Hope for the Worst: Occasional Reinforced Extinction and Expectancy Violation in the Treatment of OCD

An inhibitory learning conceptualization of treatment mechanisms in exposure-based therapy appears to better account for durability of symptom reduction and index overall learning. Presented here is an overview of two core elements of inhibitory learning, expectancy violation and occasional reinforced extinction, as they are thought to function in exposure and response prevention (ERP) for OCD. The overview is then followed by case examples illustrating these processes at work in a naturalistic clinical setting. Implications for treatment are broadly discussed.     

A Comprehensive Training Initiative for Educators to Develop and Implement Effective Anti-Bullying Policies in K–12 Schools

Although most states across the United States have enacted anti-bullying legislation, state laws vary greatly in detail and direction, leaving many school districts wondering how to best address the problem of bullying and comply with their state’s legislative requirements. In response, a comprehensive, statewide training initiative was conducted for school personnel to offer guidance on developing and implementing such policies at the local level. In the present piece, the authors explicate the process by which they (a) derived theoretically grounded, empirically driven recommendations; (b) developed training materials and a project website; and (c) disseminated the material and recommendations across the state. They also present key outcomes as a result of this training initiative.     

Neighborhood Identity Helps Residents Cope with Residential Diversification: Contact in Increasingly Mixed Neighborhoods of Northern Ireland

Research on residential diversification has mainly focused on its negative impacts upon community cohesion and positive effects on intergroup relations. However, these analyses ignore how neighborhood identity can shape the consequences of diversification among residents. Elsewhere, research using the Applied Social Identity Approach (ASIA) has demonstrated the potential for neighborhood identity to provide social and psychological resources to cope with challenges. The current article proposes a novel model whereby these “Social Cure” processes can enable residents to cope with the specific challenges of diversification. We present two studies in support of this model, each from the increasingly religiously desegregated society of postconflict Northern Ireland. Analysis of the 2012 “Northern Ireland Life and Times” survey shows that across Northern Ireland, neighborhood identity impacts positively upon both well‐being and intergroup attitudes via a reduction in intergroup anxiety. A second custom‐designed survey of residents in a newly mixed area of Belfast shows that neighborhood identification predicts increased well‐being, reduced intergroup anxiety, and reduced prejudice independently of group norms and experiences of contact. For political psychologists, our evidence suggests a reformulation of the fundamental question of “what effects do residential mixing have on neighborhoods?” to “how can neighborhood communities support residents to collectively cope with contact?”     

Re-identifying residential mixing: Emergent identity dynamics between incomers and existing residents in a mixed neighbourhood in Northern Ireland

Research on residential diversification has neglected its impact on neighbourhood identity and overlooked the very different identity-related experiences of new and existing residents. The present research examines how incoming and established group members relate to their changing neighbourhood in the increasingly desegregated city of Belfast, Northern Ireland. Thematic analysis of interviews with 24 residents (12 Protestant long-term residents, 12 Catholic incomers) from an increasingly mixed neighbourhood identified asymmetrical concerns and experiences: Incomers reported undergoing an ‘identity transition’ between local communities, while long-term residents faced an ‘identity merger’ within their neighbourhood. Where their identity concerns diverged, emergent intergroup perceptions of the residents were negative and divisive; where they accorded, positive intergroup perceptions and a shared neighbourhood identity evolved. From this, we propose a Social Identity Model of Residential Diversification (SIMRD) to encourage future research into how different identity concerns shape emergent intergroup dynamics between long-term residents and incomers within diversifying neighbourhoods.     

Philosophy of Education as an Academic Discipline in Turkey: The Past and the Present

This article aims to present the past and present state and future possibilities of philosophy of education as an academic discipline in Turkey as related to teacher training programs and academic studies in higher education institutions. It takes philosophy of education as consisting of the approaches that have emerged in its history. It has come to Turkey as a part of the modernization of education. It seems that during the Republican era in Turkey before World War II, mainly due to the dominance of the German conception of educational studies, the pedagogy and the history of pedagogy courses and the textbooks for them, which were central to the curricula of teacher training schools, contained the subjects of philosophy of education in its continental form; and after World War II philosophy of education is mostly understood, primarily due to Turkey’s changing international relations and the spread of American influence, as the isms and the doctrines approaches as found in the USA between the 1940s and 1960s, while other approaches in the field have been less influential. The article identifies how the restructuring of the teacher training system and the curricula of Faculties of Education in 1998 was a serious blow to the discipline, since it excluded philosophy of education from the curricula of teacher preparation schools, and the flourishing discipline thus lost its hold and importance in the undergraduate programs, and then in graduate programs. But the 2006 revision of the curricula has given a kiss of life to the discipline. There are reasons to think that it can recover in the coming period.

The impact of residential context on adolescents' Subjective Well being

The study investigates the impact of residential context on stressful events and Subjective Well being (Emotional and Psychological) in young people living in a deprived geographical area, and the mediating role of personal (Self‐Efficacy) and social (Social Support, Sense of Community) variables. A questionnaire was submitted to 297 subjects (48.5% males): 203 adolescents (14–19 years old) and 94 young adults (20–27 years old), from different socio‐economic (SES) levels. Results confirm the significant impact of the residential context on youngsters' perceived residential quality, Stress and Subjective Well being outcomes; such effect partly differs according to participants' gender and age. Adolescents are less satisfied of their living context and enjoy lower well being than young adults. Social resources (Friend and Family Support) significantly buffer the effect of a deprived residential context of youngsters' Well being, whereas personal resources (Self‐Efficacy) directly increase Well being levels. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prolegomena to any Future History of Analytic Philosophy

Abstract: The careful historical and metaphilosophical attention recently bestowed upon analytic philosophy has revealed that traditional ways of defining it are inadequate. In the face of this inadequacy, contemporary authors have proposed new definitions that detach analytic philosophy from its turn of the twentieth century origins. I argue that this contemporary trend in defining analytic philosophy is misguided, and that it diminishes the likelihood of our coming to an accurate historical and metaphilosophical understanding of it. This is especially unsatisfactory since such understanding is essential to finding an adequate remedy for the widely perceived ills of contemporary analytic philosophy. I suggest that a more fruitful approach to developing such understanding might begin with treating the unity of analytic philosophy as illusory.     

Characteristics of Children and Adolescents Admitted to a Residential Treatment Center

Studies of youths in residential treatment that utilize systematic assessments and validated measures are rare. We examined psychopathology, family characteristics, occurrence of physical or sexual abuse, types of aggressive behavior, hyperactive/impulsive behavior, medical and neurological problems, and self-reported drug and alcohol use in 397 youth who were assessed using reliable measures and consecutively treated in a residential treatment center. Results indicate high rates of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology, aggressive behavior, and consistent gender differences, with girls having higher levels of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology and aggressive behavior. The sample was characterized by high rates of medical problems including asthma, seizures, and obesity, as well as evidence of extensive family dysfunction, including high rates of parental alcohol use, violence, and physical or sexual abuse. Residential treatment needs to progress beyond the one size fits all approach and develop more specific and empirically proven treatments for the specific needs of this population.     

初中学生攻击行为的心理特征测量

本研究通过对浙江省和福建省16所中学的464名被试的调查和测量,构建了初中学生攻击行为的心理特征量表并进行了验证型和诊断型的效度检验,研究结果表明,（1）该量表具有较好的信度和效度;（2）行为、认知、情绪和言语是测量攻击行为的心理特征的良好指标;（3）同学提名法与教师评价法具有较高的鉴别力;（4）问卷自评的鉴别力尚有待改进。