Case vignette: cybertherapy

Dr. Neuro Transmitter, a psychotherapist in Paramus, New Jersey, provides services through an online, real-time consultation service known as CyberShrink, Inc., of Dallas, Texas. He is paid by the hour for his consultation services to subscribers who are billed by credit card through CyberShrink. One afternoon he logs on and is connected via private "chat channel" to a new subscriber to the service. She is Ann Hedonia of Simi Valley, California. Ten minutes into the session, Dr Transmitter recognizes that Ms. Hedonia is seriously depressed with suicidal ideation and is feeling on the edge of her ability to cope. He gently suggests that perhaps she ought to think about hospitalization near her home. Ms. Hedonia replies, "Even you don't care about me! That's it. I'm going to do it!" and disconnects. Discussion questions: Is offering psychotherapy services online ethical? What are Dr. Transmitter's obligations in general and at this particular moment to Ms. Hedonia? Suppose Ms. Hedonia has a complaint about Dr. Transmitter. From whom can she seek a remedy? Which state's laws apply regarding professional practice, confidentiality, or licensing qualifications? Must Dr. Transmitter be licensed in any state to offer this service?     

Infant search tasks reveal early concepts of containment and canonical usage of objects

It is difficult to gain unambiguous evidence on the use of concepts by infants. Many results can be accounted for in terms of action-based strategies. The evidence reported here fulfils the minimal criteria for the operation of working concepts in infants. Search tasks are used with a filled interval which forces memory-search, and the object is hidden in containers which fulfil their customary job or violate it. Infants treat an upright cup as a more reliable location marker than an inverted one. A series of experiments probes the phenomenon. The results indicate that the infants have a working concept of containment which can be triggered by the provision of containers in their canonical orientation. Even “object permanence tasks” lead infants to access their knowledge of the relationships into which things typically enter in the world outside the laboratory.     

Methinks they do protest too much

A serious methodological error was committed by Stephens et al. (1972), the protestations of the present critics notwithstanding. When studying the relationship between two sets of variables, it is clearly wrong to hold chonological age constant in one set and allow it to vary in the other. This error spuriously reduces the correlation between the two sets. A demonstration that the two sets define different first-order factors provides very little information about the degree of relationship present, which must be derived from the intercorrelations of those factors. In the original research, these were also biased by the methodological error. The conclusion of Humphreys and Parsons that Piagetian tasks and intelligence tests could be used interchangeably is reinforced. The hypothesis that the relatively small amount of unique variance in the Piagetian composite is relatively unimportant psychologically can only be discarded on the basis of good empirical research, not debater's arguments.     

Analysis of variances and covariances is misleading as a guide to a common factor model

The “factor” analyses published by Schultz, Kaye, and Hoyer (1980) confused component and factor analysis and led in this case as in many others to unwarranted conclusions. They used component analysis to develop factor models that were subjected to restricted (confirmatory) maximum likelihood analysis, but the final models for which good fits with the observed correlations were obtained were not common factor models. They were, however, discussed as such and conclusions drawn accordingly. When their correlation matrices are analyzed by the principal factors method, two factors are sufficient to account for the intercorrelations. These two factors generally support the a priori expectation of a difference between intelligence tasks and spontaneous flexibility tasks. They are also quite similar in younger and older subjects, when similarity is judged in terms of factor pattern. Factor loadings for the younger subjects, however, are much smaller than expectations based on the respective ranges of talent in the two groups of subjects or on past experience with similar tests in undergraduate student populations.     

Paid work,child care,and housework: A national survey of high school seniors' preferences for sharing responsibilities between husband and wife

A large national sample of high school seniors rated their preferences for the allocation of work and family duties within their own prospective marriages. The results indicate that many seniors favor half-time or full-time work for wives without children. On the other hand, the majority prefer that the mother of preschool children stay home, although half-time work is acceptable to many. Respondents who are male or White or did not have a working mother themselves are somewhat more conservative on these issues. Virtually all seniors view less than full-time employment by the husband as unacceptable. With regard to child care and housework, most seniors prefer equal sharing between the spouses. A comparison of four senior classes reveals a slight trend from 1976 to 1979 toward increased sharing of duties.     

A low-stress restraint procedure for EEG acquisition in awake rats

A restraint procedure was developed to reduce movement-related artifacts during the acquisition of EEG data from unanesthetized, unparalyzed rats. It combines the low-stress properties of a cloth restraint bag with the improved immobility of a rigid restraint device. The spontaneous behavior of the rat facilitates both the induction of and the subsequent release from restraint.     

Reconceptualizing of the overjustification effect: A template-matching approach

The paper reviews traditional attributional explanations for the over-justification effect in task motivation, isolates their weaknesses, and proposes an alternative account based on the notion that individuals process task information schematically. It is proposed that task information relating to motivation is interpreted by cognitive schema or “templates,” which identify tasks as being either instrumental or expressive in nature. When the expressive template is evoked, the task is perceived to be playlike and is experienced as inherently motivating. When the instrumental template is evoked, the task is perceived as a means to an end and task motivation results from the perceived value of the task for attaining intrinsic and/or extrinsic rewards. Structural characteristics of these templates are proposed. According to this account, overjustification effects occur when the perceived characteristics of tasks change such that the expressive template is replaced by the instrumental template and expressive motivation is transformed into instrumental motivation.     

On the base-free measure of change proposed by Tucker,Damarin and Messick

Tucker, Damarin and Messick proposed a base-free measure of change which involves the computation of residual scores that are uncorrelated with true scores on the pretest. The present note discusses this change measure and demonstrates that, because of an incorrect derivation by the authors, properties they attribute to (the coefficient for the regression of true scores from the second testing on true scores from the first testing) are, in fact, properties ofb, the ordinary regression coefficient. A correct derivation of the initial position—change correlation in terms of is obtained, and Tucker et al.'s discussion of the law of initial values is reconsidered.The preparation of this paper was supported by the Learning Research and Development Center supported in part as a research and development center by funds from the National Institute of Education.