Child psychotherapy with looked after and adopted children: a UK national survey of the profession

Relatively little empirical data is available about the range of work undertaken by child psychotherapists in the UK; however, previous surveys have shown high levels of complexity amongst children referred to child psychotherapists and an increasing proportion of work with children in foster or adoptive placements. Aims: We sought to examine child psychotherapists’ working practices with looked after and adopted children (LAAC), including the types of activities undertaken and their views on this work. Method: An online survey was designed to elicit this information from the members of the Association of Child Psychotherapists (ACP), the regulatory body for child psychotherapists in the UK. The survey included a number of categorical and open-ended questions, which were analysed quantitatively and qualitatively. Findings: 215 responses were received (24.5% of the eligible ACP membership). The vast majority of the sample were working with LAAC in some context (87.9%). Respondents were conducting a range of work: the most frequently conducted activities were assessment (83.7%), direct psychotherapy (82.3%), work with foster carers and adoptive parents (80.9%) and consultation with the professional network (76.7%). Thematic analysis of qualitative data suggested the complexity of problems amongst the children attending psychotherapy, as well as the perceived need for long-term work with these children. Many respondents placed emphasis on the importance of working with the professional network around the child, including foster carers and adoptive parents, despite feeling that this was often an under-resourced area of child and adolescent mental health services. The implications of the survey for practice and future research are discussed.     

Minority report: Social identity,cognitions of rejection and intergroup anxiety predicting prejudice from one racially marginalized group towards another

The present study investigated the attitudes of one disadvantaged minority group in Australia, Asian Australians (N = 87), towards another more severely disadvantaged minority group, Aboriginal Australians. Asian Australian attitudes were compared to European Australian attitudes (N = 273). Cognitions of outgroup rejection, identification and intergroup anxiety were assessed in relation modern racism, desire for intergroup avoidance and support for a national apology. Both Asian and European participants who perceived Aboriginal Australians as rejecting were more likely to express intergroup anxiety. Anxiety mediated the relationship between cognitions of rejection and the dependent variables. Whilst there was a direct positive relationship between European Australian identification and prejudice, for Asian Australian participants, identification moderated the relationship between cognitions of rejection and the dependent variables. Highly identified Asian Australian participants were particularly sensitive to cognitions of rejection, which increased modern racism and avoidance and lowered political support. The pattern was reversed for low identifiers, who were more likely to endorse a national apology to Aboriginal Australians when they perceived Aboriginal Australians as rejecting. The role of perceived rejection in predicting prejudice and avoidance, and the moderating role of Asian Australian identification, are both discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A comparison of video and static photo lineups with child and adolescent witnesses

In the UK video parades are the preferred method of identification employed in criminal cases. This policy implementation has been employed with little or no evidence concerning its validity. The reported research examines the effect of new video technology on children's identification evidence. The study compared 7–9 and 13–15‐year olds' ability to make identifications from either video or static photo lineups. Two hundred and fifteen participants witnessed a live event and then after a delay of 2–3 days viewed a target present (TP), or target absent (TA) video or photo lineup. For video and photo TP lineups, correct responses did not differ as a function of age. Video lineups produced lower rates of false identifications for the TA lineups, but only for adolescent witnesses. It is concluded that there is nothing contra‐indicated in the use of video identification procedures with children, and possibly certain benefits can accrue from its use. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Childhood amnesia: Empirical evidence for a two-stage phenomenon

The term childhood amnesia refers to the inability of adults to remember events from their infancy and early childhood. If we plot the number of memories that adults can recall as a function of age during childhood, the number of memories reported increases gradually as a function of age. Typically, this finding has been used to argue that gradual changes in memory development contribute to a gradual decline in childhood amnesia during the preschool period. Alternatively, it is possible that pooling data across participants has obscured more abrupt, stage-like changes in the remission of childhood amnesia. In the present study we examined the number and distribution of childhood memories for individual participants. Six adults were repeatedly interviewed about their childhood memories. We found that the distribution of adults' early childhood memories may be less continuous than pooled data suggest. This finding has important implications for current explanations of childhood amnesia.     

Recombinative generalization of subword units using matching to sample

The purpose of the current study was to develop and test a computerized matching-to-sample (MTS) protocol to facilitate recombinative generalization of subword units (onsets and rimes) and recognition of novel onset-rime and onset-rime-rime words. In addition, we sought to isolate the key training components necessary for recombinative generalization. Twenty-five literate adults participated. Conditional discrimination training emerged as a crucial training component. These findings support the effectiveness of MTS in facilitating recombinative generalization, particularly when conditional discrimination training with subword units is used.     

Employees’ mood, perceptions of fairness, and organizational citizenship behavior

Previous research findings concerning employees’ perceptions of fairness and positive mood as predictors of organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) have been equivocal. Explanations for this inconsistency may be related to the varying types of manipulation techniques adopted and samples tested. To address these issues, the present study adopted the mood and fairness manipulation techniques of Bachrach and Jex (2000, Journal of Applied Psychology, 30(3), 641–663) to investigate their effect on OCB amongst a sample of 138 employees from five large service organizations. The findings revealed that employees’ perceptions of fairness affected their likelihood to perform organizational citizenship behaviors. One implication of this finding is that employees’ perceptions of fairness may have a more enduring effect, in comparison to their mood, on increasing their extra role work behaviors. However, a close evaluation of the mood manipulation technique suggests that further research is needed before any firm conclusions can be made on the relative effect of empolyees’ perceived fairness and positive mood on OCB.     

The Self‐Administered Witness Interview Tool (SAW‐IT): Enhancing witness recall of workplace incidents

Given the often crucial role of witness evidence in occupational health and safety investigation, statements should be obtained as soon as possible after an incident using best practice methods. The present research systematically tested the efficacy of a novel Self‐Administered Witness Interview Tool (SAW‐IT), an adapted version of the Self‐Administered Interview designed to elicit comprehensive information from witnesses to industrial events. The present study also examined the effect of schematic processing on witness recall. Results indicate that the SAW‐IT elicited significantly more correct details, as well as more precise information than a traditional incident report form. Contextual information about a worker's safety history biased the reports of participant witnesses, confirming that witnesses should be shielded from extraneous post‐event information prior to reporting. Importantly, these results demonstrate that the SAW‐IT can enhance the quality of witness reports.     

An experimental examination of the effects of alcohol consumption and exposure to misleading postevent information on remembering a hypothetical rape scenario

We experimentally examined the effects of alcohol consumption and exposure to misleading postevent information on memory for a hypothetical interactive rape scenario. We used a 2 beverage (alcohol vs. tonic water) × 2 expectancy (told alcohol vs. told tonic) factorial design. Participants (N = 80) were randomly assigned to conditions. They consumed alcohol (mean blood alcohol content = 0.06%) or tonic water before engaging in the scenario. Alcohol expectancy was controlled by telling participants they were consuming alcohol or tonic water alone, irrespective of the actual beverage they were consuming. Approximately a week later, participants were exposed to a misleading postevent narrative and then recalled the scenario and took a recognition test. Participants who were told that they had consumed alcohol rather than tonic reported fewer correct details, but they were no more likely to report incorrect or misleading information. The confidence–accuracy relationship for control and misled items was similar across groups, and there was some evidence that metacognitive discrimination was better for participants who were told that they had consumed alcohol compared with those told they had tonic water. Implications for interviewing rape victims are discussed.