Evaluation of an Air Force Child Physical Abuse Prevention Project Using the Reliable Change Index

Three hundred and seventy-nine parents at 25 Air Force bases participated in a collaborative child physical abuse prevention project designed by the United States Air Force Family Advocacy Program and Father Flanagan's Boys' Home (Boys Town). These participants were active duty or civilian employee parents and their spouses who completed the Boys Town Common Sense Parenting ® program as part of a comprehensive prevention effort. We hypothesized that participants would report decreased child behavior problems, improved relationships with family members, and reduced risk for child physical abuse after attending parenting sessions. Results supported this hypothesis. The data were also analyzed to determine the frequencies of individual parents who made statistically reliable changes on the dependent measures using Jacobson's Reliable Change Index. Nineteen to 30% of the participants reported significant improvement in the areas assessed. Parents who improved in abuse risk were at a higher level of risk and were less satisfied with family relationships prior to their participation than those who did not change. Implications for prevention of child physical abuse and future directions for research are discussed.     

Identity and name changes.

The theoretical literature as well as case material presented point to the intimate relationship of name changes to identity struggles. Names have strong affective value and symbolize an important part of a person's identity. The cultural and social value of a name may be secondary to the personal meaning of that name to the individual who in changing it will reveal an inner change in his sense of identity or an inability to integrate a diffuse sense of identity. The answer to "what's in a name?" may be "Identity's in a name."     

IMPROVING THE PEER INTERACTIONS OF STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISORDERS THROUGH SELF-EVALUATION PROCEDURES: A COMPONENT ANALYSIS AND GROUP APPLICATION

We conducted two experiments examining the effects of a self-evaluation package on the peer interactions of students described as emotionally or behaviorally disordered. Experiment 1 assessed the additive effects of various components of a self-evaluation package on the frequency of inappropriate and appropriate peer interactions. The components assessed were rewards alone, rewards plus discussion, and self-evaluation plus rewards. Results showed limited effectiveness when rewards alone and rewards plus discussion were implemented. However, substantial improvements in peer interactions were observed when the self-evaluation component was added. Experiment 2 examined the efficacy and feasibility of the procedures when implemented in a group setting. Students in three classrooms served as participants. Direct observation data collected for 8 of the participants showed the procedures to be effective in improving peer interactions when implemented in a group context.     

Consciousness and self-reference

Reflection on the self's way of being in consciousness yields two arguments for a theory of self-reference not based inany wayat all on self-cognition. First, I show that one theory of self-reference predicts an experience of the self because the theory inadequately analyzes the semantical facts about indexicality. I construct a dilemma for this cognitivism, which it cannot get out of, for it requires evensolitary self-reference to be based on some original self-knowledge, which is not available. I describe my kinetic model of unspoken self-reference, and I show how it fits the facts of four forms of consciousness, all of which presuppose self-reference, rather than yield it. Second, aspeaker uses the first person pronoun in sentences because she is aware of the unmediated role in agency of the beliefs she would express, and not because she is aware of herself in their content. The cognitive model, in contrast, succumbs to a vicious regress and is exposed as an obstacle to an understanding of consciousness.A version of this essay was read at Rabindra Bharati University, Calcutta (February 1985), University of North Bengal (March 1985) and Jadavpur University (March 1985). My thanks to S. Basu and S. Chakraborty at Rabindra Bharati, and to M. Ghosh and S. K. Sen at North Bengal, and to Ch. Gupta and P. K. Sen of Jadavpur University. Jadavpur's Prof. Sen's extensive comments in support of the cognitive model of reference led me to revise the essay thoroughly. North Bengal University may have published a version of this essay. I also thank Kent Baldner and the referees of this journal for insightful comments forcing further revisions.     

Analysis of water and NaCl solution acceptance by schedule-induced polydipsia

Animals were trained on a VI 1-min schedule for food pellets, and concurrent water intake was measured. The polydipsia induced was analyzed in terms of the frequency distribution of post-pellet licking burst sizes and the trend of polydipsia throughout the session. An ascending series of NaCl solutions was presented consecutively over daily sessions and a typical NaCl acceptance-rejection intake function was generated. Beginning in the 0.9-1.2% NaCl range, the animals drank less often during the session but took larger drinks when they did drink. Neither the frequency of drinks nor the mean licking burst size were simply related to the volumes of NaCl solution consumed. The NaCl acceptance-rejection function cannot be explained in terms of water repletion factors alone.     

A Comparison of Modern and Popular Approaches to Calculating Reliability for Dichotomously Scored Items

Recent work on reliability coefficients has largely focused on continuous items, including critiques of Cronbach’s alpha. Although two new model-based reliability coefficients have been proposed for dichotomous items (Dimitrov, 2003a,b; Green & Yang, 2009a), these approaches have yet to be compared to each other or other popular estimates of reliability such as omega, alpha, and the greatest lower bound. We seek computational improvements to one of these model-based reliability coefficients and, in addition, conduct initial Monte Carlo simulations to compare coefficients using dichotomous data. Our results suggest that such improvements to the model-based approach are warranted, while model-based approaches were generally superior.     

J. N. Mohanty: Lectures on Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason,Edited by Tara Chatterjea,Sandhya Basu,and Amita Chatterjee

Journal of Indian Council of Philosophical Research -     

Alkoholabhängigkeit in der psychiatrischen Klinik

In Germany 2.4?% of the population suffer from alcohol dependency and 3.8?% of adults from alcohol abuse. Despite an extensive number of options available for addiction therapy only a minority of affected persons receive addiction-specific therapy. This results in a chronification of the disease and a reduction of approximately 15 years in life expectancy. Background knowledge of the foundations of alcohol addiction leads to a new understanding of the processual course of the disease as well as to new therapy interventions. Individualized treatment includes a combination of outpatient, partial inpatient or inpatient therapeutic measures and range from medical advice for reduction of alcohol consumption, to qualified withdrawal treatment up to pharmacological relapse prophylaxis and long-term weaning treatment. Under current therapeutic conditions abstinence quotas of 50-70?% over 1 year can be achieved. Treating physicians must have sufficient diagnostic certainty and furthermore must be in command of motivating discourse techniques, knowledge on the therapeutic options of outpatient and inpatient withdrawal treatment, pharmaceutical relapse prophylaxis and mediation in rehabilitation measures.     

Using the visual world paradigm to study language processing: a review and critical evaluation

We describe the key features of the visual world paradigm and review the main research areas where it has been used. In our discussion we highlight that the paradigm provides information about the way language users integrate linguistic information with information derived from the visual environment. Therefore the paradigm is well suited to study one of the key issues of current cognitive psychology, namely the interplay between linguistic and visual information processing. However, conclusions about linguistic processing (e.g., about activation, competition, and timing of access of linguistic representations) in the absence of relevant visual information must be drawn with caution.