SOCIAL-SKILLS TRAINING FOR UNASSERTIVE CHILDREN: A MULTIPLE-BASELINE ANALYSIS1

The effects of social-skills training consisting of instructions, feedback, behavior rehearsal, and modelling were examined in a multiple-baseline analysis in four unassertive children. The treatment was effective in that the behaviors selected for modification changed markedly. The effects of treatment generalized from trained to untrained items (interpersonal situations requiring assertive responding) and gains were maintained at the two- and four-week followup probe sessions. In addition, overall assertiveness in all subjects increased from baseline assessment to the conclusion of treatment and into followup.     

Role and justice considerations in the attribution of responsibility to a rape victim

This study was designed to assess the extent to which social role and “just world” considerations would affect perceptions and attributions of responsibility to a rape victim. The rape victim was either a topless-bottomless dancer, a social worker, or a Catholic nun, and she was either acquainted or unacquainted with her assailant. In the acquainted condition, the dancer was attributed the greatest and the nun the least amount of responsibility, indicating that social role factors can govern the range of attributional judgments which might be made in any given instance. However, unacquainted victims were ascribed more responsibility for the rape than were acquainted victims, a difference which was significant when the victim was the nun. The latter findings are discussed in terms of Lerner's just world hypothesis. Significant sex differences were found in subjects' perceptions of and responses to the rape incident and, contrary to earlier findings, no relationship was found between victim attractiveness and punitiveness toward the wrongdoer.     

Accuracy of Clinician Predictions of Future Self‐Harm: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Predictive Studies

Assessment of a patient after hospital‐treated self‐harm or psychiatric hospitalization often includes a risk assessment, resulting in a classification of high risk versus low risk for a future episode of self‐harm. Through systematic review and a series of meta‐analyses looking at unassisted clinician risk classification (eight studies; N = 22,499), we found pooled estimates for sensitivity 0.31 (95% CI: 0.18–0.50), specificity 0.85 (0.75–0.92), positive predictive value 0.22 (0.21–0.23), and negative predictive value 0.89 (0.86–0.92). Clinician classification was too inaccurate to be clinically useful. After‐care should therefore be allocated on the basis of a needs rather than risk assessment.     

Parent–Child Relationships and the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Exploratory Qualitative Study with Parents in Early,Middle, and Late Adulthood

The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on families is currently unknown. Parents and children have experienced a variety of changes as public health interventions have been implemented to slow the spread of the virus. The current exploratory qualitative study recruited parents (n?=?365) in early (ages 20–34), middle (ages 35–64), and late (ages 65 and older) adulthood to understand how the early weeks of the pandemic influenced their parent–child relationships. Participants completed an online survey between March 21 and 31, 2020. Three themes emerged through qualitative content analysis: (1) relational steadiness, (2) navigating COVID-19 challenges in relationships, and (3) relational enhancement.

     

Predictors of Client Attrition in a University-Based Community Counseling Clinic

The purpose of this study was to investigate how symptom distress, social role, interpersonal relationships, gender, age, number of supports, and education level predict client attrition in a community sample. Using binary logistic regression and cross-sectional data, the authors examined the predictive impact of 8 variables on adult client attrition in a university-based community counseling clinic. Results indicated that education level, interpersonal relationships, and number of supports significantly predicted attrition. In this sample, gender, age, symptom distress, social role, and race did not significantly predict attrition. Implications for clinical assessment and counseling practice are discussed.     

Comparison of treatment seeking compulsive buyers in Germany and the United States

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this pilot study was to compare a German (Bavaria) and an American (North Dakota) sample of women suffering from compulsive buying. METHOD: Thirty-eight German and 39 American female compulsive buyers were screened with the Compulsive Buying Scale (CBS), and the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale-Shopping Version (Y-BOCS-SV) prior to entering a group treatment study. Psychiatric co-morbidity was assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I disorders (SCID). RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences between the German sample and the American sample with regard to age (mean 43.7 and 45 years, respectively), and with regard to the scores on the CBS and the Y-BOCS-SV. A high lifetime co-morbidity rate with Axis I disorders, especially mood disorders, anxiety disorders, substance use disorders, OCD, and binge eating disorder was detected in both samples. Almost all participants met criteria for at least one lifetime Axis I disorder. However, German compulsive buyers showed significantly higher current prevalence rates of any affective disorder, and higher current and lifetime prevalence rates of any anxiety disorder and somatoform disorder. In addition, German compulsive buyers were significantly more likely to have more than one Axis I disorder. CONCLUSION: The groups did not differ with regard to age and with regard to the severity of compulsive buying and showed a high co-morbidity with Axis I disorders. However, the German compulsive buying sample presented with significantly more psychiatric co-morbidity compared to the American sample. Further research is needed to provide a better understanding of this disorder in general and cross-culturally.     

Conditioned Inhibition Produced by Extinction of a Conditioned Stimulus

Four experiments used a conditioned taste aversion procedure to examine the potential for CS-alone extinction treatment to produce a conditioned stimulus that possesses inhibitory properties. In Experiment 1, saccharin was paired with LiCl, and then saccharin was presented alone for several trials to produce extensive behavioral extinction. Animals receiving this treatment were retarded in reacquiring conditioned responding to saccharin relative to control subjects receiving conditioning to the flavor for the first time. In Experiment 2, the extinguished saccharin stimulus was shown to decrease conditioned responding to a known excitor when the two stimuli were presented in compound as a summation test. Experiments 3A and 3B replicated the findings of Experiments 1 and 2 while providing evidence that the effects were not due to the differential effects of neophobia during testing. These three experiments revealed that an extinguished conditioned excitor passes retardation and summation tests for conditioned inhibition. Experiment 4 found that extinction of a known excitor was slowed when the excitor was extinguished in compound with a previously extinguished conditioned stimulus. That is, an extinguished CS provided protection from extinction to another CS, a finding also consistent with the view that extinction produces conditioned inhibition.     

Facial Emotion Processing in Borderline Personality Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

A body of work has developed over the last 20 years that explores facial emotion perception in Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD). We identified 25 behavioural and functional imaging studies that tested facial emotion processing differences between patients with BPD and healthy controls through a database literature search. Despite methodological differences there is consistent evidence supporting a negative response bias to neutral and ambiguous facial expressions in patients. Findings for negative emotions are mixed with evidence from individual studies of an enhanced sensitivity to fearful expressions and impaired facial emotion recognition of disgust, while meta-analysis revealed no significant recognition impairments between BPD and healthy controls for any negative emotion. Mentalizing studies indicate that BPD patients are accurate at attributing mental states to complex social stimuli. Functional neuroimaging data suggest that the underlying neural substrate involves hyperactivation in the amygdala to affective facial stimuli, and altered activation in the anterior cingulate, inferior frontal gyrus and the superior temporal sulcus particularly during social emotion processing tasks. Future studies must address methodological inconsistencies, particularly variations in patients’ key clinical characteristics and in the testing paradigms deployed.