Program report: “time-in”: A two-year project for the reduction of severe maladaptive behaviors in a center for persons with developmental disabilities

The results of a two-year project designed to organize a unit for 18 developmentally disabled clients with severe behavior disorders (primarily aggression) were presented. Providing tightly organized structure and focusing on appropriate resident behavior resulted in substantial gains. Noted changes included significant decreases in aggression, total number of target behaviors, required uses of restrictive procedures, and residents' injuries. Decreases were also noted in staff injuries and turnover. Subjectively, the unit became a better place to work and live. Difficulties encountered with developing, maintaining, and generalizing the project were discussed.     

Validity and reliability of the Test of Early Reading Ability-Second Edition with preschool age children

Criterion validity and test-retest reliability across the two forms of the Test of Early Reading Ability-Second Edition were examined. 18 preschool age children, 4 boys and 14 girls, between the ages of 37 and 59 mo. (M = 48.5, SD = 7.6) were randomly administered Forms A and B as well as the sound-blending, letter-word identification, spelling, and sound-awareness reading subtests from the 2001 Woodcock Johnson-III. Correlations were moderate between the children's performance on the Test of Early Reading Ability-2 Forms A and B and their reading subtest scores from the Woodcock Johnson-III and also between Forms A and B of the Test of Early Reading Ability-2. However, Forms A and B of the Test of Early Reading Ability-2 were not clinically equivalent.     

"Give sorrow words": lament--contemporary need for Job's old time religion

The author explores the many meanings and interpretations often assigned to the Book of Job and finds in the notion of lament a particularly helpful understanding, especially for pastoral caregivers often called upon to work with persons experiencing sorrow, loss, and human suffering.     

Scaling satan

The influence on social behavior of beliefs in Satan and the nature of evil has received little empirical study. Elaine Pagels (1995) in her book, The Origin of Satan, argued that Christians' intolerance toward others is due to their belief in an active Satan. In this study, more than 200 college undergraduates completed the Manitoba Prejudice Scale and the Attitudes Toward Homosexuals Scale (B. Altemeyer, 1988), as well as the Belief in an Active Satan Scale, developed by the authors. The Belief in an Active Satan Scale demonstrated good internal consistency and temporal stability. Correlational analyses revealed that for the female participants, belief in an active Satan was directly related to intolerance toward lesbians and gay men and intolerance toward ethnic minorities. For the male participants, belief in an active Satan was directly related to intolerance toward lesbians and gay men but was not significantly related to intolerance toward ethnic minorities. Results of this research showed that it is possible to meaningfully measure belief in an active Satan and that such beliefs may encourage intolerance toward others.     

Developmental Relational Counseling: Applications for Counseling Men

Developmental relational counseling (DRC) is a conceptual model designed to help people gain a deeper awareness of their relational functioning. DRC is informed by relational‐cultural theory and influenced by the Enneagram personality typology and cognitive and narrative theories. This article outlines the DRC model in counseling practice with men. Men involved in counseling services may use this approach to expand their personal awareness and promote mutual understanding in their relationships.     

Post‐Learning Verbal Information Changes Visual and Motor Memory for Hand‐Manipulative Tasks

Many instructions of a motor task include visual and verbal information. However, verbal information presented after a visual event has been shown to influence memory. This study examined whether this effect applies for hand‐manipulative motor tasks such as knot tying. Eighty‐six naive participants learned to tie the archaic bowline. Subsequently, half of the participants received misleading verbal information about the cowboy bowline, which differs from the originally instructed archaic bowline in one central detail: At a certain point, the rope crosses from left to right instead of from right to left. The remaining half of the participants received no misinformation. Dependent variables measured visual and motor memory for the knot. Results showed that misleading verbal information influenced visual and motor memory for knot‐tying tasks. More specifically, the misleading information changed memory at exactly this point to which it referred. This study suggests new avenues for our understanding and design of learning environments. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Can Becoming My Self Influence My Health?: Exploring the Effects of a Eudaimonic-Enhancement Process on Psychological Indicators of Well-Being and Physical Activity

The current study adopts an intervention approach that begins with the assumption that the quality of a person’s lived experience is at the core of well-being and health behavior change. Specifically, the present study used a well-being enhancement process grounded in eudaimonia to explore the connection among eudaimonia, indicators of psychological well-being (i.e., personal growth, subjective vitality, self-determination, and life engagement), and physical activity. Participants in the intervention group engaged in 8 weekly, group eudaimonic well-being enhancement (the Well-Being Way, WBW) sessions with assessments at Weeks 1, 8, and 12 (follow-up), and were compared to a comparison group that did not participate. A series of 2?×?3 (Group by Time) repeated measures ANOVAs along with follow-up paired comparisons t-tests were conducted to compare the WBW and comparison groups across time. Results indicated that the WBW group exhibited significant increases in two indices of psychological well-being (trait subjective vitality and self-determination) and in their physical activity levels. The comparison group showed no changes in any of the variables. The results of an exploratory regression analysis provided some evidence that WBW participants who experienced the greatest gains in life engagement and trait subjective vitality also exhibited significant increases in level of physical activity. Discussion focuses on the implications of the Well-Being Way approach for the enhancement of positive well-being and future possibilities for eudaimonic-based approaches to health behavior change.     

Reducing the Misinformation Effect Through Initial Testing: Take Two Tests and Recall Me in the Morning?

Initial retrieval of an event can reduce people's susceptibility to misinformation. We explored whether protective effects of initial testing could be obtained on final free recall and source‐monitoring tests. After studying six household scenes (e.g., a bathroom), participants attempted to recall items from the scenes zero, one, or two times. Immediately or after a 48‐hour delay, non‐presented items (e.g., soap and toothbrush) were exposed zero, one, or four times through a social contagion manipulation in which participants reviewed sets of recall tests ostensibly provided by other participants. A protective effect of testing emerged on a final free recall test following the delay and on a final source‐memory test regardless of delay. Taking two initial tests did not increase these protective effects. Determining whether initial testing will have protective (versus harmful) effects on memory has important practical implications for interviewing eyewitnesses. © 2015 The Authors. Applied Cognitive Psychology published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Item-specific processing reduces false recognition in older and younger adults: Separating encoding and retrieval using signal detection and the diffusion model

Our study examined processing effects in improving memory accuracy in older and younger adults. Specifically, we evaluated the effectiveness of item-specific and relational processing instructions relative to a read-only control task on correct and false recognition in younger and older adults using a categorized-list paradigm. In both age groups, item-specific and relational processing improved correct recognition versus a read-only control task, and item-specific encoding decreased false recognition relative to both the relational and read-only groups. This pattern was found in older adults despite overall elevated rates of false recognition. We then applied signal-detection and diffusion-modeling analyses, which separately utilized recognition responses and the latencies to those responses to estimate contributions of encoding and monitoring processes on recognition decisions. Converging evidence from both analyses demonstrated that item-specific processing benefits to memory accuracy were due to improvements of both encoding (estimates of d′ and drift rate) and monitoring (estimates of lambda and boundary separation) processes, and, importantly, occurred similarly in both younger and older adults. Thus, older and younger adults showed similar encoding-based and test-based benefits of item-specific processing to enhance memory accuracy.     

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Abstract

Confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) were employed to test the factorial validity and structure of the Proactive Coping Inventory (PCI; Greenglass, Schwarzer, Jakubiec, Fiksenbaum, &; Taubert, 1999) in a large multiethnic sample (n=709). CFAs conducted on each individual scale of the PCI supported congeneric measurement. However, when the scales of the PCI were tested simultaneously in a model, a 3-factor model representing Logical Analysis/Problem Solving, Social Support, and Avoidance fit as well as both a 5- and the original 7-factor model. Moreover, strong redundancy among factors of both the 5- and 7-factor models suggested that these models did not represent the PCI well. In addition, multigroup analyses revealed that the parameters (e.g., factor loadings, item intercepts) of the 3-factor model were largely invariant across gender and ethnic groups. Discussion focuses on the interpretability of the 3-factor model of the PCI, and particularly in relation to traditional measures of reactive coping.