A randomized trial of employment-based reinforcement of cocaine abstinence in injection drug users

High-magnitude and long-duration abstinence reinforcement can promote drug abstinence but can be difficult to finance. Employment may be a vehicle for arranging high-magnitude and long-duration abstinence reinforcement. This study determined if employment-based abstinence reinforcement could increase cocaine abstinence in adults who inject drugs and use cocaine during methadone treatment. Participants could work 4 hr every weekday in a workplace where they could earn about $10.00 per hour in vouchers; they were required to provide routine urine samples. Participants who attended the workplace and provided cocaine-positive urine samples during the initial 4 weeks were invited to work 26 weeks and were randomly assigned to an abstinence-and-work (n = 28) or work-only (n = 28) group. Abstinence-and-work participants had to provide urine samples showing cocaine abstinence to work and maintain maximum pay. Work-only participants could work independent of their urinalysis results. Abstinence-and-work participants provided more (p = .004; OR = 5.80, 95% CI = 2.03-16.56) cocaine-negative urine samples (29%) than did work-only participants (10%). Employment-based abstinence reinforcement can increase cocaine abstinence.     

Using mediators and moderators to test assumptions underlying culturally sensitive therapies: an exploratory example

Factors hypothesized to impact Asian American responses to counseling were tested as mediators and moderators of perceived counselor credibility and working alliance. Asian and European American college students (N = 182) were assigned randomly to view simulated directive or nondirective therapy approaches. Mediation analyses examined whether ethnic group differences in initial perceptions were accounted for by therapist understandability and previous therapy experiences. Moderation analyses examined whether expectations for directive therapy, ambiguity tolerance, and resistance influenced initial perceptions across directive and nondirective counseling. Asian Americans rated the counseling approaches significantly less favorably than Europeans Americans. A significant mediation effect was found for therapist understandability, whereas a significant moderation effect was found for expectation for directive therapy on initial perceptions of counselor credibility.     

Think, blink or sleep on it? The impact of modes of thought on complex decision making

This paper examines controversial claims about the merit of "unconscious thought" for making complex decisions. In four experiments, participants were presented with complex decisions and were asked to choose the best option immediately, after a period of conscious deliberation, or after a period of distraction (said to encourage "unconscious thought processes"). In all experiments the majority of participants chose the option predicted by their own subjective attribute weighting scores, regardless of the mode of thought employed. There was little evidence for the superiority of choices made "unconsciously", but some evidence that conscious deliberation can lead to better choices. The final experiment suggested that the task is best conceptualized as one involving "online judgement" rather than one in which decisions are made after periods of deliberation or distraction. The results suggest that we should be cautious in accepting the advice to "stop thinking" about complex decisions.     

Does response interference contribute to face composite effects?

Holistic processing of faces can be measured as a failure of selective attention to one face-half under instructions to ignore the other face-half in a naming or same/different matching task. But is interference from the irrelevant half due to response interference rather than to holistic processing? Here, participants learned to name two faces “Fred” and two “Bob.” At test, composites were created from top and bottom halves of different learned faces or of a novel face, and composites were either aligned or misaligned. Naming was slower when the irrelevant half was from a different face as opposed to the same face, regardless of whether it was associated with the same name, a different name, or no name, suggesting holistic processing. Interference was eliminated when composite halves were misaligned. These results suggest that, unlike Stroop effects, composite effects are not due to response interference.     

The Influence of Cultural and Generational Differences on the Ministry Experience of Chinese American Church Leaders

This qualitative study explored the influence of cultural and generational differences on the ministry experience of fourteen Chinese American male church leaders. Specifically, this study examined how differences in communication style, view of authority, level of acculturation, and expectations of the church could create conflict within the church setting. This study also provided insight into the types of problems these church leaders and church members faced as a result of cultural and generational conflict as well as solutions they found in response to that conflict. Taken together, these findings not only address the literature gap regarding this understudied group of individuals, but they also have implications for more effective ministry in a multicultural church setting.

     

Suicidality Protective Factors Among Black College Students: Which Cultural and Personal Resources Matter?

This study examined the influence of cultural resources (ethnic identity, Afrocentric worldview, and religiosity) on suicidal thoughts and behaviors among Black college students and the role of personal resources (ego resiliency and optimism) as mediators of this link. Data collected from 257 participants were analyzed. A bivariate correlational analysis showed that ethnic identity was significantly associated with lower levels of suicidality. In addition, ego resiliency mediated the relationships between Afrocentric worldview, ethnic identity, and religiosity and suicidality. Este estudio examinó la influencia que tienen los recursos culturales (identidad étnica, visión del mundo afrocéntrica y religiosidad) sobre los pensamientos y comportamientos suicidas entre estudiantes universitarios negros, así como el papel de los recursos personales (resiliencia del ego y optimismo) como mediadores de esta conexión. Se analizaron los resultados recogidos de 257 participantes. Un análisis correlacional bivariado mostró que la identidad étnica estaba asociada significativamente a niveles más bajos de tendencias suicidas. Además, la resiliencia del ego medió la relación entre la visión del mundo afrocéntrica, la identidad étnica y la religiosidad y las tendencias suicidas.     

Elderly offenders in a maximum security mental hospital

Elderly offenders aged 60 and above constitute less than 8% of the population in a maximum security mental hospital. These offenders fall into 2 groups: 1) first admission at or after the age of 50 and 2) first admission before 50. Fewer first time offenders committed homicide in the first group than those in the second group. Neuropsychiatric disturbance and sex offending was common among male first time offenders in the first group; in contrast, schizophrenia and violent offending against persons was found more often in the second group. It is argued that elderly first time offenders should be given adequate neuropsychiatric assessment. © 1995 Wiley-Liss, Inc.     

Evaluation and Applications of the Clinically Significant Change Method with the Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender Version: Implications for Risk-Change Communication

We examined the use of the clinically significant change (CSC) method with the Violence Risk Scale-Sexual Offender version (VRS-SO), and its implications for risk communication, in a combined sample of 945 treated sexual offenders from three international settings, followed up for a minimum 5 years post-release. The reliable change (RC) index was used to identify thresholds of clinically meaningful change and to create four CSC groups (already okay, recovered, improved, unchanged) based on VRS-SO dynamic scores and amount of change made. Outcome analyses demonstrated important CSC-group differences in 5-year rates of sexual and violent recidivism. However, when baseline risk was controlled via Cox regression survival analysis, the pattern and magnitude of CSC-group differences in sexual and violent recidivism changed to suggest that observed variation in recidivism base rates could be at least partly explained by pre-existing group differences in risk level. Implications for communication of risk-change information and applications to clinical practice are discussed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.