Instructing on death: Psychologists, juries, and judges.

The American legal system depends on judicial instructions to structure jury death penalty decisions and thus avoid unconstitutional arbitrariness. Some death penalty instructions, however, provide woefully inadequate guidance and ignore schemas that lead jurors to misconstrue instructions. Empirical research has just begun to document sources of misunderstanding and ways to improve communication. Psychological research can assist in reducing arbitrariness in death penalty decisions, but even optimal instructions may not produce constitutionally sufficient consistency. To be constitutional, capital punishment must be imposed according to a consistent set of standards. Simultaneously, juries must be free to consider in mitigation any relevant case or offender characteristic. It is far from clear that this constitutional conflict between standards and discretion can be resolved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

What the research shows about play therapy.

The results of a comprehensive literature review of 82 play therapy research studies from 1942–2000 are summarized with an emphasis on the effectiveness of play therapy with specific presenting issues and populations. Studies are organized by research topic in chart form to allow play therapists to readily utilize the information to educate parents, schools, judicial systems, managed care systems, other mental health professionals, and other populations with whom they work. Although positive outcomes were noted with each of the research areas, self-concept, behavioral adjustment, social skills, emotional adjustment, intelligence, and anxiety/fear are topics demonstrating the most significance regarding the efficacy of play therapy. Although not all outcomes have supported the use of play therapy as viable intervention, the authors focus primarily on significant findings regarding play therapy effectiveness. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventing child abuse.

Discusses 2 general approaches to analyzing child abuse: a comprehensive approach which defines abuse as collective, institutional, and individual in nature; and a narrow approach which considers only individual abuse. The preventive implications of each are considered, and the relationships between theoretical formulations of the causes of individual physical abuse and preventive programs are discussed. The successful reinforcement of these programs is seen as a necessary step to raise public consciousness about all forms of individual as well as collective abuse. (43 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Authoritarianism and decisions of mock juries: Evidence of jury bias and group polarization.

A mock-jury experiment investigated the effects of authoritarianism on juror and jury decisions and examined the generalizability of the group polarization hypothesis for a simulated jury task. 132 high- and 125 low authoritarians (as assessed by the California F Scale) listened to a murder trial and then made judgments about guilt and punishment as individuals, in 6 person juries, and again after deliberations as individuals. As predicted, both high-authoritarian jurors and juries reached guilty verdicts more frequently and imposed more severe punishment than low authoritarians. Further, high authoritarians showed more prediscussion–postdiscussion verdict changes than low authoritarians. Results also support the polarization hypothesis in a jury paradigm. Deliberations produced a shift toward greater severity of punishment for high authoritarians but toward increased leniency for low authoritarians. Guilt verdicts shifted toward acquittal for all jurors. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Teaching clinical psychology graduate students about traumatic stress studies.

Although clinical psychology graduate seminars in traumatic stress are needed, teaching these courses carries unique challenges and opportunities. This paper describes the rationale, purpose, and process of developing a specialized course in traumatic stress. This course is used as a model for discussing implementation considerations that could be applied in other graduate programs. Course construction, teaching challenges, and potential solutions are presented. In particular, a process for addressing the affective and intellectual integration of material is emphasized. Attempts to assess the quality and outcomes of teaching activities are provided to illustrate future directions for improving trauma-related pedagogy and research that evaluates such pedagogy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conceptions and misconceptions about the context of paradoxical therapy.

Increasingly, therapists and researchers have begun to explore a relatively new set of psychotherapy techniques that are known collectively as paradoxical therapy. Although the outcome research has been generally supportive of the clinical efficacy of paradoxical therapy, critics have voiced concerns about this therapeutic approach and have described it as being dishonest and unethical. Many of these concerns appear to be based on mistaken notions about the context of paradoxical therapy. This article is designed to clarify some issues surrounding the paradigm, ethics, and practice of paradoxical therapy and to rectify some misconceptions that might otherwise interfere with the development of this promising therapeutic orientation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Order effects in multiple decisions by groups: A demonstration with mock juries and trial procedures.

Assessed the effects of the order in which groups undertake different tasks in a multitask situation, using mock juries. 461 undergraduates watched a videotaped enactment of a criminal trial involving 3 joined charges and then, either individually or as members of 6-person groups, decided on the guilt or innocence of the defendant on all 3 charges in 1 of 3 orders: descending seriousness, ascending seriousness, or no specified order. On the charge of medium seriousness, the proportion of convictions for both individuals and groups was greater in the descending seriousness order. Conviction on earlier charges significantly increased the relative frequency of conviction on later charges. Findings are discussed in relation both to earlier results that support a contrast explanation of such order effects and to the influence of task order on group decision processes in general. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

In the matter of juries, democracy, science, truth, senators, and bugs.

An investigation by the Internal Security Subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee of a research inquiry at the University of Chicago involving the recording of jury deliberations is reported in detail. "In this instance freedom of enquiry… clashed… with the value society holds at least as dear as freedom of inquiry—the right to privacy." The incident illustrated "… some of the current hostility to social scientists." "It is vastly important, both for democracy and for behavioral science, that ways be found whereby our behavior and our institutions can be studied with greatest profit and least harm to the sanctities we live by." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An examination of common concerns about rational–emotive therapy.

Examines some of the more frequent concerns and criticisms about rational–emotive therapy, including issues of relationship factors, emotive aspects, values, religious concerns, and intervention techniques and styles in therapy. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

浅谈铝箔轧机着火原因及预防措施

本文分析了铝箔轧机着火的具体原因,并提出了预防措施。     

Glycosaminoglycanpolysulfate (GAGPS, Arteparon) for basic therapy of arthrosis. I. Comparative studies, Arteparon forte and physical therapy vs. physical therapy alone

Glycosaminoglycan polysulphate (GAGPS, Arteparon) is effective as a fundamental therapeutic agent in arthrosis (osteoarthritis). Patients with gonarthrosis and coxarthrosis of activity grade II received intramuscular Arteparon forte injections and physical therapy (group 1, n = 69) or physical therapy only (group 2, n = 46). In group 1 23 patients (33.3%) became free of pain as compared to 3 patients (6.5%) in group 2. No therapeutic success was obtained in 6 patients of group 1 (8.7%) and in 14 individuals (30.4%) of group 2.     

Meta-analysis of comparative therapy outcome studies: A replication and refinement.

Conducted a meta-analysis of 143 outcome studies in which 2 or more treatments were compared with a control group. Consistent with previous reviews, the mean of the 1,828 effect size measures obtained from the 414 treated groups approached 1 standard deviation unit, and differences among treatment methods accounted for, at most, 10% of the variance in effect size. The impact of differences between treatment methods was outweighed by the combined effects of other variables, such as the nature of the target problem under treatment, aspects of the measurement methods, and features of the experimental design. Multiple regression analysis suggested that differences between treatments were largely independent of these other factors. Some consistent differences were found between pairs of treatments in the same subsets, with cognitive and certain multimodal behavioral methods yielding favorable results. The practical implications of the conclusions were limited by the predominantly analog nature of the research reviewed and its unrepresentativeness of clinical practice. (50 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The practitioner as researcher: Qualitative case studies in play therapy.

To help clinicians better understand case study research and encourage clinicians to share valuable experiences with others in the field, this article will define case study, identify the components of case studies, review critical considerations in case studies, and provide a recommended template for qualitative case studies. Fifteen case studies published in the International Journal of Play Therapy will be examined to review the process of these case studies, and the potential contribution of the study to illustrate the use of play therapy. Suggestions for further directions in the area of case study methodology in play therapy will be made. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Limits and relationship in child-centered play therapy: Two case studies.

This article presents case studies exploring two boys' uses of limit testing as a therapeutic tool in child-centered play therapy (CCPT). Both boys were referred for behavior that was abnormally disruptive for their age and setting, which was kindergarten in an elementary school that serves a very high poverty community and is accustomed to handling misbehavior. Data evidencing progress is provided as a reference point, while analysis is focused on conceptualization and mechanisms of change related to each child's use of limit testing in CCPT. The authors suggest that each boy used limit testing in CCPT to try out the therapeutic relationship as a stand-in for other relationships, to rethink relational expectations inside and outside of therapy, revisit unmet needs and meanings of early experiences, and change self-concept in ways that affected positive behavioral change. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Behavior therapy in retrospect: Patients' feelings about their behavior therapies.

Interviewed 14 behavior therapy patients to determine if phenomena regularly observed in psychodynamic psychotherapies had occurred in their behavior therapies as well. Interview data were analyzed both statistically and clinically. Ratings by patients, their therapists, and the es indicate that the prevalence of behavior modification techniques in the therapy was not significantly related to outcome, whereas a variety of the patients' personal feelings about their therapists were. Impressionistic analysis of the interviews also suggest that the important elements of these therapies were interpersonal ones, much as has been demonstrated in psychodynamic psychotherapy. The behavior modification techniques themselves seem to have added little to the therapies, and in some instances may even have facilitated continued defensive avoidance of problems. (37 ref.) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventing adolescent smoking: What have we learned about treatment construct validity?

Reviews the treatment construct validity of programs to prevent adolescent smoking to determine how and why programs reduce adolescent smoking. The issue of why beneficial effects are obtained is explored in terms of whether a treatment affects outcome; whether each variable in a proposed causal chain affects the variable that follows it after controlling for all prior variables, including treatment; and whether treatment has an effect on outcome when the mediating variables are controlled. Studies investigating the mediational effects of subjective norms such as social consequences and peer vs adult leaders, social competence, and intervention are reviewed. It is concluded that little is presently known about the construct validity of successful programs, a problem that results primarily from the neglect of process assessment and analyses. The advantages and disadvantages of several future research approaches are discussed, including utilization of process measures within large-scale treatment/no-treatment designs, small-scale studies to test the effects of prevention components on process measures (e.g., attitudes, intentions to smoke), and combinations of these approaches. (4 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventing anchoring errors in clinical judgment.

When anchoring occurs, estimates of client pathology and prognosis are differentially related to the time judges are exposed to salient, pathognomonic case material. In the present study with 73 undergraduates, a debiasing condition was contrasted with a no-debiasing condition. In the debiasing condition, Ss were warned of possible anchoring errors and how to avoid them. M. L. Friedlander and S. J. Stockman (see record 1983-31114-001) found a robust anchoring bias among experienced clinicians. Results indicate that debiasing was irrelevant because neither the replication sample nor the debiased sample demonstrated significant anchoring errors in their judgments. Post hoc tests showed that (a) Ss' mean judgments did not differ significantly from those of the clinicians in Friedlander and Stockman but that (b) Ss reported significantly less confidence in their performance than the professionals. The implication that relatively more experienced, confident judges may be more susceptible to anchoring errors is discussed with respect to consistency and information-processing explanations for anchoring bias. (34 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Preventing and managing adolescent health problems.

Reviews the book, Health-promoting and health-compromising behaviors among minority adolescents by D. K. Wilson, J. R. Rodrique, and W. C. Taylor (1997). Although this book was not written specifically for the school-based practitioner, this edited volume provides a comprehensive review of the health-related behavior of diverse adolescent populations and describes empirically validated intervention and prevention models that are very useful to school mental health professionals, particularly those working in urban settings with culturally diverse youth. The editors have divided the text into four sections. The first section provides a useful theoretical framework encompassing developmental, biological, social, and cultural perspectives. The second section describes behavioral patterns among culturally diverse adolescents that compromise and promote health, including drug use, eating habits, physical activity, and sexual behavior. The third section describes several intervention models that have been demonstrated to be effective with minority adolescents. The concluding section provides insight into health policy issues impacting minority adolescents, including access to adequate health care. This volume represents an important contribution to the literature in the area of pediatric, prevention, and community psychology. Although the text generally fails to highlight sufficiently the power of the school as a protective context for adolescents, the conceptual models and examples of community-based programs presented offer the school psychologist very useful information about designing and implementing prevention and intervention programs in schools. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Neurologic manifestations of HIV infection. Using imaging studies and antiviral therapy effectively

Patients with HIV infection are at risk for neurologic complications that can arise through various means. Nervous system disorders sometimes occur as a direct consequence of the HIV infection itself. Or, as immunodeficiency progresses, patients can become susceptible to numerous opportunistic infections and other conditions that have neurologic involvement. Even the antiviral drugs used to treat HIV infection can induce neurologic manifestations. Dr Rachlis discusses several of these manifestations and their management.