An Examination of the Psychologists' Attitudes Towards Complementary and Alternative Therapies Scale Within a Practitioner Sample

This study assessed the validity of a scale measuring psychologists' attitudes towards complementary and alternative therapies and compared the attitudes of psychologists with a previous sample of psychology students. The scale, derived from existing measures for medical professionals and previously tested on a sample of psychology students, was completed by practising psychologists (N = 122). The data were factor analysed, and three correlated subscales were identified, assessing the perceived importance of knowledge about available therapies, attitudes towards integration with psychological practice, and concerns about associated risks of use. This structure was similar, but not identical, to that found in a previous sample of psychology students; however, psychologists expressed more concern for risks associated with integration and were less likely to hold a positive attitude towards integration. This scale will be useful in gauging changes in psychologists' attitudes towards integrative practice over time.     

Children's responses to entry failure: attention deployment patterns and self-regulation skills

In this study the authors investigated associations among children's observed responses to failure in an analogue entry situation, their attention deployment patterns, and skills and processes associated with self-regulation. Participants were 54 kindergarten and first-grade students who were either aggressive-rejected or low aggressive-popular based on peer nominations. Inhibitory control predicted the tendency to respond to entry failure by stopping and watching the group's activity. Baseline vagal tone and other-directed attention predicted children's tendency to change entry strategies after failure. Parent-rated attention skills moderated the relation between children's attention deployment patterns during the entry task and their responses to entry failure. Children who engaged in more other-directed attention were less likely to turn to solitary play after entry failure but only if they had high or moderate levels of attentional control. Other-directed attention was related to repeating previous entry bids without modification after entry failure but only when children had high levels of attention problems.     

Heightened interpersonal security diminishes the monetary value of possessions

People may value their possessions, in part, because ownership of goods promotes feelings of security. If so, increasing their sense of security should reduce the value they place on possessions. In two studies we tested this prediction. In Study 1, participants who were assigned randomly to write about an instance of receiving social support placed less monetary value on a blanket they owned relative to participants who were assigned randomly to write about a pleasant restaurant experience. In Study 2, participants who were unobtrusively primed with security-related words placed less monetary value on a pen they just received relative to participants who were primed with positive or neutral words. Results suggest that enhancing interpersonal security reduces valuing possessions.     

Effect of viewing the interview and identification process on juror perceptions of eyewitness accuracy

This study examined whether showing jurors a video of the witness's initial attempts to describe and identify the perpetrator would facilitate jurors' ability to discriminate between accurate and inaccurate witnesses. Mock jurors observed a simulated trial in which the key witness testified under direct examination and cross‐examination. The jurors saw either the witness's testimony or the witness's testimony plus videotape footage of the earlier police interviews in which the witness described and attempted to identify the perpetrator. Results support the hypothesis: Jurors in the examination‐plus‐video condition discriminated between accurate and inaccurate witnesses better than jurors in the examination‐only condition. We discuss various mechanisms to explain the advantage provided by the video. It is recommended that police officers videotape the line‐up procedure and that jurors be shown this video at trial. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A face only an investor could love: CEOs' facial structure predicts their firms' financial performance

Researchers have theorized that innate personal traits are related to leadership success. Although links between psychological characteristics and leadership success have been well established, research has yet to identify any objective physical traits of leaders that predict organizational performance. In the research reported here, we identified leaders' facial structure as a specific physical trait that correlates with organizational performance. Specifically, we found that firms whose male CEOs have wider faces (relative to facial height) achieve superior financial performance. Decision-making dynamics within a firm's leadership team moderate this effect, such that the relationship between a given CEO's facial measurements and his firm's financial performance is stronger in firms with cognitively simple leadership teams.     

The School Adjustment of Rural Adolescents with and Without Disabilities: Variable and Person-Centered Approaches

This study examined the school adjustment of adolescents with disabilities and their nondisabled peers in a national sample of rural high school students. The total sample consisted of 7,376 students: 6,704 nondisabled students, 70 students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), 512 students with learning disabilities (LD), and 90 students identified as English language learners (ELL). Teacher ratings on the Interpersonal Competence Scale-Teacher (ICS-T) were used to assess students’ adjustment on seven factors: academic, affiliative, aggressive, internalizing, popular, Olympian, and shy. Cluster analyses were used to identify distinct configurations of competence and risk separately for boys and girls. Differences between educational classifications were identified for the ICS-T factors and for the interpersonal competence configurations. Students with EBD were overrepresented in Multi-risk configurations (aggressive high-risk profiles), students with LD were overrepresented in both the Multi-risk and Disengaged (non-aggressive high-risk profiles) configurations, and students identified as ELL were overrepresented in Disengaged configurations.     

Experiential Activities in Family Therapy: Perceptions of Caregivers and Youth

Novel and creative therapeutic modalities have been developed in an effort to increase motivation in family therapy for adolescents and families. Many of these approaches incorporate experiential activities or “family play”, which provides a supplemental approach to traditional talk therapy. Incorporating experiential activities into family therapy sessions has been shown to increase engagement and enhance participation in therapy. Therefore, to understand how families view experiential activities within family therapy, we interviewed nineteen adolescents (age 12–17) and their parents/caregivers who were receiving family therapy augmented with experiential activities. We asked a series of open-ended questions to understand the families’ experiences concerning how they initially felt about participating in family therapy and their perceptions of the experiential activities. The activities involved experiential interactions and skill-building exercises that elicited active participation from all family members and encouraged further discussions. Topics of these activities focused on problem areas the family had identified, such as anger management, problem-solving, improving communication, substance use, expressing feelings, coping, etc. Results showed that most caregivers and youth found the experiential activities helpful in creating positive family interactions and developing communication skills. Caregivers and adolescents noted that the activities increased their desire to participate in family therapy sessions and they were more motivated to engage in the treatment process. Clinicians using the methods discussed in this intervention should be aware of the study’s limitations. Implications for clinical practice and research are discussed.     

Cumulative culture and future thinking: Is mental time travel a prerequisite to cumulative cultural evolution?

Cumulative culture denotes the, arguably, human capacity to build on the cultural behaviors of one's predecessors, allowing increases in cultural complexity to occur such that many of our cultural artifacts, products and technologies have progressed beyond what a single individual could invent alone. This process of cumulative cultural evolution underlies human cultural success and has enabled us to reach and inhabit some of the most inhospitable environments on this planet. Why humans, but not other animals, have exhibited a cultural explosion has caused much deliberation. The human propensity to imitate, teach, “mind-read” and cooperate have all featured prominently in accounts of the prerequisites for cumulative culture. However, this may not represent the complete picture. In this article we consider whether there exists a link between future thinking, specifically prospective mental time travel, and the observed distribution of cumulative culture.     

Enhancing Teen Pregnancy Prevention in Local Communities: Capacity Building Using the Interactive Systems Framework

Getting To Outcomes (GTO), an innovative framework for planning, implementing, evaluating, and sustaining interventions has been shown to be effective in helping community‐based organizations (CBOs) introduce science‐based approaches into their prevention work. However, the Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) suggests that adopting innovations like GTO requires a significant amount of capacity building through training and technical assistance (T/TA). In this study, 11 CBOs and three schools in South Carolina entered into a 3 year program of intense and proactive T/TA based on the ISF to learn how to apply an adaptation of GTO (Promoting Science‐Based Approaches‐Getting To Outcomes, PSBA‐GTO) to their teen pregnancy prevention programs. Using semi‐structured interviews, the partnering organizations were assessed at three points in time, pre‐T/TA, 12 months, and post T/TA (30 months) for their performance of the steps of GTO in their work. The seven organizations which participated in T/TA until the end of the project received an average of 76 h of TA and 112 h of training per organization. Interview results showed increased performance of all 10 steps of PSBA‐GTO by these organizations when conducting their teen pregnancy programs. These results suggest targeted and proactive T/TA can successfully bridge the gap between research and practice by using a three part delivery system, as prescribed in the ISF, which relies on an intermediary prevention support system to ensure accurate and effective translation of research to the everyday work of community‐based practitioners. Special Issue: Advances in Bridging Research and Practice Using the Interactive System Framework for Dissemination and Implementation; Guest Editors: Abraham Wandersman, Paul Flaspohler, Catherine A. Lesesne, Richard Puddy; Action Editor: Emilie Phillips Smith