Development and empirical evaluation of a self-administered assertiveness training program.

A self-administered assertiveness training program, developed from empirical data involving assertiveness training and self-control, was designed to train refusal of unreasonable requests not only from strangers but also in the context of close relationships in which continuation of the relationship is important. A comparison with a procedurally parallel placebo program, which was empirically established to be equally credible, indicated that both programs increased assertive expression of rights. (Ss were 20 volunteers.) However, the assertiveness program produced superior effectiveness of assertion, content of assertion, verbalization of assertion-related obligations, persistent assertive responding, and rational cognitive behaviors. (1 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a clinical child psychology training program.

Growing interest in clinical child psychology has led to concern for appropriate training for the field. An example is presented of a graduate-level specialty training program that is heavily based on a scientist–practitioner model, that integrates clinical and developmental psychology perspectives, and that responds to expanded roles for clinical child psychologists. Issues to be considered in the development of such a program are noted. (3 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Practicum and internship training in program evaluation.

Survey results from 34 graduate programs indicate that there was a large amount of variability and ambiguity as to the role of field training in evaluation curricula. Diversity existed in the use of terminology, time commitment, and the amount and quality of supervision. There was some agreement concerning prerequisite course work and the type of settings viewed as suitable placements. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An initial evaluation of a clinical psychology practicum training program.

Assessed 2 groups of clinical psychology graduate student trainees (N?=?26) either 3 or 4 times over the 1st 2 yrs of training. Skills measured included the ability to both communicate and discriminate empathic responses. Faculty supervisory ratings of Ss and internship supervisory ratings were obtained. For comparison purposes, data were gathered from 9 graduate trainees who did not undergo systematic skills training. Results indicate that both experimental training groups (receiving skill training) improved in their ability to produce empathic responses as compared with the control group. The training group that received the more intense and experiential training showed greater improvement in ability to discriminate facilitative responses. Faculty ratings during practicum did not reveal improvement; however, internship supervisory ratings did reflect trainee improvement. (24 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Multilevel school consultation training: Preliminary program evaluation.

Recommends the acquisition of consultation skills for school psychologists but notes that this is a neglected area in the majority of training programs. To meet the need for training prototypes, a multilevel consultation training sequence with matched field experiences graduated by learning goals and previous skill development is proposed. Specifically, Level 1 of the consultation program and its matched field experience, consultation with student teachers, is evaluated as a viable means within a university setting by which novice consultants can practice diverse consultation skills. Evaluation data from 12 consultation students (doctoral candidates), student teachers, and student teaching supervisors support the effectiveness of the program for both consultants and consultees. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development and preliminary evaluation of a cessation program for adolescent smokers.

Used a within-S design with multiple baseline and changing criterion elements with 11 "hardcore" adolescent smokers. Monetary rewards were based on achieving target carbon monoxide (CO) levels in expired air breath samples. Five of the 6 male Ss successfully reduced their smoking and CO levels during a gradual-reduction phase and quit smoking. One of these Ss resumed low-level daily smoking, and the other 4 generally maintained abstinence during a 5-mo maintenance/fading and follow-up phase. In contrast, all 5 of the female Ss dropped out at some point during the program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Issues in the training of school psychologists in program evaluation.

Program evaluation is becoming increasingly important to all professional psychologists, including school psychologists. Despite a burgeoning of information about program evaluation principles, little attention has been given to program evaluation training, especially the utility of that training for program decision making. Five issues pertinent to the training of school psychologists in program evaluation are discussed: need for training, extent of training, goals of training, methods of training, and evaluation of training experiences. The material presented is based on the authors' experiences in program evaluation training at the Rutgers School Psychology Training Program. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Coping skills training: An evaluation of a psychoeducational program in a community mental health setting.

40 21–60 yr old clients of a community mental health center were randomly assigned to either a coping-skills training program based explicitly on a psychoeducational model or a group-counseling control condition. Ss in the psychoeducational program were provided with 30 hrs of instruction and training in progressive relaxation, anxiety management, social skills, and self-reinforcement procedures. Group-counseling control Ss received an equal amount of attention devoted to analyzing personal problems with anxiety and interpersonal relations but with no direct skills training. Significant differences between the 2 groups on measures of general anxiety, fear, and assertiveness emerged immediately after treatment and at a 3-mo follow-up. Further analyses revealed that Ss were similar in terms of major demographic characteristics to clients who did not volunteer for training, that a greater percentage of program Ss than control Ss scored in the range of a sample of "normal" Ss on 2 of the 4 dependent measures, and that fewer program Ss were hospitalized within 1 yr after participation than were control Ss. (16 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive training and strategy behavior: comparative evaluation of 2 cognitive training programs

Combining a non-comparative with a comparative evaluation, two modern programs for fostering inductive reasoning, namely the German version of the "Cognitive training for children" by Klauer and Phye (1994; Klauer 1989), and the "DenkMit" by Sydow and Meincke (1994), are compared to each other and to a control program which intends to enhance aspects of memory instead of inductive reasoning. The programs were performed with N = 49 children between six and eight years who had been postponed from regular school because of various reasons or who had been selected as especially in need for particular interventions from first classes. Besides the psychometric test often used for assessing inductive reasoning, i.e. three subtests of the German form of the Culture Fair Test by Cattell (Weiss a. Osterland 1980), tasks of concept formation were applied for assessing changes in strategic behavior of children--a type of task which has been used in connection with inductive reasoning since many years. Counter to expectations, the children whose memory was trained, showed changes in performance in the psychometric test in a similar size as the children whose inductive reasoning was trained. These effects are interpreted in terms of special attention directed to the children during the intervention situation. Moreover, it was found that despite the authors claim to the opposite the DenkMit did not cause any changes in visual perception. In contrast to the author's intentions, the "Cognitive Training for Children" did cause some substantive changes in the area of visual perception. The pattern of results with the concept formation tasks, however, overall indicates that the reasoning programs caused some changes in strategic behaviors of the children. Although these changes are not very impressive, they cannot be attributed to extraneous factors such as special attention.     

Effects of knowledge of social learning principles on enhancing treatment outcome and generalization in a parent training program.

Examined the efficacy of incorporating formal training in social learning principles into a behavioral parent training program as a means of enhancing treatment outcome and generalization. Two groups of parents (n?=?20) received behavioral skill training designed to modify child noncompliance. One group also received formal training in social learning principles throughout the program. Children had a mean age of 61.75 mo. Outcome measures collected prior to and after treatment and at a 2-mo follow-up included home observations by independent observers, parents' perceptions of child adjustment, and a parent consumer-satisfaction measure. Results indicate that after treatment, the group receiving social learning principles tended to perceive their children as better adjusted and tended to be more satisfied with treatment. At follow-up, parents in this group perceived their children as better adjusted and rewarded their children more. Furthermore, their children were significantly more compliant. Results suggest that temporal and setting generality are enhanced by the inclusion of social learning principles into parent training procedures. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Design and evaluation of an obedience training program for mothers of preschool children.

Conducted a training program in a clinic playroom to teach 24 mothers to use the principles of contingent social reinforcement to increase their preschool child's obedience. During the training, E relayed commands to the mother, cued her to reinforce her child, and reinforced the mother from behind a 1-way vision screen using a "bug-in-the-ear" device. As a group, the mothers' contingent use of maternal proximity and verbal reinforcement improved significantly as a result of the training program. Children's obedience to their mothers' verbal commands was improved as well. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of learning and memory of -maze training in neonatal mice.

Presented 25 trials in a shock-escape maze to 90 Swiss-Webster mice at 9, 11, or 13 days of age. One-half of the Ss at each age were trained to the goal opposite their 1st-trial choice, while the other 1/2 served as yoked controls. 24 hr. later, the trained groups received 25 additional trials to the previous goal. The yoked groups and groups without prior exposure were trained to the goal opposite their 1st-trial choice. 9-day-old Ss trained to a specific goal showed some improvement in performance during original training, while the 11- and 13-day-old groups demonstrated substantial improvement. On retention tests, 9-day-old Ss trained to the same goal on both days did not differ from either control group, but 11- and 13-day-old trained Ss were reliably better than either control group. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A practicum training program.

"It is the purpose of this paper to describe the development of a state hospital practicum program." "The Southeast Louisiana Hospital from its inception was planned as a facility which would offer unique opportunities in training and research for its professional personnel… . The present census of the hospital is about 360 patients." Fellows in clinical psychology have opportunities for training in diagnostic services, in psychotherapy, and in research. The nature of opportunities for experience in each of these areas is briefly outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a model for training and evaluation of laparoscopic skills

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of and reasons for prolonged length of stay in the postanesthesia care unit and unplanned hospital admissions of children scheduled for outpatient surgery. DESIGN: Prospective, observational cohort study. SETTING: C. S. Mott Children's Hospital, a tertiary care setting. PATIENTS: 168 ASA physical status I, II, and III children (birth to 18 years), 130 of whom experienced a prolonged length of stay and 61 who had an unplanned hospital admissions. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: 3.9% of annual outpatient population experienced a prolonged length of stay, and 1.9% had an unplanned outpatient admission. Prolonged length of stay was most commonly due to postoperative nausea and vomiting (19%) or respiratory complications (16%), whereas unplanned hospital admissions were primarily for respiratory or surgical reasons (32% and 30%, respectively). Higher ASA status had a significant direct relationship with the incidence of unplanned outpatient admission and respiratory complications. Although most families were satisfied with the length of their child's care, 28% of parents whose children were sent home after a prolonged length of stay would have preferred a short hospital admission, and 16% of parents of children with an unplanned hospital admission would have preferred a longer stay in recovery and discharge home. CONCLUSION: Prolonged length of stay and unplanned hospital admissions were uncommon outcomes following pediatric outpatient surgery. However, the impact of such outcomes on hospital staffing and family convenience may have implications related to cost containment and patient satisfaction.     

Development and evaluation of an interpersonal skill-training program for psychiatric inpatients.

Experimentally evaluated an empirically developed interpersonal-skill-training program for male psychiatric inpatients. The program development phase involved identifying patient-relevant problem situations, analyzing effective responses for these situations, deriving principles governing such effective behavior, and developing explicit scoring criteria for such behavior. In the evaluation phase, 36 male psychiatric inpatients received 3 individual sessions of either interpersonal skill training or pseudotherapy, or they were in an assessment-only control group. Skill training was superior to the other 2 conditions on a number of behavioral and self-report measures, both in the training context and in a more real-life context. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Military training and principles of learning.

"If I were faced with the problem of improving training, I should not look for much help from the well-known learning principles like reinforcement, distribution of practice, response familiarity, and so on. I should look instead at the technique of task analysis and at the principles of component task achievement, intratask transfer, and the sequencing of subtask learning to find those ideas of greatest usefulness in the design of effective training." Major sections are: Some Representative Military Tasks, Learning, Principles, Using These Assumptions and Principles in Training Design, What Is Applicable to the Design of Training? and Summary. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Development of a correctional-clinical psychology program.

Describes the development of a graduate training program in correctional-clinical psychology at the University of Alabama. Since 1971, the Department of Psychology has combined academic instruction, field consultation, research, and social activism in this program. An organizational component within the department, the Center for Correctional Psychology, has served the primary coordination role and has been the primary training vehicle. The center's involvement includes not only correctional settings and offenders, but also hospitals, patients, law enforcement systems, police, and courts. Major areas of activity are briefly described, including consultation with criminal justice agencies, the training of criminal justice personnel, provision for a clearinghouse for correctional information, and the preparation and presentation of expert testimony in court. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Verbal-discrimination learning following a free-recall familiarization training procedure.

Investigated the effects of transfer from a modified free-recall task to verbal-discrimination (VD) learning. The free-recall procedure was designed to impact increments in experimental frequency to specific words that appeared in VD. 4 experimental groups, with 30 undergraduates in each, were given prior free-recall exposure to either all right VD items (A-R), all wrong (A-W), both the right and wrong items from same VD pairs (B-S), or both the right and wrong items from different VD pairs (B-D). A 5th group of 30 Ss served as a control and learned a free-recall list which did not contain any VD items (C). In terms of number of correct responses during VD learning, the groups were ordered as follows: A-R, C, A-W, B-S, and B-D. Results are interpreted as being consistent with derivations from the frequency theory of VD learning. (French summary) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Insight and strategy in multiple-cue learning.

In multiple-cue learning (also known as probabilistic category learning) people acquire information about cue-outcome relations and combine these into predictions or judgments. Previous researchers claimed that people can achieve high levels of performance without explicit knowledge of the task structure or insight into their own judgment policies. It has also been argued that people use a variety of suboptimal strategies to solve such tasks. In three experiments the authors reexamined these conclusions by introducing novel measures of task knowledge and self-insight and using "rolling regression" methods to analyze individual learning. Participants successfully learned a four-cue probabilistic environment and showed accurate knowledge of both the task structure and their own judgment processes. Learning analyses suggested that the apparent use of suboptimal strategies emerges from the incremental tracking of statistical contingencies in the environment. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)