The role of therapy productiveness on MFT clients’ intentions to persist in therapy

Many clients drop out of therapy before reaching their goals (Bohart &; Wade, 2013 Bohart, A. C., &; Wade, A. M. (2013). The client variables in psychotherapy. In M. Lambert (Ed.) Bergin &; Garfield’s Handbook of psychotherapy and behavior change. (p. 219–257). New York: Wiley. [Google Scholar]), though being in therapy produces more change than not being in therapy (Lambert, 1992 Lambert, M. J. (1992). Implications of outcome research for psychotherapy integration. In J. C. Norcross &; M. R. Goldfried (Eds.), Handbook of psychotherapy integration (pp. 94–129). New York: Basic Books. [Google Scholar]). To investigate the factors that affect clients’ decisions to persist in therapy, we surveyed a convenience sample of 72 clients of MFTs in individual, couple or family therapy currently in treatment in a community-based therapy center. We tested moderation using regression analysis to determine the extent to which productiveness moderates the relationship between therapeutic alliance and intended persistence. Results showed that productiveness moderated the relationship between therapeutic alliance and intended persistence. Specifically, higher levels of therapy productiveness strengthened the relationship between therapeutic alliance and therapy persistence. Implications for future research and practice are presented and discussed.     

Response persistence under ratio and interval reinforcement schedules

In Experiment 1, rats were exposed to progressive-ratio schedules of food reinforcement while other rats were exposed simultaneously to yoked-interval schedules that arranged equivalent interreinforcer intervals but required only a single response at the end of the interval for food delivery. In Experiment 2, a within-subject yoked-control procedure was employed in which pigeons were exposed to alternating sessions (one per day) of progressive-ratio schedules and yoked-interval schedules as described above. In both experiments, responding under the yoked-interval schedule persisted beyond the point at which responding under the progressive-ratio schedule had ceased. The progressive-ratio schedules controlled break-and-run distributions, and the yoked-interval schedules controlled more even distributions of responses in time. Response rates decreased and postreinforcement pauses increased over time within individual sessions under both schedules. The results suggest that responding maintained by interval schedules is more persistent than that maintained by ratio schedules. The limitations and implications of this conclusion are discussed in the context of other investigations of response strength and behavioral momentum.     

Role of Mental Simulations in the Weight Loss Process

Two experiments were conducted to verify the influence of various mental simulations on the effectiveness and persistence of weight loss processes. In study one, 40 female students (aged 19–27, M = 23) who were eager to lose weight were randomly assigned to one of four groups: positive outcome simulation, process simulations, mixed simulations (process followed by negative outcome), and control (no simulations). Students from the mixed and process simulation groups lost significantly more weight after five weeks than participants from the outcome simulation and control groups. A total of 106 females (aged 19–45, M = 29) participated in study two, in which five types of mental simulations were tested. Besides the images used in study one, process followed by positive outcome simulations and negative outcome simulations were implemented. Results showed that process followed by positive outcome simulations lead to the highest persistence in the weight loss process, while process followed by negative outcome simulations induced the greatest reduction in weight. Both studies revealed self-regulatory benefits from mental simulations in difficult and long-term personal goal attainment.     

Analysis of factors affecting drivers’ choice to engage with a mobile phone while driving in Beijing

In the current work, we examined reasons that drivers choose to engage with a mobile phone while driving in Beijing. An Internet survey was administered to collect data about talking and texting while driving. Conversations were sorted into different types. Respondents were requested to indicate the frequency of initiating a call or text, perceived risk, perceived importance and emotionality of the call or text. A structural equation model of talking and texting while driving was developed with perceived risk, perceived importance and emotionality of the call as predictors and compared to a similar model with U.S. drivers. Unlike the U.S. data, perceived risk has a significant negative impact on the choice to call or text among drivers in Beijing. Results also show that perceived importance of the call is a major factor affecting the usage of phone while driving. Even though drivers know it is dangerous and illegal, Beijing drivers choose to talk on mobile phones while driving, but they prefer not to text.     

Diverging Paths: Understanding Racial Differences in Civic Engagement Among White,African American,and Latina/o Adolescents Using Structural Equation Modeling

There is increasing concern about the large civic engagement gap between Whites and Latina/o and African American youth. Some suggest this may be because traditional models and measures of civic engagement may not be as applicable for youth from historically marginalized groups. With an urban sample of middle and high school‐age youth (n = 903, 52% female), we used structural equation modeling to identify differences in civic pathways between youth from different racial/ethnic backgrounds. We found significant differences between groups including much stronger relationships between exposure to democratic practices and civic self‐efficacy and knowledge for African American and Latina/o youth than for White youth and a stronger relationship between civic knowledge and future civic engagement for Whites and Latina/os than for African Americans. These findings suggest that educators and researchers interested need to take into account the diversity of youths' racial experiences when examining youth civic development.     

A statistical model of cleavage fracture in structural steels with power-law distribution of microcrack size

Based on the well-accepted physical understanding that cleavage fracture of structural steels is preceded by plastic deformation, a critical flaw in the Beremin model and its modifications is proposed, and a new statistical model with the power-law distribution of microcracks is obtained to describe the cumulative probability of cleavage fracture. A set of cleavage fracture toughness data of a nuclear pressure vessel steel is used to highlight the difference between the new model and the Beremin model.     

On Stage with Gunk

A structure is temporally gunky just in case all of its temporal parts have proper temporal parts. Joshua Stuchlik [2003] objects to the stage theory of persistence from temporal gunk by arguing that the former requires instantaneous entities while the latter precludes them. It is argued here that stage theory can accommodate temporal gunk by invoking short-lived persisting stages. However, a new and more serious problem for stage theory is not far to seek. The short-lived stages that are needed to accommodate gunk accord with stage theory only if they are appropriately qualitatively static. The problem is that, unless stage theory abandons much of its dialectical force, some of the required stages fail this condition. Thus, Stuchlik is right that gunk shows a large class of worlds not to be stages, but wrong about which worlds these are.     

Out-of-bag Prediction Error: A Cross Validation Index for Generalized Structured Component Analysis

Cross validation is a useful way of comparing predictive generalizability of theoretically plausible a priori models in structural equation modeling (SEM). A number of overall or local cross validation indices have been proposed for existing factor-based and component-based approaches to SEM, including covariance structure analysis and partial least squares path modeling. However, there is no such cross validation index available for generalized structured component analysis (GSCA) which is another component-based approach. We thus propose a cross validation index for GSCA, called Out-of-bag Prediction Error (OPE), which estimates the expected prediction error of a model over replications of so-called in-bag and out-of-bag samples constructed through the implementation of the bootstrap method. The calculation of this index is well-suited to the estimation procedure of GSCA, which uses the bootstrap method to obtain the standard errors or confidence intervals of parameter estimates. We empirically evaluate the performance of the proposed index through the analyses of both simulated and real data.     

French Validation of the Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (FVCAAS)

The aim of this study was to propose a French Validation of the Competitive Aggressiveness and Anger Scale (FVCAAS). The instrument was developed from the original version, which is composed of two subscales (six items by subscales) assessing aggressiveness and anger in competitive athletes (CAAS, Maxwell & Moores, 2007). Four studies have been conducted with 1428 competitors. In the first study, the exploratory factor analysis extracted the two-factor structure from the original version, both with good internal consistency. The second study confirmed that the two-factor structure of the instrument was consistent with the original version and showed its partial invariance across genders. The third study demonstrated the temporal stability of the FVCAAS. In the fourth study, both concurrent and discriminant validities were confirmed, supporting the validity and reliability of the FVCAAS. The contributions of this study and limitations are discussed, together with perspectives for future studies of aggressiveness in competitive sports.     

Effect of pressure on the mechanical and dynamical stability of NaAlSi

The effects of pressure on the mechanical and dynamical stability of NaAlSi have been fully investigated by first-principles calculations within the generalised gradient approximation (GGA). The obtained results show that the optimised lattice constants, atomic positions and elastic constants at ambient pressure are in good agreement with the available experimental and theoretical data. The lattice constants decrease monotonically with increasing pressure. The elastic constant C₁₁, C₁₂, C₁₃, C₃₃ and C₆₆ increase while C₄₄ decreases with increasing pressure. It is found that NaAlSi is mechanically unstable when the pressure is above 25.97?GPa. The phonon-dispersion curves along several high symmetry lines are obtained. The phonon frequencies at the Z point decrease with increasing pressure and completely soften to zero at 27.52?GPa, further confirming the structural instability of NaAlSi.