Einzel- und Paarintervention f��r depressive Koronarpatienten

Depressive symptoms in patients presenting with coronary heart disease have an impact on quality of life, health behavior, and prognosis. The psychotherapeutic interventions which had been tested for their efficacy in previous randomized controlled trials, showed only minor effects. A stepwise approach consisting of individual and group psychotherapeutic interventions was tested for efficacy in a German multicenter study. The presented paper describes the therapeutic procedure for two individual sessions and one couple session by means of case examples. The main focus was to determine depressive symptoms along with underlying maladaptive personality traits such as negative affectivity and social inhibition (type D pattern). Depressive mood, disappointments and mortifications both in private and professional life and also during the previous treatment are verbalized. Dysfunctional relation patterns and maladaptive sickness behavior are taken up by the psychotherapist and alternative behavior patterns are developed. The objective of the couple session is strengthening the partnership resources and offering relief of fears and worries relative to the heart disease. The psychotherapeutic procedure is psychodynamically oriented but also contains cognitive-behavioral and interactional treatment approaches.     

Lexicons, contexts, events, and images: commentary on Elman (2009) from the perspective of dual coding theory

Elman (2009) proposed that the traditional role of the mental lexicon in language processing can largely be replaced by a theoretical model of schematic event knowledge founded on dynamic context-dependent variables. We evaluate Elman's approach and propose an alternative view, based on dual coding theory and evidence that modality-specific cognitive representations contribute strongly to word meaning and language performance across diverse contexts which also have effects predictable from dual coding theory.     

Mental illness, criminal risk factors and parole release decisions

Research has not examined whether higher rates of parole denial among inmates with mental illness (MI) are the result of the increased presence of criminal risk factors among this population. Employing a representative sample of inmates with (n = 219) and without (n = 184) MI receiving parole release decisions in 2007, this study tested whether the central eight risk factors for recidivism considered in parole release decisions intervened in the relationship between MI and parole release. MI was associated with possession of a substance use disorder, antisocial personality disorder and violent charges while incarcerated; however, these factors were not related to release decisions. MI was found to have neither a direct nor an indirect effect on release decisions. While results indicate that release decisions appear, to some extent, to be evidence-based, they also suggest considerable discretion is being implemented by parole board members in release decisions above and beyond consideration of criminal risk factors.     

Increasing On-Task Behavior Using Teacher Attention Delivered on a Fixed-Time Schedule

The effectiveness of fixed-time delivery of attention to increase the on-task behavior of 2 students in general education was examined. The teacher in this study provided attention to students on a 5-min fixed-time schedule and responded to students in her typical manner between cued intervals. An ABAB withdrawal design was used to test the effects of the intervention. The results of this study indicate that a fixed-time schedule of attention was effective in increasing students’ on-task behavior and decreasing their off-task behavior. Implications of the study for research and practice are discussed.     

Back to the garden: new visions of posthuman futures

This article examines the contemporary phenomenon of imagining a world from which people have been removed. Such a trend speaks to a utopian impulse, but one that is not comparable to traditional utopian ideas. What does the popularity of books like The World without Us or documentaries such as The Future is Wild, Aftermath: Population Zero, and Life after People say about the current status of utopian ideals, environmental thought, and our cultural understanding of humanity's place in the nature order?     

Predictive and incremental validity of the Violence Risk Appraisal Guide scores with male and female jail inmates

The present study examines the predictive and incremental validity of Violence Risk Appraisal Guide scores in a sample of 328 male and 145 female jail inmates held on felony charges. Significant gender differences were observed in VRAG item and total score means, as well as in correlations between the VRAG and concurrent measures of aggression. VRAG scores significantly predicted institutional misconduct during incarceration and recidivism in the first year postrelease for male inmates but not for female inmates. In terms of incremental validity, VRAG scores predicted institutional misconduct and recidivism beyond that accounted for by psychopathy for male inmates but not for female inmates. Implications for clinical practice and future research are discussed.     

Measuring strategic control in artificial grammar learning

In response to concerns with existing procedures for measuring strategic control over implicit knowledge in artificial grammar learning (AGL), we introduce a more stringent measurement procedure. After two separate training blocks which each consisted of letter strings derived from a different grammar, participants either judged the grammaticality of novel letter strings with respect to only one of these two grammars (pure-block condition), or had the target grammar varying randomly from trial to trial (novel mixed-block condition) which required a higher degree of conscious flexible control. Random variation in the colour and font of letters was introduced to disguise the nature of the rule and reduce explicit learning. Strategic control was observed both in the pure-block and mixed-block conditions, and even among participants who did not realise the rule was based on letter identity. This indicated detailed strategic control in the absence of explicit learning.     

Measuring Parenting in Community and Public Health Research Using Brief Child and Parent Reports

The use of multi-method, multi-informant assessment is a hallmark of research in child development and mental health; however, many research strategies such as population surveys require brief assessment tools. The Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) is a popular measure of empirically identified aspects of positive and negative parenting styles important to conduct problems in children. A brief version exists, however it does not measure all relevant parenting domains, and it has not been validated for child reports. We evaluated validity of the brief parent and child report version of the complete five subscale version of the APQ in a sample of 208 children aged between 9 and 17, at risk for conduct problems and antisocial behaviour. The results showed that all five dimensions of parenting can be measured using a brief 15 item version; specifically child and parent reports converged as expected and discriminated high from low conduct problem children using parent and teacher reports. Only child reports converged with independent observations of parenting behaviour, supporting previous research showing that child reports of parenting are particularly important. Finally, results did not support the typical methods used for combining child and parent reports into one index.