1984: A Love Letter

Dear Kris, I know you will read this letter if it ever manages to get to you. You like reading. I’m not sure what you’ll think of it though. I just know I had to make this attempt to talk to you about the summer of 1984. There are some things you and I come to know in the summer of 1984 that will take us 35 years to learn to talk about. They were not an easy 35 years. And I want to help change that.     

Preliminary Evaluation of Sleepwise Program for Children With Sleep Disturbance and Developmental Delay

Sleep disturbances are very prevalent in children with developmental delay. Parental-assisted behavioral strategies have been used effectively in school-aged children; however, multimodal treatment for preschool-aged children is lacking. The current study is a preliminary investigation of the effectiveness of a parent group program called Sleepwise designed for young children with developmental delay and incorporating behavioral, communicative, and sensory strategies. Six parents attended three workshop sessions and implemented individualized treatment plans. Initial results revealed significant posttreatment reductions in child sleep disturbances and behavioral problems, with high treatment acceptability ratings by parents. Outcomes were generally maintained at 1-month follow-up.     

The Relationship of Pregnancy Status to Job Satisfaction: An Exploratory Analysis

Forty-three women who had worked outside of the home prior to becoming pregnant and had returned to the same place of employment after the birth of their children participated in the study. To do so, they responded to a two-part questionnaire asking about their work lives (e.g., level of job satisfaction before, during, and after their pregnancies) and demographic characteristics (e.g., occupation). The results indicated that their job satisfaction was significantly greater before their pregnancies than either during or after their pregnancies. Job satisfaction during pregnancy had a significant, positive correlation with satisfaction with organizational maternity leave policies. Perceived reactions from women's coworkers and supervisors were also examined. Implications for these findings for organizations are discussed. Limitations of the study, and how they might be rectified in future research, are also addressed.     

The Effect of Feedback Schedule Manipulation on Speech Priming Patterns and Reaction Time

Speech priming tasks are frequently used to delineate stages in the speech process such as lexical retrieval and motor programming. These tasks, often measured in reaction time (RT), require fast and accurate responses, reflecting maximized participant performance, to result in robust priming effects. Encouraging speed and accuracy in responding can take many forms, including verbal instructions and feedback, and often involves visually displayed RT feedback. However, it is uncertain how manipulation of the schedule of this RT feedback influences speech RT speed and, ultimately, the priming effect. This experiment examined the effect of visually presented RT feedback schedules on priming patterns in 20 older healthy adults. Results suggested that feedback schedule manipulation had a differential effect on reaction time, depending on the interstimulus interval between the prime and the target, but no effect on response priming patterns.     

Broaching the Subjects of Race,Ethnicity, and Culture During the Counseling Process

The authors define broaching as the counselor's ability to consider how sociopolitical factors such as race influence the client's counseling concerns. The counselor must learn to recognize the cultural meaning clients attach to phenomena and to subsequently translate that cultural knowledge into meaningful practice that facilitates client empowerment, strengthens the therapeutic alliance, and enhances counseling outcomes. A continuum of broaching behavior is described, and parallels are drawn between the progression of broaching behavior and the counselor's level of racial identity functioning.     

An Open Trial Targeting Food Cue Reactivity and Satiety Sensitivity in Overweight and Obese Binge Eaters

Data suggests that individuals who binge eat are more responsive to food cues in the environment and less sensitive to satiety cues. The aim of this open trial was to evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and initial effectiveness of a novel treatment grounded in Schachter’s externality theory targeting food cue reactivity and satiety responsiveness with obese adults who binge eat. Treatment was provided in groups, and utilized appetite monitoring, cue-exposure treatment, in vivo exercises, self-monitoring, and coping skills. Twenty-eight overweight and obese adults who binge eat (82% female; mean age = 47.5 years [SD = 12.8]; BMI = 38.9 [SD = 10.3]; 79% White non-Hispanic) participated in a 4-month group-based treatment program. Assessments were conducted at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up time points. Results indicated that this treatment was well accepted and had high retention at posttreatment. Initial effectiveness showed significant decreases in BMI, and improvements in loss of control and overeating episodes, food responsiveness, and power of food. The majority of results were maintained at the 3-month follow-up time point. This open trial provides preliminary evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and initial effectiveness of this treatment on both eating disorder symptoms and weight in obese adults who binge eat. Because these data are preliminary, further treatment development and randomized controlled studies are needed.     

Architectural design of a secure forensic state psychiatric hospital

This article describes the architectural design of a secure forensic state psychiatric hospital. The project combined input from staff at all levels of the client organization, outside consultants, and a team of experienced architects. The design team was able to create a design that maximized patient dignity and privacy on one hand, and the ability of staff to observe all patient activity on the other. The design centers around 24-bed units, broken into smaller living wings of eight beds each. Each eight-bed living wing has its own private bathrooms (two) and showers (two), as well as a small living area solely reserved for these eight patients and their guests. An indoor-outdoor dayroom allows patients to go outside whenever they choose, while allowing staff to continue observing them. The heart of the facility is a large treatment mall, designed to foster the acquisition of social, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral skills that will help patients to safely return to their communities.