Interpersonal problem solving: An intervention program for preschool children

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program designed to train preschool children in interpersonal problem solving skills. Forty preschool age children were randomly assigned to an experimental or control group. Experimental subjects were trained in interpersonal problem solving skills for ten weeks, four days per week, for a total of 10–13 hours. Problem-solving skills were assessed at pretest, posttest, and three months after training was completed. Seventy-eight percent of the children who participated in pretest and posttest were tested at follow-up. Results indicated that the experimental group, compared to the control group, showed a significant increase in both cognitive—verbal and behavioral interpersonal problem-solving skills from pretest to posttest and that these changes were maintained at follow-up testing. Discussion focuses on suggestions for future research and implications for applied settings.     

What moderates the attainment gap? The effects of social identity incompatibility and practical incompatibility on the performance of students who are or are not Black,Asian or Minority Ethnic

Social Psychology of Education - A successful journey through higher education is, for many, a once in a lifetime opportunity for social mobility. Unfortunately, one notable feature of higher...     

Relationship enhancement with premarital dyads: A six-month follow-up

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to assess the short-term and longterm effectiveness of relationship enhancement on the self-disclosure and empathy skills of premarital dating couples. Nineteen couples were given the Guerney Relationship Enhancement Program over an eight week period, while 18 other couples were given a lecture/discussion program on relationship development. Behavioral assessments of self-disclosure and empathy skill levels were taken prior to training, immediately following training, and six months after training. Results indicated that from both pretest to posttest and pretest to follow-up, the relationship enhancement couples, relative to the lecture/discussion couples, demonstrated a significant increase in both self-disclosure and empathy skill levels. Discussion centers on the implications of the durability of the skills learned as well as on suggestions for future research on skill generalization to social interactions with others.     

Diagnostic Decision Making: Do Counselors Delay Final Judgments?

Although there is a theoretical, empirical rationale warranting the delay of diagnostic decision making, it is unknown whether this debiasing strategy is actually implemented in counseling practice. This study investigated whether counselors delayed their diagnostic decisions in a setting that allowed them the option of doing so. Clinical records were selected from a counselor training center at a large midwestern university and coded for delayed diagnostic decision making. Three pairs of chi‐square analyses were performed. Results indicated that delayed diagnostic decision making occurred to a greater extent than immediate diagnostic decision making across counselor‐client dyads, counselors, and clients.     

Interpersonal problem-solving skills training with aggressive young children

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of an interpersonal problem-solving training program with aggressive young children. There were 13 children in the experimental group and 11 children in the contact control group. Both experimental and contact control group children were evaluated at pretest, posttest, and follow-up on the Behavioral Interpersonal Problem Solving Test (BIPS). Experimental group subjects were exposed to the interpersonal problem-solving skills training program for 50 training sessions. The contact control group participated in reading-story sessions during the same time period. Results and discussion reflect the efficacy of the training procedure and the nature of the change in interpersonal problem-solving behavior in aggressive young children.     

Quantitative depictions of threatening phenomena in news reports. The scary world of frequency data

Two experiments addressed the question of whether news reports depicting base‐rate data indicative of increasing population size over time would assuage the apprehension and victimization risk associated with another news story depicting frequency increases in a threatening phenomenon during the same time period. Men exposed to the population data manifested lower levels of apprehension and victimization risk than men not exposed to such data, but women showed no reduction in either apprehension and victimization risk than men not exposed to such data, but women showed no reduction in either apprehension or victimization risk after exposure to population data. This interaction was replicated in both experiments. Experiment 2 demonstrated that the same interaction can be produced using base‐rate data other than that depicting population increases over time and that the effects of the base‐rate stories are not merely a product of distraction from the threatening story. Differences in apprehension levels, information processing styles, mathematical problems solving skill, and sex role response sets were considered as alternative explanations for the interaction.     

Multicultural counseling competencies: an analysis of research on clients' perceptions: comment on Owen, Leach, Wampold, and Rodolfa (2011)

J. Owen, M. M. Leach, B. Wampold, and E. Rodolfa (see record 2010-24976-001) tested the hypotheses that (a) some therapists express more multicultural competencies (MCCs) more than other therapists and (b) clients' perceptions of their therapists' MCCs are a function of specific client or therapeutic factors. In the present analysis, the authors critiqued 3 major components of the study: conceptual and methodological underpinnings, interpretation of research findings, and implications for future research. Although the authors agree with the importance of this line of research, the authors also believe that some of the researchers' underlying assumptions are worthy of examination; alternate interpretations of the findings are possible, and several recommendations for future research are imperative.     

Zipf's Law in transcribed speech

Summary Based on large samples of written text. Zipf:s Law holds that the logarithms of frequencies of words, and the number of different words at those frequencies, have an inverse linear relationship. This study tested this law on an oral sample by analysis of a transcribed interview which had been conducted for an unrelated study. A second purpose was to test whether the law holds differently for open- vs closed-class words. The words in the interview were tabulated by frequencies and numbers of words at each frequency, and separated by syntactic class. As Zipf found for written samples, the law provides a reasonable summary of the data for the less frequently used words but predicts fewer different words among the most frequently used words than were actually found. Linear regressions performed for each syntactic class revealed that the regression equation for open-class words provided the best fit to Zipf's law. The sample of closed-class words, containing a much smaller proportion of low frequency words, revealed a poor fit to Zipf's law.The author wishes to thank Diane Beyerchen, Wendy Calla, Edward Kulick, and Clinton B' Walker for their cooperation and suggestions.     

Repeated testing does not confound cognitive performance in the Western Australian magpie (Cracticus tibicen dorsalis)

Animal Cognition - A robust understanding of cognitive variation at the individual level is essential to understand selection for and against cognitive traits. Studies of animal cognition often...