Comparing Traditional and Ebook-Augmented Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT): A Randomized Control Trial of Pocket PCIT

Disruptive behavior in young children is one of the most common referrals to behavioral health providers. While numerous effective parenting programs, such as parent–child interaction therapy (PCIT), exist for improving children’s behaviors, challenges with treatment engagement and retention limit the intended positive impact on child and caregiver outcomes, particularly for racial and ethnic minority families. In an effort to address barriers contributing to poor engagement and retention in traditional PCIT service delivery and among ethnic and racial minority families, a multimedia PCIT ebook was developed and evaluated. In a sample of the general public that utilized the ebook, users were found to be more engaged in viewing embedded videos within the ebook that were related to expert skill explanations and skill demonstrations than caregiver testimonies. A randomized controlled trial was also conducted to evaluate the extent that the ebook + PCIT improved treatment engagement, retention, parenting skills, skill acquisition efficiency, and child behavior above and beyond traditional PCIT. Participating families were randomly assigned to either the traditional PCIT (n = 71) or ebook + PCIT (n = 107) group using an online random number generator. Forty-nine caregivers (traditional PCIT n = 24, ebook + PCIT n = 25) were excluded from analyses because they were lost to follow-up during the intervention. Families in both the traditional PCIT and ebook + PCIT groups demonstrated generally equivalent positive outcomes in treatment engagement (i.e., attendance, treatment length, completion rate) and caregiver skill acquisition efficiency at midtreatment, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up. The addition of the ebook to PCIT also reduced child disruptive behavior at midtreatment, above and beyond traditional PCIT, but not at posttreatment or follow-up. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.     

Searching for Positive Aspects of Excessive Reassurance-Seeking

We investigated positive aspects of excessive reassurance-seeking in interpersonal relationships. Previous studies have emphasized that excessive reassurance-seeking leads to interpersonal rejection by significant others. However, Fowler & Gasiorek (2017) suggested that excessive reassurance-seekers tend to make efforts to maintain relationships with their romantic partners, and that these efforts affect their own satisfaction with the relationships. We investigated whether the findings of Fowler and Gasiorek in students could be replicated in general heterosexual couples (N = 437 couples). Data were analyzed using the modified actor–partner interdependence model. Results indicated that excessive reassurance-seeking had no actor or partner effects on the efforts to maintain the relationships, which predicted relational satisfaction. However, the actor and partner effects of excessive reassurance-seeking on relational satisfaction through the efforts to maintain the relationships differed according to the relational duration. These findings, despite certain inconsistencies with Fowler and Gasiorek, suggest that excessive reassurance-seeking might have positive effects on relationships.     

A preliminary sketch of a Jungian socioanalysis – an emerging theory combining analytical psychology,complexity theories,sociological theories,socio- and psycho-analysis,group analysis and affect theories1

This paper presents a preliminary sketch of what we have termed a Jungian socioanalysis – an emerging theory combining analytical psychology, complexity theories, sociological theories, socio- and psycho-analysis, group analysis and affect theories. Our assumption is that Jungian theory and practice need to attend to and focus more on social contexts, sociality and the influence of societal developments. But also, on the other hand, that analytical psychology, primarily Jung’s theory of individuation and the transcendent function as well as the broad complexity perspective of his theory of psyche, can be extended to a ‘socio’ and not just a ‘psycho’ perspective. The paper presents five foundational assumptions for a Jungian socioanalysis, with the following headings: 1) A Jungian socioanalysis calls for a complex psychology; 2) (Un)consciousness is social and sociality has a dimension of (un)consciousness; 3) A Jungian socioanalysis explores social fields ‘from within’ by smaller groups; 4) A Jungian socioanalysis enables and is enabled by emerging metaphors and affect-imagery; 5) Socio-cultural fields have an impulse toward individuation. This is the first of two papers in the present edition of the journal – the second paper gives socio-clinical illustrations of our thesis in this paper.     

Interactive effects of social network centrality and social identification on stress

The present study aimed to integrate the social identity approach to health and well-being with social network analysis. Previous research on the effects of social network centrality on stress has yielded mixed results. Building on the social identity approach, we argued that these mixed results can be explained, in part, by taking into account the degree to which individuals identify with the social network. We hence hypothesized that the effects of social network centrality on stress are moderated by social identification. Using a full roster method, we assessed the social network of first-year psychology students right after the start of their study programme and three months later. The effects of network centrality (betweenness, closeness, eigenvector centrality) and social identification on stress were examined using structural equation models. As predicted, our results revealed a significant interaction between network centrality and social identification on stress: For weakly or moderately identified students, network centrality was positively related to stress. By contrast, for strongly identified students, network centrality was unrelated to stress. In conclusion, our results point to the perils of being well-connected yet not feeling like one belongs to a group.     

Methodological improvements to a Procedure for Rapidly Establishing Steady-State Behavior

We performed three experiments to improve the quality and retention of data obtained from a Procedure for Rapidly Establishing Steady-State Behavior (PRESS-B; Klapes et al., 2020). In Experiment 1, 120 participants worked on nine concurrent random-interval random-interval (conc RI RI) schedules and were assigned to four conditions of varying changeover delay (COD) length. The 0.5-s COD condition group exhibited the fewest instances of exclusive reinforcer acquisition. Importantly, this group did not differ in generalized matching law (GML) fit quality from the other groups. In Experiment 2, 60 participants worked on nine conc RI RI schedules with a wider range of scheduled reinforcement rate ratios than was used in Experiment 1. Participants showed dramatic reductions in exclusive reinforcer acquisition. Experiment 3 entailed a replication of Experiment 2 wherein blackout periods were implemented between the schedule presentations and each schedule remained in operation until at least one reinforcer was acquired on each alternative. GML fit quality was slightly more consistent in Experiment 3 than in the previous experiments. Thus, these results suggest that future PRESS-B studies should implement a shorter COD, a wider and richer scheduled reinforcement rate ratio range, and brief blackouts between schedule presentations for optimal data quality and retention.     

Murray Sidman: fostering progress through foundational choices

The contributions of Murray Sidman to the field of behavior analysis have helped to put the field on a progressive path. In this paper we describe three areas as examples, drawn from the larger set of his notable contributions: the analysis of stimulus equivalence in a way that has fostered a behavior-analytic approach to derived stimulus relations and symbolic meaning; the observation and measurement of individual behavior through time; and his stance against punitive applied methods. In each of these areas Sidman was a dedicated behaviorist, avoiding appeals to mentalistic or transcendental forces, opposing hypothetical mediational accounts, and taking a functional and contextual approach. Clarity of assumptions was at the heart of Sidman's effective scientific practices and there is no reason to think that those same assumptions will not carry us further, as evidence mounts in support of these views on psychological research and practice.     

A coordinated analysis of the associations among personality traits,cognitive decline,and dementia in older adulthood

There are individual differences in the rates of cognitive decline across later adulthood. Personality traits are among the factors that may account for these differences. The current project investigated whether personality traits were associated with trajectories of cognitive decline, and whether the associations were different before and after dementia diagnosis. The data was analyzed using linear mixed effects regression. Across study aims is a focus on replicability and generalizability. Each question was addressed in four independent longitudinal studies (EAS, MAP, ROS, SATSA), then meta-analyzed, providing estimates of replicability. Results indicated that low neuroticism and high openness were associated with total cognitive function. We detected evidence for cognitive decline in all four samples, and openness was associated with decline post dementia diagnosis.     

A time series analysis of the relation between motor skill acquisition and sleep in infancy

To systematically examine the relation between motor milestone onset and disruption of night sleep in infancy, three families kept microgenetic, prospective, daily checklist diaries of their infants’ motor behavior and sleep (197-313 observation days; 19,000 diary entries). Process control and interrupted time series analyses examined whether deviations from the moving average for night wakings and evening sleep duration were temporally linked to motor skill onset and tested for meaningful differences in individual sleep patterns before and after skill onset. Model assumptions defined skill onset as first day of occurrence or as mastery and moving average windows as 3, 7, or 14 days. Changes in infants’ sleep patterns were associated with changing expertise for motor milestones. The temporal relation varied depending on infant and sleep parameter. Intensive longitudinal data collection may increase our understanding of micro-events in infant development.