Fitting the Reduced RUM with Mplus: A Tutorial

The Reduced Reparameterized Unified Model (Reduced RUM) is a diagnostic classification model for educational assessment that has received considerable attention among psychometricians. However, the computational options for researchers and practitioners who wish to use the Reduced RUM in their work, but do not feel comfortable writing their own code, are still rather limited. One option is to use a commercial software package that offers an implementation of the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm for fitting (constrained) latent class models like Latent GOLD or Mplus. But using a latent class analysis routine as a vehicle for fitting the Reduced RUM requires that it be re-expressed as a logit model, with constraints imposed on the parameters of the logistic function. This tutorial demonstrates how to implement marginal maximum likelihood estimation using the EM algorithm in Mplus for fitting the Reduced RUM.     

CHRM3基因与孤独症谱系障碍

孤独症谱系障碍是一类具有遗传基础的儿童发展障碍疾病。近些年, 研究者们从分子病理学层面发现中枢胆碱能神经系统异常与孤独症患者认知和行为异常存在相关性。尸检研究、临床案例、动物模型研究均发现毒蕈碱型(M型)乙酰胆碱受体异常和孤独症的发生有着密切的关系。在以小鼠为模型的行为学研究中, 编码毒蕈碱型乙酰胆碱受体Ⅲ亚型的CHRM3基因突变会导致小鼠出现认知障碍、刻板行为等孤独症样表现。深入了解CHRM3基因的功能将能够帮助研究者进一步解释孤独症的相关行为特征, 为孤独症儿童教育方案的制定提供新的思路和方法。     

Solidarity in Perinatal Medicine

In this paper it is argued that questions in perinatal medicine concerning treatment or non-treatment of severely handicapped children, after or before birth, cannot be answered solely by referring to the general aims and objectives of medical treatment and its specific deontology. Justifications of decisions about treatment and non-treatment need to be placed in a broader context of discussions about social justice and the social significance of medical practice as a whole.     

Bridging the Gap between Explicative and Treatment Research: A Model and Practical Implications

The recent move toward the recognition of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) within numerous facets of the field of clinical psychology has been met with general enthusiasm. The EST movement would not have been possible without the efforts of earlier treatment researchers. Paradoxically, this is also a time when some of the leaders in clinical psychology are recognizing that there is a paucity of experimental treatment research being conducted today relative to the high volume of correlationally based, explicative research, which examines the associations among variables. In this paper we present numerous reasons for the relative excess of explicative research and the paucity of treatment outcome research. Clinical practice is used to exemplify how assessment-oriented, explicative activities and the design of treatment can be integrated. A research-based example in which explicative research is used directly to inform the design of the intervention in treatment outcome research is presented as one model for emulation. Specific recommendations are made to help guide professionals and students entering the field who wish to conduct treatment research. An expansion on some of the themes highlighted in this paper can be found in the chapter from which it was in part derived (Blount, Bunke, & Zaff, 1999).     

Trauma‐focused CBT with maltreated children: A clinic‐based evaluation of a new treatment manual

The effectiveness of a locally developed trauma‐focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF‐CBT) program for maltreated children with post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was examined across different therapists in a child protection clinic setting. An earlier phase of the research piloting the program had provided promising results. This second phase involved two studies evaluating the completed TF‐CBT manual delivered by (a) the developer and (b) other therapists. A single‐case multiple‐baseline design was used to demonstrate the controlling effects of the treatment on PTSD symptoms and child coping. Eight 9–13‐year‐old abused children with PTSD were treated. Positive outcomes support the effectiveness of the TF‐CBT program delivered by both the developer and other therapists. The study design and methodology were robust enough to confirm empirically the clinically beneficial effects and potential for this new program. It was also apparent, however, from study limitations, including missing data for some patients, that there are a number of challenges in carrying out such research in a busy child protection service setting with multiply‐abused patients. This paper considers implications and ways forward for engaging in empirically supported practice as well as future development and research.     

内隐印象更新的心理机制

内隐印象更新表现出比外显印象更新更难、自动化或无意识发生和形成越快更新越快的特点。新近研究发现,相对简单的信息就能导致内隐印象的改变,其中,信息诊断性发挥了关键作用,新信息的强度、可信度、重新解释和归因以及预期刻板信息的一致性均是内隐印象更新的重要发生条件。社会认知维度和效价等因素、动机因素和不同的情绪情感等也对内隐印象更新有影响。进一步揭示内隐与外显印象更新差异的加工机制,探究不同信息要素的作用及印象更新的前因与后效,采用多样化的内隐范式及认知神经科学技术提供更多证据,加强本土化和跨文化比较研究将成为未来研究的重要方向。     

Raiding the inarticulate: The internal analytic setting and listening beyond countertransference

The analytic setting exists not only externally but also internally as a structure in the mind of the analyst. The internal analytic setting constitutes an area of the analyst's mind where reality is defined by unconscious symbolic meaning. Clinical examples illustrate how a secure internal setting allows flexibility in the external setting without sacrifice of its analytic quality. The internal setting can help analysts listen inwardly to themselves in a way that is free-floating with regard to their internal processes. This points beyond usual ideas of countertransference. An analytic encounter may stir up elements that belong to the analyst's psyche which, rather than impeding the analysis, can actively enrich it. Seamus Heaney's writings evoke comparisons between listening to poems and listening to patients, and a week in a patient's analysis is described in relation to these themes.     

成人学习不良的筛查与诊断

西方（以美国为代表）逐步形成了一套符合自身特点的成人学习不良筛查与诊断模式。文章讨论了筛查与诊断的关系,介绍了成人学习不良筛查与诊断的基本环节,以及筛查与诊断工具的选择与评估标准,并在对西方成人学习不良筛查与诊断模式特点的分析基础上,对建立我国成人学习不良测评体系提出了建议。     

A randomized clinical trial of group and individual Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy approaches for Social Anxiety Disorder

To compare the effectiveness of two Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) interventions—an individual and a group intervention—in Social Anxiety Disorder therapy. We compared the two treatment groups against a waitlist condition in a randomized clinical trial with 86 young adults. The individual CBT intervention was Trial-Based Cognitive Therapy (TBCT) developed by De-Oliveira, a novel technique in which the therapist engages the patient in a simulated judicial trial with the goal of identifying and changing core dysfunctional beliefs. The group intervention consisted of exposition therapy based on the Hofmann and Otto protocol (Group CBT) to restructure negative and dysfunctional cognitions regarding social situations. Both interventions reduced psychiatric symptoms from pre- to post-test and primary social anxiety and depression symptoms relative to waitlist controls. The interventions were recently introduced in Brazil, and this is the first randomized control trial to compare TBCT and this Group CBT, which were effective in assessing changes in social anxiety symptoms as well as co-occurring psychiatric symptoms.