Stages of change in anxiety: psychometric properties of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) scale

Readiness for change is increasingly cited as an important variable in the health behaviours literature, yet there remains a dearth of research related to this construct in mental health. This study examined the psychometric properties of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA) scale in two samples. In Study 1 (n = 252), undergraduates completed the URICA and were administered measures of hopelessness, the consequences of worry, self-esteem, anxious symptomatology, and social desirability. The reliability and validity of the URICA were generally supported, although the goodness-of-fit with the intended subscales was only moderate. The Precontemplation, Contemplation and Maintenance subscales correlated as expected with ancillary measures, but the Action subscale did not. In Study 2 (n = 81), individuals with panic disorder were administered the URICA at initial assessment and following cognitive behavioural therapy. The URICA demonstrated excellent reliability, significantly predicted treatment retention and dropout, and showed modest utility for predicting treatment outcome. Confirmatory factor analysis, however, revealed an inadequate fit to the intended subscales. The implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research highlighted.     

Detection of change in shape: an advantage for concavities

Shape representation was studied using a change detection task. Observers viewed two individual shapes in succession, either identical or one a slightly altered version of the other, and reported whether they detected a change. We found a dramatic advantage for concave compared to convex changes of equal magnitude. Observers were more accurate when a concavity along the contour was introduced, or removed, compared to a convexity. This result sheds light on the underlying representation of visual shape, and in particular the central role played by part-boundaries. Moreover, this finding shows how change detection methodology can serve as a useful tool in studying the specific form of visual representations.     

Modeling influence of change readiness on knowledge acquisition process: A case study

Change readiness (CR) has important impact on the success of knowledge acquisition (KA). So it is necessary for managers to know how KA is shaped by CR elements. Review of the extant literature shows a paucity in this regard specially regarding intra-organizational rather than inter-organizational level. Therefore, to bridge this gap, this study aims to present a fuzzy cognitive map (FCM) model in which interactions among CR elements for KA are identified. To do so, first, elements for measuring CR for KA were extracted from the relevant literature. Then, the identified elements were screened through distributing the first designed questionnaire among the select sample of survey organization. Then, the second questionnaire was used to measure the select elements and find the relation between them, using FCM and Mental Modeler Software. To improve CR for KA, some scenarios are suggested by the managers and the impact of each scenario on the whole CR elements is identified using sensitive analysis of the FCM model. After comparing the scenarios, it is concluded improving more elements in one scenario does not necessarily result in better impact on the whole CR for KA. This is due to the interaction among the elements which sometimes could be negative. The proposed model might help managers of the survey organization evaluate their CR improvement plans for KA before taking any actions. In addition, this study can give an idea to other organizations and industries to apply this approach according to their own relevant criteria. This study is among the first in its kind which presents a model using FCM method in which the interactions among the CR elements influencing KA are considered.     

Child’s Play: Anatomically Correct Dolls and Embodiment

Anatomically detailed dolls have been used to elicit testimony from children in sex abuse cases. However, studies have shown they often provide false accounts in young, preschool-age children. Typically this problem is seen as a cognitive one: with age, children can correctly map their bodies onto a doll due to greater intellectual ability to represent themselves. I argue, along with the work of Maurice Merleau-Ponty, that although cognitive developments aid in the ability to represent one’s own body, a discussion of embodiment is required in order to understand the use and abuse of anatomical dolls in forensic interviews. This paper examines these issues and maintains that a better understanding of embodied perception in both adults and children helps show how phenomenology can provide a more nuanced understanding to a troubling ethical and legal problem.

Visual experience influences the interactions between fingers and numbers

Though a clear interaction between finger and number representations has been demonstrated, what drives the development of this intertwining remains unclear. Here we tested early blind, late blind and sighted control participants in two counting tasks, each performed under three different conditions: a resting condition, a condition requiring hands movements and a condition requiring feet movements. In the resting condition, every sighted and late blind spontaneously used their fingers, while the majority of early blind did not. Sighted controls and late blind were moreover selectively disrupted by the interfering hand condition, while the early blind who did not use the finger-counting strategy remained unaffected by the interference conditions. These results therefore demonstrate that visual experience plays an important role in implementing the sensori-motor habits that drive the development of finger–number interactions.     

Innovative moments and change in Career Construction Counseling

This article presents an exploratory study of the process of change during Career Construction Counseling (CCC). The Innovative Moments Coding System (IMCS) and the Return to the Problem Coding System (RPCS) were used to an intensive analysis of a career counseling case — the case of Michael. Both systems are grounded in a narrative conception of the self which suggests that narrative change results from the elaboration and development of narrative exceptions to a client's core problematic self-narrative. The IMCS identifies and tracks the occurrence of five different types of narrative change and the RPCS tracks the ambivalence present in the clients discourse throughout the therapeutic process. This is the first attempt to use these methods with a career counseling case. The results suggest that the narrative elaboration progresses from the first to the third session. We discuss these results, emphasizing the process of change in career counseling with clients in which maladaptive repetition underlies career decision-making difficulties.     

Career construction counseling: A thematic analysis of outcomes for four clients

Thematic analysis was used in this study of career construction counseling with four diverse, purposively-selected participants. After the intervention, the participants who sought and received career construction counseling were interviewed to determine their experience of the intervention. The results showed the value of career construction counseling in bringing about change in the participants' career-life stories.     

More than One Way to Get There: Pathways of Change in Coparenting Conflict after a Preventive Intervention

This study explored pathways of change in the levels of conflict couples experienced after Supporting Father Involvement, an evidence‐based, prevention‐oriented couples and parenting intervention that included a diverse low‐income and working class group of participants. Pathways of change were examined for couples with baseline conflict scores that were initially low, medium, and high. The growth mixture model analysis found that the best‐fitting model for change in couples' conflict was represented by three distinctly different change patterns. The intervention was most successful for High‐Conflict couples. This finding contributes to a growing literature examining variations in how relationships change over time and the process of change, especially for couples in distress. This study supports further investigation into the impact and costs associated with universal interventions versus those that target specific groups of higher risk families.     

Identifying when children with visual impairment share attention: A novel protocol and the impact of visual acuity

BackgroundIn Coordinated Joint Engagement (CJE), children acknowledge that they and their social partners are paying attention to the same object. The achievement of CJE, critical for healthy development, is at risk in infants with visual impairment (VI). Research on CJE in these children is limited because investigators use a child’s gaze switch between social partner and object to index CJE. Research is needed that identifies CJE in children with VI using behaviors that do not require normal vision and that explores the relationship between CJE and visual function. This study aimed to (a) develop a protocol for identifying CJE in children with VI, and (b) explore the relationship between CJE and infants’ visual acuity (VA) and contrast sensitivity (CS), measured with Preferential Looking (PL) techniques and Visual Evoked Potential (VEP).MethodsA protocol that included 9 indices of CJE that did not require normal vision was developed to code videos of 20 infants with VI (mean age =1 year, 6 months, 27 days) and their caregivers. The percentage of CJE episodes in which each index was observed was calculated. Inter-coder reliability was measured using Cohen’s Kappa. Linear regression analysis was used to examine the relationship between the infants’ visual function and CJE.ResultsInter-rater reliability between a first coder and each of two second coders were 0.98 and 0.90 for determining whether the child participated in CJE. The following indices were observed the most (in 43–62 % of CJE): child’s body orientation to caregiver, gaze switch between caregiver and object, and vocalization to caregiver. The only significant model included VA (measured with PL) as a single predictor and explained 26.8 % of the variance in CJE.ConclusionsThe novel protocol can be used to identify CJE in children with VI with good inter-coder reliability. The data suggest that children with lower VA exhibited less CJE.