the qualitative data were analysed using thematic analysis.

Results

The analysis produced four interrelated superordinate themes: (a) Getting “alongside” and “behind”: The central role of formulation, (b) “It's not your fault”: Psychoeducation, (c) “Get experiential”: An emphasis on experiential interventions, and (d) “Respect the wisdom”: The importance of therapeutic process.

Conclusions

Working with FBRs to compassion is critical in CFT. Understanding the wisdom in the client's FBRs, and validating and de-shaming the client's FBRs are crucial. We provide clinical recommendations regarding working with FBRs as part of CFT.     

ROLE REVERSALS: AN ANALYSIS OF THERAPEUTIC EFFECTS ACHIEVED WITH DISRUPTIVE BOYS DURING THEIR APPOINTMENTS AS PEER MONITORS

Three 7-year-old boys with histories of negative interactions were appointed to monitor individual classmates during daily noon recess. As monitors, the boys awarded points to their classmates for playing appropriately and, on rare occasions, withdrew a point for negative interactions. The three boys immediately decreased their own rates of negative interactions during the sessions in which they were appointed as monitors. Two of the boys concomitantly increased their rates of positive interactions. Their reductions in negative interactions were not maintained during reversals and did not clearly generalize to the morning or afternoon recess periods. Subsequent appointment of the boys as peer monitors during the morning recess produced similar improvements in their behavior. Results suggest that appointment to the role of peer monitor may itself function as an intervention.     

Family and psychosocial predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder in a community sample of young adolescents

A two-stage epidemiologic study conducted between 1986 and 1988 in the southeastern United States investigated family and psychosocial predictors of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and subclinical OCD in young adolescents. In the first stage, a life-event schedule and a family adaptability and cohesion scale were administered to a community sample of 3,283 adolescents. In stage two, the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia in School Age Children and the Children's Global Assessment Scale were administered to 488 mother-child pairs. In multivariable models family cohesion was the only significant correlate of OCD (odds ratio=0.95, 95% confidence interval 0.91–0.98). Gender, race, age, socioeconomic status, guardian status, adaptability, undesirable life events and desirable life events were not found to be significant predictors of OCD in models adjusting for cohesion. Note of the above variables were significantly associated with subclinical OCD. However, separate analyses of the 41 individual life events indicated seven specific events were significantly associated with OCD or subclinical OCD. These findings are at odds with the theory that overinvolvement of family members is a risk factor for OCD, though an association with overly rigid family structure cannot be eliminated based on these data. Further exploration of family characteristics is warranted.     

Organizational Justice and the Justification of Work Force Diversity Programs

Companies have begun implementing diversity programs with the assumption that they will result in competitive advantage. We utilize an organizational justice framework to examine such work force diversity programs and their potential effects on beneficiaries' attitudes under positive distributive outcomes, an area which has received little attention. Our findings reveal that justified diversity programs result in positive general attitudes and more favorable opinions about hiring than non-justified diversity programs. However, justification had no effect on opinions and ratings of diversity programs, per se.     

Are two heads better than one? Experimental investigations of the social facilitation of memory

The hypothesis that two people collaborating in recall would remember more than a single person was examined in a series of four experiments. All the experiments used variations on the same ‘sequential’ design where, in social conditions, people recalled alone initially and then recalled jointly in pairs: as a control for reminiscence, some people recalled alone on two separate occasions. On the second recall in all of the experiments two people always recalled more than one, but this was simply due to the independent statistical summation of two people's memories: no evidence whatsoever was found for the pairs of people generating new information that was not available to either member of the pair. This surprising result was not attributable to artefacts linked to the complexity or familiarity of stimulus material, nor was it linked to variations in people's cognitive perspectives. No evidence of social facilitation of memories was therefore found: two people recalling together certainly pool their separate memories so as to outperform individuals but the social interaction does not appear to generate previously unavailable memories.     

Undesirable life-events and depression in young adolescents

We compared the relationship between individual undesirable life-events and comprehensive life-event factors, as well as major depression in adolescents. Students in four public suburban middle schools were screened for depressive symptomatology and life-events by a self-administered questionnaire. Seven of 21 individual events (parents' divorce, parental job loss, problems between parents, problems between the adolescent and his/her parents, failing a grade in school, school suspension, death of a close friend) and three of six life-event factors (conflict/disappointment, marital discord, maladjustment) were significantly related to depression in univariate models. A multivariate examination of the individual events was difficult to interpret, but examination of the event factors found maladjustment and conflict/disappointment significant. Analyses using the undesirable life-event factors provided a clearer picture of the relationships investigated by grouping related events into a more manageable number of independent categories. Specific combinations of life-events suggest stronger associations with adolescent depression than others. Clinicians may identify youths at risk for depression when specific combinations of undesirable life-events occur.     

Medicaid: A potential source of revenue for special education

Currently, over 4.3 million children are receiving special services within the nation's schools because of physical, developmental, and educational disabilities. It is estimated that twice this number would benefit from special education services. Public Law 94–142, the Education for the Handicapped Act, offered the first real opportunity for many children with disabilities to receive special health and educational services. Public schools have become a primary setting for provision of services to these children, however, many states have encountered difficulty in procuring funding. One federally mandated source of revenue is the Medicaid program. In the fall of 1991, all state Medicaid and special education programs were asked to provide information concerning current or planned use of Medicaid funds for special education services. Responses were received from 36 states. Only 19 states reported using Medicaid funding in any capacity, and of these, only four required schools to bill Medicaid for services rendered. The majority of these programs are in the pilot stages of development. Special education services covered by Medicaid vary widely, as do reimbursement mechanisms. All 19 states allow Medicaid coverage for speech, physical, and occupational therapy. Only about half of those states provide allowances for diagnostic evaluation and assessment, while coverage for psychological services is provided by three-fourths of those states, and EPSDT screens by half of the states. Only two programs had been evaluated formally at the state and/or federal level. Medicaid remains a largely untapped source of revenue that could be used to help fund services for disabled children.     

The school psychologist as behavioral ecologist

Some psychologists involved in the implementation of applied behavioral psychology in educational systems must increasingly attend to the ecological impact of such interventions. An ecological orientation emphasizing system-like interdependencies among environment, organism, and behavior suggests several substantial additions to conventional role functions of behavioral school psychologists. Such functions involve taking an active part in evaluating and assessing second-order consequences of behavioral interventions. Recommendations for functional and procedural changes are provided within this framework.     

Animal learning of independent and correlated events

Evidence suggests that experience of a truly random presentation of a conditioned and unconditioned stimulus (CS and US) retards subsequent acquisition of a classically conditioned response when the CS and US are paired. In these studies, no events reliably predict the US during the first part of training. The present experiment demonstrated impairment of subsequent appetitive conditioning in rats following a random CS-US presentation, both when another predictive cue is present and when it is absent during this experience. Results are discussed with reference to “general attention” theory, and learned helplessness. However, the data support an interpretation in terms of learning a specific relationship between a particular CS and US.