Organising Therapists’ Emotional-Social Skills: Are Therapists that Different? : A thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology at Massey University, Palmerston North New Zealand

Wampold and Imel (2015) argue that therapeutic outcomes may be more dependent on variables associated with therapists than treatment systems. An element of these therapist variables include the emotional and social skills of therapists, however, to date, little has been done to investigate the relationships between these therapy factors. One exception to this is pilot research conducted by my supervisors, their students, and myself (Harvey, Marwick, Baken, Bimler, & Dickson, 2016). This thesis aims to replicate and extend on this pilot research as to better understand therapists’ emotional and social skills in practice. Using three complementary approaches including thematic analysis of therapist transcripts, a date-specific literature review, and revision of foundational research, Harvey et al.’s original pool of emotional and social skills was revised and extended. Subsequently, using a statistical method for mapping psychological constructs, therapists’ emotional practices were transformed into a ‘map’ with three spatial dimensions, which was generally supported by comparative reliability checks including a validation study with a foreign-language sample. Finally, the nature of emotional practice was further investigated by administering a questionnaire of emotional practice items to 79 therapists. From this, eight salient practice constructs were identified. Statistical links were also found between these and both demographic data and a modified measure of the therapeutic relationship. Furthermore, using Q-analysis, a general consensus of responding was found between therapists’ emotional response patterns and as a result, a tentative pathway to therapists’ practice styles was developed. From these findings important research and clinical applications are apparent

Positive behaviour in the early years : perceptions of staff, service providers and parents in managing and promoting positive behaviour in early years and early primary settings

The full report of research into positive behaviour in the early years: perceptions of staff, service providers and parents in managing and promoting positive behaviour in early years and early primary settings

The Autism Toolbox : An Autism Resource for Scottish Schools

The Autism Toolbox will draw upon a range of practice experience, literature and research to offer guidance for authorities and schools providing for children and young people with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD)

The interpersonal origins of language: Social and linguistic implications of an archaeological approach to language evolution

The development of the interpersonal functions of language is a key step in language ontogeny. Archaeological evidence of hominids moving raw materials across the landscape suggest that changes in the interpersonal communication abilities of hominids represent major events in human language evolution. The earliest hominids moved raw materials short distances, suggesting home-range sizes, social complexity and interpersonal abilities similar to those of primates. A transition from primate communication to a protolanguage is indicated by a large increase in raw-material transfer distances at about 1.2 million years ago. The increase in transfer distances results from the ability to pool social and environmental information using a protolanguage. The transition to human language is suggested by the emergence of long-distance exchange networks during the African Middle Stone Age. The operation of exchange networks requires the full panoply of human interpersonal communication abilities, such as the use of symbols in social contexts, expression of displacement, the expression of multiple degrees of intentionality and recursiveness. The results of computer simulations show that this transition from protolanguage to full language may have resulted from language adapting itself rather than any specific biological or cultural mutation

Risk of postoperative acute kidney injury in patients undergoing orthopaedic surgery—development and validation of a risk score and effect of acute kidney injury on survival:observational cohort study

Funding: This study was funded by Tenovus Tayside, Chief Scientist Office, Scotland and a travelling fellowship from the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow. The funders had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of the data; writing of the report; or the decision to submit the article for publication. The researchers are independent of the funders.Non peer reviewedPublisher PD

Identifying which septic patients have increased mortality risk using severity scores:a cohort study

Background: Early aggressive therapy can reduce the mortality associated with severe sepsis but this relies on prompt recognition, which is hindered by variation among published severity criteria. Our aim was to test the performance of different severity scores in predicting mortality among a cohort of hospital inpatients with sepsis. Methods: We anonymously linked routine outcome data to a cohort of prospectively identified adult hospital inpatients with sepsis, and used logistic regression to identify associations between mortality and demographic variables, clinical factors including blood culture results, and six sets of severity criteria. We calculated performance characteristics, including area under receiver operating characteristic curves (AUROC), of each set of severity criteria in predicting mortality. Results: Overall mortality was 19.4% (124/640) at 30 days after sepsis onset. In adjusted analysis, older age (odds ratio 5.79 (95% CI 2.87-11.70) for ≥80y versus <60y), having been admitted as an emergency (OR 3.91 (1.31-11.70) versus electively), and longer inpatient stay prior to sepsis onset (OR 2.90 (1.41-5.94) for >21d versus <4d), were associated with increased 30 day mortality. Being in a surgical or orthopaedic, versus medical, ward was associated with lower mortality (OR 0.47 (0.27-0.81) and 0.26 (0.11-0.63), respectively). Blood culture results (positive vs. negative) were not significantly association with mortality. All severity scores predicted mortality but performance varied. The CURB65 community-acquired pneumonia severity score had the best performance characteristics (sensitivity 81%, specificity 52%, positive predictive value 29%, negative predictive value 92%, for 30 day mortality), including having the largest AUROC curve (0.72, 95% CI 0.67-0.77). Conclusions: The CURB65 pneumonia severity score outperformed five other severity scores in predicting risk of death among a cohort of hospital inpatients with sepsis. The utility of the CURB65 score for risk-stratifying patients with sepsis in clinical practice will depend on replicating these findings in a validation cohort including patients with sepsis on admission to hospital