Community applications of instructional technology: training low-income proctors

A community education system might be most effectively implemented in low-income communities if it were deliverable by neighborhood residents. A proctor training manual, designed to teach neighborhood residents how to administer standardized learning units to their peers, was analyzed in two experiments. The results of Experiment I showed that the percentage of occurrence of proctor behaviors increased after completion of the manual. Supplementary data suggest that specified proctor behaviors generalize to actual instructional situations. The results of Experiment II showed that the percentage of occurrence of trainee behaviors was higher when instructional packages were administered by trained proctors than when administered by untrained proctors. This study demonstrates an effective procedure for training low-income community residents to serve as proctors for a community education system.     

Habitual computer game playing at night is related to depressive symptoms

This study investigated whether the amount and circadian time of habitual computer game playing were related to depressive symptoms in adolescents and young adults. We expected that habitual late playing relates to more depressive symptoms beyond the effect of the total time of computer game playing as playing at night may involve short, irregular, and disturbed sleep as well as misalignment of the circadian rhythm. 646 adolescents and young adults (ages 13–30; 90.9% males) who play the internet role-playing game World of Warcraft completed an online questionnaire. Habitual computer game playing between 10 pm and 6 am was related to an increased risk of high depression scores independent of the total amount of playing. Adolescents (ages 13–17 years) were most vulnerable when habitually playing during early night (i.e., 10–12 pm), while emergent adults (ages 18–22 years) showed more vulnerability when habitually playing late at night (i.e., after 2 am). The effect was partly mediated by daytime sleepiness but not by sleep loss or insomnia problems.     

A PSYCHO-PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF FOULS AND INTENTIONS IN CONTACT SPORTS

This paper examines the notion of fouls in sports. In the first part of the paper, we examine some actual distinctions and classifications between different kinds of fouls. In the second part we examine the significance, validity, and justification of these classifications from a normative perspective.The term ‘foul’ evokes negative connotation; some would say—negative normative connotations. Conventional wisdom suggests that typically to commit fouls is, by definition, to go against the rules or principles of the contest. Since sport contests are constitutive activities—this means that to foul is to go against the essence of the contest. In other words, to commit fouls seems not to play the game; it seems unsporting. Consider the following typical example: in a premiership match in 2014 Hull’s forward Nikica Jelavic spun around Company and had a clear path to the goal. Manchester City’s defender Vincent Kompany then held him back. Although immediately ejected from the game, it is noteworthy that Kompany was later banned from one match, rather than the usual three match suspension, because the foul was not violent or dangerous in any way. Nevertheless, the example shows that some fouls are considered unsporting even though they do not involve violent or dangerous play. If a player gets past her opponent and finds herself in front of the goal, and then her opponent hugs her forcefully from behind, then such a foul falls outside the bounds of play. It amounts to a refusal to accept the rules of the games. We explore this issue from both a philosophical and a psychological perspective. The first half of the paper shows how actual distinctions between fouls depend on awarding a normative role to intentions. In the second part, a difficulty regarding the possibility that intentions play this role is presented, and a solution is proposed. It will emerge that some fouls are a legitimate part of the game. According to the proposed view, some actions that are forbidden by the official rules of football are illegitimate when performed with intention of a certain kind. Specifically, we will argue that it is legitimate for a player to play so as to take the risk of fouling, so long as fouling is not her intention. When fouls are committed with such a state of mind, they are a part of the game. Furthermore, whereas intention is necessary for illegitimate fouls, it is not sufficient. We will argue briefly that there are also legitimate intended fouls, since some deals or exchanges—fouls in return to penalties—are considered an integral part of the game, and that this view of (some) fouls is legitimate.     

Putting down roots: the significance of technical adaptations in the therapeutic process with fostered and adopted children‡

Severely neglected and traumatised children have also suffered from a lack of the parental nurturing which is needed for ordinary emotional development to take place. Often their past experiences make them unable to utilise the nurturing that foster and adoptive families try to give them and they are delayed or stuck in their development. In therapy, when the early small signs of new emotional development start to emerge, they may be heralded by technical challenges to the therapist. Two examples are given in this paper, which are discussed in the context of Stern et al.’s ideas about moments of meeting, Winnicott’s concepts about transitional phenomena and playing, and Hurry and her colleagues’ thoughts about the therapist as a developmental object. It is argued that it is important for the therapist to be alert to the possible significance of these technical adaptations in terms of the child’s capacity for new emotional development. These often indicate that a watershed in the treatment has been reached and if positively responded to, that the patient is in the process of ‘putting down roots’ in the ground of the therapeutic relationship and starting to grow across a spectrum of developmental pathways.     

SOCIAL-SKILLS TRAINING TO MODIFY ABUSIVE VERBAL OUTBURSTS IN ADULTS

Social-skills training was used to modify abusive verbal outbursts displayed by two adult psychiatric patients. Five target behaviors—looking, irrelevant comments, hostile comments, inappropriate requests, and appropriate requests were monitored during role-played situations. Social-skills training, consisting of behavior rehearsal with modelling, focused instructions, and feedback, was introduced in a multiple-baseline design across individuals. Training improved all target behaviors. The improved behavior generalized to: (1) novel scenes role-played with the original respondent, (2) training and novel scenes role-played with a different respondent, and (3) interpersonal situations on the hospital ward.     

Pyramid training of elementary school teachers to use a classroom management "skill package"

Three regular elementary teachers were trained in the use of a classroom management "skill package". Subsequently, each of these three teachers (tier 1 of training) trained three more teachers to use the same skill package (tier 2 of training). Direct behavioral measures of student disruptiveness were taken in the three tier-1 classrooms and four tier-2 classrooms, and permanent product measures of student productivity in arithmetic were taken in the three tier-1 classrooms. Results indicated that student disruptiveness decreased at least as much in the tier-2 classrooms as in the tier-1 classrooms. Data also indicated that serving as trainers benefited two of the tier-1 teachers who profited least from the original training by producing further reductions in disruptiveness in their respective classrooms. Productivity data suggested that use of the "skill package" increased classroom academic output, especially for those students below the median in productivity during baseline. The investigators' time investment in training a tier-2 teacher was one-fourth that of training a tier-1 teacher.     

USE OF SOCIAL-SKILLS TRAINING IN THE TREATMENT OF EXTREME ANXIETY AND DEFICIENT VERBAL SKILLS IN THE JOB-INTERVIEW SETTING

A 30-year-old recent college graduate, exhibiting extreme anxiety and deficient verbal skills in job interviews, was treated with a social-skills training procedure that included instructions, modelling, behavior rehearsal, and videotape feedback. Three target behaviors—focused responses, overt coping statements, and subject-generated questions—were presented using a multiple-baseline design. Galvanic skin-response activity was monitored during pre- and posttraining in vivo job interviews. In addition, independent judges unobstrusively rated the subject's social-communicative behaviors in his temporary work-setting before and after training. Training resulted in expected changes for all three target behaviors and a decrease in the rate of speech disturbances. Physiological data supported the subject's report that training enabled him to deal with his anxiety more effectively during job interviews. Training was found to generalize to novel interview questions and different interviewers. Furthermore, unobtrusive measures of eye contact, fluency of speech, appropriateness of verbal content, and composure supported the subject's report that training generalized to his daily social interactions on the job.     

The contribution of “cool” and “hot” components of decision-making in adolescence: Implications for developmental psychopathology

Impairments in either “cool” or “hot” processes may represent two pathways to deficient decision-making. Whereas cool processes are associated with cognitive and rational decisions, hot processes are associated with emotional, affective, and visceral processes. In this study, 168 boys were administered a card-playing task at ages 13 and 14 years to assess response perseveration. This task was designed to initially reward playing and gradually associate playing with punishment. Measures of subjective ordering (cool processes) and neuroticism (hot processes) at age 13 years were used to examine how these individual characteristics relate to perseveration over time. A decrease in perseveration from age 13 to 14 was associated with cool processes whereas hot processes were associated with response perseveration only over time. A complementary but simultaneous assessment of cool and hot processes, such as neuropsychological and personality tests, could facilitate treatment planning of children with behavioral problems.     

“Playing God? Yes!” Religion in the Light of Technology

If we appeal to God when our technology (including medicine) fails, we assume a \" God of the gaps.\" It is religiously preferable to appreciate technological competence. Our successes challenge, however, religious convictions. Modifying words and images is not enough, as technology affects theology more deeply. This is illustrated by the history of chemistry. Chemistry has been perceived as wanting to transform and purify reality rather than to understand the created order. Thus, unlike biology and physics, chemistry did not provide a fertile basis for natural theologies. It is argued that an active, transformative role of humans is appropriate in biblically inspired religions and called for in the light of imperfections and evil in the world. When the expression \"playing God\" is used dismissively, as if we trespass upon God–given territory, a theologically problematical association of God and the given order is assumed. A different view of the human calling can be articulated by drawing upon the Christian heritage and by developing an antinatural religious naturalism.