Walking the tightrope: unrecognized conventions and arbitrariness

Unrecognized conventions—practices that are conventional even though their participants do not recognize them as such—play central roles in shaping our lives. They range from the indispensable (e.g. unrecognized linguistic conventions) to the insidious (e.g. some of our gender conventions). Unrecognized conventions pose a challenge for accounts of conventions because it is difficult to incorporate the distinctive arbitrariness of conventions—the fact that conventions always have alternatives—without accidentally excluding many unrecognized conventions. I develop an Accessibility Requirement that allows us to account for both arbitrariness and unrecognized conventions. Specifically, I argue that a conventional practice must have at least one alternative that is at least approximately as good and at least approximately as accessible as the conventional practice itself, independent of the dominance the practice gained as it became conventional. In the course of arguing for this requirement, I also show that two prominent accounts of conventions, David Lewis’s and Ruth Garrett Millikan’s, run into problems with capturing the arbitrariness of conventions. The Accessibility Requirement opens the door to improved accounts of conventions by precisely identifying the way in which conventions are arbitrary.     

Teaching children with autism to request help with difficult tasks

We taught three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder to request help using an interrupted chain procedure during which we manipulated task materials such that the child was either incapable or capable of independently completing a link of a behavior chain. We initially observed undesirable generalization of requests for help during capable trials when teaching was introduced during incapable trials for two participants and to a lesser extent for the third participant. However, with repeated exposure to differential prompting and reinforcement across incapable and capable trials, differential responding was observed across EO‐present and EO‐absent trials for all three participants during both teaching sets and one generalization set that was never exposed to teaching procedures. These findings suggest that it is important to consider the antecedent conditions under which the response should occur when teaching children to request help.     

Psychopathy and Functions of Aggression in Emerging Adulthood: Moderation by Anger Rumination and Gender

Psychopathy has been previously identified as a risk factor for aggression (Porter and Woodworth 2006). However, few studies have considered specific relationships with functional subtypes of aggression, or how gender and anger rumination affect these relationships in emerging adulthood. We hypothesized that primary psychopathy would be uniquely related to proactive aggression (PA) and secondary psychopathy to reactive aggression (RA), and that these relationships would be amplified by anger rumination, and potentially influenced further by gender. Undergraduate students (N = 610; 73.3 % female) ages 18–20 completed self-report measures of anger rumination, psychopathy, and aggression, and hypotheses were tested using hierarchical regression. As predicted, anger rumination enhanced the association between secondary psychopathy and RA. It also amplified the relationship between primary psychopathy and PA, but only at very high levels of anger rumination. Gender moderated interactions between primary and secondary psychopathy on aggression. For men, primary psychopathy attenuated the secondary psychopathy – RA relationship, but not for women. These findings fill an important gap in the literature by demonstrating how tendencies to ruminate on anger and psychopathic traits interact to influence functional subtypes of aggression in young men versus women.     

Genetic Counselor Workforce Issues: a Survey of Genetic Counselors Licensed in the State of Indiana

The aims of this study were to document movement of genetic counselors (GCs) out of clinical positions and identify factors that might help employers attract and retain clinical GCs. A confidential on-line survey of GCs ever licensed in the state of Indiana was conducted. Of the 46 respondents, most provide direct patient care (69.6 %), have worked in their current position for 5 years or less (72.1 %), and are experienced genetic counselors, having graduated between 6 and 15 years ago (43.5 %). One-third (32.6 %) reported thinking about leaving their current position at least monthly. GCs were more likely to think about leaving their current position when they provided direct patient care (p = 0.04) and worked in a hospital/clinic setting (p = 0.01). Among the 18 respondents that changed jobs in the past two years, 55.6 % currently work in a laboratory/industry setting and 44.4 % provide direct patient care, compared to 8 % of those in a stable position (N = 25) who work in a laboratory/industry setting (p < 0.01) and 88 % who provide direct patient care (p < 0.01). Genetic counselors who have changed jobs within the past 2 years were more satisfied with the possibility for advancement (p = 0.01), the recognition for work they do (p = 0.03) and feeling value from the organization (p = 0.04) in their current positions than those who have not changed jobs. Salary and flexibility were most often reported as reasons for changing jobs. This is the first documentation of the movement of GCs out of clinical roles into industry positions. This changing landscape may impact the access to clinical services and the training of genetic counseling students. This data will provide employers with data to help attract and retain GCs in clinical roles.     

Disseminating a Parenting Intervention in the Community: Experiences from a Multi-Site Evaluation

Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) is a widely used parenting intervention that is gaining popularity globally as it is currently being delivered across several continents. Despite the global uptake of COS-P, there is limited research on its effectiveness with considerable variability in its delivery. Here we present a multi-site evaluation of the group delivery of COS-P to under-resourced mothers (n?=?131 enrolled) in an urban community as facilitated by community-based providers (n?=?12) from community sites (n?=?6) that provide maternal and child services. The feasibility and acceptability of delivering COS-P in the community are highlighted as well as characteristics of sites and providers as they relate to implementation efforts, and pre and post-intervention data examining COS-P and maternal caregiving functioning (i.e., depressive symptoms, reflective functioning) are also included. Several service delivery barriers were encountered at agency, provider and participant levels that created obstacles for program dissemination, participant retention and evaluation. Nonetheless, COS-P was successfully delivered in the community when sites embedded the program within their existing infrastructure and had the internal capacity for delivery, participant recruitment, supervision, and community presence. Mothers who participated in COS-P also reported fewer depressive symptoms following the intervention (n?=?25). This multi-site implementation and evaluation study has important implications for the delivery of parenting services to under-resourced communities globally. Implications for future research and service delivery are discussed.     

A Cultural Adaptation of Dialectical Behavior Therapy in Nepal

Growing evidence exists on the potential for adapting evidence-based interventions for low- and-middle-income countries (LMIC). One opportunity that has received limited attention is the adaptation of psychotherapies developed in high-income countries (HIC) based on principles from LMIC cultural groups. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) is one such treatment with significant potential for acceptability in South Asian settings with high suicide rates. We describe a tri-phasic approach to adapt DBT in Nepal that consists of qualitative interviews with major Nepali mental health stakeholders (Study 1), an adaptation workshop with 15 Nepali counselors (Study 2), and a small-scale treatment pilot with eligible clients in one rural district (Study 3). Due to low literacy levels, distinct conceptualizations of mind and body, and program adherence barriers, numerous adaptations were required. DBT concepts attributable to Asian belief systems were least comprehensible to clients. However, the 82% program completion rate suggests utility of a structured, skills-based treatment. This adaptation process informs future research regarding the effectiveness of culturally adapted DBT in South Asia.     

Children's Moods,Fears and Worries Questionnaire: Validity with Young Children at Risk for Internalizing Problems

This study tested psychometric properties of the Children's Moods, Fears and Worries Questionnaire (CMFWQ) with a population sample of children at risk for developing internalizing problems. The CMFWQ was completed by 489 parents of 5‐year‐old children who had been screened for temperamental inhibition in preschools across eight government areas of Melbourne, Australia. Parents also completed the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and Anxiety Diagnostic Interview Schedule (ADIS‐P‐IV). In this inhibited sample of children, the CMFWQ showed high internal consistency of items (α = .95). The CMFWQ demonstrated convergent validity with the SDQ ‘emotional symptoms’ subscale and discriminant validity with the ‘conduct problems’ subscale. Supporting criterion validity, the CMFWQ significantly distinguished between groups of inhibited children with versus without ADIS anxiety disorders. Psychometric properties of the CMFWQ now extend to young inhibited children who are at risk for developing internalizing problems as they grow. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Consumer Trust and Advice Acceptance: The Moderating Roles of Benevolence,Expertise, and Negative Emotions

I explored advice acceptance for high‐stakes decisions (i.e., those with subjectively important and risky outcomes), focusing on the relative influence of two components of consumer trust—benevolence and expertise—as well as perceived emotional decision difficulty. Participants solicited advice from experts when their decisions were low in perceived emotional difficulty but favored the advice of predominantly benevolent providers when making highly emotionally difficult decisions. Although consumers who faced emotionally difficult decisions were willing to trade off expertise for benevolence, they did not perceive this non‐normative trade‐off to influence decision quality. Instead, the results support a “stress buffering” effect whereby consumers were more confident in the accuracy of predominantly benevolent providers’ advice.