Social Class, Race, and Ethnicity: Career Interventions for Women Domestic Violence Survivors

This story describes a community intervention study conducted with women domestic violence survivors and a research dilemma related to the complex interrelationships between women's social class, race and ethnicity, and career development needs and experiences. The author presents diversity and research dilemmas related to facilitating women's critical consciousness of power dynamics at work in their lives. The influence of community context, career intervention curricula, and research team members' values on research decisions are described. This story highlights the importance of researchers examining their values and how those values impact the communities that they serve.     

Clinical and anatomical correlates of apraxia of speech

In a previous study (Dronkers, 1996), stroke patients identified as having apraxia of speech (AOS), an articulatory disorder, were found to have damage to the left superior precentral gyrus of the insula (SPGI). The present study sought (1) to characterize the performance of patients with AOS on a classic motor speech evaluation, and (2) to examine whether severity of AOS was influenced by the extent of the lesion. Videotaped speech evaluations of stroke patients with and without AOS were reviewed by two speech-language pathologists and independently scored. Results indicated that patients with AOS made the most errors on tasks requiring the coordination of complex, but not simple, articulatory movements. Patients scored lowest on the repetition of multisyllabic words and sentences that required immediate shifting between place and manner of articulation and rapid coordination of the lips, tongue, velum, and larynx. Last, all patients with AOS had lesions in the SPGI, whereas patients without apraxia of speech did not. Additional involvement of neighboring brain areas was associated with more severe forms of both AOS as well as language deficits, such as aphasia.     

Persistence of stereotypic behavior: examining the effects of external reinforcers

Basic research has shown that behavioral persistence is often positively related to rate of reinforcement. This relation, expressed in the metaphor of behavioral momentum, has potentially important implications for clinical application. The current study examined one prediction of the momentum metaphor for automatically reinforced behavior. Participants were 3 children who had been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder and who engaged in stereotypic behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. Results suggested that stereotypic behavior was more resistant to disruption following periods of access to preferred stimuli delivered on a variable-time schedule than following periods without access to preferred stimuli. The implications of these findings for the treatment of automatically reinforced behavior are discussed.     

Preattentive processing of alcohol stimuli

An experiment was conducted to test the automatic analysis of briefly presented alcohol stimuli in alcohol-dependent individuals. Alcoholics and controls were exposed to four different conditions: two brief (30 ms) and two long (130 ms) exposure conditions, each containing alcoholic and non-alcoholic pictures. Heart rate (HR) interbeat intervals were recorded and phasic cardiac responses assessed. Alcoholics had a stronger initial HR deceleration after exposure to masked alcohol slides compared with masked control slides, indicating a preattentive analysis of alcohol stimuli. This initial HR deceleration in the masked condition suggests an automatic attentional focusing to degraded alcohol cues. No such attentional effect was found when the pictures were presented unmasked and were clearly perceived. The implication of these results for the understanding of relapse in addictive behavior is discussed.     

E Contrario Reasoning: The Dilemma of the Silent Legislator

Summary This contribution offers an evaluation of e contrario reasoning in which the interpretation of a legal rule is based on the context of the law system (contextual e contrario reasoning). A model is presented which will show all the explicit and implicit elements of the argument at work and will also point out how these distinct parts are interrelated. By questioning the content and justificatory power of these elements, the weak spots in the argument can be laid bare. It will be argued that e contrario reasoning inevitably requires a dubious argumentative step, which renders the argument intrinsically weak. The model is applied to a European lawsuit on French cheese.     

Adherence to Wraparound Principles and Association with Outcomes

Maintaining fidelity to the principles of the Wraparound process in serving children with emotional and behavioral disorders is a high priority. However, the assumption that greater adherence to the model will yield superior outcomes has not been tested. The current study investigated associations between adherence to Wraparound principles, as assessed by the Wraparound Fidelity Index, second version (WFI), and child and family outcomes in one federally funded system-of-care site. Results demonstrated that higher fidelity was associated with better behavioral, functioning, restrictiveness of living, and satisfaction outcomes. No associations were found for several additional outcomes making interpretation difficult. Our study provides initial support for the hypothesis that maintaining fidelity to the philosophical principles of Wraparound is important to achieving outcomes. The study also provides support for the construct validity of the WFI as a service process measure.     

Rebuilding reality: A phenomenology of aspects of chronic schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, like other pathological conditions of mental life, has not been systematically included in the general study of consciousness. By focusing on aspects of chronic schizophrenia, we attempt to remedy this omission. Basic components of Husserl’s phenomenology (intentionality, synthesis, constitution, epoche, and unbuilding) are explicated and then employed in an account of chronic schizophrenia. In schizophrenic experience, basic constituents of reality are lost and the subject must try to explicitly re-constitute them. “Automatic mental life” is weakened such that much of the world that is normally taken-for-granted cannot continue to be so. The subject must actively re-lay the ontological foundations of reality.     

On the role of preference in response competition

A duration-based preference assessment identified items that matched and did not match the sensory consequences hypothesized to maintain stereotypy. When evaluated in treatment, these items effectively competed with the occurrence of stereotypy, regardless of their sensory properties. It is suggested that relative preference, as measured in duration-based assessment, can be as significant as type of stimulation produced in interventions that reduce automatically reinforced problem behavior.     

Enhancing Quality of Practice Through Theory of Change‐Based Evaluation: Science or Practice?

This paper describes the evaluation component of Partnerships for Success (PfS), a comprehensive community effort designed to address youth development issues. The evaluation component is referred to as theory of change-based evaluation. The author considers the implications of applying community practice tools such as theory of change-based evaluation to the current conceptualization of community science. More specifically, the author argues that the current conceptualization of community science pays scant attention to community practice. This paper concludes by suggesting that the current conceptualization of community science be modified to recognize the importance of community practice as an equal aspiration for community psychologists.