A case study approach to delivering and evaluating services by a school psychologist

Two interrelated problems in delivering school psychological services by one school psychologist acted as a motivating force behind this study: the problem of how to plan and render services to a school system where the ratio of students to school psychologists is high, and the problem of how to determine the degree of effectiveness of these services. This study describes an approach which consisted of three distinct services rendered by a school psychologist. Evaluative measurements of the services were made in two areas: the effect of the services on the ongoing operations of the system, and the evaluation of the services by school personnel exposed to the services directly or indirectly. The relative merits and the limitations of such an approach are discussed.     

Aspects of body image perception in obese and normal-weight youngsters

Perceptual and projective aspects of body image in obese youngsters (not in psychological treatment) and normal-weight youngsters 8–9 years of age and 12–13 years of age were investigated. The results indicate that perceptual distortions in estimating various body dimensions of oneself are primarily a function of age rather than weight status. The accuracy of estimating the weight of peers and an adult showed an association with the sex of the subject. No group differences were found in terms of projective aspects of body image as measured by barrier and penetration responses. This study suggests that obese youngsters in the middle childhood and entering puberty periods in comparison to normal-weight youngsters of the same age do not manifest differences in perceptual factors of body image.     

Perceptual independence of the hemifields in children and adults

Second graders, fifth graders, and college students were shown words and letters under conditions designed to assess the extent to which stimuli presented to one hemifield and consequently one hemisphere are affected by stimuli projected to the other hemifield. Hemifield, and by implication, hemispheric independence was more likely to occur for letters and among the children, and in each case hemifield asymmetries in performance were also less pronounced. These results were discussed in terms of developmental models of perceptual asymmetry and hemispheric interaction.     

Interrelationships of personality and coping in a challenging extreme situation

The relationship between personality characteristics, daily stressors, and means of coping were studied in a 12-person Soviet-American expedition ateamconsisting of Caucasian and Eskimo men and women. The members scored relatively high on scales measuring well-being, achievement orientation, and traditionalism and scored relatively low on stress reactivity. The use of social support as a coping mechanism was positively related to high stress reactivity, control, and negative emotionality and negatively related to well-being. Negative emotionality was related to ratings of daily intrapersonal stressor. Discussion centered on the function of social support in an extreme, task-focused situation and the relationship of social support coping in this particular type of situation to maladaptive personality characteristics.     

Cultural considerations in release of information

In most mental health professions, confidentiality is probably the most important ethical principle in psychology, aside from nonmalfeasance. However, confidentiality is embedded in the Western values of individuality and autonomy. This creates a moral and ethical dilemma for clinicians working with clients from other cultures. This article presents 3 cases to highlight the conflict that many clinicians are likely to face with regard to confidentiality when working with clients from South Asia and similar cultures. The importance of understanding how cultural values may contradict professional ethics and some ways in which the clinician can address them are also discussed.     

Relation of the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status to measures of daily functioning in dementia

In the present study were examined relations of scores on the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (Randolph, 1998) with measures of daily functioning in a sample with dementia. Participants (N=66) with various forms of dementia were seen at a dementia diagnostic clinic. All participants were administered the battery as part of a larger battery of neuropsychological measures. The participants' functional status was assessed by their primary caregivers, who completed the Physical Self-maintenance Scale and the Instrumental Activities of Daily Living scale (Lawton & Brody, 1969) as part of a social work interview. Analysis indicated that the Repeatable Battery for Assessment of Neuropsychological Status, particularly the Attention, Visuospatial/Constructional, and Immediate Memory indices, strongly correlated with measures of daily functioning. These results were supported by multiple regression analyses showing the RBANS Attention and Immediate Memory indices as significant predictors of functional abilities. One may conclude the RBANS should be favorably considered in understanding the functional problems of probable dementing patients.     

School readiness and later achievement

Using 6 longitudinal data sets, the authors estimate links between three key elements of school readiness--school-entry academic, attention, and socioemotional skills--and later school reading and math achievement. In an effort to isolate the effects of these school-entry skills, the authors ensured that most of their regression models control for cognitive, attention, and socioemotional skills measured prior to school entry, as well as a host of family background measures. Across all 6 studies, the strongest predictors of later achievement are school-entry math, reading, and attention skills. A meta-analysis of the results shows that early math skills have the greatest predictive power, followed by reading and then attention skills. By contrast, measures of socioemotional behaviors, including internalizing and externalizing problems and social skills, were generally insignificant predictors of later academic performance, even among children with relatively high levels of problem behavior. Patterns of association were similar for boys and girls and for children from high and low socioeconomic backgrounds.     

Do a Posteriori Physicalists Get Our Phenomenal Concepts Wrong?

A posteriori physicalism is the combination of two appealing views: physicalism (i.e. the view that all facts are either physical or entailed by the physical), and conceptual dualism (i.e. the view that phenomenal truths are not entailed a priori by physical truths). Recently, some philosophers such as Goff (2011), Levine (2007) and Nida‐Rümelin (2007), among others, have suggested that a posteriori physicalism cannot explain how phenomenal concepts can reveal the nature of phenomenal properties. In this paper, I wish to defend a posteriori physicalism from this new and interesting challenge, by arguing that a posteriori physicalists have the resources to explain how phenomenal concepts can reveal at least something of what it would take for the corresponding phenomenal property to be instantiated.