Pyramid Power in Career Development

Stewart and Nejedlo discuss the use of the Career Development Pyramid as a model for career development and as a practical aid in career counseling. The model graphically depicts the synergistic relations of career choice factors, life-style, self-concept, and the specific job. The authors discuss the relationship between the quadrihedral model and current career development theories. They suggest applied uses of the pyramid and provide a working plan for copy and use by career development counselors.     

The object-detection effect: configuration enhances perception.

Line drawings used by Weisstein and Harris (1974) are seen as box-like three-dimensional figures if the lines are arranged properly. A flat two-dimensional pattern is seen when these same lines are disarranged. A target line contained within the three-dimensional figure is identified more readily than is the same line contained within a two-dimensional figure. This finding was extended in the present experiments: The three-dimensional stimulus was detected more quickly than the two-dimensional stimulus, under conditions of visual backward masking. Three-dimensional stimuli were also classified more quickly than two-dimensional stimuli. Just as with the face-detection effect and the word-detection effect, object detection can be affected by the form of the visual stimulus.     

WITHDRAWAL OF CHRONIC CHLORPROMAZINE MEDICATION: AN EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS

Approximately 50% of all institutionalized, mentally retarded adults receive psychotropic medication to control inappropriate behavior. In this study, behaviors exhibited by five retarded adults were formally observed while they were on and off medication. Each subject had been receiving chlorpromazine for six or more years prior to the start of the study. The drug was withdrawn and readministered using a double-blind B-A-B (drug-placebo-drug) design. Effects were highly individualized. Some desirable behavior emerged when chlorpromazine was discontinued.     

Structural complexity as a determinant of serial pattern learning

A new methodology extends the study of serial pattern learning to nonhuman organisms by constructing patterns using elements that are both familiar and motivationally meaningful to animals. Two experiments examine the ability of rats to anticipate various quantities of food as measured by running times in a runway when the quantities occur in a serial order. In Experiment 1, a serial monotonic pattern (14-7-3-1-0 food pellets) produced more rapid learning and more accurate anticipation of the various quantities (“tracking”) than a serial nonmonotonic pattern (14-1-3-7-0 food pellets), particularly with respect to the final 0-pellet element. In Experiment 2, the same monotonic pattern generated faster learning and more accurate anticipation of pattern elements than a weakly monotonic pattern (14-5-5-1-0 pellets). Associative explanations including simple excitatory or inhibitory effects, temporal anticipation, reinforcement contrast, and the number and discriminability of pairwise associations are not adequate to account for the data. Rather, the formally defined structural complexity of each pattern adequately predicts its relative difficulty.     

Improving Delivery Behaviors During Exposure for Pediatric OCD: A Multiple Baseline Training Trial With Community Therapists

This study tested whether a new training tool, the Exposure Guide (EG), improved in-session therapist behaviors (i.e., indicators of quality) that have been associated with youth outcomes in prior clinical trials of exposure therapy. Six therapists at a community mental health agency (CMHA) provided exposure therapy for 8 youth with obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design with random assignment to baseline lengths of 6 to 16 weeks, therapists received gold-standard exposure therapy training with weekly consultation (baseline phase) followed by addition of EG training and feedback (intervention phase). The primary outcome was therapist behavior during in-session exposures, observed weekly using a validated coding system. Therapist behavior was evaluated in relation to a priori benchmarks derived from clinical trials. Additional outcomes included training feasibility/acceptability, therapist response to case vignettes and beliefs about exposure, and independent evaluator-rated clinical outcomes. Three therapists reached behavior benchmarks only during the EG (intervention) phase. Two therapists met benchmarks during the baseline phase; one of these subsequently moved away from benchmarks but met them again after starting the EG phase. Across all therapists, the percentage of weeks meeting benchmarks was significantly higher during the EG phase (86.4%) vs. the baseline phase (53.2%). Youth participants experienced significant improvement in OCD symptoms and global illness severity from pre- to posttreatment. Results provide initial evidence that adding the EG to gold-standard training can change in-session therapist behaviors in a CMHA setting.     

Black Feminist Figures: Interventions and Inheritances

In both popular culture and academic disciplines, feminism, especially feminisms of women of color, is increasing in popularity. But with that popularity comes certain challenges. It would seem that, due to its popularity, Black feminism has gained a nominal invite to professional philosophy’s (largely) white school social affair. But it has been invited by hosts who don’t quite know what to do with Black feminism once it’s arrived.     

Working Memory in Pediatric Epilepsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Neuropsychology Review - Working memory is a multicomponent system that is supported by overlapping specialized networks in the brain. Baddeley’s working memory model includes four...     

Motive Satisfaction in Chronic Pain Patients: Does It Improve in Multidisciplinary Inpatient Treatment and,if so,Does It Matter?

Journal of Clinical Psychology in Medical Settings - According to consistency theory, insufficient motive satisfaction (motivational incongruence) is associated with psychological distress and...