TEACHING JOB INTERVIEW SKILLS TO RETARDED CLIENTS

Six retarded adults were taught job application and interview skills including introducing oneself, filling out a standard job application form, answering questions, and asking questions. A combination of instructions, modeling, role playing, and positive and corrective feedback was used across a multiple baseline experimental design. After training, the clients' performance in each area improved substantially over baseline levels. In addition, the newly taught skills appeared to generalize to a different office, application form, and interviewer.     

Assessment of social skills using a Thurstone Equal-Appearing Interval scale

Although Likert ratings of social skill are widely used in behavioral assessment, such ratings may have limited replicability potential and social validity. The present study compared the reliability of Likert and Thurstone Equal-Appearing Interval scales. The Thurstone-derived scale was slightly more reliable than its Likert counterpart. Moreover, the empirical and clinical potential of Thurstone scaling substantially exceeds that of Likert and other rating methods.     

Comparability of peer-assessment measures: A multitrait-multimethod and selection analytic approach

This research attempted to assess the relationship among the Pupil Evaluation Inventory (PEI), sociometric nominations, and sociometric ratings in terms of (1) a multitrait-multimethod analysis, (2) selection agreement indices of extreme individuals, and (3) stability over an 8-week period. Subjects were members of four second-grade classrooms at a regional school serving a diverse population of children. While stability estimates for measures were adequate and evidence for convergent validity was reasonably good, evidence for divergent validity was weaker. Selection agreement analyses yielded highly variable results, indicating that different samples of children tend to be selected by different instruments despite the similarity in dimensions being tapped. Methodological and theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.This work was based on the first author's M.S. thesis under the direction of the second author.     

Developing the Functional Assertiveness Scale: Measuring Dimensions of Objective Effectiveness and Pragmatic Politeness

The purpose of the present study was to develop a measure for functional assertiveness, the Functional Assertiveness Scale (FAS). Functional assertiveness is a new concept of assertiveness that represents a method of appropriate self‐expression. Functional assertiveness is defined as interpersonal communication that occurs when a speaker encounters interpersonal problems that should be resolved or has objectives that should be achieved, and the speaker's message is perceived as appropriate by the listener (Mitamura & Tanaka‐Matsumi, 2010, 2010c). Five studies were conducted in order to develop the FAS. In Study 1, we generated an item pool for FAS, and in Study 2 we developed the FAS prototype using this item pool. Study 3 examined the factorial validity, concurrent validity, and internal consistency of the FAS. Study 4 examined test–retest reliability of the FAS. Study 5 examined responsiveness on the FAS. The validity and reliability of the FAS and potential utility and clinical implication of the FAS are discussed.     

Validation de l’inventaire des habiletés politiques auprès d’une population occupant un poste de directions d’établissement scolaire

A single instrument was listed to measure political skills, defined as the understanding of others and the use of that knowledge to influence their actions. It was validated with employees, although political skills were more relevant to managers and, in particular, to school principals. A single study validated the psychometric properties of the instrument with managers showing that the dimensional structure would deploy in 5 factors unlike what is observed among employees, which is deployed in 4 factors. The purpose of this study is to verify whether the tool is reliable and has a distinct structure when employed with a population occupying a management position and more particularly school principals. A total of 304 school principals completed an electronic questionnaire. The results suggest a satisfactory dimensional structure in four factors and good fidelity, which invalidates the use of a separate structure for manager including school principal, as reported by Snell et al. (2013).     

How are physical literacy interventions conceptualized? – A systematic review on intervention design and content

The concept of physical literacy (PL) has gained increasing attention over the last decade and posits that individuals value and take responsibility for engagement in physical activities for life through (a) motivation/confidence, (b) physical competence, and (c) knowledge/understanding. There is a mounting number of articles that have recently transformed the conceptual ideas of PL into interventions. The goal of this pre-registered (PROSPERO CRD42020188926) systematic review was to analyze and summarize PL interventions in terms of design and content. A total of 18 databases were searched drawing on the 2020 preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Inclusion criteria were English language, publication by November 2020, and interventions based on or inspired by PL. Articles that met these criteria were analyzed in relation to basic delivery characteristics, theoretical foundations, study objectives, intervention content, and potential links between the PL domains (a-c) and content. The multiphase screening process with two independent raters yielded 44 eligible interventions across 46 articles. The analyses of the review demonstrated that the majority of interventions were conducted on children or adolescents and in countries with higher economic development. While 77.3% of the interventions adopted a holistic understanding of PL, only 38.6% formulated study goals or intervention content to cover all the core PL domains. Importantly, only 25.0% of the interventions showed substantial links between PL domains and intervention content and can thus be classified as theory-based. Taken together, most interventions targeted aspects of physical competence (84.1%), whereas knowledge/understanding (59.1%) and motivation/confidence (47.7%) were often neglected. Therefore, future interventions should commit to systematically address all domains of PL simultaneously. PL interventions exposed weaknesses in reporting delivery characteristics and content. Finally, a model is suggested which assumes that practical PL efforts may better harmonize with PL theory and conception if they cultivated a tight interlocking with the three core domains of PL at all stages of the intervention process.     

The effect of cues on young children's abilities to discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours

OBJECTIVE: To determine if cues help young children discriminate among thoughts, feelings and behaviours. PARTICIPANTS: Ninety-six children aged 4-7 years from three schools in Norwich, UK. DESIGN: Within each age band (4, 5, 6, 7), children were randomised to the cue or the no cue condition on a stratified basis ensuring that equal numbers of boys and girls from each school were in each of the eight cells (cue condition x age). Cues were glove puppets and post boxes. The effect of IQ was controlled. MEASURES: A discrimination task, in which children were asked to identify a thought, a feeling and a behaviour from each of six brief stories, and a brief IQ assessment were administered to children individually. RESULTS: There was a significant effect of age and cue condition on performance; older children and those who were presented with the cue performed better. There were no gender differences and no interaction between cue condition and age. CONCLUSION: Many young children discriminated among thoughts, feelings and behaviours suggesting that they may be able to engage in this aspect of cognitive behaviour therapy. Simple cues (puppets and posting boxes) improved children's performance and these may be useful therapeutic tools with young children.     

Evaluation of behavioral skills training to prevent gun play in children

This study evaluated behavioral skills training (BST), in a multiple baseline across subjects design, for teaching firearm safety skills to 6 6- and 7-year-old children. Similar to previous research with 4- and 5-year-olds, half of the children acquired the safety skills following BST and half acquired the skills following BST plus in situ training.     

Knowing letter names and learning letter sounds: a causal connection

Two experiments tested the common assumption that knowing the letter names helps children learn basic letter-sound (grapheme-phoneme) relation because most names contain the relevant sounds. In Experiment 1 (n=45), children in an experimental group learned English letter names for letter-like symbols. Some of these names contained the corresponding letter sounds, whereas others did not. Following training, children were taught the sounds of these same "letters." Control children learned the same six letters, but with meaningful real-word labels unrelated to the sounds learned in the criterion letter-sound phase. Differences between children in the experimental and control groups indicated that letter-name knowledge had a significant impact on letter-sound learning. Furthermore, letters with names containing the relevant sound facilitated letter-sound learning, but not letters with unrelated names. The benefit of letter-name knowledge was found to depend, in part, on skill at isolating phonemes in spoken syllables. A second experiment (n=20) replicated the name-to-sound facilitation effect with a new sample of kindergarteners who participated in a fully within-subject design in which all children learned meaningless pseudoword names for letters and with phoneme class equated across related and unrelated conditions.