APPLIED BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS IN ACQUIRED BRAIN INJURY REHABILITATION: A META‐ANALYSIS OF SINGLE‐CASE DESIGN INTERVENTION RESEARCH

The purpose of this meta‐analysis was to complete a systematic evidence‐based review of published behavioral treatment studies employing single‐case designs with both children and adults with acquired brain injury. Peer‐reviewed journals were searched using PsycINFO, Medline, and ERIC databases with combinations of terms such as brain injury, behavior disorder, behavior therapy, behavior modification, behavior analysis, and verbal behavior. A total of 112 acquisition and reduction studies met the established inclusion criteria. The data extracted from each study included specific details about the participants, target responses, intervention characteristics, use of functional assessment, and outcome characteristics. A data extraction software program was also used to extract data from graphs to calculate percentage of nonoverlapping data as an effect size_. The studies were then evaluated along several dimensions from multiple evidence‐based practice frameworks. Collectively, interventions targeted a wide range of behaviors for acquisition and reduction, but only five interventions were classified as well established according to the American Psychological Association Division 12 criteria. Furthermore, methodology of the identified studies was found to be relatively poor. A variety of methodological concerns are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Thinking ethically about inclusive recreational sport: A narrative of lost dignity

Through narrative reflections of Jack’s story of inclusive recreational sport, the meaning of dignity in professional practice is explored. Jack’s story is one of respect, strong humiliation and embarrassment, and vulnerability. Through the lens of relational ethics, the aggression of a stranger illustrates how the lack of mutual respect, compassion and knowledge creates experiences of indignity. Jack’s story highlights how relationships can shape, constrain and enable lives. Understanding that which constitutes a dignified recreational sport context for instructors and participants opens opportunities for authentic social relationships based upon respect of oneself, as well as others to emerge. Jack’s narrative further reinforces the need to create pedagogical spaces for discussions of various forms of dignity and ethical professional practice in inclusive recreational sport contexts.     

Individual Differences in Situation Awareness: Validation of the Situationism Scale

This article concerns the construct of lay situationism—an individual’s belief in the importance of a behavior’s context. Study 1 identified a 13-item Situationism Scale, which demonstrated good reliability and validity. In particular, higher situationism was associated with greater situation-control (strategies to manipulate the environment in order to avoid temptation). Subsequent laboratory studies indicated that people higher on the situationism subscales used greater situation-control by sitting farther from junk food (Study 2) and choosing to drink non-alcoholic beverages before a cognitive task (Study 3). Overall, findings provide preliminary support for the psychometric validity and predictive utility of the Situationism Scale and offer this individual difference construct as a means to expand self-regulation theory.     

Weight approximations in multi‐attribute decision models

The use of surrogate weights based on rankings has been proposed as a method for avoiding difficulties associated with the elicitation of weights in multi‐attribute decision analysis. When the simple multiattribute rating technique using swings (SMARTS) method is being employed it has been suggested that rank order centroid (ROC) weights are the best surrogate weights to use. This study shows that ROC weights are appropriate to use as a substitute for original weights that are constrained to sum to a fixed total (usually 1 or 100) as used in the point allocation method. If, however, the original weights are determined without any initial restrictions, as in the direct rating method, and are then normalized, which is the common procedure in SMARTS analysis, then the ROC weights do not provide the best approximations to the original weights. This paper shows how to obtain rank order distribution (ROD) weights that provide a better approximation than the ROC approach to unrestricted original weights. The paper also shows that, as the number of attributes in a decision problem increases, the ROD weights approximate to the more easily calculated rank sum weights. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Relationship maintenance across platonic and non-platonic cross-sex friendships in emerging adults

Prior research examining maintenance in cross-sex friendships focuses heavily on platonic (i.e., nonsexually active) friendships with limited research examining sexually involved cross-sex friendships (i.e., “friends with benefits relationships”). In this study, we investigated differences in relational maintenance behaviors between sexually and nonsexually active cross-sex friendships types. In an online survey, 531 emerging adult participants from large southwestern and southeastern universities identified either a friends with benefits or platonic opposite sex friendship and then completed items asking them to report the frequency with which they enacted each of 36 relationship maintenance behaviors. Overall, participants involved in casual sex friendships engaged in the least, and those who transitioned from a friends-with-benefits relationship to a romantic relationship engaged in the most frequent relationship maintenance. Platonic friendships employed more frequent maintenance than casual-sex friendships but less than either true friends with benefits or participants who transitioned to a romantic relationship.     

Attachment and Relational Aggression: Power as a Mediating Variable

Evidence illustrates that insecure romantic attachment predicts higher levels of relational aggression. However, no research has attempted to explain that relationship with mediating variables, such as relationship power, which is associated with attachment and partner violence. Data for this study included 457 couples from Wave 2 of the Flourishing Families Study. Actor Partner Interdependence results indicated that insecure attachment was significantly predictive of relational aggression actor effects. There was also a significant partner effect between male insecure attachment and female relational aggression, and power was a significant mediator between attachment and relational aggression for males and females.     

Does Providing Prompts During Retrieval Practice Improve Learning?

The purpose of this investigation was to identify ways to prompt retrieval practice to make recall even more effective at producing meaningful learning. In two experiments, subjects read educational texts and practiced retrieval across two periods. During prompted retrieval, subjects were cued to explain and describe concepts from the text, whereas during free recall, subjects recalled as much of the material from the text as they could. A reading control condition was also included. Learning was assessed using both verbatim and higher‐order questions 1 week later. Practicing retrieval improved learning relative to the control on both types of questions; however, whether subjects practiced free or prompted retrieval did not matter for learning. Subjects rated prompted retrieval as less enjoyable and interesting than the other retrieval conditions. Results demonstrate practicing retrieval promoted meaningful learning, and that subjects' initial retrieval success was highest when they used their own retrieval strategies during recall. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Fieldwork Using the Professional Development Schools Model: Developing a Social Justice Orientation and Multicultural Competency

Practicum fieldwork was conducted in an urban high school setting using a Professional Development Schools (PDS) model, with a focus on multicultural and social justice counseling competencies (MSJCC). Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the journal responses of 16 counseling students to ascertain MSJCC development during fieldwork. Themes emerged related to multicultural counseling skills, self‐awareness, understanding educational inequities, and serving as agents of change. Implications of using a PDS model in counselor training are explored. Se llevó a cabo un trabajo de campo en práctica clínica en una escuela secundaria usando un modelo de Escuelas de Desarrollo Profesional (PDS, por sus siglas en inglés), con un enfoque en las competencias en consejería multicultural y de justicia social (MSJCC, por sus siglas en inglés). Se empleó un análisis fenomenológico interpretativo para analizar las respuestas registradas de 16 estudiantes de consejería para determinar el desarrollo de las MSJCC durante el trabajo de campo. Surgieron temas relacionados con las habilidades en consejería multicultural, la autoconciencia, la comprensión de desigualdades educativas, y la actuación como agentes de cambio. Se exploran las implicaciones de usar un modelo PDS en la formación de consejeros.