Acute pain in a clinical setting: Effects of cognitive-behavioural skills training

The present study evaluated the efficacy of cognitive-behavioural skills training, patterned after stress-inoculation training, as a preventive intervention for the attenuation of acute clinical pain during a noxious X-ray procedure—the knee arthrogram. Thirty-six adult male outpatients were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Skills Training. Attention-Placebo, and No-Treatment Control. An experimental pain test was administered before and after the interventions, as a generalization measure. Arthrogram pain was assessed by three dependent measures: patient's ratings, radiologist's ratings and videotape ratings completed by two‘blind’ raters. The results failed to support the efficacy of skills training for the attenuation of acute clinical pain, or its generalization to the experimental pain test. Although Skills Training subjects reported using significantly more coping strategies during the arthrogram. many subjects in the two control groups also reported using their own spontaneous strategies. Equivocal data were obtained on the role of ‘self-efficacy’ expectancies in mediating pain behaviour and experience. Experimental pain threshold but not pain tolerance was significantly related to acute clinical pain experienced during the arthrogram.     

Effects of training in rapid decoding on the reading comprehension of adult ESL learners

We report an experimental investigation of the effects on comprehension of increasing the decoding speed of three adult learners of English as a Second Language (ESL). Participants were taught to read lists of 25 difficult words in isolation until they could read the entire list at a mean rate of not more than 1.5 secs per word. They were then asked to read passages containing these words. Decoding speed and accuracy measures, for both the word lists and passages, and passage comprehension measures, were obtained. In a temporally contiguous within-subjects repeated trials reversal design, decoding training on isolated words was shown to be associated with significant increases in decoding speed and accuracy both in isolation and context, and improvements in the participants' comprehension. With all participants rate and accuracy gains in context were maintained in the final reversal phase, though the comprehension score gains did not. These results are discussed in terms of their implications for a decoding sufficiency hypothesis.     

Lives in a balance: perceived family functioning and the psychosocial adjustment of adolescent cancer survivors.

Childhood cancer patients have a greater likelihood of long-term survival than ever before. This study examined both the perceived family functioning of adolescents who had successfully completed treatment for pediatric cancer and the relationship between family functioning and post-treatment adjustment. Eighty-eight adolescent survivors of hematologic malignancies were assessed regarding their family functioning, mental health, self-esteem, global competence, and problem behaviors. Contrary to expectations about the influence of cancer on these families, adolescent cancer survivors reported lower levels of family cohesion than the normative sample of healthy adolescents and their families. While current age, gender, age at diagnosis, and time since treatment completion were generally not associated with adolescents' adjustment, perceived family cohesion and adaptability were strongly related to post-treatment psychological adjustment.     

An advocacy intervention program for women with abusive partners: Initial evaluation

Experimentally tested the hypotheses that (1) battered women are in need of numerous community resources upon exit from a domestic violence shelter, (2) working with advocates increases women's effectiveness in obtaining needed resources and social support, and (3) success in obtaining resources and social support increases women's levels of life satisfaction and decreases their risk of further abuse. The initial findings of a short-term intervention project designed to provide postshelter advocacy services to women with abusive partners are presented. One-hundred forty-one battered women were interviewed immediately upon their exit from a domestic violence shelter as well as 10 weeks thereafter. Half the sample was randomly assigned to receive the services of trained advocates who assisted them in accessing needed community resources. Women who worked with advocates reported being more effective in accessing resources and had higher levels of social support and overall quality of life postintervention. Although all women reported some decrease in postshelter abuse, there were no differences between those with and those without advocates, and abuse continued to be a problem for many women.     

Liberal Nationalism and Cosmopolitan Justice

Many liberals have argued that a cosmopolitan perspective on global justice follows from the basic liberal principles of justice. Yet, increasingly, it is also said that intrinsic to liberalism is a doctrine of nationalism. This raises a potential problem for the liberal defense of cosmopolitan justice as it is commonly believed that nationalism and cosmopolitanism are conflicting ideals. If this is correct, there appears to be a serious tension within liberal philosophy itself, between its cosmopolitan aspiration on the one hand, and its nationalist agenda on the other. I argue, however, that this alleged conflict between liberal nationalism and cosmopolitan liberalism disappears once we get clear on the scope and goals of cosmopolitan justice and the parameters of liberal nationalism. Liberal nationalism and cosmopolitan global justice, properly understood, are mutually compatible ideals.     

Therapists' Use of Religious and Spiritual Interventions in Christian Counseling: A Preliminary Report

This study explored the use of religious and spiritual interventions in counseling by Christian therapists (N = 100). Use of religious and spiritual interventions correlated with personal religiousness and clinical training involving religious clients and religious and spiritual interventions. Course work involving either psychology or theology did not correlate with use of or self‐reported competency in using religious and spiritual interventions. Self‐reported competency was associated with personal religiousness; professional beliefs, attitudes, and values; personal experiences with counseling; and clinical training involving religious clients and religious and spiritual interventions. It is suggested that training programs incorporate clinical rotations, workshops, and supervision involving religious clients and religious and spiritual interventions to teach therapists to use religious and spiritual interventions in counseling.     

责任心的心理学研究与展望

责任心是一种自觉地把分内的事做好的重要人格特质。责任心已经成为心理学的重要研究课题。已有的大量研究探讨了责任心的概念、结构及影响因素等问题,并开发出了一批责任心的测量工具。我国的责任心研究应在建立中国化的责任心结构模型及测量问卷、探讨责任心的作用机制以及培养责任心的有效方法等方面展开。     

聋生汉字识别的同音判断与启动效应实验研究

本研究采用暂同形似、音同形异、音异形似和无关字四类汉字字组为实验材料．每类字组都按汉字使用频率分为低频字、中频字、高频字三种．对使用手语聋生和使用口语聋生进行了同音判断和启动效应实验,旨在探究聋生在汉字识别过程中语音编码所起的作用。实验结果表明,在聋生汉字识别中,字形的知觉加工对提取语音具有非常重要的作用,但语音的提取对聋生来说非常困难。不同字频对不同字组的同音判断成绩的影响不同,表明聋生对不同汉字的语音意识不同。聋生在汉字识别中存在语音混淆和字形混淆的现象,说明语音编码和字形编码在汉字识别过程中都起了重要的作用。字频对聋生汉字识别的影响也不同,同频字产生语音特征的影响;低频字产生字形特征的影响;而中频字都不产生语音特征和字形特征的影响。     

Effects of Media and Collaborative Distributed Information on Concept-Learning

1IntroductionSuchman,an anthropologist,argued that actionswere always situated in particular social and physi-cal circumstances[1].In this view actions emergefrom moment-by-moment interactions between ac-tors,and between actors and their environments.The social and environmental aspects of cognitionhave been stressed in Hutchins′work[2].He hadstudied relatively structured decision environments,for example ship navigation and aeroplane piloting.His conclusions are that cognition in such situa…     

Continual training of attentional bias in social anxiety

Using the dot-probe paradigm, it has been shown that high social anxiety is associated with an attentional bias toward negative information. In the present study, individuals with high social anxiety were divided into two groups randomly. One group was the attentional bias training group (Group T), and the other was the control group (Group C). For Group T, 7 days' continuous training of attentional bias was conducted using the dot-probe paradigm to make socially anxious individuals focus more on positive face pictures. The results showed that the training was effective in changing attentional bias in Group T. Scores of the Social Interaction Anxiety Scale (SIAS) in Group T were reduced compared to Group C, while the scores of Social Phobia Scale (SPS) and scores of Negative Evaluation Scale (FNE) showed no difference between the two groups, which suggested a limited reduction of social anxiety.