The language of outcomes

Outcomes are a topic of great interest. Their potential is considerable as a mechanism to evaluate quality, improve effectiveness, and link practice to professional accountability. Greater clarity and precision in the use of outcomes terminology will allow this potential to be realized. This article identifies the current confusion in outcomes terminology, begins an outcomes lexicon, and issues a call to action for further clarification in the language of outcomes.     

The ethics of language and the language of ethics.

Responds to the comments of M. P. Nichols (see record 1989-40699-001) on the work of the present authors (see record 1989-40685-001), asserting that therapists work toward understanding the correctness of the view explained by the client in a never-ending process that changes both therapist and client. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The anatomy of language revisited

The language areas have been classically viewed as a posterior, perceptual Wernicke's region connected with an anterior, motor Broca's area via a tract of long fibers denominated the arcuate fasciculus. Recent connectional studies in the monkey indicate that there may be few direct connections between the regions strictly corresponding to Broca's or Wernicke's areas, and that inferior parietal areas may serve as a link between them. The proposed connectional pattern of the language regions fits the network of parietotemporal-prefrontal connections that participate in working memory, a type of memory used in immediate cognitive processing. Supporting this concept, brain activation studies in the human during linguistic working memory tasks have determined a close relation between the supramarginal gyrus (parietal area 40) and Broca's area. We suggest that language processing is closely related to working memory networks, and that the language regions in fact originated in evolution from a working memory network for linguistic utterances.     

The language of therapy.

Discusses studies of language illuminating the theory and practice of psychotherapy from 3 perspectives: (1) the language used to describe therapy in theoretical terms, (2) the language of therapists engaging with clients, and (3) linguistic research into therapy. It is concluded that although interest is continuing in the use of paralinguistic variables in psychotherapy, not much research into therapy could be regarded as linguistically based. The most notable of the broadly linguistic analyses of therapy have been led by C. E. Hill (e.g., see record 1979-22606-001). It is suggested that the rigor of her research, its proximity to practice, and her careful use of ordinary language may lead to her client and therapist response system becoming part of a true lingua franca for psychotherapy. The authors doubt the relevance to therapy of elaborate linguistic analyses. However, applying to therapy such measures as rules of discourse, stylistic complexity, and semantic relations advances scientific knowledge because elements of the process are revealed that could not otherwise be inspected. (58 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effect of quality of day care environment on children's language development.

Tested the hypothesis that the amount of verbal interaction with caregivers would be a salient index of daycare center quality, in that it would be a particularly important determinant of children's language skill. 166 36–68 mo old children and their parents from 9 daycare centers participated in this study. Quality of the daycare environment, as assessed by observation and items from the Day Care Environment Inventory, was predictive of all 4 measures of intellectual and language development, which included the PPVT and Preschool Language Assessment Instrument, after controlling for family background and current center care experience. The importance of verbal interaction with caregivers was also demonstrated. Ss from centers with high levels of caregiver speech performed better on tests of language development than Ss from centers with a high level of peer speech. The predictive power of other environmental variables was also investigated. (42 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The semantics of children's language.

Contends that too much emphasis has been placed on grammar or syntax and too little on the semantics of children's language. A full-scale analysis of children's speech based on the logical tradition of model-theoretic semantics is described. To illustrate this approach, examples of the child's use of the definite article, adjectives, quantifiers, and propositional attitudes are presented, and conceptual and technical tools for studying these aspects of speech are described. The problems of paraphrase, context, processes, and theory verification that arise in the semantical analysis of children's speech are considered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The language of medical case histories

A six and half-year-old nulliparous mixed breed cat which had the complaints of vomiting, abdominal distention and depression was presented to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital of Osaka Prefecture University. She was suspected of pyometra by clinical signs and tests. By laparotomy, it was clarified that both uterine horns and vagina showed distension by the accumulation of secretions, and the vagina ended blindly leaving a tough connective tissue at the border between cranial and caudal part of the vagina. Postoperative contrast-radiograph of the remaining vagina proved it had no persistence of the hymen. From these findings, the condition was diagnosed as a feline atresia vaginalis with the transverse vaginal septum which is caused by the embryonic failure of canalization of the paramesonephric duct between the end of the Müllerian duct and the urogenital sinus.     

The language of motivational interviewing and feedback: Counselor language, client language, and client drinking outcomes.

Previous research has suggested that motivational interviewing (MI) may affect client language, which in turn predicts client drinking outcome. In this study, we examined the relationship between counselor language and client language, personalized feedback and client language, and client language and client drinking outcome, in a sample of heavy-drinking college students. MI was delivered in a single session with or without a personalized feedback report (MI with feedback [MIF]; MI only). Sessions were coded using the Motivational Interviewing Skill Code 2.1. A composite drinking outcome score was used, consisting of drinks per week, peak blood alcohol concentration, and protective drinking strategies. We found three main results. First, in the MIF group, MI consistent counselor language was positively associated with client change talk. Second, after receiving feedback, MIF clients showed lower levels of sustain talk, relative to MI only clients. Finally, in the MIF group, clients with greater change talk showed improved drinking outcomes at 3 months, while clients with greater sustain talk showed poorer drinking outcomes. These results highlight the relationship between counselor MI skill and client change talk, and suggest an important role for feedback in the change process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The psychologist looks at language.

In this Presidential Address the author examines language—limited to the simple, declarative, present tense sentence—from the point of view of a learning psychologist. The basic assumption is "that what the sentence does is to shift or transfer meanings, not from person to person, but from sign to sign within the mind of the recipient." Language is not conditioning alone but requires postulation of a "mediating reaction." Animal communication is limited to thing-thing or thing-sign while human language is sign-sign. "Language is a device whereby another person, on the basis of experience with one reality, may be made to react… somewhat differently toward another reality, without any new direct experience with that reality." 90-item bibliography. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The role of adolescents' native language fluency on quality of communication and respect for parents in Chinese and Korean immigrant families.

This study examines whether loss of the native or parental language among adolescents from immigrant families has consequences for their relationships with their parents. The study sample included 614 ninth-grade adolescents from Chinese and Korean immigrant families. All adolescents completed measures of native and English language fluency, parental respect, and quality of communication. Results indicated a positive association between adolescents' native fluency and parental respect, even after accounting for parents' English fluency. In addition, quality of communication mediated the association between adolescent native fluency and parental respect. The findings support the contention that maintaining native language fluency may facilitate parent-adolescent communication due to its linguistic component as well as through greater understanding and respect for the culture heritage. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

The study of child language in South Africa

This paper describes some of the research into child language that has been conducted in South Africa over the past 20 years. It is written from a clinical perspective and it describes the influence of changing demographic, social, educational and political variables on the study of child language. Specifically, the influence of the multilingual and multicultural nature of the society will be considered. Among issues discussed are the increasing research base on the acquisition of normal language, the adaptation of assessment tools and language in education.     

The talking cure: About language.

This article reviews the panel held at the 20th Annual Spring Meeting, Division of Psychoanalysis (39), American Psychological Association, April 6, 2000, San Francisco. The panelists were Judith Butler and Adrienne Harris, and the moderator was Jeanne Wolf Bernstein. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)