Critical Incident Analysis Based Training: An Approach for Developing Active Racial/Cultural Awareness

The authors discuss 2 perspectives on the Multicultural Counseling Competencies (D. W. Sue, P. Arredondo, & R. J. McDavis, 1992): fixed goal and process. Noting that the process has been underemphasized, they introduce active racial/cultural awareness as an operationalization of this perspective. Current training approaches are critiqued from this process perspective, and critical incident analysis is discussed as a tool for increasing active racial/cultural awareness. A sample analysis and suggestions for implementation are provided.     

Links between parental psychological violence, other family disturbances, and children's adjustment

In a sample of 143 parent-child dyads from two-parent and separated families, this investigation documented the links between parental psychological violence and separation or divorce, severity of parental conflict, triangulation of the child in this conflict, and polarized parent-child alliances. The unique and combined contributions of all these variables to children's behavior problems were also assessed. Participants were parents, mostly mothers, and their 10-12-year-old child. They were recruited through schools, community organizations, and newspapers. Questionnaires were administered at home. Findings suggest that separated families undergo more relational disturbances than two-parent families (more severe conflicts, more triangulation, stronger parent-child alliances), but the amount of parental psychological violence was similar in both groups. Psychological violence was associated with the severity of parental conflict, especially in two-parent families. Triangulation of the child in parental conflict was another correlate of psychological violence. Once all variables were controlled for, psychological violence remained the only significant correlate of children's externalized behavior problems. These findings raise the importance of preventing psychological violence toward children, especially in families plagued with severe parental conflicts.     

Text repetition and text integration

Two experiments explored the levels of text representation that mediate text repetition effects, following the Raney (2003) model. The magnitude of the repetition benefit in Experiment 1 supported predictions of Raney's model, indicating that the ease of forming a situation model contributed to the magnitude of the reprocessing benefit. In addition, representations organized around a good situation model were more sensitive to changes than were representations formed from reading without a good situation model. The results of Experiment 2 did not support the suggestion that the surface form and textbase are bound to a well-developed situation model, thereby limiting repetition effects to similar linguistic contexts. Rather, the nature of the repetition benefits in the present series of experiments are better explained by the degree o foverlap between passages at eachof the three levels of text representation.     

Adolescents' performance on delay and probability discounting tasks: contributions of age, intelligence, executive functioning, and self-reported externalizing behavior

Healthy adolescents, ages 9-23, completed delay and probability discounting tasks and measures of verbal and nonverbal intelligence, executive functioning, and self-reported internalizing and externalizing behavior. Delay but not probability discounting decreased with age. Delay discounting was also associated with verbal intelligence and Go-NoGo and Iowa Gambling Task performance. Probability discounting was associated only with externalizing behavior. Findings conform to an accumulation of evidence that while delay and probability discounting may have some overlapping components, they also reflect some fundamentally different processes in this age group.     

The copredication argument

The standard view of truth-conditional semantics is that it is world-involving in the sense that a theory that specifies truth conditions eo ipso is a theory that specifies the way the world must be if the target sentences are to be true. It would appear to follow that the semantic properties of expressions, such as nominals, specify the very worldly objects that make true or false the sentences that host the nominals. Chomsky and others have raised a fundamental complaint against this thought: perfectly quotidian nominals, such as London or book, may occur copredicatively as a single argument of categorically mismatched predicates, which prima facie preclude a coherent uniform construal of the nominal argument. The argument has hitherto been presented via examples that challenge the standard view. My aim here is to present the argument explicitly, defend it against some likely counterclaims, and resolve what might appear to be a decisive consideration against the conclusion of the argument, viz., if nominals as copredicatively occurring do not contribute uniform worldly entities, then how can the copredicative constructions be counted as true?     

We are the opposite of you! Mirroring of national,regional and ethnic stereotypes

The content of stereotypes can be shaped by multiple mechanisms, one of them possibly being the “mirroring effect.” Mirroring describes a phenomenon whereby people rate their ingroup characteristics as opposite to characteristics typical of a relevant outgroup. The aim of our study was to explore mirroring in three intergroup contexts—in national, regional, and ethnic stereotypes. In Study 1, 2,241 participants rated national ingroup stereotype and outgroup stereotypes of five Central European countries. In Study 2, 741 Czech participants rated regional ingroup and outgroup stereotypes of people living in two distinct parts of the Czech Republic. In Study 3, 463 majority and Hungarian minority participants in Slovakia rated ethnic ingroup and outgroup stereotypes. The results showed a clear presence of mirroring in all three contexts.     

Exploring Traumas in the Development of Talent: What Are They,What Do They Do,and What Do They Require?

It has recently been argued that performers benefit from trauma (i.e., memorable challenges) during development. To deepen knowledge in this area, we explored perceived traumas in the development of 20 senior-international performers with a multimethods, temporal-based design. Results showed that perceived traumas were primarily sports based, recognized from onset of investment, associated with immediately negative but ultimately positive impact, and negotiated through skills that were brought to, rather than generated by, these experiences. The findings provide an interesting contrast to messages in other early trauma-focused research and promote focus on the process and mechanisms of responding to and recovering from traumatic experiences.     

Breast Cancer Risk Assessment at the Time of Screening Mammography: Perceptions and Clinical Management Outcomes for Women at High Risk

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the utility of a breast cancer risk assessment (BCRA) at the time of screening mammogram. Women whose BCRA indicated a high risk for cancer received a letter with instructions for breast health care and genetic counseling if appropriate. After 6 months this group received surveys to evaluate their risk perception and their recall of, and compliance with, recommendations. We also explored the impact of other variables such as a recommendation for genetic counseling and physician communication with the women. After the BCRA, the majority of high risk women reported no change in their perceived risk of cancer. A woman’s perceived risk of cancer after a BCRA was significantly associated with her recall of recommendations for breast health care, but not with compliance. A recommendation for genetic counseling was not significantly related to women’s perceived risk of cancer after the BCRA. Ten percent of women who should have obtained genetic counseling actually completed an appointment. Women who discussed their BCRA results with their physicians were more compliant with a six month breast exam with a doctor (53% vs 17%, p = 0.018). Overall, women felt that the BCRA was helpful and did not cause undue stress or anxiety. Although the cohort’s compliance with recommendations was suboptimal, physicians’ interactions with their patients may have a positive influence on their compliance.