Assessing long‐term maintenance of staff performance following behavior skills training in a home‐based setting

We used a multiple baseline across participant design to evaluate the effects of behavior skills training on teaching three behavior therapists to implement discrete trial teaching (DTT) and evaluate the long‐term maintenance of skills acquired through behavioral skills training. For participants whose skills did not maintain, the authors evaluated an independent self‐evaluation procedure on their performance. Following DTT implementation training, maintenance probes were assessed at 2‐, 4‐, 6‐, and 8‐week follow‐ups. The results demonstrated that one participant maintained 100% procedural integrity (PI) through all follow‐ups, one participant decreased below mastery criterion at the 2‐week follow‐up, and one participant dropped below mastery criterion at the 4‐week follow‐up. Those participants that demonstrated decreased accuracy of implementation of DTT programs and were taught to implement a self‐evaluation procedure. Following self‐evaluation, PI maintained for up to 7 weeks for one participant. Our results suggest that if PI does not maintain, self‐evaluation may be a supplementary intervention to increase and maintain PI of new employees.     

Job apathy and work engagement: Moderating influence of perceived leader integrity and spiritual intelligence in a Nigerian mass transit company

This study explored the direct and interactive roles of job apathy, perceived leader integrity, and spiritual intelligence on work engagement among 206 Nigerian employees of a leading mass transit company (females = 33%; mean age = 35.81years, SD = 5.04; mean organisational tenure = 6.27 years, SD = 2.26). Results following moderated hierarchical multiple regression showed that work engagement was lower with job apathy and higher with perceived leader integrity and employee spiritual intelligence. Moreover, employees with a high perception of leader integrity reported being more work engaged, regardless of feeling apathetic about their job, compared to those with a low perception of leader integrity. Perceived leader integrity and spiritual intelligence are important for work engagement in Nigeria’s transportation sector setting.     

Behavioral skills training in scent detection research: Interactions between trainer and animal behavior

Animal trainers working in scent detection programs are responsible for arranging training contingencies as well as for observing and recording animal behavior. We provided behavioral skills training (BST) to animal trainers working with scent detection rats to improve the treatment integrity of scent‐detection research sessions. We evaluated the trainers' behavior at baseline and during the sequential introduction of each component of BST (instructions, modeling, and feedback). We observed incremental improvements in treatment integrity with the introduction of each BST component. Posttraining probes revealed that these improvements were sustained at least 3 weeks post‐BST. As the trainers' behavior was modified during BST, we observed decrements in measures of rat performance. We discuss the nature of these interactions and their implications for the use of BST in scent detection research and in situations in which intervention with one party produces concomitant effects on the behavior of another.     

Supporting Out‐of‐School Time Staff in Low Resource Communities: A Professional Development Approach

Federally funded out‐of‐school time (OST) programs provide academic support, enrichment, and safety for students and families in low‐resource communities. However, programs struggle to meet these aims, in part because of the lack of program structure and limited training and support for staff. This observational case study documents the training and technical assistance (TA) delivered to OST frontline staff and program leadership to implement Positive Behavior in Out‐of‐School Time (Positive BOOST), an adaptation of positive behavior interventions and supports conducted in multiple settings. Findings across three programs indicate that varied levels of TA (i.e., business as usual, performance feedback, coaching) are associated with different levels of staff‐ and program‐level implementation. Taken together with previous research, these findings suggest that targeted investment in developing the skills of OST staff and improving program‐wide outcomes is critical for supporting youth in low‐resource communities.     

The conscience debate: resources for rapprochement from the problem’s perceived source

This article critically evaluates the conception of conscience underlying the debate about the proper place and role of conscience in the clinical encounter. It suggests that recovering a conception of conscience rooted in the Catholic moral tradition could offer resources for moving the debate past an unproductive assertion of conflicting rights, namely, physicians’ rights to conscience versus patients’ rights to socially and legally sanctioned medical interventions. It proposes that conscience is a necessary component of the moral life in general and a necessary resource for maintaining a coherent sense of moral agency. It demonstrates that an earlier and intellectually richer conception of conscience, in contrast with common contemporary formulations, makes the judgments of conscience accountable to reason, open to critique, and protected from becoming a bastion for bigotry, idiosyncrasy, and personal bias.

Validity and Reliability of a Pre-Employment Screening Test: The Counterproductive Behavior Index (CBI)

The Counterproductive Behavior Index (CBI) is a 120-item, true-false questionnaire developed to assess five aspects of counterproductive workplace behavior: Dependability Concerns, Aggression, Substance Abuse, Honesty Concerns, and Computer Abuse, plus an overall measure of Total Concerns. It also yields a Good Impression score. To assess predictive validity, undergraduates with significant work experience simulated persons who had each of the five counterproductive behaviors but were exercising care not to get caught trying to conceal that behavior. All differences between simulated and normative responding were highly significant, with a median sensitivity of .89 for a specificity of .90. For similar participants, construct validity correlations ranged from .37 though .72 with a median of .50, and the correlation of CBI Total Concerns with a Total Validity Index was .66. Test-retest reliabilities of the CBI scales ranged from .79 to .94 with a median correlation of .87. These compare favorably with previously reported internal consistencies (Cronbach alphas). Analysis of the CBI scores of the original normative group at different levels of Good Impression showed that none of the six Concerns scores were affected by attempts to make a good impression until the Good Impression score reached the 90th percentile.     

系统论方法在糖尿病性视网膜病变危险因素及治疗研究中的应用

全球糖尿病患者人数在不断的增多,大约10％的Ⅰ型糖尿病患者在10年后可出现糖尿病性视网膜病变,而大约95％的Ⅱ型糖尿病患者在20年后可出现糖尿病性视网膜病变。目前,糖尿病性视网膜病的发病机制尚不明确,影响其发生发展的因素也很复杂,因此,对糖尿病性视网膜病的发病危险因素及其诊治的研究,具有相当重要的意义。系统论,研究各种物质运动形态所共有的系统联系和关系,具有普遍的方法论意义,为现代医学的进步提供了全新的思维方式和科学方法论原则。本文试用系统论的整体性、优化原理阐述糖尿病性视网膜病变发病的危险因素与治疗进展,为对其深入研究提供方法论依据。     

Deviations from Prescribed Prompting Procedures: Implications for Treatment Integrity

The acquisition of new skills may be hindered when teaching procedures vary from previously validated approaches or contain errors. In the present study, we compared the acquisition and maintenance of response chains taught using a perfectly implemented system of least prompts and a multiple verbal prompts procedure (i.e., addition of multiple verbal prompts and failure to follow through with more intrusive prompts). Four children, aged 6–9, participated in the study. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness and efficiency of learning during the system of least prompts and the alternative system of least prompts. Results were consistent with those obtained in previous studies in that the perfectly implemented and alternative prompting procedures were effective in teaching new skills for all participants. However, the perfectly implemented treatment required fewer trials to mastery for 4 of the 5 evaluations. Response chains taught under the multiple verbal prompts condition had poorer maintenance for 2 of the 5 evaluations. The results of the current study suggest that deviations from empirically identified teaching procedures may reduce the speed with which new skills are acquired.     

黑白隐喻对大学生诚信的影响

诚信是立身处世之本。本研究分别采用内隐IAT范式、启动范式及现场实验考察中文语境下黑白隐喻对诚信的影响。结果发现：黑白与诚信存在显著的内隐语义联结,表现为一致条件下的反应时显著低于不一致时的反应时。且这种隐喻联结稳定存在于具体的黑白情境中,即白色背景显著提高诚信选择,黑色背景下不诚信选择亦显著提高。而在真实明暗体验中,与明环境相比,暗环境更容易导致被试不诚信行为。本研究显示在中国文化群体中存在“白-诚信”、“黑-不诚信”的隐喻联结;在明暗环境中,中国被试表现出“暗”促进不诚信行为的现象。