Chicken Soup Group: Peer Group Supervision for Therapists Treating Orthodox Jews

This paper will discuss my personal experience as an Orthodox psychiatrist engaged in the treatment of Orthodox clientele and how our peer group supervision has facilitated the resolution of clinical problems in the treatment of this special subgroup of patients. As other group members address possible areas of overlap and potential conflict between dynamic psychology and Judaism, I, as an MD who prescribes medication, will focus on particular issues that this raises for the Orthodox Jewish community. I will demonstrate how the peer group forum has enabled me to deal with some difficult clinical problems.     

Spirituality,Religion, and CACREP Curriculum Standards

Survey data of the general population, counselors, and counselor educators indicate that spiritual and religious issues are therapeutically relevant, ethically appropriate, and potentially significant topics for counseling and counselor education in secular settings. In this article, the authors propose that a balanced, thoughtful inclusion of these topics in Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) core curriculum areas is a reasonable and sound approach to preparing counselors to work ethically and effectively with these issues in secular counseling settings. Methods and examples for achieving this inclusion are presented for each of the CACREP core curriculum areas.     

The hippocampus and delayed recall: bigger is not necessarily better?

Healthy young female participants were tested on a measure of delayed verbal recall and then received volumetric Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scans. The analysis of the MRI scans focused on the volume of the hippocampus. Left hippocampal volume was negatively associated with the level of delayed verbal recall performance. This relationship was confirmed in further testing. This finding is consistent with a previous report of a similar relationship in healthy elderly individuals, but not in patients with Alzheimer's disease, in whom the opposite relationship was observed. An explanation of these findings in terms of impaired neural pruning of the hippocampus is advanced, whereby insufficient pruning of the hippocampus during childhood and adolescence (following adequate growth) may lead to reduced mnemonic efficiency.     

High risk,low return: The achievement effects of restructuring in disadvantaged schools

Studies of school restructuring have linked the concept to a specific normative agenda of organizational and instructional practices (such as individualized or small-group instruction, heterogeneous grouping, and team teaching). Though a number of theoretical and empirical studies point to the positive direct and indirect effects of these practices on student achievement, they tend to overlook a body of prior work suggesting that students in disadvantaged schools tend to benefit academically from more traditional types of arrangements. Tracing and building upon this literature, this study examines the impact of restructuring on mathematics achievement among students attending a sample of socioeconomically disadvantaged schools. After controlling for salient student background characteristics, our study found no significant difference in math achievement levels between nonrestructured schools and schools that had been restructured for at least three years. However, significantly lower levels of math achievement were found among schools that had been restructured for less than three years. We argue that these findings reflect the fact that the high complexity associated with many restructured practices pose special problems and risks for disadvantaged schools.     

Impacts of artificial intelligence on organizational decision making

Of all of the new technologies emerging in the late 20th century, the production of artificial intelligence may provide the most profound impacts on organizational decision making. Because the development of artificial intelligence technologies and models has largely been based on psychological models of human cognition, the effects of their implementation in complex social settings have not been thoroughly examined. This paper is an attempt to generate research which will develop a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of artificial intelligence and its role in complex organizations. A set of 11 hypotheses has been developed which examine the relationships between artificial intelligence technologies and the dimensions of organizational decision making. It is argued here that the implementation of expert systems will lead to less complex and political decision processes, while the implementation of natural language systems will lead to more complex and political decision processes.     

Reliability assessment of pedometer activity measurements

Pedometers (step counters) are inexpensive devices for obtaining naturalistic activity measurements. The existing reliability literature on pedometers is inconsistent. This article presents reasons for the disparity including (a) distinguishing between instrument reliability (Experiment 1) and clinical repeatability (Experiments 2–4) and (b) discussing methods of evaluating the reliability of activity measuring instruments. Experiment 1 shows that pedometer measurements have an uncertainty of approximately 5% (the test-retest correlational equivalent of .97) under laboratory conditions. Experiment 2 shows that pedometer measurements in college students walking a measured half-mile have approximately the same uncertainty. Experiment 3 shows that pedometer measurements from normal children walking a measured half-mile have an uncertainty of approximately 18% (the correlational equivalent of .91), while measurements from mildly hyperactive children have an uncertainty of approximately 29% (the correlational equivalent of .84). Experiment 4 shows that electronic step counters have an uncertainty of approximately 9% in normal and mildly hyperactive children and about 12% in clinically hyperactive children.     

Preventing Nuclear War: Beliefs and Attitudes as Predictors of Disarmist and Deterrentist Behavior1

A survey of peace activists, defense industry workers and psychology students (n= 283) was conducted to evaluate the usefulness of Protection Motivation Theory (Maddux & Rogers, 1983; Rogers, 1975) for predicting the extent and direction (Disarmist vs. Deterrentist) of respondents' efforts to prevent nuclear war. Regression analyses showed that the Protection Motivation model did account for a significant proportion of the variance in disarmist behavior, and that extending the model to include a measure of belief in the inevitability of war improved the model's predictive power. The model did not predict deterrentist advocacy, an outcome that suggests that activism in support of nuclear deterrence may be a response to a perceived threat from an “enemy” rather than a response to the threats represented by nuclear weapons and preparations for war.     

Developmental epidemiologically based preventive trials: Baseline modeling of early target behaviors and depressive symptoms

Describes a conceptual framework for identifying and targeting developmental antecedents in early childhood that have been shown in previous work to predict delinquency and violent behavior, heavy drug use, depression, and other psychiatric symptoms and possibly disorders in late adolescence and into adulthood. Criteria are described that guided choices of targets for two epidemiologically based, randomized preventive trials carried out in 19 elementary schools in the eastern half of Baltimore, involving more than 2,400 first-grade children over the course of first and second grades. Baseline models derived from the first of two cohorts show the evolving patterns of concurrence among the target antecedents. The central role of concentration problems emerged. From Fall to Spring in first grade, concentration problems led to shy and aggressive behavior and poor achievement in both genders and to depressive symptoms among girls. There was evidence for reciprocal relationships in girls. For example, depressive symptoms led to poor achievement in both girls and boys, whereas poor achievement led to depressive symptoms in girls but not boys, at least over the first-grade year. These results provide important epidemiological data relevant to the developmental paths leading to the problem outcomes and suggest preventive trials.