Suitability and context for brief therapy

Abstract

The main point of this paper is that a client's suitability for brief or time-limited therapy is determined by various factors, including context. There is still agreement on the validity of Malan's selection criteria, which included ‘mild illness, recent onset, high motivation and response to trial interpretation’, yet many additional issues have since emerged and need to be considered. For instance, the counsellor's suitability, training and work experience, the counsellor's assessment skills and ability to establish a dynamic focus, the clients' capacity for self-reflection, their ego strength and their response to a trial therapy in the first session. Then there is the importance of the various contexts in which nowadays much brief counselling is offered free to clients, whether in education, at the workplace, in primary healthcare settings or by charitable organizations. This means that issues of money and markets have come to the fore and an initial differential assessment needs to be carried out in order to decide which method or model of therapy is best for the client. Matching the counsellor's personality to the needs and to the pathology of the client, and matching the treatment to the client's developmental stage or life stage crises are other aspects of the work, which determine the issue of suitability. In the end as always there is much that remains unknown about what works for whom and how the client's decision to take up help is made.     

Validation of the Peer Social Maturity Scale for Assessing Children's Social Skills

We evaluated the utility of a brief, seven‐item, teacher‐rated Peer Social Maturity Scale (PSMAT). In Study 1, teachers of 138 Australian children (ranging from 5 to 8 years and 5 months old) in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 rated their pupils' social maturity using the PSMAT and their classroom social skills via the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS). The PSMAT showed excellent internal consistency and a significant overall correlation with the SSRS social skills scale. Study 2 involved a new longitudinal sample of children who were rated by different classroom teachers in kindergarten and Grades 1 and 2 of full‐time primary school. Consistent with Study 1, at all three time points, PSMAT scores were highly correlated with SSRS social skills scores. PSMAT scores also correlated significantly with peer‐rated social preference. These studies confirm that the PSMAT is a reliable and valid assessment of children's social maturity within their classroom peer groups. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

References to social norms by preschool children and their linguistic expression

The study is based on the domain approach to the social norms and it investigated whether preschool children's references to social norms are related to their language expression. Children aged 3;8–7;5 years (N = 73; 35 boys and 38 girls) participated and were video-recorded playing in triads for 20 minutes. The norms mentioned were coded as moral or conventional rules according to Piotrowski's (1997 Piotrowski, C. 1997. Rules of everyday family life: The development of social rules in mother–child and sibling relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 21: 571–598. [Taylor & Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) coding system. Older children and more talkative children mention more conventional rules (p < .05 and p < .001, respectively); boys tend to refer to moral rules more often than girls, yet the use of moral rules was not influenced by age or talkativeness of the child. This supports the idea that children treat social norms of different domains differently: the use of moral rules does not seem to be influenced by the characteristics of the child, while the references to conventional rules depend on the age and talkativeness of the child.     

Who benefits the most from a gratitude intervention in children and adolescents? Examining positive affect as a moderator

This research addresses the notion that the compatibility of skills and task demands involved in an activity elicits flow-experiences that render the activity intrinsically rewarding. We applied two experimental settings designed to test the causal impact of a skills–demands compatibility on the emergence of flow and intrinsic motivation: a playful computer game (Experiment 1) and a knowledge task (Experiment 2). Results support the balance hypothesis and indicate that compatibility of skills and task demands results in a flow-experience, irrespective of the type of activity. This demonstrates the generalizability of flow-experiences across two qualitatively different types of activities. Going beyond prior research, the results of Experiment 2 reveal that flow-experiences foster the willingness to reengage in the activity in a free choice setting, which represents a behavioral measure of intrinsic motivation.     

Timing of in situ visual information pick-up that differentiates expert and near-expert anticipation in a complex motor skill

The timing of visual information pick-up for visual anticipation was examined by comparing the capability of multiple skill groups, expert and near-expert karate athletes and novices, to block attacks using an in situ temporal occlusion paradigm. Participants stood facing a karate opponent and then attempted to block attacks (kicks and punches), whilst their vision of attacks was occluded: (a) prior to onset of opponent motion (O1), (b) after preparatory head movement (O2), and (c) after initiation of the attacking motion (O3). A no occlusion control condition provided complete vision of attacks (O4). Results revealed that expert anticipation was not significantly different to that of near-experts at O1, but was significantly different to the other group across O2–O4. Expert anticipation, however, was significantly above chance across all occlusion conditions, but near-experts performed above chance at O3 and O4, whilst novices were better than chance at O4. Unexpectedly, unique evidence was found that expert anticipation could be differentiated from near-expert anticipation in the earliest occlusion condition, where it was found that only experts were capable of using visual information from a static opponent to anticipate and block attacks above chance. The findings further understanding of expert visual anticipation to guide motor skills beyond existing expert–novice comparisons.     

Metacognition and low achievement in mathematics: The effect of training in the use of metacognitive skills to solve mathematical word problems

The central question underlying this study was whether metacognition training could enhance the two metacognition components—knowledge and skills—and the mathematical problem-solving capacities of normal children in grade 3. We also investigated whether metacognitive training had a differential effect according to the children's mathematics level. A total of 48 participants took part in this study, divided into an experimental and a control group, each subdivided into a lower and a normal achievers group. The training programme took an interactive approach in accordance with Schraw's (1998 Schraw, G. 1998. Promoting general metacognitive awareness. Instructional Science, 26: 113–125. [Crossref], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) recommendation and was carried out over five training sessions. Results indicated that children in the training group had significantly higher post-test metacognitive knowledge, metacognitive skills, and mathematical problem-solving scores. In addition, metacognitive training was particularly beneficial to the low achievers. Thus metacognitive training enabled the low achievers to make progress and solve the same number of problems on the post-test as the normal achievers solved on the pre-test.     

Executive Function,Intellectual Decline and Daily Living Skills

ABSTRACT

Understanding the cognitive changes associated with compromised daily living skills in elderly individuals is important for making appropriate recommendations about the capacity for independent functioning. To this end, we retrospectively examined data from 92 elderly individuals presenting with cognitive decline who were administered measures of executive functioning, general intelligence, and daily living skills. Multiple regression analyses were used to examine the relationship between executive functioning and daily living skills, while controlling for age, depression, and either IQ decline or current IQ. Executive functioning accounted for additional variance in a broad range of daily living skills after controlling for IQ decline. When FSIQ was used in the regression model rather than IQ decline, executive functioning was no longer uniquely associated with daily living skills. Executive functions appear to be important for daily living skills until a critical threshold of low intellectual functioning is reached, reflecting the combined influence of premorbid ability and the extent of intellectual decline. Our results suggest that understanding the relative contribution of different cognitive domains to functional decline in elderly individuals should take into account general intellectual functioning and estimated decline, and that the initiation and/or persistence of self-directed cognitive processes may be important for adaptive daily functioning. These findings have implications for making more evidence-based recommendations about the capacity for independent living.     

The role of self-regulation strategies and self-efficacy perceptions in successful weight loss maintenance

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the self-regulatory strategies which people use to lose, maintain, or manage their weight, and to assess their self-efficacy perceptions to implement these strategies. Thirty-three (N = 33) undergraduate college students were divided into three groups based on their past weight loss experience and confirmed by their current Body Mass Index: (a) overweight participants who tried but failed to lose weight, (b) participants who used to be overweight but lost significant weight and kept it off for at least six months, and (c) participants with an optimal weight. All participants were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a one-way ANOVA and correlation analyses. Participants who used self-regulatory strategies such as goal-setting, self-monitoring, self-evaluation, environmental structuring, time management, social assistance and information seeking were better able to maintain or lose weight. Overweight participants reported significantly less strategy use than participants who had lost weight or who had a healthy weight. In addition, overweight participants had lower self-efficacy perceptions about implementing strategies than did healthy weight participants or participants who had successfully lost weight. Finally, a path analysis revealed that participants who reported high self-efficacy perceptions and applied their strategies persistently in the face of difficulties were more likely to successfully manage their weight.     

Gender Differences and Cognitive Correlates of Mathematical Skills in School-Aged Children

Published information concerning the influence of gender on mathematical ability tests has been controversial. The present study examines the performance of school-aged boys and girls from two age groups on several mathematical tasks and analyzes the predictive value of a verbal fluency test and a spatial test on those mathematical tasks. More specifically, our research attempts to answer the following two questions: (1) Are gender differences in mathematical test performance among children interrelated with age and (2) do verbal and spatial nonmathematical tests mediate gender effects on mathematical test performance? Two hundred and seventy-eight 7- to 10-year-old children and 248 13- to 16-year-olds were selected from schools in Colombia and Mexico (231 boys and 295 girls). The age effect was found to be significant for all measures, with scores improving with age. Results showed that boys and girls in both age groups scored similarly in most subtests, but that differences emerged in the performance of mental mathematical operations and in resolving arithmetical problems. In the latter – but not in mental math – older boys outperformed older girls, whereas no gender differences were observed in the younger groups. After controlling for age, it was found that the spatial test was, indeed, a significant mediator of gender effects, while the verbal task was not.     

Cognitive factors in the explanation of the mismatch between confidence and competence in performing basic life support

Abstract

The main approach to rectifying the well documented poor basic life support (BLS) skills of doctors and nurses, based on a Skills Model, has met with only partial success. This study compares the utility of a Skills Model with one that incorporates a cognitive component in predicting BLS skills. Outcome-expectancy, self-efficacy, training and experience of BLS, and BLS ability were assessed in 53 trained nurses. Ability was unrelated to training or experience of BLS. Nurses who scored highest on the BLS skills assessment perceived the procedure as significantly more successful than those with lower scores. Self-efficacy was unrelated to ability, but was related to status: senior nurses were significantly more confident but no more competent in performing BLS than junior nurses. Nurses who had attended more arrests, while more confident, were no more competent than those who had attended fewer. Assessment of BLS skills reduced self-efficacy beliefs. A model for predicting the relationship between self-assessed ability and objectively assessed skill is outlined.