Sex Differences and Promotion Prospects in Clinical Psychology in Scotland

The following paper compares the gender bias in the Clinical Psychology profession in Scotland between 1990 and 1997. A larger proportion of females as compared with males are found both at the post-graduate training stage up until 1996 and at all levels of the profession, with the exception of B-grades where there were more males, in 1990. The study gives some evidence of a shift towards parity of the sexes between 1990 and 1996. A more equal ratio of males to female clinical psychology graduates is found in 1996 and a similar ratio of male to female B Grade clinical psychologists was found in 1997. However, the latter suggests that a disproportionate number of males hold B Grade posts when taken in the context of the demographics of the Scottish Clinical Psychology profession as a whole. A number of implications of these findings are discussed

Adaptations and accommodations: The use of the WAIS III with people with a Learning Disability

Evidence of significant impairment in cognitive functioning has always been one of the main criteria of a learning disability (Pulsifer, 1996) and intellectual assessment is, therefore, one of the tasks of clinical psychologists working within learning disability services. Such assessments are commonly used to help establish of an individual’s cognitive strengths and weaknesses, support needs and more specifically, to help determine if an individual falls within the remit of learning disability services (McKenzie & Murray, 2002, Evers & Hill, 1999). Intellectual assessments also have important implications in terms of mental health legislation, accessing benefits and services and informing legal decision-making processes (British Psychological Society, 2001, McKay, 1991). It is, therefore, crucial that the assessments are valid, reliable and used only by appropriately trained and qualified professionals. In Britain, it is emphasised that assessing an individual’s intellectual functioning requires an individually administered, standardised psychometric assessment which is reliable and valid (British Psychological Society, 2001), while in America professional mandates, such as the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA,APA & NCME, 1985) highlight the need for high standards of administrative accuracy from psychologists. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scales - Third Edition (Wechsler, 1998) are commonly used in intellectual and neuropsychological assessment and are considered to be valid, reliable and well-standardised (Groth-Marnat et al, 2000). The Wechsler Scales have a long history and have undergone a number of revisions with the most recent being in 1997 with the development of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Third Edition (WAIS-III). The purpose of these revisions was to insure that the standardisation sample was representative of current demographics and performance, to update the subtests, incorporate new subtests, and refine the instructions and test materials. Each revision has been well researched and validated (Groth Marnat et al, 2000)

The impact of training on teacher knowledge about children with an intellectual disability

The present study examines the impact of a short training session on the knowledge of teaching staff in Scotland about children with an intellectual disability. Despite the majority of participants reporting that they had a child with an intellectual disability in their classroom, the initial level of knowledge concerning intellectual disability was low. This was partly considered to be due to terminology differences that exist between the health and education sectors and a lack of training specific to the needs of children with an intellectual disability. Training was shown to significantly improve the basic knowledge needed to understand intellectual disability immediately after training and at a 1 month follow-up, suggesting that the knowledge gains would be sustained in the longer term

A pilot of the use of the WAIS III in learning disability services

The present study is a pilot examining how a group of people (n=133) with a learning disability perform on the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale – Third Edition (1997). The study found that Full Scale IQ was not always predictive of performance on individual subtests or of performance on the Indices. Implications for clinical practice are discussed

Changes made to the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children – Third Edition by Psychologists working in Child Services

Psychologists were found to amend the way they used the WISC-III, by either regularly missing out sub-tests or not following the standardised manual instructions. The majority felt these changes would impact on the test scores of the individual child

The evaluation of a screening tool for children with an intellectual disability: The Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire

The study outlines the evaluation of an intellectual disability screening tool, the Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire (CAIDS-Q), with two age groups. A number of aspects of the reliability and validity of the CAIDS-Q were assessed for these two groups, including inter-rater reliability, convergent and discriminative validity. For both age groups, a significant positive relationship was found between full scale IQ and CAIDS-Q score, indicating convergent validity. Significant differences were found in the CAIDS-Q scores between those with and without an intellectual disability, with the former group scoring significantly lower. The sensitivity and specificity of the CAIDS-Q were above 96.7% and 85.5% respectively for the younger group and 90.9% and 94.9% respectively for the older group. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed

Pay, Performance, and Participation

Our chapter identifies key dimensions on which organizations make employee compensation decisions and examines the emerging research evidence on the consequences of such decisions for attitudes, behaviors, and organization performance. We provide some general suggestions that may prove helpful in future research. First, there is increased recognition that pay decisions take place in the context of implicit or explicit contracts between employees and specific organizations. As a result, we encourage researchers to continue to give greater attention to the role of organization differences in compensation. Second, because pay is multidimensional, attention should not be restricted to organization differences in pay level. Organization differences in benefits, structure, and means of recognizing individual employees contributions also warrant attention. As an example of how the focus can be expanded, we provide new empirical evidence on organization differences in the market sensitivity of pay structures. Third, we note that the success of pay programs depends not only on decisions about pay per se, but also the process used in making communicating, and administering such decisions. More broadly, the influence of contextual factors, such as the nature of other employee relations practices (e.g., staffmg, development, employment security), needs to be considered to a greater extent in compensation research. In addition to these broad suggestions, we provide specific ideas on future research directions throughout the chapter

Health and social care workers’ understanding of the meaning and management of challenging behaviour in learning disability services.

The present study sought to investigate the relationship between professional background, length of experience, understanding of the term “challenging behaviour” and opinions of factors important in managing challenging behaviour in people with a learning disability. Health Workers identified significantly more definition criteria than Social Care Workers, yet no significant difference was found between their overall scores for management criteria. Rather the emphasis of their knowledge of management principles appeared to be different. A significantly greater percentage of Health Workers identified management criteria relating to psychological principles, while a greater percentage of Social Care Workers identified that of reactive responses. Health Workers seemed more likely to identify challenging behaviour in terms of its impact on the service while Social Care Workers appeared to concentrate on the type of behaviour evident. Finally, the longer the experience of the Social Care Worker, the higher their overall scores for the definition and management criteria. However, no significant relationship was found between experience and overall scores amongst Health Workers. Implications of the findings are discussed