Evaluating Rehabilitation Caseload Management Skills Through Computer Simulations

In this article the authors report on the development and validation of a computer-based rehabilitation caseload management simulation as a teaching and evaluation tool in counselor education. The computer simulation was administered to 18 rehabilitation students and 18 rehabilitation counselors. Their performance on the simulation was evaluated using six caseload management performance indicators. These performance indicators, derived from the computer simulation, were found to be effective in differentiating the student group from the experienced counselor group using discriminant analysis. Implications for the use of computer simulations in rehabilitation counselor education and future research directions are discussed.     

Social preference of female gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) as influenced by coat color of males

Female gerbils (Meriones unguiculatus) of three distinct coat colors (agouti, black, and sandy or pink-eyed dilution) were tested in a Y-maze whose arms led to compartments containing unfamiliar male gerbils of varying coat colors. The stimulus animals were separated from the females by a Plexiglas door. The trials lasted for 2 min and each female was exposed to the following four combinations: two males of the same coloring as the female; one male of the same color and another of a different color from the female; both males of different color from the female. The number of crossings to the left and right arms was relayed by photocells to an IBM PC computer. The results indicate that agouti females preferred visiting the arm occupied by agouti males while those of the other coat colors showed no preference for the "wild-type" males. Instead, sandy and black female gerbils preferred to be in proximity with those of non-wild types.     

Treating criminal psychopaths in a therapeutic community program

A Therapeutic Community (TC) treatment program for adult male offenders is summarized and treatment outcome data are discussed. Psychopaths showed less clinical improvement, displayed lower levels of motivation and were discharged from the program earlier than non-psychopaths. There were significant positive treatment effects for the non-psychopaths and a mixed group. Psychopathy Checklist scores (Hare, 1985) consistently postdict and predict treatment outcome and attrition from the program.     

Component Skills as Predictors of Chinese Reading Proficiency in Primary School Children

This study was designed to examine the relevance of some cognitive skills to Chinese reading and to identify those that distinguish readers of different proficiency levels. Third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade children were given two sets of tests, the Chinese Reading Proficiency Test and five component skill tests. Skills in word recognition and in comprehension were examined through tasks measuring component detection, lexical coding, memory for gist, knowledge of syntax, and use of context. Subjects' responses on the knowledge of syntax task and the lexical coding task were found to be most effective in predicting reading proficiency of the third graders, but not the fourth- and fifth-grade children. Instead, use of context task was the best predictor of the older children's reading proficiency.     

White Racial Identity and Attitudes Toward People With Disabilities

This empirical study investigated the relationship between racial identity and attitudes toward people with disabilities. Results indicate that higher statuses of racial identity correlate positively while lower and more racist‐oriented statuses correlate negatively with attitudes toward people with disabilities. The study supports the notion that attitudes from cultural memberships associated with power can transfer from one domain (i.e., White/People of Color) to another domain (i.e., Abled/Disabled). Este estudio empírico investigó la relación entre la identidad y actitudes raciales hacia personas con incapacidades. Los resultados indican que las posiciones más altas de la identidad racial se pone en correlación positivamente mientras bajan y más posiciones racista‐orientados se pone en correlación negativamente con actitudes hacia personas con incapacidades. El estudio sostiene la noción que actitudes de asociaciones culturales asociadas con el poder pueden transferir de un dominio (es decir, los Blancos/Personas del Color) a otro dominio (es decir, Capacitados/Incapacitados).     

试论家庭治疗的理论基础

按照历史发展的顺序,从精神分析、系统论与控制论、依附理论以及建构主义这四个方面对家庭治疗的理论基础进行了论述,并对这四种理论取向对家庭治疗的贡献以及依附理论与家庭治疗的异同进行了探讨.     

Avoiding Disappointment or Fulfilling Expectation: A Study of Gender,Academic Achievement,and Family Functioning among Hong Kong Adolescents

This paper explores the relationship between gender, academic achievement, and family functioning in a Chinese cultural background. Primary and secondary school students (n?=?1597) in Hong Kong participated in a survey questionnaire. Two competing hypotheses are derived and empirically tested based on the idea that parents are likely to have higher expectations toward their sons. First, when boys perform well academically, their parents might not feel particularly overjoyed because their sons simply achieved what they were expected to, which would not affect the parents’ attitudes within the family and thus the boys’ perceptions of the family. Second, when parents have such high expectations for their sons, they would feel particularly satisfied when the outcome fulfills their high expectations. The results indicated that boys did well academically to prevent their parents from potential disappointment, whereas parents were actually happier if their daughters overachieve because they have lower initial expectations. Such differences affected parents’ attitudes, family functioning, and thus adolescents’ view of family. The results of this study carry implications for the study of family functioning and parenting among Chinese families. In particular, parents should avoid having gender-based expectations toward their children, which could adversely affect how boys view their family.     

What are effective phonological units in Cantonese spoken word planning?

Two picture—word interference experiments were conducted to investigate the nature of effective phonological units in Cantonese spoken word production. The names of the pictures were Cantonese monosyllables with a consonant 1 vowel 1 consonant (CVC) structure. Participants’ picture-naming responses were faster when the target (e.g., “star” /sing1/) and the distractor shared the same CVC component (e.g., /sing4/, meaning “city”), the same CV component (e.g., /sik6/, “eat”), or the same VC component (e.g., /ging2/, “region”), as opposed to when they were unrelated, and the facilitation effects observed were comparable in size. Also, similar facilitation effects were obtained across the CV1tone-related and the VC1tone-related conditions, whereas no reliable effect was found in the V1tone-related condition. These results indicate that an effective phonological unit in spoken word planning is neither a syllable (without tone) nor a segmental unit, and that the possible candidates lie between the two, at least in Cantonese.