A Systematic Review and Quality Assessment of Therapeutic Group Process Questionnaires

ABSTRACT

The aims of this study were to systematically review the literature on questionnaire-based group process measures and assess the psychometric scale development properties of these measures. A systematic search of questionnaire-based measures of group process was conducted from four databases: PsycINFO, Medline, EMBASE and AMED. A quality assessment was undertaken using established criteria. Only studies that described the development of questionnaire-based scales were included. Seventeen studies which described thirteen measures were included in the analysis. The developed list highlights a range of questionnaires that can be used by clinicians and researchers seeking to measure either “specific therapeutic group mechanisms” or “overall group experiences.” Further research should focus on developing the content validity of these scales by involving the target population during item selection and reduction.     

Combining Action Observation and Motor Imagery Improves Eye–Hand Coordination during Novel Visuomotor Task Performance

Abstract

In this study, we compared the effectiveness of concurrent action observation and motor imagery (AO?+?MI), observing with the intent to imitate (active observation; AO), and passive observation (PO) training interventions for improving eye–hand coordination. Fifty participants were assigned to five groups [AO?+?MI, AO, PO, physical practice (PP); control] and performed a visuomotor rotation task, whilst eye movements were recorded. Each participant then performed 20 task trials in a training intervention before repeating the visuomotor rotation task in a post-test. As expected, PP produced the greatest improvement in task performance and eye–hand coordination. However, in comparison to the control group, AO?+?MI training produced a statistically significant increase in both task performance and eye–hand coordination, but no such improvements were found following AO or PO.     

Forget assimilation: introducing subjectivity to German–Jewish history

Between the Enlightenment and the Holocaust, a wide range of German-speaking Jewish subjects shared certain assumptions about a problematic associated with being Jewish and living in a non-Jewish German society (and the concomitant process of relative “assimilation”). The categories of identity and culture that undergirded this problematic became part of a shared lexicon of a German-Jewish “identity crisis”—a lexicon that was handed down to the historiography of German Jews that would develop after the community’s destruction. The author of this contribution challenges the validity of some of these categorical assumptions by setting them against the varied background of German-Jewish experience in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, offering a model of subjectivity (rather than identity) that might allow the historiography to break out of the cyclical repetition in which it currently finds itself. By examining specific exemplars, including Gershom Scholem, Edith Stein, Martin Buber, and others, the author models a reading strategy that would be appropriate for German-Jewish subjectivity.     

On precipitating factors: cancer as a cause of suicide

This case-control study provides individual-based data describing the impact of being a cancer patient on the odds of suicide. 5,009 suicides and 17,064 controls are compared. The data indicate that cancer patients are 50 to 100 percent more likely than nonpatients to commit suicide. This and other studies indicate that health status should be considered in future attempts to relate suicide to social environment.     

The Validity of a Brief Risk Assessment Tool for Predicting Suicidal Behavior in Veterans Utilizing VHA Mental Health Care

Suicide risk among military veterans is an important and ongoing concern. The Veterans Administration (VA) mandates suicide risk screening of all veterans seen for mental health issues, but little is known about the effectiveness of this screening. A retrospective chart review to examine all suicide risk screens at VA San Diego between October and December 2012 (n = 3,365) was conducted to assess whether results were associated with suicidal behavior over the subsequent 12 months. Patients judged to be at increased risk for suicide were 3 to 16 times more likely to attempt suicide and 7 to 25 times more likely to engage in self‐directed violence over the next 12 months compared with others. The screening tool may be a useful addition to clinical practice.