Interventions with care givers of dementia patients: comparison of two approaches

We compared the effect of two approaches, family counseling and support groups, for relieving the stress and burden experienced by care givers of dementia patients. Both treatments are designed to implement features of a stress-management model that have been identified in prior research with this population: providing information about the patient's disease and its effects on behavior, teaching behavioral problem solving for managing difficult behavior, and identifying potential support for care givers. Subjects were primary care givers of dementia patients living in the community; they included husbands, wives, daughters, and other relatives. Although subjects in the treatment groups made significant gains over time, they did not differ from wait-list subjects who showed similar improvements. One-year follow-up interviews indicated that gains made during the treatment period were maintained.     

A brief neuropsychological screening battery to detect brain damage in a psychiatric population

Seventy-five patients admitted to the psychiatric unit of a general hospital were administered a brief neuropsychological screening battery. Discharge diagnoses obtained from the medical records revealed that 20% had brainbased pathology. A discriminant function analysis resulted in a five-variable model (Symbol-Digit Modalities Test, educational level, Psychiatric-Organic subscale of the MMPI, and Shipley Vocabulary and Abstraction scores) which correctly classified 84% of the subjects, with 87% correct identification of the brain-damaged group. A jackknife cross-validation procedure resulted in comparable hit rates.     

Human Intelligence: Implications for Counseling

Sternberg, R.J. (Ed.) (1982). Handbook of Human Intelligence. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.     

Process parallels in related groups

The theoretical basis for the repetition of themes in related groups is addressed by describing similar processes in four systems: inpatient psychiatric ward, inpatient psychotherapy group, supervisory group, and group psychotherapy division. The principles of general system theory help explain process parallels in allied groups and illuminate group process.     

Peer-group affiliation and adolescent self-esteem: an integration of ego-identity and symbolic-interaction theories

To evaluate expectations derived from ego-identity theory and symbolic-interaction theories about the association between self-concept and peer-group affiliations in adolescence, we examined the self-esteem of 221 7th through 12th graders associated by peers with one of five major school crowds and 106 students relatively unknown by classmates and not associated with any school crowd. Among crowd members, self-esteem was directly related to the position of one's crowd in the peer-group status hierarchy (based on both peer-rated and self-perceived crowd affiliation). Outsiders' self-esteem differed in relation to the accuracy of their reflected appraisal of and the salience they attached to crowd affiliation. Crowd members as a whole exhibited higher self-esteem than outsiders as a whole. Differences, however, were mediated by crowd status, salience of crowd affiliation, and the accuracy of reflected appraisals. An adequate interpretation of the findings required an integration of Festinger's (1954, 1957) social comparisons and cognitive-dissonance theories, Cooley's (1902) notions of reflected appraisal, and Newman and Newman's (1976) extrapolations from ego-identity theory.