TEACHING SOCIAL LANGUAGE TO MODERATELY HANDICAPPED STUDENTS

Three students with moderate handicaps were taught to initiate and expand on conversational topics. The teaching procedure used stimuli generated from actual conversations with nonhandicapped peers. Generalization was assessed by audiotaping conversations between the handicapped students and their peers in natural school contexts without adult supervision. Results indicated that training generalized to natural contexts. These results were socially validated by undergraduate special education students, who rated tapes of two of the students' conversations during training phases as more socially competent than during baseline. Results are discussed in terms of the evaluation of complex social behavior as multioperant behaviors.     

Recent research on the relative efficiency of speaker and listener instruction for children with autism spectrum disorder

The traditional recommendation for sequencing speaker and listener instruction has been to teach listener skills prior to teaching speaker skills. In a review of the research literature prior to 2011, Petursdottir and Carr (2011) concluded that research did not support this recommendation. We reviewed the most recent research on the efficiency of skill acquisition during speaker and listener instruction and found similar results to Petursdottir and Carr. Recommendations for future research and practice are provided.     

A comparison of teaching tacts with and without background stimuli on acquisition and generality

We evaluated whether teaching tacts of images with or without backgrounds would affect acquisition during teaching and generality across untaught targets with four children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Including backgrounds could slow acquisition but bolster generality across other media containing backgrounds, whereas removing backgrounds may improve acquisition but result in poorer generality. Overall, acquisition rates were similar across conditions for three children, although one child displayed consistently slower acquisition during the background condition. We rarely observed generality to untaught targets when programming extinction, but embedding differential reinforcement or teaching additional images with backgrounds led to equally successful outcomes irrespective of initial teaching conditions. Teaching with or without backgrounds may result in marginal differences in acquisition of teaching and untaught targets, especially when arranging supplemental procedures during tests for generality. We discuss the importance of intrasubject replication, considerations when testing for generality, and implications for practice.     

Implementation of Expressive Physical Touch in Depressed Older Adults

Depression is a serious problem among older adults and there is limited research on the most effective way to implement and evaluate the effects of expressive touch, either alone or in combination with verbalization, on levels of depression. A convenience sample of 24 institutionalized depressed older adult subjects (15 females and 9 males), ages 67 to 91 years was used for this study. An interrupted time series with multiple replications design was employed with four measurements: Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS), Life-Satisfaction-A-Scale, Rosenburg Self-Esteem Scale, and Locus of Control Scale. Four interventions were implemented: expressive touch only, verbalization only, a combination of expressive touch and verbalization, and a control (presence). Significant differences were found between pretest and posttest scores on the GDS for the expressive touch/verbal intervention. The most comfortable locations to implement the expressive touch and combination interventions were in the dining room or at the subject's bedside. The most comfortable areas of the subjects' bodies touched were the arms, hands, shoulders, and back. Results of this study support an important link between depression, self-esteem, locus of control, and life satisfaction and expressive touch either alone or when combined with talk. Touch as a mode of effective social support may have a therapeutic effect for depressed older adults.     

An Investigation of the Efficacy of Online Expressive Writing for Trauma-Related Psychological Distress in Hispanic Individuals

This study compared the efficacy of 2 online expressive writing protocols for a traumatic/stressful life event in a Hispanic student sample. Participants who had reported a traumatic event were randomly assigned to either the emotion-focused group or the fact-focused group. The emotion-focused group focused their written accounts on emotions and feelings as well as facts about a stressful/traumatic experience, whereas the fact-focused group focused on facts of a stressful/traumatic event. Both groups completed 3 online writing sessions scheduled for 3 consecutive days, a 1-week online follow-up assessment, and a 5-week online follow-up assessment. Both groups statistically significantly reduced trauma symptoms over time with the emotion-focused group demonstrating statistically significantly greater trauma symptom reductions than the fact-focused group at the 5-week follow-up assessment.     

Improvement of Thematic Classification in Offender Profiling: Classifying Serbian Homicides Using Multiple Correspondence,Cluster, and Discriminant Function Analyses

This paper investigates thematic classification of homicides for the purpose of behavioural investigative analysis (e.g. offender profiling). Previous research has predominantly used smallest space analysis (SSA) to conceptualise and classify offences into thematic groups based on crime scene behaviour data. This paper introduces a combined approach utilising multiple correspondence analysis (MCA), cluster analysis (CA), and discriminant function analysis (DFA) to define and differentiate crime scenes into expressive or instrumental and impersonal or personal crimes. MCA is used to derive the latent structural dimensions in the crime data and produce quantitative scores for each offence along these dimensions. Two‐step CA was then utilised to classify offences. Offence dimensional scores were then used to predict cluster membership under DFA, producing cluster centroids corresponding to MCA dimensions. Centroids were plotted on the MCA correspondence map to simultaneously conceptualise crime classification and the latent structure of the Serbian crime data. Classification of offences based on MCA dimensional scores were 91.5% accurate. This MCA–CA–DFA approach may reduce some of the more subjective aspects of SSA methodology used in classification, whilst producing a product more amenable to objective and cumulative review. Implications for offender profiling research utilising SSA and this approach are discussed. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

青少年依恋对创伤后应激障碍和创伤后成长的影响:认知重评和表达抑制的中介作用

本研究采用创伤暴露程度问卷、父母与同伴依恋问卷、情绪调节策略问卷、DSM-5的PTSD症状核查表、创伤后成长问卷,以汶川地震8.5年后极重灾区的1153名青少年为被试,考察青少年的依恋、认知重评、表达抑制、PTSD和PTG之间的关系。结果发现：青少年的依恋可以直接负向预测PTSD、直接正向预测PTG;青少年的依恋可以通过认知重评负向预测PTSD、正向预测PTG,也可以通过表达抑制负向预测PTSD,却不能通过表达抑制预测PTG。     

Using Artist Trading Cards as an Expressive Arts Intervention in Counseling

Artist trading cards (ATCs) are miniature works of art that are created within the dimensions of standardized trading cards or playing cards (2.5 inches × 3.5 inches). ATCs can be made with a variety of media—everything from pen and ink to oil paints, collages, mosaics, stamping, and altered photos. Using this compact art format as an expressive arts intervention in the therapeutic environment provides the counselor with most, if not all, of the same therapeutic benefits of larger art media (e.g., expressive release, creativity, artistic communication, symbolic self-expression, self-exploration, etc.). The unique benefit of the ATC format is that ATCs allow for traditional expressive arts interventions to be “better, faster, and cheaper” in many ways.     

How benefits of expressive writing vary as a function of writing instructions,ethnicity and ambivalence over emotional expression

Written emotional disclosure has been reported to confer a variety of benefits on physical and psychological well-being. However, variable findings suggest that outcomes may vary systematically as a function of specific parameters of the experimental design. This study aims to investigate the unique and combined effects of disclosure instructions focusing on emotional expression and instructions facilitating cognitive reappraisal and to examine how ambivalence over emotional expression and ethnicity moderate the effects of these writing instructions. Seventy-one Asian and 59 Caucasian undergraduates (N = 130) with at least minimal physical or depressive symptoms were randomly assigned to one of the four writing conditions: emotional disclosure (ED), cognitive reappraisal (COG), the combination of ED and COG, or a control condition. Self-reported physical symptoms, positive affect (PA) and negative affect were assessed at baseline and three follow-ups spanning 4 months. Mixed linear models revealed that COG writing reduced physical symptoms, ED buffered a decrease in PA over time, and the combination of ED and COG (i.e. self-regulation; SR) was most effective. Asians and highly ambivalent participants benefited most from expressive writing. Findings contribute to the development of a SR moderator model and carry implications for designing expressive disclosure studies, particularly for ethnic minorities.