A prospective study of appraisals in childhood posttraumatic stress disorder

This study investigated the predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children following a diagnosis of traumatic injury. Children (N=76) aged between 7 and 13 who were admitted to hospital following injury were assessed within a month of trauma for acute stress disorder (ASD), negative appraisals, as well as parental stress reactions. Children (N=62) were re-assessed 6-months later for PTSD and negative appraisals. The majority of the variance of chronic posttraumatic stress was accounted for by negative appraisals about future harm. This study supports cognitive models of PTSD, and suggests that younger children who exaggerate their vulnerability after trauma exposure are high risk for PTSD after trauma.     

Children's emotion regulation: Self-report and physiological response to peer provocation

The authors examined the notion that children's emotion regulation (ER) is a uniform skill by (a) investigating the concordance between self-report of ER and physiological measures and by (b) examining ER in a specific context (e.g., peer provocation) and context-free manner (e.g., during a semistructured interview of ER abilities). Seventy-two children in middle childhood (average age = 9 years) participated. Time-locked measures of heart rate reactivity and recovery were obtained in response to provoking comments, and vagal regulation was measured throughout the provocation session. Children who reported greater dysregulation showed increased heart rate reactivity to provocative comments (i.e., steeper heart rate slope) but no difference in heart rate recovery. The context-free but not the context-specific self-report measure was associated with a failure to suppress vagal tone. Implications for ER measurement and children's peer relations are discussed.     

Assessment of Alcohol Use Disorders Among Court‐Mandated DWI Offenders

Convicted DWI offenders (N = 549) were assessed for alcohol use disorders. Repeat offenders had twice the rate of both lifetime and current alcohol use disorders compared with 1st‐time offenders. Guidelines for determining alcohol problems in DWI offenders are recommended.     

Synchrony effects in automatic and controlled retrieval

Using a speeded retrieval procedure, we investigated time-of-day effects in automatic and controlled retrieval. Morning-type adults were tested at either peak (early morning) or off-peak (late afternoon) times on a speeded implicit (Experiment 1) or explicit (Experiment 2) stem completion task. In Experiment 1, retrieval strategies were identified by changes in response speed between a practice phase with rapid retrieval and an implicit memory test phase. Performance based on controlled retrieval (shown by slowdown participants) showed more priming at peak than at off-peak times of day, a finding confirmed in Experiment 2, in which the participants were given intentional retrieval instructions when the materials switched. In contrast, performance based on automatic retrieval (shown by nonslowdown participants) did not differ across peak and off-peak times. The finding suggests a robust synchrony effect in controlled retrieval, but not in automatic retrieval, which does not appear to vary across the day.     

Reconsolidation of episodic memories: a subtle reminder triggers integration of new information

Recent demonstrations of "reconsolidation" suggest that memories can be modified when they are reactivated. Reconsolidation has been observed in human procedural memory and in implicit memory in infants. This study asks whether episodic memory undergoes reconsolidation. College students learned a list of objects on Day 1. On Day 2, they received a reminder or not, and then learned a second list. Memory for List 1 was tested immediately on Day 2 (Experiment 2) or on Day 3 (Experiment 1). Although the reminder did not moderate the number of items recalled from List 1 on either day, subjects who received a reminder incorrectly intermixed items from the second list when recalling List 1 on Day 3. Experiment 2 showed that this effect does not occur immediately and thus is time-dependent. The reminder did not affect memory for List 2 on Day 3 (Experiment 3), demonstrating that modification occurred only for the original memory (List 1). The study demonstrates the crucial role of reminders for the modification of episodic memory, that reconsolidation of episodic memory is time-dependent, and, in contrast to previous reconsolidation findings, that reconsolidation is also a constructive process, one that supports the incorporation of new information in memory.     

Depression,Sociocultural Factors,and African American Women

The authors discuss depression in African American women from a sociocultural perspective, including aspects of oppression and racism that affect symptom manifestation. The authors highlight John Henryism as a coping mechanism, the history and continuing role of the African American church as a safe haven, and strategies for culturally competent practice. Los autores discuten la depresión en mujeres Afroamericanas desde una perspectiva sociocultural, incluyendo los aspectos de opresión y racismo que afectan a la manifestación de los síntomas. Los autores destacan el John Henry‐ismo como mecanismo de afrontamiento, la historia y el papel constante de la iglesia Afroamericana como refugio seguro, y las estrategias para una práctica culturalmente competente.     

What has caused the Flynn effect? Secular increases in the Development Quotients of infants

Results of five studies show that during the second half of the twentieth century there were increases in the Development Quotients (DQs) of infants in the first two years of life. These gains were obtained for the Bayley Scales in the United States and Australia, and for the Griffiths Test in Britain. The average of 19 data points is a DQ gain of approximately 3.7 DQ points per decade. Similar gains of approximately 3.9 IQ points per decade have been present among preschool children aged 4–6 years. These gains are about the same as the IQ gains of school age students and adults on the Wechsler and Binet tests. This suggests that the same factor has been responsible for all these secular gains. This rules out improvements in education, greater test sophistication, etc. and most of the other factors that have been proposed to explain the Flynn effect. It is proposed that the most probable factor has been improvements in pre-natal and early post-natal nutrition.     

Generalizing Teaching Techniques from University to K-12 Classrooms: Teaching Preservice Teachers to Use What They Learn

Preservice teachers learn evidence-based practices in university classrooms but often fail to use them later on in their own K-12 classrooms. The problem may be a missing link in teacher preparation, i.e., failure to teach preservice teachers to generalize newly acquired techniques. Two experiments using multiple baseline designs across participants assessed effectiveness of a model to promote generalization and maintenance of a specific teaching skill. In Experiment 1, preservice teachers’ maintenance of behavior deteriorated from practicum to student teaching when intervention consisted of training to criteria alone. When a programming for generalization component (program common stimuli) was added to the intervention, teachers in Experiment 2 generalized and maintained behavior across settings (student teaching to own classrooms) at a higher average than occurred during intervention.     

What Makes Women-Friendly Public Accounting Firms Tick? The Diffusion of Human Resource Management Knowledge Through Institutional and Resource Pressures

Through the analysis of qualitative data, this research applies institutional theory and the resource-based perspective to examine why public accounting firms adopt women-friendly human resource management policies. The study reveals that 5 types of institutional pressures explain why women-friendly policies have proliferated in the public accounting industry. In addition to these institutional pressures, the proliferation of women-friendly policies in accounting firms has occurred because these firms are motivated to optimize available economic choices. Firms view women-friendly policies as a means to acquire, develop, and accumulate resources that will give them a competitive advantage in the marketplace. However, these women-friendly policies only provide competitive advantage when they are both valuable and difficult for competitors to imitate because of social complexity, knowledge management, and tacitness.     

The Masochism of the Group Therapist

With tongues firmly in cheek, the authors catalogue and explicate the many miseries of the group therapist. They hypothesize a deep well of masochism to account for the otherwise inexplicable tenacity of group therapists in forming and leading their groups.