Psychiatric risk in children with speech and language disorders

Based on an initial community sample of 1,655 5-year-old children, this report utilized the risk statistic to estimate a child's risk for developing a psychiatric disturbance depending on his or her status as speech/language-impaired. Results showed that risk estimates varied as a function of gender and source of information (teacher, parent, psychiatric reports). Overall, speech- and language-impaired children had a higher risk for developing a psychiatric disturbance compared with normal language controls, with speech/language-impaired girls being at greater risk than boys.     

Androgyny and Derived Identity in Married Women with Varying Degrees of Non-Traditional Role Involvement

Three groups of women—(1) wives with no outside employment, (2) wives employed in non-professional occupations, and (3) wives employed in professional occupations—were administered the Derived Identity Questionnaire (DIQ) and the Bern Sex Role Inventory (BSRI). The two working groups revealed less "derived identity" than did the non-employed group, although the difference was only marginally significant. On the BSRI it was found that while the obtained femininity scores were essentially equal and high for the three groups, masculinity increased as a direct function of degree of departure from the housewife role. This finding led to the conclusion that working wives (especially professionals) are more "androgynous" than non-working wives. Finally, the signed difference between the masculinity and femininity scores and the DIQ scores were correlated positively, indicative of a negative relationship between derived identity and androgyny.     

Links between local language competence and peer relations among Swiss and immigrant children: the mediating role of social behavior

The primary aim of this investigation was to evaluate a model in which children's social behaviors, including prosocial behavior, setting limits, and social withdrawal, were hypothesized to mediate the links between local language competence (LLC) and peer acceptance and victimization. Longitudinal data were collected via teacher and peer reports on 541 (286 boys and 255 girls) immigrant and Swiss native 5-to-6 year-old kindergarteners. Results showed the immigrant children were less fluent in the local language compared to native Swiss classmates. Moreover, results from structural equation models, with bootstrap tests of indirect effects, indicated that social behaviors mediated the link between LLC and the quality of children's peer relationships. Implications of these findings for school professionals are discussed, such as the need to help immigrant children make a smoother transition to their host communities by providing additional language and social supports while children acculturate and acclimate to their new surroundings and peer group.     

Academic self-efficacy,self-esteem,and grit in higher online education: Consistency of interests predicts academic success

Social Psychology of Education - Academic self-efficacy, self-esteem, and grit (i.e., perseverance of effort and consistency of interests) have all separately shown to predict academic success...     

Preselection Methods Prior to the Internal Assessment Center for Personnel Selection in German Companies

Companies frequently use preselection methods in order to identify eligible candidates before conducting assessment centers (ACs). The present study was the first to investigate current practices of preselection in German companies that use ACs for internal selection. Results of a survey among 109 German companies show that companies typically apply general qualification criteria (e.g., work experience), appraisals, or unstructured interviews for preselection, but rely less on trait‐oriented methods (e.g., intelligence tests) and structured interviews. In their subjective evaluations, however, companies rate structured interviews and trait‐oriented methods as particularly valid methods. The results also show that the number of preselection methods used is positively correlated with company size, diagnostic skills of the responsible persons in the preselection, and DIN (Deutsches Institut für Normierung [German Institute for Standardization]) 33430 certification status. The implications of these findings for practice and research are discussed.     

Patienten- und Elternzufriedenheit bei intensiver,klinikvernetzter Zu-Hause-Behandlung

Background

Due to the increasing importance of effective, patient-oriented treatment options for mentally ill children and adolescents, new alternatives to established inpatient and outpatient care in child and adolescent psychiatry have to be found. Intensive cross-sectoral treatment settings may be an alternative but have not yet been evaluated or implemented in routine care.

Aim

The objective of this randomized study was to compare and assess satisfaction with a new model of care within the underlying BeZuHG (“behandelt zu Hause gesund werden”, treated at home become healthy) study with regular inpatient care (TAU). Patients in BeZuHG received early discharge from inpatient care followed by 3 months of intensive home treatment enhanced by clinical elements.

Material and methods

Youths and parents were asked to fill in a patient satisfaction questionnaire (BesT) at completion of treatment. Participants in the study were evaluated between April 2012 and January 2013.

Results

Neither BeZuHG nor inpatient care was clearly superior. Youths in the control group stated a higher satisfaction with the overall treatment than youths in the BeZuHG group (p?=?0.031), while youths in the BeZuHG group named a significantly higher satisfaction with the home treatment component than with the inpatient component of treatment (p?=?0.007).

Conclusion

Patient satisfaction could be shown for inpatient and BeZuHG treatment at discharge. Data may change at follow-up. A long-term follow-up should be implemented to confirm these results or to allow other conclusions.     

The influence of cognitive load on spatial search performance

During search, executive function enables individuals to direct attention to potential targets, remember locations visited, and inhibit distracting information. In the present study, we investigated these executive processes in large-scale search. In our tasks, participants searched a room containing an array of illuminated locations embedded in the floor. The participants’ task was to press the switches at the illuminated locations on the floor so as to locate a target that changed color when pressed. The perceptual salience of the search locations was manipulated by having some locations flashing and some static. Participants were more likely to search at flashing locations, even when they were explicitly informed that the target was equally likely to be at any location. In large-scale search, attention was captured by the perceptual salience of the flashing lights, leading to a bias to explore these targets. Despite this failure of inhibition, participants were able to restrict returns to previously visited locations, a measure of spatial memory performance. Participants were more able to inhibit exploration to flashing locations when they were not required to remember which locations had previously been visited. A concurrent digit-span memory task further disrupted inhibition during search, as did a concurrent auditory attention task. These experiments extend a load theory of attention to large-scale search, which relies on egocentric representations of space. High cognitive load on working memory leads to increased distractor interference, providing evidence for distinct roles for the executive subprocesses of memory and inhibition during large-scale search.     

The six types of nonbelief: a qualitative and quantitative study of type and narrative

Extensive research has been conducted in exploration of the American religious landscape; however, only recently has social science research started to explore nonbelief in any detail. Research on nonbelief has been limited as most research focuses on the popularity of the religious “nones” or the complexities of alternative faith expressions such as spirituality. Through two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, this research explored how nonbelievers’ self-identify. Study 1 (the qualitative study) discovered that individuals have shared definitional agreement but use different words to describe different types of nonbelief. Through thematic coding, a typology of six different types of nonbelief was observed. Those are Academic Atheists, Activist Atheist/Agnostics, Seeker Agnostics, Antitheists, Non-Theists, and the Ritual Atheists. Study 2 explored the empirical aspects of these types related to the Big Five Domain, Ryff Psychological Well-Being, Narcissistic Personality Inventory, Multidimensional Anger Inventory, Rokeach Dogmatism Scale, and intersections related to religious and spiritual ontology.     

Work-related counselling-a psychodynamic approach

Abstract

The paper sets out to stimulate interest in counsellors and therapists about the unconscious relationships which people form with their work, through describing and analysing what goes on in work-related counselling with a psychodynamic approach. The author draws on twenty-five years of experience to reflect on the changing nature of what was once termed ‘vocational guidance', and offers some short case studies, as examples of ways in which a person's world of work can become intertwined with their internal world in a confusing and disabling way. The core concepts and techniques which have evolved are identified and discussed; attention is directed particularly to the importance of the client's expectations, die effect of time limitation, the place of work in the whole life, and dealing with transference.