Technical standards and performance standards in the pursuit of quality

The concept of standards lacks clarity because it is applied both to concrete specifications and to the assessment of quality. Confusion is reduced by introducing the notion of interchange expectancy. distinguishing transfer, coupling, and market success as components. Transfer expectancy depends upon the products to be transported or exchanged, but when there is a need to estimate transfer expectancy, a combination of technical standards and performance standards must be applied. Though performance standards are intended to produce quality, the quality of the instrumentation to measure performance standards is often neglected. The development of high-quality performance standards first requires the delineation of the relevant dimensions of performance quality. The process of giving precision to performance standards may lead to the emergence of more acceptable technical standards. To illustrate some of these points, data is presented from the CONDUIT system for quality evaluation of computer-based curriculum materials. The performance quality of these products includes the dimension of transfer expectancy, as well as educational and scientific merit. Increased specification and impact of technical standards may provide greater incentives to authors and hence lead to the invention of products which have higher educational and scientific quality.     

Internet-Based Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Transdiagnostic Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis for Mental Health Outcomes

Internet-based acceptance and commitment therapy (iACT) primarily targets the process of psychological flexibility. Its accessibility and low-intensity delivery are applicable across different treatment and prevention scenarios. This transdiagnostic meta-analysis reviews the effectiveness of iACT on anxiety, depression, quality of life, and psychological flexibility across individuals with different psychological and somatic conditions/complaints, or undiagnosed complaints. Seven databases were searched for randomized controlled trials that reported on anxiety, depression, quality of life, and psychological flexibility outcomes from iACT in any adult population. Engagement with iACT was summarized and methodological and population-related variables were investigated as potential moderators of effectiveness. Across 25 studies, small pooled effects were found for all outcomes at post-assessment and maintained at follow-up time-points. Interventions with therapist guidance demonstrated greater effectiveness in improving depression and psychological flexibility outcomes compared to nonguided iACT, and populations defined by a psychological condition or symptoms (e.g., depressed samples) demonstrated greater improvements in anxiety compared to nonclinical or somatic populations (e.g., chronic pain samples or students). Participants completed on average 75.77% of iACT treatments. While we found iACT to be effective in improving and maintaining mental health outcomes across diverse populations, there was limited evidence of reliable, clinically significant effects. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42020140086.     

Using the teaching interaction procedure to train interventionists to implement the Cool versus Not CoolTM procedure

The teaching interaction procedure is a behavior analytic procedure that has been used to target the development of social skills. The teaching interaction procedure consists of labeling the target skill, providing a meaningful rationale, describing the steps of the target skill, modeling the skill, role‐play, and providing feedback throughout the interaction. Although the teaching interaction procedure has been used to teach a variety of social skills for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it has only been used to train staff in two studies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of the teaching interaction procedure to teach three interventionists to implement the Cool versus Not Cool? procedure to target the development of social skills for children diagnosed with ASD. The results of a multiple baseline design demonstrated that the teaching interaction procedure was effective for all three interventionists. Results of the child participants' skill acquisition are also provided.     

Employee Happiness: Why We Should Care

Albert Schweitzer once stated that “success is not the key to happiness, happiness is the key to success.” Despite this widespread belief, employee happiness is often perceived by organizations as an insubstantial topic, irrelevant to bottom-line outcomes. Equally as problematic, past investigations have primarily utilized other positive emotion variables as a proxy for happiness, thus convoluting the relationships between happiness and work outcomes. As such, taking a scientist-practitioner approach, the present study sought to address the need to: (a) directly measure employees’ happiness, (b) link employee happiness to outcomes of organizational interest, and (c) assess the impact that organizational psychosocial factors have in decreasing employee happiness levels. Therefore, by measuring employee happiness, job demands, and organizational outcomes through a two-wave full panel design, the present study provided evidence for employee happiness’s ability to significantly mediate the relationship between job demands and organizational outcomes. Explicitly, a high level of job demands decreased employee happiness, which subsequently decreased employees’ organizational commitment, task performance, and contextual performance, while increasing turnover intentions and counterproductive work behaviors. These results carry significant theoretical and practical implications. Future QOL (Quality of Life) and organizational research would benefit from building on the present findings and establishing a nomological net of employee happiness. Additionally, practitioners have the opportunity to utilize this evidence to demonstrate the impact that employee happiness has on organizationally-relevant outcomes and the role that organizations can have in fostering employee happiness.

     

Readers and service commissioners require clear financial disclosures: Comment on innovation,research integrity,and change: A conflict of interest management framework for program developers (Sanders et al., 2019)

Sanders et al.'s proposal for a management framework for conflicting interests among program developers is very welcome. The underlying principles of such a framework must nevertheless prioritise the need for researchers and commissioners of services to make objective assessments of the impact of interventions reported in journal articles. This is particularly important in the field of randomised trials which may influence public sector expenditure. Using a strict definition derived from known financial conflict of interest, we have demonstrated that child-based effect sizes are much lower for independent studies than for studies with developer involvement. On this basis, we propose that journals publishing evaluations of psychosocial interventions should agree a standardised format for declarations of conflicts of interest based on that recommended by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors.     

Remembrances of parental rejection are associated with loneliness as mediated by psychological maladjustment in young Bangladeshi men but not women

Loneliness is a significant public health issue that affects young adults. This investigation drew from interpersonal acceptance-rejection theory to understand how remembrances of parental rejection contributed to psychological maladjustment and loneliness in Bangladeshi college students (N = 300; 50% female). Students reported their remembrances of mothers' and fathers' acceptance-rejection, their current psychological maladjustment, and loneliness. Remembrances of rejection by parents in childhood were associated with psychological maladjustment (hostility/aggression, negative self-esteem, negative self-adequacy, emotional unresponsiveness, emotional instability, and negative worldview) for young adult men and women. Psychological maladjustment, in turn, was associated with feelings of loneliness in young adulthood for young men, but not women. Remembrances of parental rejection were also associated with greater hostility and aggression over and above general psychological functioning among both men and women. Findings are discussed in the context of different social and structural features of young adulthood for women and men in Bangladesh.