Design challenges in motivating change for sustainable urban mobility

In recent years, the design and deployment of persuasive interventions for inducing sustainable urban mobility behaviors has become a very active research field, leveraging on the pervasive usage of social media and mobile apps by citizens in their daily life. Several challenges in designing and assessing motivational features for effective and long-lasting behavior change in this area have also been identified, such as the focus of most solutions on targeting and prescribing individual (versus collective) mobility choices, as well as a general lack of large-scale evaluations on the impact of these solutions on citizens’ life. This paper reports lessons learnt from three parallel and complementary user studies, where motivational features for sustainable urban mobility, including social influence strategies delivered through social media, were prototyped, tested and refined. By reflecting on our results and design experiences so far, we aim to provide better guidance for future development of more effective solutions supporting citizens’ adoption of sustainable mobility behaviors in urban settings.     

Review of Self and others: Object relations theory in practice.

Reviews the book, Self and others: Object relations theory in practice by N. Gregory Hamilton (see record 1988-97224-000). Hamilton's book, Self and Others, is useful because it attempts to render much of the complexity of understanding object relational approaches more negotiable. Without question, the book is addressed to the beginner or relative beginner (i.e., the person who wishes to get an introduction to object relations). However, because of its elementary focus, the book can be especially valuable for clinicians, residents, and related mental health trainees who are in the process of learning about object relations theory. Too often it seems introductory books on object relations either assume a knowledge the reader does not possess or become so overly mired in discussing the intricacies of theoretical controversy (e.g., Kohut versus Kernberg) that they leave the beginning student of psychoanalysis in a state of bewilderment. Such is not the case with Self and Others. Hamilton's book, while not being without its limitations, does have some interesting features to offer for beginning instruction in object relations theory. The book attempts to show how object relations theory can be applied in practice. Some interesting and instructive definitions, case examples, and discussion are provided, and they all can prove of value to the interested student of object relations theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The state of the art and the progression of science in family therapy research.

Review of books: (1) Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change, (3rd Ed.), New York: Wiley, 1986, S. L. Garfield and A. E. Bergin (Eds.); (2) Patterns of Change: Intensive Analysis of Psychotherapy Process, New York: Guilford, 1984, L. N. Rice and L. S. Greenberg (Eds.); (3) The Psychotherapeutic Process: A Research Handbook, New York: Guilford, 1986, L. S. Greenberg and W. M. Pinsof (Eds.); (4) Integrating Research and Clinical Practice, 1985, Rockville, MD: Aspen Systems, L. L. Andreozzi (Ed.); and (5) The State of the Art in Family Therapy Research: Controversies and Recommendations, 1988, New York: Family Process Press, L. C. Wynne (Ed.). Reviewed by Varda Shoham-Salomon and Deborah Bice-Broussard. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bridging the research-to-practice gap with mainstream assistance teams: A cautionary tale.

Difficult-to-teach students seem to be growing in number. Prereferral intervention is one strategy to help teachers better accommodate such children. During a three-year partnership with a local school district, we developed a prereferral intervention approach, called Mainstream Assistance Teams (MATs), which reflected the particular needs of the district. In Year 4, we explored whether district-employed consultants, whom we had trained the previous year, were ready to implement the prereferral interventions largely independently of our assistance. Eight MAT consultants were divided into two groups of four: one group received less technical assistance; the second group, more. Difficult-to-teach students associated with consultants and teachers supported by relatively little assistance performed as well as their counterparts in the "more" assistance group--and students in both groups outperformed controls from pretreatment to posttreatment. Such results signalled that district personnel had achieved a measure of ownership of an effective practice and, more generally, that we had successfully bridged the notorious research-to-practice gap. Nevertheless, one year later, nobody in the district was using MATs. Reasons for this surprising and disappointing turn of events are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The (dis)placement of women in the IT workforce: an investigation of individual career values and organisational interventions

This paper reports on an investigation of career anchors of women in the information technology (IT) workforce that was directed at enhancing within‐gender theorising about career motivations of women in the IT profession. Our theoretical lens, the individual differences theory of gender and IT, enabled us to look more critically at how the effects of interventions are embedded in the range of women's career anchors that takes within‐gender variation into account. The analysis demonstrates that organisational interventions must be flexible enough to account for the diversity and variation among women. Further, the analysis shows that it is necessary to move away from ‘one size fits all’ organisational interventions that often reflect stereotypes about women in the IT workforce.     

Increasing work-time influence: consequences for flexibility, variability, regularity and predictability

This quasi-experimental study investigated how an intervention aiming at increasing eldercare workers' influence on their working hours affected the flexibility, variability, regularity and predictability of the working hours. We used baseline (n = 296) and follow-up (n = 274) questionnaire data and interviews with intervention-group participants (n = 32). The work units in the intervention group designed their own intervention comprising either implementation of computerised self-scheduling (subgroup A), collection of information about the employees' work-time preferences by questionnaires (subgroup B), or discussion of working hours (subgroup C). Only computerised self-scheduling changed the working hours and the way they were planned. These changes implied more flexible but less regular working hours and an experience of less predictability and less continuity in the care of clients and in the co-operation with colleagues. In subgroup B and C, the participants ended up discussing the potential consequences of more work-time influence without actually implementing any changes. PRACTITIONER SUMMARY: Employee work-time influence may buffer the adverse effects of shift work. However, our intervention study suggested that while increasing the individual flexibility, increasing work-time influence may also result in decreased regularity of the working hours and less continuity in the care of clients and co-operation with colleagues.     

Supporting executive functions during children's preliteracy learning with the computer

The present study examined how embedded activities to support executive functions helped children to benefit from a computer intervention that targeted preliteracy skills. Three intervention groups were compared on their preliteracy gains in a randomized controlled trial design: an experimental group that worked with software to stimulate early literacy with embedded executive‐functioning support (EL + EF group), an experimental group that worked with the same early literacy software without the explicit EF‐support (EL group) and a control group that played with language discovery games from the same software. These groups were contrasted on their preliteracy progress over time and on their learning behaviours while working with the software. Results showed that children in the two experimental groups progressed more in preliteracy skills on the long‐term, with the EL + EF group showing the highest learning effects. These results were mainly shown for the children with lower levels of EFs. Moreover, children in the EL + EF group showed more independent behaviour and played more games than children in the EL group. These results indicate that young children can show more effective learning over time during computer interventions when their executive functions are kept active.     

Two brief alcohol interventions for mandated college students.

Encouraging but limited research indicates that brief motivational interventions may be an effective way to reduce heavy episodic drinking in college students. At 2 campuses, students (83% male) mandated to a substance use prevention program were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 individually administered conditions: (a) a brief motivational interview (BMI; n = 34) or (b) an alcohol education session (AE; n = 30). Students in the BMI condition reported fewer alcohol-related problems than the AE students at 3-and 6-month assessments. Trends toward reductions in number of binge drinking episodes and typical blood alcohol levels were seen in both groups. Process measures confirmed the integrity of both interventions. The findings demonstrate that mandated BMIs can reduce alcohol problems in students referred for alcohol violations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Review of Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems.

Reviews the book, Applied Social Psychology: Understanding and Addressing Social and Practical Problems edited by Frank W. Schneider, Jamie A. Gruman, and Larry M. Coutts (see record 2005-02098-000). Though I think the appeal of this text ought to extend well beyond the intended audience, Schneider et al. are marketing their book as an undergraduate level introductory text. It thus contains much of the pedagogy that instructors have come to expect in textbooks. Of course, the typical undergraduate text is written by a single author or group of authors. Schneider et al. opted for a different approach; Theirs is an edited volume, a collection of chapters written by specialists in a wide range of topic areas. Whereas it might have been natural in this case to expect problems with lack of consistency in style, organization, and content across the chapters, I was impressed by the effectiveness with which the editors maintained consistency throughout. One of the main strategies by which they achieved this level of success seems to have been by encouraging authors to use several classic theories and studies, where appropriate, in discussing the content relevant to their own areas of expertise. In total, there are 16 chapters. The first four chapters, which include an introductory chapter and chapters on theory, research methods, and intervention and evaluation, serve largely to set the context for the more focused, topic-driven material that comes later. Because this book is intended as a broad introduction to applied social psychology and because the chapters are rather short in length (20 to 25 pages on average), the coverage within any given chapter is selective rather than comprehensive in nature. I think Applied Social Psychology will make a substantial contribution as an undergraduate text--useful both as an introductory text in courses on applied social psychology and, where time will permit, as a secondary text to complement the main text in introductory or junior graduate-level survey courses on social psychology. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)