The emergence of untrained mands and tacts in children with autism

Despite Skinner's (1957) assertion that verbal operants are initially functionally independent, recent studies have suggested that in some cases the acquisition of one verbal operant (e.g., mand) gives rise to the other (e.g., tact) without explicit training. The present study aimed to evaluate the functional independence of mands and tacts during instruction with children with autism. Four boys with autism (3 to 6 years old) were taught to construct two 4‐piece structures. Two participants were taught directly to mand, whereas the other 2 were taught to tact the names of the pieces. The effects of training were evaluated in a multiple probe design across verbal operants and tasks. Three of the 4 participants demonstrated an immediate transfer of control from 1 verbal operant to the other. These results were consistent with previous research with typically developing young children.     

COMPUTER‐ASSISTED MEASUREMENT OF WOUND SIZE ASSOCIATED WITH SELF‐INJURIOUS BEHAVIOR

We evaluated an inexpensive, efficient, and noninvasive technique for measuring tissue damage produced by self‐injurious behavior (SIB). The technique involved computerized measurement of wound surface area (WSA) based on digital photographs. In Study 1, we compared photographic measurement to a more commonly used procedure, transparency measurement, in estimating WSA of 20 wound models. Results showed that both methods were reliable and that there was a high degree of correspondence between the 2 sets of measures. In Study 2, we compared photographic WSA measures to direct‐observation measures in documenting changes over time in the SIB exhibited by a woman with Prader‐Willi syndrome. Results showed that increases and decreases in observed SIB during baseline and treatment conditions corresponded with changes in WSA measures, indicating that the computer‐assisted photographic technique may be useful as a corroborative measure or as a primary measure when direct observation of SIB is not feasible.     

Mental health problems and post-migration stress among multi-traumatized refugees attending outpatient clinics upon resettlement to Norway

Refugees have often been exposed to multiple traumas making them prone to mental health problems later. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence and symptom load of psychiatric disorders in refugees admitted to psychiatric outpatient clinics and to investigate the relationship between multiple exposure to traumatic events, the severity of traumatic symptoms and post-migration stressors. A clinical sample of 61 refugee outpatients from psychiatric clinics in Southern Norway was cross-sectionally examined using three structured clinical interviews (SCID-PTSD, SIDES and MINI) and self-report psychometric instruments (HSCL-25, IES-R). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was diagnosed in 82% of the patients, while Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS) was present in 16% of them. Comorbidity was considerable; 64% of the patients had both PTSD and major depression disorder (MDD) and 80% of those who had PTSD had three or more additional diagnoses. Multi-traumatized refugees in outpatient clinics have high prevalence of PTSD, DESNOS, comorbid depression and anxiety disorders. A more severe symptomatology was found in patients diagnosed with both PTSD and DESNOS, than in those diagnosed with only PTSD. Higher rates of unemployment, weak social network and weak social integration were also prevalent in these outpatients, and related to increased psychiatric comorbidity and severity of symptoms. Further research may clarify the existence of a cumulative relationship between pre-resettlement traumas and post-resettlement stressors in the mental health of refugees, which in turn may help to improve therapeutic interventions.     

Dispositional pessimism but not optimism is related to sickness absence caused by musculoskeletal symptoms

Musculoskeletal disorders account for a higher proportion of sickness absence from work in the European Union than any other health condition. The present study examined the associations between work environment, dispositional optimism/pessimism and medically certified sickness absence caused by musculoskeletal complaints in a sample of employees from the Norwegian Armed Forces (N = 1190, 77.5% men). Dispositional pessimism, but not optimism, predicted the amount of absence also when taking into account the effects of age and the work environment. Overall, our results support previous studies suggesting that pessimism is a more salient predictor of physical health than optimism. Our results also suggest that it may be beneficial for employers to combine medical treatment of musculoskeletal symptoms with psychological treatment targeting pessimistic outcome expectancies in order to reduce the amount of sickness absence.     

Mood-congruent thoughts and personality disorder pathology

The primary aim of this research was to investigate associations that depression severity and trait anxiety have with reactions to specific, identifiable thoughts experienced by persons with varying levels of personality disorder (PD) pathology as they went about their day-to-day lives. Ninety-eight psychotropic medication-free persons participated in an experience sampling assessment procedure over four consecutive days, during which participants recorded specific thoughts experienced moments before a page signal was received and corresponding ratings of thought discomfort. Thought discomfort, regarded as an emotional reaction to thoughts or their evaluation, was moderately associated with several forms of PD pathology, particularly Cluster C pathology. Once depression severity and trait anxiety were controlled, however, associations between PD pathology and thought discomfort were eliminated. Findings from this research generally support the mood-congruence of negatively valenced thoughts in relation to PD pathology.     

Assessing interpersonal functioning: Views from within and without

In order to better integrate research on personality pathology, interpersonal problems, and social skills, we applied the traditional methods of these three research strands (questionnaires, interviews, and interpersonal role-plays) to the same sample. Participants who attributed higher levels of interpersonal problems to themselves in general were also more critical of their own role-play performances, but these impressions were not mirrored by observer-ratings. Self-observer agreement in judging overall role-play performance was essentially zero. Interviewer-ratings of personality pathology had incremental validity over self-ratings in predicting observer-rated role-play performance. Self-reports of interpersonal functioning leave relevant behavioral variance untapped and thus should be complemented by other sources of information.     

Just world beliefs, causal beliefs, and acquaintance: Associations with stigma toward eating disorders and obesity

The current study investigated the relationship between just world beliefs and stigmatizing attitudes toward eating disorders and obesity. Further, the associations between stigma and causal beliefs, and between stigma and acquaintance with these conditions, were examined. Participants (n = 447) read four vignettes describing an individual with anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge eating disorder, or obesity. After each vignette, participants completed questionnaires assessing stigmatizing attitudes, just world beliefs, causal beliefs, and acquaintance with the condition depicted in the vignette. Stronger just world beliefs were associated with greater stigma toward all three eating disorders, as well as obesity (rs ranging from −.11 to −.18). More stigmatizing attitudes were associated with greater attribution of individual responsibility for the development of the disorder. However, participants with personal experience or who knew someone with the depicted problem did not have lower stigma scores than those who did not. The current study suggests that justification ideologies such as just world beliefs and controllability beliefs may underlie the stigmatization of eating disorders and obesity. These findings provide support for stigma reduction efforts aimed at targeting justification ideologies and altering causal beliefs.     

A model of communicative perspective-taking for typical and atypical populations of children

Successful communication requires that individuals attend to the perspective of their conversational partners and use this information to modify their behavior accordingly. This paper presents a framework by which to understand children’s communicative perspective-taking skills and, within this framework, outlines three routes by which children’s communicative perspective-taking performance can be disrupted. First, children may have difficulty in communicative contexts due to deficits in mentalizing ability whereby they are unable to appreciate another’s perspective. Second, children may have intact mentalizing abilities but do not have the cognitive skills to support the use of this information when generating communicative behaviors. Third, decreased social exposure may lead to exacerbated deficits in either mentalizing ability or the use of mentalistic information within communicative contexts. Patterns within both typical and atypical populations (i.e., autism, ADHD, and mood disorders) are reviewed.