Disfluencies in cluttered speech

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature and frequency of occurrence of disfluencies, as they occur in singletons and in clusters, in the conversational speech of individuals who clutter compared to typical speakers. Except for two disfluency types (revisions in clusters, and word repetitions in clusters) nearly all disfluency types were virtually indistinguishable in frequency of occurrence between the two groups. These findings shed light on cluttering in several respects, foremost of which is that it provides documentation on the nature of disfluencies in cluttering. Findings also have implications for our understanding of the relationship between cluttering and typical speech, cluttering and stuttering, the Cluttering Spectrum Hypothesis, as well as the Lowest Common Denominator definition of cluttering. EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES: At the end of this activity the reader will be able to: (a) identify types of disfluency associated with cluttered speech; (b) contrast disfluencies in cluttered speech with those associated with stuttering; (c) compare the disfluencies of typical speakers with those of cluttering; (d) explain the perceptual nature of cluttering.     

Brain Wave Biofeedback: Benefits of Integrating Neurofeedback in Counseling

Consistent with the 2009 Standards of the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs, counselors must understand neurobiological behavior in individuals of all developmental levels. This requires understanding the brain and strategies for applying neurobiological concepts in counseling practice, training, and research. Neurofeedback, biofeedback for the brain, is one modality based in neuroscience that empowers individuals to recognize, monitor, and self‐regulate brain wave activity to create greater wellness. Neurofeedback has significant potential in counseling preparation, research, and practice.     

Cultural Influences on Perceptions of Health, Illness, and Disability: A Review and Focus on Autism

This conceptual paper considers the role of culture in shaping family, professional, and community understanding of developmental disabilities and their treatments. The meanings of health, illness, and disability vary greatly across cultures and across time. We use Bronfenbrenner’s ecological model to provide a theoretical framework for examining disability, with special attention to autism spectrum disorders. Cultural beliefs about the cause of a disorder influence families’ decision-making about what treatments to use and what outcomes to expect. Autism provides an example that is especially challenging, as there is no agreed-upon cause. Also, an overwhelming array of treatments is available in the West for autism, including behavioral, cognitive, pharmaceutical, sensory, relational, vitamin, and diet therapies. Other cultures contribute additional views on cause (e.g., Karma, Allah’s will) and treatments (e.g., acupuncture, herbal medicines, Ayurveda). We suggest how a broad cultural view can help us understand treatments and the treatment delivery system of a nation and a culture. For the best course of care, professionals need to understand and respect families’ views of autism and work toward mutually agreeable treatments that may involve a combination of biomedical and cultural practices. Although a family-focused, open teamwork model that aims to acknowledge the context of the child, take into consideration the strengths and limitations of the child and the family, and introduce appropriate, sustainable, and sensitive interventions is regarded as best practice in the United States, it will take sensitive work to find out whether it will suit other cultural groups across the world.     

The impact of appearance-focused social comparisons on body image disturbance in the naturalistic environment: the roles of thin-ideal internalization and feminist beliefs

Drawing on Festinger's (1954) social comparison theory and its modern applications, this research investigated the relationship between upward appearance-focused social comparisons and body image disturbance using ecological momentary assessment, which allows for examination of these phenomena in their natural context. Participants were 91 undergraduate women who answered questionnaires five times per day for five days using Palm Personal Data Assistant (PDA) devices. Analyses were conducted using hierarchical linear modeling, which allows for examination of longitudinal data both within and across participants. Results revealed a positive relationship between upward appearance-focused social comparisons and body image disturbance. Upward appearance-focused social comparisons were associated with greater body image disturbance for those with higher levels of thin-ideal internalization and with greater body checking for women with lower levels of feminist beliefs. These findings further illuminate the nature of the relationship between social comparisons and body image disturbance.     

Relationship between respiratory mortality and self-perceptions of aging

Although there is growing evidence that psychological factors affect an individual's susceptibility to respiratory illnesses, psychological predictors of respiratory mortality have received little attention. This study investigated whether an age-specific psychological factor, older individuals’ beliefs about their own aging, predicted the likelihood of their dying from respiratory causes (ICD-9: 460–519). The sample was composed of 620 individuals, aged 50–87 years at baseline, who participated in a longitudinal study with six waves. Our research found that individuals with higher baseline positive self-perceptions of aging were significantly less likely to die of respiratory causes over the next 23 years, after controlling for age, functional health, gender, loneliness, marital status, self-rated health, and socioeconomic status (hazard ratio?=?0.695; p?<?0.005). This is the first study to link individual beliefs about aging to cause-specific mortality. Future research is warranted to further elucidate the relationship between self-perceptions of aging and resistance to respiratory mortality.     

Enthusiastic Improvement: Mary Astell and Damaris Masham on Sociability

Many commentators have contrasted the way that sociability is theorized in the writings of Mary Astell and Damaris Masham, emphasizing the extent to which Masham is more interested in embodied, worldly existence. I argue, by contrast, that Astell's own interest in imagining a constitutively relational individual emerges once we pay attention to her use of religious texts and tropes. To explore the relevance of Astell's Christianity, I emphasize both how Astell's Christianity shapes her view of the individual's relation to society and how Masham's contrasting views can be analyzed through the lens of her charge that Astell is an “enthusiast.” In late seventeenth‐century England, “enthusiasm” was a term of abuse that, commentators have recently argued, could function polemically to dismiss those deemed either excessively social or antisocial. By accusing Astell of enthusiasm, I claim, Masham seeks to marginalize the relational self that Astell imagines and to promote a more instrumental view of social ties. I suggest some aspects of Astell's thought that may have struck contemporaries as “enthusiastic” and contrast her vision of the self with Masham's more hedonistic subject. I conclude that, although each woman differently configures the relation between self and society, they share a desire to imagine autonomy within a relational framework.     

Repertory grid in problem structuring: A case illustration

Although the results of previous psychological studies suggested the existence of behavioral freedom, there existed no methodology that could unequivocally identify the portion of human behavior resulting from self-determination or behavioral freedom in human action. The methodological innovations reviewed herein throw a different light on the factors involved in the genesis of human action than was previously possible with extant psychological research methodologies. But critics contend that in such studies subjects might simply be conforming to the experimenter's demands, rather than demonstrating their ability to self-determine. Two studies are presented that demonstrate that conformity is an extremely implausible explanation for the results attributed to self-determination in previous studies. Furthermore, the second study demonstrates the interaction between the idiographically construed meaningfulness of a behavior and one's desire or ability to voluntarily alter that behavior.     

An experimental manipulation of metacognition: A test of the metacognitive model of obsessive-compulsive symptoms

The metacognitive model of obsessive-compulsive symptoms [Wells, A. (1997). Cognitive therapy of anxiety disorders: A practice manual and conceptual guide. Chichester, UK: Wiley] assigns a necessary causal role to metacognitive beliefs in the development of symptoms. The current study tested the model by evaluating the effects of experimentally manipulating such beliefs. A 2 × 2 factorial design was used. Thirty-two students with high and 32 students with low obsessional symptoms were subject to an experimental (metacognitive belief induction) or control (no metacognitive belief induction) condition. All participants underwent fake EEG recordings and were informed that the EEG could sense hypothalamus activity caused by having thoughts related to drinking. Participants in the experimental condition were told that if such thoughts were detected they may be exposed to an aversive noise. Controls were told that they may hear an aversive noise but this would be unrelated to the thoughts they had. Results showed a significant interaction effect between level of obsessional symptoms and belief induction. Analysis of this effect demonstrated that in the high obsession group, participants in the experimental condition had significantly more intrusions about drinking, time spent thinking about these intrusions and discomfort from them, than controls. There were also significant main effects on some measures, such as effort to control intrusions about drinking, with higher scores in the experimental condition irrespective of levels of obsessional symptoms. Results support the metacognitive model.