Family Assisted Contingency Management within the Context of Evidence-Supported Treatment for Child Neglect and Drug Abuse

Contingency management (CM) has extensively been shown to be effective in reducing substance use disorders, but its effects in reducing child maltreatment have yet to be determined. The current study provides preliminary support for the utilization of an innovative family-assisted CM component in 18 mothers who were referred to an evidence-supported behavioral treatment for concurrent child neglect and drug abuse by Child Protective Service caseworkers. In the examined CM, participants were invited to indicate from a list of common actions incompatible with child neglect (i.e. positive parenting actions), the extent to which these actions had been experienced utilizing a 3-point scale (almost never, sometimes, almost always). For each item that was indicated to be almost never or sometimes experienced, the participants were queried to indicate if the neglect incompatible action should be targeted as a therapeutic goal. Contingencies were subsequently established in which the participants were rewarded by involved family members for their completion of therapeutic goals. At baseline, results indicated that there was a negative association between the number of neglect incompatible parenting actions that were infrequently experienced and child abuse potential. A hierarchical multiple regression analysis showed that the number of neglect incompatible actions targeted as therapeutic goals at baseline, but not the number of positive parenting actions experienced infrequently at baseline, predicted reduced child maltreatment potential following treatment. These findings suggest the examined CM may assist evidence supported behavioral treatment specific to child neglect and drug abuse.     

Napping reduces emotional attention bias during early childhood

Sleep loss alters processing of emotional stimuli in preschool‐aged children. However, the mechanism by which sleep modifies emotional processing in early childhood is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that a nap, compared to an equivalent time spent awake, reduces biases in attention allocation to affective information. Children (n = 43; M = 55.40 months, SD = 8.05 months) completed a Dot Probe task, which provides a measure of attention biases to emotional stimuli, following a mid‐day nap and an equivalent interval spent awake. No emotional attention biases emerged when children napped. However, when nap‐deprived, children exhibited biases towards negative and positive stimuli. This emotional bias after wake was greater in children who napped habitually. Gender differences also emerged such that females were more attentive to positive emotional stimuli whereas males showed heightened attention to negative emotional stimuli, regardless of having napped or not. Moreover, greater slow wave activity (SWA) during the nap was associated with faster responding, which suggests that SWA may promote efficiency of attention allocation. A video abstract of this article can be viewed at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIoZ8mzxQgg     

Self‐Monitoring and Counseling Skills: Skills‐Based Versus Interpersonal Process Recall Training

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of personality traits of counselors‐in‐training with regard to counseling performance. There were no differences in pretest or posttest scores on the Skilled Counseling Scale (SCS) of high and low self‐monitoring counselors‐in‐training. Skill attainment may have more effect on personality traits than traits have on skill attainment. Both Interpersonal Process Recall (IPR) and Skilled Counselor Training Model (SCTM) groups improved their scores on the SCS, but the SCTM group improved significantly more than the IPR group.     

Are self reports of memory failure accurate?

Previous research with memory questionnaires has been interpreted as showing that people do not recall their memory failures accurately. The present research consisted of three investigations that examined whether participants' reports of memory failures were corroborated by their spouses. These investigations used a greater variety of statistical and survey methods than were used in previous investigations. The results demonstrated that people are able to recall memory failures more accurately than previous research indicated. These results have important methodological and theoretical implications for basic and applied assumptions about what people know about their memory failures. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Measuring the core features of personality disorders in substance abusers using the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI)

Personality disorders (PDs) are still classified through categorical taxonomies that are at odds with current research findings. Dimensional models provide a suitable alternative for measuring individual differences. However, as they have traditionally lacked a clear definition of the "disorder" construct, the clinical utility of these models has been limited. This study tests whether Cloninger's dimensional model is able to capture two domains: the features that differentiate PD subtypes from each other and the common core features underlying all PDs. Seventy-four drug dependent patients were independently assessed using the SCID-II and Cloninger's TCI. There was a slight relationship between TCI temperament dimensions and the DSM personality disorder subtypes, but the association was not specific enough to allow differential diagnosis. The character dimension Self-Directedness was strongly associated with the presence and severity of all PDs, irrespective of subtype, correctly classifying 77% of subjects. Character dimensions are a reliable, valid and low-cost tool for detecting PDs in drug abusers and may help to provide an operational definition of the common core features underlying all PDs.     

Masculinity-femininity as a national characteristic and its relationship with national agoraphobic fear levels: Fodor's sex role hypothesis revitalized

Hofstede's dimension of national culture termed Masculinity-Femininity [. Cultures and organizations: software of the mind. London: McGraw-Hill] is proposed to be of relevance for understanding national-level differences in self-assessed agoraphobic fears. This prediction is based on the classical work of Fodor [. In: V. Franks & V. Burtle (Eds.), Women in therapy: new psychotherapies for a changing society. New York: Brunner/Mazel]. A unique data set comprising 11 countries (total N=5491 students) provided the opportunity of scrutinizing this issue. It was hypothesized and found that national Masculinity (the degree to which cultures delineate sex roles, with masculine or tough societies making clearer differentiations between the sexes than feminine or modest societies do) would correlate positively with national agoraphobic fear levels (as assessed with the Fear Survey Schedule-III). Following the correction for sex and age differences across national samples, a significant and large effect-sized national-level (ecological) r=+0.67 (P=0.01) was found. A highly feminine society such as Sweden had the lowest, whereas the champion among the masculine societies, Japan, had the highest national Agoraphobic fear score.     

Does change in perceptions of peer teen dating violence predict change in teen dating violence perpetration over time?

Research has previously demonstrated that perceptions of peer's teen dating violence (TDV) is associated with one's own perpetration of TDV, although little research has examined whether this relationship is consistent across developmental time periods (i.e., mid‐to‐late adolescence). The present study examined whether changes in perceptions of peer's TDV predicted change in one's own perpetration of TDV in a sample of ethnically diverse adolescents from ages 15 to 18 (N = 1,042). Parallel process modeling demonstrated that decreases in perceptions of peer's TDV predicted decreases in TDV perpetration over time, and this relationship was more pronounced for males than females. These findings lend further support to the need for TDV prevention and intervention programs to include peer influence in their programs.

     

Effects of different training histories upon manufacturing a tool to solve a problem: insight in capuchin monkeys (Sapajus spp.)

Animal Cognition - The emergence of novel behavior is a multilayered phenomenon that comprehends distinct processes. One such process is known as insightful problem solving. “Insight”...     

The legitimizing role of accent on discrimination against immigrants

This article analyses the influence of accent on discrimination against immigrants by examining the hypothesis that accent leads to discrimination only in more prejudiced individuals, merely because people speaking with a native accent are perceived to be better qualified than those whose accent is non‐standard. In Study 1 (N = 71), we found that only prejudiced individuals use accent to discriminate against immigrants. In Study 2 (N = 124), we replicated this effect and found that the influence of accent on discrimination is mediated by the perceived quality of the accent. Study 3 (N = 105) replicated the previous results even after controlling for the effect of stereotyping. These results are the first experimental illustration of the hypothesis that accent triggers intergroup discrimination only among prejudiced individuals because they evaluate native accents as being qualitatively better than accents of immigrants, thereby legitimizing ingroup bias.