Using real-time visual feedback to improve posture at computer workstations

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of a multicomponent intervention that included discrimination training, real-time visual feedback, and self-monitoring on postural behavior at a computer workstation in a simulated office environment. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across 8 participants, the study assessed the effects of the intervention across three postural variables. Following an information phase, the intervention started for the lowest stable postural variable. The intervention led to substantial improvements in safety behavior for most targeted postural variables. A reversal to the information phase for 2 participants did not lead to decreases in safety. Postures self-monitored with high accuracy improved to a greater degree than postures self-monitored with low accuracy.     

Peer tutoring to prevent firearm play acquisition, generalization, and long-term maintenance of safety skills

Hundreds of accidental injuries and deaths to children occur annually in the United States as a result of firearm play. Behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training have been found to be effective in teaching children the skills to use if they find a firearm, but training requires substantial time and effort. The current study examined the use of peers as tutors as a potential way to decrease the time and resources needed to teach these safety skills to youngsters. Peer trainers conducted BST and in situ training with other children. Children taught by the peer trainers acquired the safety skills and demonstrated them in naturalistic situations in which the skills were needed. Furthermore, all of the peer trainers acquired and maintained the skills. These results support the use of peer tutoring for teaching safety skills to other children.     

Functional analyses and treatment of precursor behavior

Functional analysis has been demonstrated to be an effective method to identify environmental variables that maintain problem behavior. However, there are cases when conducting functional analyses of severe problem behavior may be contraindicated. The current study applied functional analysis procedures to a class of behavior that preceded severe problem behavior (precursor behavior) and evaluated treatments based on the outcomes of the functional analyses of precursor behavior. Responding for all participants was differentiated during the functional analyses, and individualized treatments eliminated precursor behavior. These results suggest that functional analysis of precursor behavior may offer an alternative, indirect method to assess the operant function of severe problem behavior.     

精神疾病患者遭受社会歧视的现状及其原因与对策分析

社会对精神疾病患者的歧视由来已久,这种歧视广泛存在于不同的阶层与民族当中,且各有其特点。其对精神病患者及其家属带来的负面影响是显而易见而且是深刻的,这种影响涉及到了患者生活的各个方面。本文对各种歧视的特点及其深层次原因进行了初步分析和探讨,并对如何减少这种歧视进行了探讨。     

剖宫产产后抑郁的发生与社会支持、应对方式及防御方式的相关性

了解剖宫产产后抑郁的发生与社会支持、应对方式及防御方式的相关性,对剖宫产患者进行抑郁状况的调查,并对其影响因素进行分析。对抑郁组与非抑郁组的一般情况构成比比较,并采用抑郁自评量表（SDS）、应付方式评定量表（YFFS）、社会支持问卷（ISSI）、防御方式问卷（DSQ）进行测评。社会支持、应对方式及防御方式对产后抑郁的发生均产生一定作用。应付方式、社会支持及防御方式是影响剖宫产患者产后抑郁的重要因素。     

Audience-contingent variation in action demonstrations for humans and computers

People may exhibit two kinds of modifications when demonstrating action for others: modifications to facilitate bottom-up, or sensory-based processing; and modifications to facilitate top-down, or knowledge-based processing. The current study examined actors' production of such modifications in action demonstrations for audiences that differed in their capacity for intentional reasoning. Actors' demonstrations of complex actions for a non-anthropomorphic computer system and for people (adult and toddler) were compared. Evidence was found for greater highlighting of top-down modifications in the demonstrations for the human audiences versus the computer audience. Conversely, participants highlighted simple perceptual modifications for the computer audience, producing more punctuated and wider ranging motions. This study suggests that people consider differences in their audiences when demonstrating action.     

The Factor Structure of Gambling-Related Cognitions in an Undergraduate University Sample

Gambling is relatively common among university students, but few studies examine factors that contribute to gambling behavior in this cohort. Based on evidence that cognitive distortions may play a role in gambling behavior, this study examined the factor structure of gambling-related cognitive distortions using the Gambler’s Beliefs Questionnaire (GBQ; Steenbergh et al., Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 16:143–149, 2002) in a sample of 393 college undergraduates. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to test a previously reported two-factor model, comprising dimensions of Illusion of Control (IOC) and Luck/Perseverance (L/P). An oblique, but not orthogonal, two-factor model was confirmed but did not provide an incrementally better fit to the data than a one-factor model. However, multiple regression analyses showed that the L/P scale accounted for significant variance in the criterion when controlling for IOC items. This suggests that IOC items provide redundant information and that gambling-related cognitive distortions in this sample can be adequately assessed using solely the L/P factor.

Bird and the Dispositional Essentialist Account of Spatiotemporal Relations

The basic principles of dispositional essentialism do not require that the fundamental spatiotemporal relations are dispositional in nature. Nevertheless, Bird (who defends dispositional monism) argues that they possess dispositional essences in virtue of the fact that the obtaining of these relations can be characterised by the satisfaction of a certain counterfactual. In this paper I argue that his suggestion fails, and so, despite his attempt, the case of the spatiotemporal relations remains the ‘big bad bug’ for the thesis of dispositional monism.

“Not a little Mickey Mouse thing”: How experienced counselling psychologists describe the significance of personal therapy in clinical practice and training. Some results from an interpretative phenomenological analysis

The British Psychological Society's Division of Counselling Psychology currently specifies a mandatory period of personal therapy for trainees. However, evidence for the role of personal therapy in developing practitioner competence is sparse. This paper presents part of a wider ongoing interpretative phenomenological analysis exploring how counselling psychologists describe the meaning and significance of personal therapy in clinical practice and training. Detailed examination of a subset of data from this study suggests that personal therapy is valued as a vehicle for a genuine, often extremely intense relationship with the therapist, through which participants become able to establish authentic emotional contact with themselves and their clients. Whilst most participants felt that personal therapy should remain an obligatory part of the training curriculum, they were ambivalent about specifying its aims or evaluating its outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of the importance of establishing a sense of integrity and authenticity within the personal therapy experience and are tentatively situated within a possible theoretical framework drawing on current developmental literature.