A client‐generated psychometric instrument: The development of ‘PSYCHLOPS’

PSYCHLOPS (Psychological Outcome Profiles) is a recently developed, client‐generated, psychometric instrument that can be used as an outcome measure. Based on a similar instrument developed primarily for use in physical illnesses (MYMOP — ‘Measure Your Medical Outcome Profile’), it seeks the client's perspective on their psychological distress. It asks them to describe and then score the problem that troubles them the most at the start of counselling. We describe the development of PSYCHLOPS, including the involvement of the Plain English Campaign and two national mental health organisations: the mental health charity and support group, Depression Alliance (DA) and Primary Care Mental Health Education (PRIMHE). We review the literature and suggest that PSYCHLOPS, by focusing on the problems of greatest priority to the client, might prove a sensitive measure of improvement after counselling.     

Curriculum-based measures of writing across grade levels

This study compared the technical adequacy of curriculum-based measures in written expression across diverse grade levels. Students (n = 484) completed two narrative writing samples in response to story starters. Samples were scored for the number of words written (TW), the number of correct word sequences (CWS), and the number of correct minus incorrect word sequences (CWS-ICWS). Alternate-form reliability and criterion-related validity coefficients of the curriculum-based measures were examined to determine differences between the coefficients according to grade level.Results indicated moderate to strong alternate-form reliability coefficients and variable criterion-related validity coefficients. The data from this study support the need for curriculum-based measures of writing to become more complex as students age and become more skilled.     

Effects of Attachment on Coping Efficacy,Career Decision Self‐Efficacy,and Life Satisfaction

This study examined attachment, self‐efficacy variables, and life satisfaction of 583 undergraduate students. The type of analysis used was structural equation modeling. Findings indicated that students with greater avoidant and anxious attachment patterns reported lower levels of career decision self‐efficacy and coping efficacy, which then had a positive relationship with life satisfaction. Implications for theory, research, and practice were provided.     

Victimized Children’s Adjustment Difficulties: The Role of Parenting Styles and Parents’ Childhood Peer Victimization Status

The purpose of the present study was to examine the role of parents’ childhood victimization status in the associations among parenting styles and victimized children’s depression and anxiety. Participants were 203 parents (86% mothers; M age = 43.75, SD = .76) and their children in the fourth or fifth grade (n = 203; 56% female; M age = 9.74, SD = .34). Children completed measures on peer victimization, their perceptions of their parents’ parenting styles, depression, and anxiety, while parents completed a measure on their childhood peer victimization while in elementary school. Parents’ childhood peer victimization status moderated relationships among authoritarian and permissive parenting styles and victimized children’s adjustment difficulties. These findings highlight the importance of considering parents’ experience of childhood peer victimization and its impact on their parenting styles and their children’s adjustment difficulties.     

Implications of Religious Identity Salience,Religious Involvement,and Religious Commitment on Aggression

Social identity can affect perceptions of external threats and the type of response elicited to those threats. Religion is a social identity with eternal group membership and revered beliefs and values; thus, religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement may have implications for aggressive responses to perceived threats to a person’s religious identity. In a sample of 176 Christians, Muslims, and Jews, we investigated whether people respond aggressively to collective threat as a function of religious identity salience, religious commitment, and religious involvement. Religious commitment was positively related to anger only when religious identity was salient. Religious involvement was negatively related to anger and hostility only when religious identity was salient. Religious identity salience appears to act as a moderator by either enhancing perceptions of threat or by activating internal religious beliefs and values.     

Influence of dorsal hippocampal lesions and MMP inhibitors on spontaneous recovery following a habituation/classical conditioning head–shake task

The present investigation combined a classical conditioning paradigm with a head–shake response (HSR) habituation task in order to evaluate the importance of dorsal hippocampal neural plasticity to spontaneous recovery. In the first experiment animals exhibited rapid HSR habituation (air stimulus to the ear) and an 85% level of spontaneous recovery following a 24 h inter-session interval. The addition of a brief tone prior to the air stimulus produced a similar pattern of habituation during the first session, but the level of spontaneous recovery was reduced (44%) during Session II. In a second experiment dorsal hippocampal lesioned rats placed on this tone/HSR paradigm responded with an 87% level of spontaneous recovery during Session II; while neocortex lesioned control rats indicated significantly reduced levels of spontaneous recovery (55%). In a third experiment bilateral injections of a general MMP inhibitor, FN-439, into the dorsal hippocampus resulted in high levels of spontaneous recovery (81%); while control rats injected with artificial cerebrospinal fluid displayed a significant attenuation of spontaneous recovery (45%). Finally, animals bilaterally injected with a specific MMP-3 inhibitor into the dorsal hippocampus indicated very similar results to those obtained following FN-439 injection. These findings indicate that animals prepared with dorsal hippocampal lesions, or injections with an MMP inhibitor, revealed an impaired association between the tone and air stimulus thus maximum spontaneous recovery was present 24 h later. Thus, it appears that the dorsal hippocampus influences habituation by conserving responses and reducing spontaneous recovery when a temporally contingent signaling cue is present.