Solo status, stereotype threat, and performance expectancies: Their effects on women’s performance

Women working in male-dominated environments may find themselves to be the only woman present, and that negative stereotypes about women persist in the environment. This experiment tested women’s performance in solo status (SS: being the only woman present) and under stereotype threat (ST: when women are stereotyped as poor performers). White male and female participants (157) learned information, then tested on it in an opposite-gender (SS) or same-gender group (nonsolo). In addition, the information was described as being traditional math material (ST) or a type of math information impervious to gender stereotypes (no threat). Women performed more poorly in SS than nonsolos, and under ST than no threat. Experiencing both factors was more detrimental to women’s performance than experiencing one or the other. Men’s performance was the same across all conditions. Performance expectancies partially mediated the effect of SS, but not ST, on performance.     

Dropping out of school: A review of intervention programs

This article reviews the literature on dropout prevention for school-aged children. A review of dropout prevention programs identified in the literature highlights methodological concerns, with a discussion of design, sampling, statistical analysis, and implementation issues. The interventions employed with greatest frequency in the studies reviewed emphasized academic enhancement, psychosocial skill development, mentoring, and parent/teacher behavior management training. Programs that were academically oriented or those that were multi-component programs emerged with the most promising empirical base. However, at the present time, there is a lack of consistent and persuasive outcome evidence that meet Kratochwill and Stoiber's [Sch. Psychol. Q. 15 (2001) 233] criteria for empirically supported interventions. This deficiency leads to the conclusion that there is no one particular best practice or beneficial treatment currently available to address the problem of school dropout even though a number of intervention programs appear to hold promise. Implications for school psychologists include both practice and research applications.     

Competing stimulus assessments: A systematic review

The current review summarizes the literature on competing stimulus assessments (CSAs). CSAs are pretreatment assessments designed to systematically identify stimuli that reduce problem behavior (PB), ostensibly through reinforcer competition or substitution. We report on the participant characteristics, outcomes, and predictive validity of published CSAs that included (a) no-stimulus control trial(s), (b) test trials during which each stimulus was available singly and noncontingently, and (c) measurement of PB and stimulus engagement or contact. Results showed that CSAs have broad utility across a variety of topographies and functions of PB. In the majority of CSA applications for which extended analyses, or validations, were performed, stimuli shown to reduce PB during the CSA produced similar reductions during extended analysis. This was the case regardless of topography or function of PB, or whether the stimuli were assumed to be “matched” to the stimulation thought to be produced by PB. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Choice as an Intervention to Improve Behavior: A Review of the Literature

In recent years, choice making has been evaluated as an intervention for people with disabilities. This review examines applied research during the past two decades using choice as a distinct intervention or as part of an intervention package. Fourteen studies published between 1975 and 1996 were identified that implemented choice as an intervention to increase or decrease a target behavior. These studies applied choice-making in the following three broad areas: (a) vocational or domestic activities; (b) academic activities; and (c) leisure, recreational, or social activities. All of the studies indicated that choice-making procedures resulted in behavioral improvements with some, if not all of the participants.     

Redundant publication in biomedical sciences: Scientific misconduct or necessity?

Redundant publication in biomedical sciences is the presentation of the same information or data set more than once. Forms of redundant publication include “salami slicing”, in which similar text accompanies data presented in disaggregated fashion in different publications and “duplicate or multiple publication” in which identical information is presented with a virtually identical text. Estimates of prevalence of the phenomenon put it at 10 to 25% of published literature. Redundant publication can be considered unethical, or fraudulent, when the author(s) attempt to conceal the existence of duplicate publication from editors and readers. Redundant publication in the area of clinical trials is potentially dangerous as it tends to overestimate the effects of interventions. The scientific community at large and governments should take urgent steps to safeguard the public from the possible effects of fraudulent multiple publications.     

The Implicit Image of God: God as Reality and Psychological Well‐Being

Research has widely demonstrated that religiosity is related to psychological well‐being even in situations of severe illness. To assess religious beliefs, explicit measures have generally been used. In this study, we measured the belief that God is reality as opposed to myth or abstraction by using an implicit technique (the Single Category Implicit Association Test). The study was carried out in Italy, where a large majority of the population is Catholic, and the prevailing image of God is that of a compassionate and supportive father. Participants were cancer patients identifying themselves as believers. As expected, the automatic belief that God is reality (vs. abstraction) was related to beneficial outcomes: lower reported psychophysical anxiety symptoms and a weaker use of avoidance strategies to cope with stress. Thus, also, automatic religious beliefs may affect feelings and behaviors.     

Job demands,coping, and impacts of occupational stress among journalists: a systematic review

This paper systematically reviews empirical research published from 2002 to July 2015 investigating journalists’ occupational stressors, coping strategies, and the impacts of these variables on the health and well-being of such professionals, whether on their daily work or as special envoys to critical scenarios. A meta-analytic approach was displayed to analyse the association between exposure to traumatic events during work and journalists’ symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Twenty eight articles met the inclusion criteria and revealed that very few studies distinguish (and none compare) the distress of journalists in their daily work from the distress of reporting major disasters, not a single study addressed positive emotional responses and only one research study focused on an in-depth analysis of the most commonly used coping strategies by journalists. The impacts of occupational stress among these professionals were sorely negative (e.g., burnout, PTSD), and no study was found to address the design and assessment of preventive interventions for these impacts on the health and well-being of journalists. Thirteen studies were included in a random-effects model meta-analysis and a small to moderate effect size (r = 0.272) between exposure to traumatic events during assignments and PTSD was found. The article closes with directions for future studies.     

Test of memory malingering with children: The utility of Trial 1 and TOMMe10 as screeners of test validity

There is a growing body of research suggesting that the shorter versions of the Test of Memory Malingering (TOMM) may provide an accurate assessment of effort in children. During neuropsychological evaluations, some circumstances result in only one completed trial of the TOMM or partial completion of a trial. Research suggests that a cut-score of 40 or 41 on Trial1 is highly predictive of passing the TOMM overall. In the current study, 194 school-age children with academic and/or behavioral problems were used to compare the accuracy of TOMM1 and TOMMe10 (errors on the first 10 items of TOMM1) in predicting passing/failing of TOMM2. For the children in this sample, a score of < 40 items correct (≥ 10 errors) on TOMM1 was highly accurate in predicting a passing performance on the TOMM2 (sensitivity = .80, specificity = .91) with a Negative Predictive Value = .98 at the malingering base rate of 7% (TOMM2 failure in our sample). A score of 2 errors (8 items correct) on the TOMMe10 was slightly less sensitive than that of the TOMM1 (specificity = .96, sensitivity = .53) but with a similar Negative Predictive Value (.96). Consistent with the research from adult populations, TOMM1 and TOMMe10 appear to be quite accurate in predicting performance on the standard administration of the TOMM and may be useful screeners. However, compared to that found in adult samples, slight differences in suggested cutoffs for TOMM1 and TOMMe10 may be warranted for children.     

An improved spatial span test of visuospatial memory

In the widely used Corsi Block Test and Wechsler Spatial Span Tests, participants must reproduce sequences of blocks in the order touched by the examiner until two trials are missed at the same sequence length. The examiner records either the maximum number of blocks correctly reported or the total number of correct lists. Here, we describe a computerized spatial span test (C-SST) that uses psychophysical procedures to quantify visuospatial mean span (MnS) with sub-digit precision. Results from 187 participants ranging in age from 18 to 82 years showed that accuracy declined gradually with list length around the MnS (by ～30% per item). Simulation studies revealed high variance and biases in CBT and Wechsler measures, and demonstrated that the C-SST provided the most accurate estimate of true span (i.e., the sequence length producing 50% correct). MnS declined more rapidly with age than mean digit span (MnDS) measured in the same participants. Response times correlated with both MnS and MnDS scores. Error analysis showed that omission and transposition errors predominated, with weaker primacy and recency effects in spatial span than digit span testing. The C-SST improves the precision of spatial span testing and reveals significant differences between visuospatial and verbal working memory.