Differentiation of Self and Social Justice Commitment Mediated by Hope

This study tested a theoretical model of hope mediating the relationship between differentiation of self and social justice commitment among graduate students (N = 202) in the helping professions. The theory was based primarily on the social justice philosophies of Martin Luther King Jr., Cornel West, and Paulo Freire using a cultural psychology approach. Results generally supported the theoretical model. Implications are considered for both training and future research on social justice.     

Long-term response-stimulus associations can influence distractor-response bindings

Strong associations between target stimuli and responses usually facilitate fast and effortless reactions. The present study investigated whether long-term associations between distractor stimuli and responses modulate behavior. In particular, distractor stimuli can affect behavior due to distractor-based stimulus-response retrieval, a phenomenon called distractor-response binding: An ignored stimulus becomes temporarily associated with a response and retrieves it at stimulus repetition. In a flanker task, participants ignored left and right pointing arrows and responded to a target letter either with left and right (strongly associated) responses or with upper and lower (weakly associated) responses. Binding effects were modulated in dependence of the long-term association strength between distractors and responses. If the association was strong (arrows pointing left and right with left and right responses), binding effects emerged but only in case of compatible responses. If the long-term association between distractors and responses was weak (arrows pointing left and right with upper and lower responses), binding was weaker and not modulated by compatibility. In contrast, sequential compatibility effects were not modulated by association strength between distractor and response. The results indicate that existing long-term associations between stimuli responses may modulate the impact of an ignored stimulus on action control.     

A National Survey of Trauma Training in Psychology Internships

Directors from psychology internship programs across the United States were asked to participate in a survey regarding their sites’ provision of services to traumatized populations and didactic and supervisory training offered to interns. All totaled, 259 training directors completed the survey. Using a point system, an impact score of training saturation was determined based on the content and frequency of training offered in didactic, supervision, or combined formats. Of these, all reported at least one trauma training opportunity in either didactic or supervision format. More than half indicated that they offered at least 1 to 3 hours of didactics on trauma per week (62.2%) and slightly less offered supervision-specific training opportunities (54.5%). However, only 30.8% identified training opportunities in trauma/posttraumatic stress disorder that reached a high level of saturation in training, meaning they offered training activities above the median impact score. The most commonly reported barrier to offering trauma training was related to being busy meeting other specialty or program requirements. Findings provide a preliminary overview of current training practices that can be useful to students seeking trauma internship placements and administrators and faculty who are looking to revise their curriculum.     

Well-being through learning: a systematic review of learning interventions in the workplace and their impact on well-being

The view that learning is central to well-being is widely held and the workplace is an important setting in which learning takes place. Evaluations of the effectiveness of well-being interventions in work settings are commonplace, but to date, there has been no systematic review of the effectiveness of learning interventions with regard to their impact on well-being. The review synthesizes evidence from 41 intervention studies, and although no studies report a negative impact on well-being, 14 show no effect on well-being, with 27 studies having a positive impact. We classify the studies according to the primary purpose of the learning intervention: to develop personal resources for well-being through learning; to develop professional capabilities through learning; to develop leadership skills through learning; and to improve organizational effectiveness through organizational-level learning. Although there is an abundance of workplace learning interventions, few are evaluated from a well-being perspective despite the commonly held assumption that learning yields positive emotional and psychological outcomes. The evidence indicates an important gap in our evaluation of and design of workplace learning interventions and their impact on well-being, beyond those focusing on personal resources. This raises important theoretical and practical challenges concerning the relationship between learning and well-being in the context of professional capability enhancement, leadership capability and organizational learning.     

Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depressed Adolescents Delivered by Nonspecialist Clinicians: A Case Illustration

Behavioral activation (BA) can be as effective as cognitive-behavioral therapy for the treatment of depression in adults, but to date there is little research with adolescents. This is problematic given the recognized need to increase access to evidence-based interventions for depression in young people. We have developed a new adaptation of brief Behavioral Activation (Lejuez, Hopko, Acierno, Daughters, & Pagoto, 2011) specifically for young people: Brief BA for depressed adolescents. In this paper, we use a case example with session-by-session measurement to show how a nonspecialist clinician can deliver this intervention successfully. We discuss the key themes arising from this training case, challenges the clinician faced, and how these were managed through training and supervision.     

The effect of driver improvement interventions on crash involvement; has it been under-estimated?

The available evidence suggests that driver improvement interventions (with the aim to increase driver safety, most often by education or training) do not work. The average effect calculated in several meta-analyses is close to, and not always possible to distinguish from, zero, despite total samples sizes of several hundred thousand drivers. However, it is possible that all studies included in these meta-analyses have under-estimated the effect, due to a methodological error; all crashes have been used as dependent variable, instead of only those that the targeted drivers have caused. This error is expected to have considerably deflated the effect sizes, but it is not known how large this effect could be.Using crash data for bus drivers in which culpability had been reliably established, a simple simulation was performed to determine the difference between using culpable and all crashes as an estimator of a safety effect. Using data for six years, calculations were made on single years. About ten percent of culpable crashes in each year were deleted to simulate a safety effect, where after the difference between the original and the simulated variable were calculated, using culpable only and all crashes in parallel. The effects using these two different kinds of datasets could then be compared and the under-estimation effect estimated.Culpable crashes, as compared to all crashes, yielded larger differences in means between time periods, and smaller standard deviations. In between-subjects comparisons resulted in 15–30 percent larger effects for culpable crashes. Within-subjects calculations yielded larger but not as systematic effects.The effect of driver improvement on crash involvement has been systematically under-estimated, as extremely few evaluation studies seem to have taken culpability for crashes into account. Therefore, new evaluations need to be undertaken, and/or old data re-analysed, to calculate a better estimate of the true effect of training and education in driving safety.     

The supervisory alliance: Comparison of measures and implications for a supervision toolkit

Background Clinical supervision lies at the core of the professional development of clinicians providing services within a range of service settings. The supervisory alliance is regarded as the most important construct in effective supervision which underlies the importance of metrics to assess this construct. Aims materials and Method A cross‐sectional self‐report questionnaire design was used to examine clinical supervision constructs. The study used two scales measuring the supervisory alliance (SRQ and SWAI‐T), a scale measuring supervision satisfaction (SSQ) and a scale measuring disclosure (TDS). The questionnaires were administered to 127 clinical psychology trainees who were undertaking a practicum placement. Results Both scales measuring the alliance were positively correlated with satisfaction with supervision and disclosure, with similar sizes of correlation for each alliance scale. There was also a large, positive correlation between the two scales of measuring the alliance. Discussion Both scales were designed for use in supervision and are related to supervision outcome measures in the expected directions. Conclusion The SRQ has some distinct advantages over the SWAI‐T that lend the SRQ to be potentially more useful in clinical and research settings.     

Memory rehabilitation for older adults: preserving independent living / Rehabilitación de la memoria para adultos mayores: preservación de la autonomía de vida

Abstract

Episodic memory problems are the hallmark of cognitive ageing in normal elderly people. Learning of new material is worse in pathological cognitive ageing, such as dementia and its preliminary states (mild cognitive impairment). Because episodic learning is crucial to preserve independent living in the elderly, rehabilitation programmes for everyday memory problems are welcomed. The scope of scientific interest has switched from treatment to prevention. We claim that lifestyle interventions are the most direct way to preserve cognition. We summarize evidence for changes in nutrition and exercise. In addition, psychological interventions for elderly people with normal or pathological cognitive ageing are available. Recent meta-analyses found lacking evidence of transfer to everyday life and long-term effects. We critically assess these meta-analyses. We propose theoretically derived experimental interventions relying on spared learning mechanisms. As an example we report visual-imagery training showing positive effects in a randomized control trial, using individual memory diaries on memory improvement.