Individual prediction of dyslexia by single versus multiple deficit models

The overall goals of this study were to test single versus multiple cognitive deficit models of dyslexia (reading disability) at the level of individual cases and to determine the clinical utility of these models for prediction and diagnosis of dyslexia. To accomplish these goals, we tested five cognitive models of dyslexia--two single-deficit models, two multiple-deficit models, and one hybrid model--in two large population-based samples, one cross-sectional (Colorado Learning Disability Research Center) and one longitudinal (International longitudinal Twin Study). The cognitive deficits included in these cognitive models were in phonological awareness, language skill, and processing speed and/or naming speed. To determine whether an individual case fit one of these models, we used two methods: 1) the presence or absence of the predicted cognitive deficits, and 2) whether the individual's level of reading skill best fit the regression equation with the relevant cognitive predictors (i.e., whether their reading skill was proportional to those cognitive predictors.) We found that roughly equal proportions of cases met both tests of model fit for the multiple deficit models (30-36%) and single deficit models (24-28%); hence, the hybrid model provided the best overall fit to the data. The remaining roughly 40% of cases in each sample lacked the deficit or deficits that corresponded with their best-fitting regression model. We discuss the clinical implications of these results for both diagnosis of school-age children and preschool prediction of children at risk for dyslexia.     

The Individual in Organizations: Rediscovered or Lost Forever?

In this article the author argues that managers are confronted with increasing pressures to transform the human being into a sheer economical resource. Three related factors are discussed to explain this penetrating influence of a utilitarian conception of the human being: (1) A movement away from a communitarian towards a new individualistic ideology, (2) the overriding influence of a materialistic, meta-economic theory, and (3) the deep separation of clinical and organizational psychology in teaching, research, and practice. The trend to reduce the human being to an instrumental resource is illustrated by a discussion of current management and consulting practices. These practices include participation as social engineering, modal management with lack of concern for understanding the human being in his or her individuality, and the practice of contracted relations between organizations and employees.     

Epilogue

The aim of the study was to examine perceived job insecurity and its antecedents and outcomes over a three-year time period. Job insecurity was operationalized by four scales based on the global and multidimensional definition of job insecurity. The study was carried out by means of questionnaires, which were administered three times, in 1995 (Time 1), 1996 (Time 2), and 1997 (Time 3), to employees in three organizations: a paper mill, a bank, and a municipal social and health care department. The present article is based on the data of those employees (N = 109) who participated in each year of the study. The results indicated that global worry about one's job continuity (global scale) and the probability of negative changes in one's job (probability scale) shared similar elements most and both of them were predicted by low self-esteem over the three-year period. Only the evaluations of the probability of negative job changes led to negative outcomes in occupational well-being later on.     

Toward a Better Understanding of Psychological Well‐Being in Dementia Caregivers: The Link Between Marital Communication and Depression

To read this article's abstract in both Spanish and Mandarin Chinese, please visit the article's full‐text page on Wiley InterScience ( http://interscience.wiley.com/journal/famp ). Dementia research has frequently documented high rates of caregiver depression and distress in spouses providing care for a partner suffering from dementia. However, the role of marital communication in understanding caregiver distress has not been examined sufficiently. Studies with healthy couples demonstrated an association between marital communication and the partners' psychological well‐being, depressiveness, respectively (e.g., Heene, Buysee, & Van Oost, 2005 ). The current study investigates the relationship between caregiver depression and communication in 37 couples in which the wives care for their partners with dementia. Nonsequential and sequential analyses revealed significant correlations between caregiver depression and marital communication quality. Caregivers whose husbands used more positive communication reported less depression and distress. Additionally, caregiver depression was negatively correlated with rates of positive reciprocal communication indicating dependence between the couples' interaction patterns. This study is one of the first to illustrate the relevance of spousal communication in understanding caregiver distress and depression.     

Religious Attendance Buffers the Impact of Unemployment on Life Satisfaction: Longitudinal Evidence from Germany

This research used longitudinal data from the German Socio‐Economic Panel Study (SOEP) to examine whether religious attendance buffers the impact of unemployment on life satisfaction. Fixed effects models following 5,446 individuals up to three years after the transition to unemployment yielded two central findings. First, higher frequency of religious attendance was associated with smaller drops in life satisfaction. Second, only those who attended religious services on a weekly basis adapted to unemployment. These results suggest that religious attendance on a weekly basis can mitigate the psychological impact of unemployment.     

Zur Psychoanalyse des Glücks

The article describes some of the foundations of the striving for happiness and the experience of happiness from the point of view of different psychoanalytical theories and applies this to the luck of “Hans in luck” in the fairy tale. While happiness in the drive theory is reached through the gratification of needs, in the theory of narcissism it is defined as a regression to a narcissistic feeling of unity. In object-relations theory it is described how, beside happiness as a mere passive aim of expectation, a capacity to be happy has to be developed progressively.     

Diversity in Collaborative Task-systems

An analysis is presented of how group representatives develop a collaborative task-system and cope with a number of diversity issues in the intergroup task: heterogeneity of group membership and social identity, diversity of interests and resources. The data were obtained during a three-day training and simulation course in which a number of international consultants, taking the roles of the relevant interest parties, developed a collaborative task-system in order to deal with the economic deterioration of an island in the area of St Petersburg, Russia. Observations are provided on how the representatives, lacking pre-established roles and procedures, coped with the convener role, developed the domain of collaboration, and managed the interest and contributions of the different parties. Evidence suggests that, without proper training, participants converge around the vision of an ideal future state, but, being unable to cope effectively with differences, leave the realization of action to bilateral negotiation.     

The Object Relations Technique by Herbert Phillipson

AIDS has a unique set of characteristics that makes group psychotherapy more complex than with other populations: (1) the threat of an early death, (2) a highly variable course of illness, and (3) stigma related to the illness and to the preexisting lifestyles of most patients. The specific ways in which the three factors seriously interfere with establishing and maintaining group cohesion are discussed, and clinical guidelines are suggested. In addition, a model for understanding and working with these and other issues in group psychotherapy, based on Erik Erikson's interpersonal theory of development, is presented. Finally, particular countertransferential difficulties are discussed in relation to the heightened emotionality common to AIDS psychotherapy groups.