Social validity: Perceptions of check and connect with early literacy support

This article underscores the potential advantages of qualitative methods to illustrate the depth and complexity of social validity. This investigation evaluates the social validity of Check and Connect with Early Literacy Support (CCEL), through the perspectives of teachers and caregivers whose children participated in the intervention. Teachers from six classrooms and caregivers from six families participated in evaluating the social validity of this intervention using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Participants completed the Treatment Acceptability Rating Scale—Revised (TARF-R; Reimers, T. M., Wacker, D. P., Cooper, L. J. & DeRaad, A. O. (1992). Clinical evaluation of the variables associated with treatment acceptability and their relation to compliance. Behavioral Disorders, 18(1), 67-76.), a quantitative measure of treatment acceptability (a component of social validity), and were interviewed using qualitative interviews and focus groups. Results were analyzed through ethnographic methodology and indicate complex, reciprocal relationships among factors related to social validity. This investigation is considered in light of recent efforts to develop a systematic approach to evaluate the adequacy of intervention research using qualitative methods.     

Strategies for learning proper names: expanding retrieval practice,meaning and imagery

Name learning strategies including retrieval practice, semantic associations and imagery were compared in laboratory‐based and real‐life experiments. Experiments 1 and 2 studied expanding retrieval practice and a semantic association strategy as memory improvement techniques for learning proper names. Participants either retrieved or restudied names on the same, expanding schedule. After a short, filled interval, cued recall of names was about 250% better following retrieval than restudy and 200% better with than without semantic associations. Together, the techniques improved recall by 300–400%. In Experiment 3, retrieval practice was compared with an imagery mnemonic for name learning under real‐life social conditions: Participants sought to learn the names of people they met at a party. Retrieval practice produced 50% higher recall after 24–72 hours but the imagery mnemonic was no more effective than non‐directed instructions to learn names. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Realism Despite Cognitive Antireductionism

Building on previous work, I continue the arguments for scientific realism in the presence of a natural level structure of science. That structure results from a cognitive antireductionism that calls for the retention of mature theories even though they have been “superseded”. The level structure is based on “scientific truth” characterized by a theory's validity domain and the confirming empirical data. Reductionism (including fundamentalism) fails cognitively because of qualitative differences in the ontology and semantics of successive theories. This cognitive failure exists in spite of the mathematical success of theory reduction. The claim for scientific realism is strongly based on theory coherence between theories on adjacent levels. Level coherence consists of mathematical relations between levels, as well as of reductive explanations. The latter refers to questions that can be posed (but not answered) on a superseded level, but which can be answered (explained) on the superseding level. In view of the pluralism generated by cognitive antireductionism, theory coherence is claimed to be so compelling that it provides strong epistemic justification for a pluralistic scientific realism.     

Attitudes Toward the Continuation of Family Rituals Among Emerging Adults

In this study we examined college students' assessment of the personal meaningfulness of their families' rituals and their desire to initiate family rituals in the future. Participants were 46 male and 49 female never-married, primarily European American undergraduates at a private east coast university. It was found that women were more likely than men to see themselves initiating future family rituals. The amount of ritual initiation undertaken by participants' same-sex parents and participants' communality were significant predictors of reported likelihood of future ritual initiation. A “caring” parenting style was the only significant predictor of the meaningfulness of rituals. The relationships of respondents' religious and ethnic background and their parents' marital status to their attitudes toward rituals were also examined.     

Unique roles of antisocial personality disorder and psychopathic traits in distress tolerance

Previous research indicates that individuals with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) evidence low distress tolerance, which signifies impaired ability to persist in goal-directed behavior during an aversive situation, and is associated with a variety of poor interpersonal and drug use outcomes. Based on theory and research indicating that psychopathic traits are associated with hypo-reactivity in emotional responding, a unique hypothesis emerges where psychopathic traits should have the opposite effect of ASPD and be related to high levels of distress tolerance. In a sample of 107 substance-dependent patients in an inner-city substance use residential treatment facility, this hypothesis was supported. ASPD was related to lower distress tolerance, while psychopathic traits were related to higher distress tolerance, with each contributing unique variance. Findings are discussed in relation to different presentations of distress tolerance as a function of psychopathic traits among those with an ASPD diagnosis.     

Self-Efficacy in Service-Learning Community Action Research: Theory, Research, and Practice

The purpose of this article is threefold: In the first section, an overview of research and theory on the self-efficacy construct is provided, and the central role of self-efficacy in service-learning community action research is demonstrated. The second section reviews over 10 years of research validating the Community Service Self-Efficacy Scale (CSSES), which measures the individual’s confidence in his or her own ability to make clinically (meaningfully) significant contributions to the community through service. Within the context of this review, recent (previously unpublished) validation research is also reviewed. Alternate versions of the CSSES, each of which was developed for a specific purpose, are presented. The third section provides recommendations for further research focused on (a) validating the CSSES and (b) examining self-efficacy as an outcome, moderator, and mediating variable in service-learning community action research.     

Racial Identity and Body Image Among Black Female College Students Attending Predominately White Colleges

This study examined attitudes about body image and racial identity among Black women at a predominately White college in the United States. We conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 34 women about their school experiences, family, racial identity, self-esteem, and body image. We found that early childhood influences including family and school environment had profound impacts on their racial identity and body image. Through a qualitative analysis based in grounded theory, we found that participants’ identification with White and/or Black culture produced levels of body satisfaction and a set of beauty ideals that generally corresponded to four racial identity groups: identification with White or Black culture, floating between both, or having a diverse self-identity.     

Adolescent help-seeking and the Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program: an evaluation

The Yellow Ribbon Suicide Prevention Program has gained national and international recognition for its school- and community-based activities. After the introduction of Yellow Ribbon to a Denver-area high school, staff and adolescents were surveyed to determine if help-seeking behavior had increased. Using a pre-post intervention design, staff at an experimental school and comparison school were surveyed about their experiences with student help-seeking. Additionally, 146 students at the experimental high school were surveyed. Staff did not report any increase in student help-seeking, and students' reports of help-seeking from 11 of 12 different types of helpers did not increase; the exception was help-seeking from a crisis hotline, which increased from 2.1% to 6.9%. Further research with larger, more inclusive samples is needed to determine whether Yellow Ribbon is effective in other locations.     

Cyber sexy: electronic game play and perceptions of attractiveness among college-aged men

The current study was conducted to determine if electronic gaming among males is related to body image, formation of body ideals, and appraisals of female attractiveness. A sample of 219 college-aged men (age 18-32) completed a variety of measures that assessed their game play habits, their perceptions of their own attractiveness, and perceptions of women's attractiveness. Results indicated that participants' ratings of women's attractiveness varied across the genres of game most frequently played but was not related to age of commencement or frequency of electronic game play. Additionally, frequency of play and age of commencement of game play were not related to self-perceptions of physical attractiveness, the association of positive attributes with muscularity, or the drive to become more muscular. Men's appearance satisfaction and valuation of muscularity was related to the extent to which they compare their own appearance to that of the characters featured in their electronic games. The results indicate that, unlike other forms of media, electronic gaming may have a weaker relationship to decreased appearance satisfaction or the formation of unrealistic standards of attractiveness.     

Anxiety sensitivity: a unique predictor of dropout among inner-city heroin and crack/cocaine users in residential substance use treatment

The present study examined the extent to which anxiety sensitivity (AS) at treatment entry was related to prospective treatment dropout among 182 crack/cocaine and/or heroin-dependent patients in a substance use residential treatment facility in Northeast Washington, DC. Results indicated that AS incrementally and prospectively predicted treatment dropout after controlling for the variance accounted for by demographics and other drug use variables, legal obligation to treatment (i.e., court-ordered vs. self-referred), alcohol use frequency, and depressive symptoms. Findings are discussed in relation to the role of AS in treatment dropout and substance use problems more generally.