Psychotherapy Integration: Examination of Clinical Utilization

Psychotherapy integration has been consistently found to be the modal or bimodal primary theoretical orientation explicitly reported by psychologists. Considering influences on the field of psychology, psychotherapy integration will likely remain a significant approach to psychotherapy for the foreseeable future. However, not much is known about the clinical application of psychotherapy integration. It is questionable whether current classifications of psychotherapy integration, including theoretical integration, eclecticism, and common factors, can adequately describe clinical approaches. The assessment of latent theoretical orientation, as a means of assessing primary theoretical orientation, is a promising way to examine the clinical use of psychotherapy integration. My primary purpose in this study was to examine any differences in latent theoretical orientation between psychologists who report practicing psychotherapy integration versus those who report practicing a single school therapy and to determine whether or not approaches to psychotherapy integration could be classified into distinct categories using latent theoretical orientation. A total of 800 practicing psychologists, who are doctoral level members of The National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology, were mailed the Professional Issues in Applied Psychology Survey. The Professional Issues in Applied Psychology Survey is composed of three sections. The first section requests demographic information. The second section consists of questions related to the clinical use of psychotherapy theories and technique. The third section consists of the Counsellor Theoretical Position Scale (CTPS) (Poznanski & McLennan, 1998). The CTPS is a 40-item instrument designed by Poznanski and McLennan (1998, 1999) to measure two dimensions of latent theoretical orientation: Rational-Intuitive and Objective-Subjective. Consistent with past research, psychologists endorsed psychotherapy integration and psychodynamic approaches as the two most prominent primary theoretical orientations. Based on the results of a discriminant analysis using the two dimensions of latent theoretical orientation as dependent variables, distinctions can best be identified between psychologists endorsing behavioral, cognitive, cognitive-behavioral, or systems approaches from psychologists endorsing psychodynamic, humanistic/existential, or interpersonal approaches. Within approaches to psychotherapy integration between four and five clusters were formed using hierarchical cluster analyses based on the two dimensions of latent theoretical orientation. Implications of these results are discussed

Development and Testing of a Model and Method for Assessing Effectiveness of Tourism Promotional Literature

New models are needed to evaluate the effectiveness of tourism promotional materials, especially that provide insight into causal processes. These types of models seem to be helpful in explaining the influence of promotional material on intent to visit. Findings also suggest that CVG\u27s influence was to reinforce intentions to visit

Fire at the Door: The Black Student Union Movement at Boston English High School, 1968-1971

Rickie Thompson and his friends were surprised by the mob as they cut through the Harvard Medical Complex from Brigham Circle to Louis Pasteur Avenue on their way to Boston English High School. The three black youths, earnest sophomores in the college engineering track of the 1,100-student, all-male high school, had expected a typical day. Rickie had even stayed up past eleven finishing geometry homework that now lay, apparently useless, in his briefcase. To be sure, there had been rumors of a walkout the day before-something to do with the seniors who had been suspended for wearing dashikis. But Rickie had not taken that very seriously. Somewhere between track practice, going over his music for Glee Club, studying for an English exam, and pondering the incongruity of angles A and B, he\u27d even forgotten the rumors. The young men moved closer to the crowd, blending into a sea of other students with close-cropped hair, white shirts, and ties. But there were splashes of color as well-some of the seniors sported their dashikis. And there were more black faces than could be accounted for among the English High community, where black students were in a minority and where there were only two black faculty members. Members of the Roxbury community had come to support the students. One of them was yelling at Headmaster Joseph Malone through a megaphone. Others were moving forward to speak as police stood by and nervously watched the crowd. Rickie and his classmates had limited options. Even before the school was officially closed for the day, no one would have been foolish enough to push through the crowd. They could go home and be thankful for the good luck of a day off from school, but things were just getting interesting. The headmaster was yelling back at the crowd now, and the cops were looking more agitated. The police had grabbed Glen Grayson, one of the suspended students, and Glen was angrily pulling himself away from them. It looked as though there might be trouble, but Rickie figured that he could watch out for himself. Street-corner demonstrations, planned and spontaneous, had become a regular feature, almost a pastime, in his community in recent years. The young men chose to stay. Rickie\u27s choice that day was his first conscious step toward a commitment to student activism-a commitment that would be the central focus of his last year of high school. The dashiki protests were an early and key chapter in an unprecedented period of student protest in Boston\u27s public schools. By Rickie\u27s senior year, black student groups at English and other Boston high schools had taken a series of actions that culminated in a city-wide strike that shut down the downtown high schools for much of the winter and spring of 1971. Discerning whether these actions constituted a distinct black student political movement is the primary purpose of this essay. First, I will present, as briefly as possible, the theoretical framework from which I evaluate the political nature of both the students\u27 individual behavior and that of the associations they formed. This will be followed by a narrative of the key events of black student activism from 1968 to 1971 with a particular focus on English High School, including the backdrop of community protests and demographic change that preceded the swell of student activism. Finally, in terms of the political nature of the student\u27s activities, I will contrast my interpretations of those events with those of contemporary school officials. I would argue that Glen Grayson in 1968 and Rickie Thompson by 1971 were conscious participants in a coherent political movement to transform the treatment of black students. They and their colleagues brought the fire to the door of the Boston Public Schools, illuminating the patterns and effects of racism and proposing concrete changes. If their specific goals, like those of the larger black community in regards to education, were not adopted, the decision-making process of the Boston school system was changed: the factor of racial equity can no longer be ignored. The fact that their demand for student participation in decision-making did not have a similar impact reflects not only the overall waning of student power movements, but the inherent limitations of schools as arenas of empowerment

Four layer bandage compared with short stretch bandage for venous leg ulcers: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials with data from individual patients

<p><b>Objective:</b> To compare the effectiveness of two types of compression treatment (four layer bandage and short stretch bandage) in people with venous leg ulceration.</p> <p><b>Design:</b> Systematic review and meta-analysis of patient level data.</p> <p><b>Data:</b> sources Electronic databases (the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, the Cochrane Wounds Group Specialised Register, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and National Research Register) and reference lists of retrieved articles searched to identify relevant trials and primary investigators. Primary investigators of eligible trials were invited to contribute raw data for re-analysis.</p> <p><b>Review:</b> methods Randomised controlled trials of four layer bandage compared with short stretch bandage in people with venous leg ulceration were eligible for inclusion. The primary outcome for the meta-analysis was time to healing. Cox proportional hazards models were run to compare the methods in terms of time to healing with adjustment for independent predictors of healing. Secondary outcomes included incidence and number of adverse events per patient.</p> <p><b>Results:</b> Seven eligible trials were identified (887 patients), and patient level data were retrieved for five (797 patients, 90% of known randomised patients). The four layer bandage was associated with significantly shorter time to healing: hazard ratio (95% confidence interval) from multifactorial model based on five trials was 1.31 (1.09 to 1.58), P=0.005. Larger ulcer area at baseline, more chronic ulceration, and previous ulceration were all independent predictors of delayed healing. Data from two trials showed no evidence of a difference in adverse event profiles between the two bandage types.</p> <p><b>Conclusions:</b> Venous leg ulcers in patients treated with four layer bandages heal faster, on average, than those of people treated with the short stretch bandage. Benefits were consistent across patients with differing prognostic profiles.</p&gt

Effects of early musical experience on auditory sequence memory

The present study investigated a possible link between musical training and immediate memory span by testing experienced musicians and three groups of musically inexperienced subjects (gymnasts, Psychology 101 students, and video game players) on sequence memory and word familiarity tasks. By including skilled gymnasts who began studying their craft by age six, video game players, and Psychology 101 students as comparison groups, we attempted to control for some of the ways skilled musicians may differ from participants drawn from the general population in terms of gross motor skills and intensive experience in a highly skilled domain from an early age. We found that musicians displayed longer immediate memory spans than the comparison groups on auditory presentation conditions of the sequence reproductive span task. No differences were observed between the four groups on the visual conditions of the sequence memory task. These results provide additional converging support to recent findings showing that early musical experience and activity-dependent learning may selectively affect verbal rehearsal processes and the allocation of attention in sequence memory tasks

Music training alters the course of adolescent auditory development

Fundamental changes in brain structure and function during adolescence are well characterized, but the extent to which experience modulates adolescent neurodevelopment are not. Musical experience provides an ideal case for examining this question because the influence of music training begun early in life is well known. We investigated the effects of in-school music training, previously shown to enhance auditory skills, versus another in-school training program that did not focus on development of auditory skills (active control). We tested adolescents on neural responses to sound and language skills before they entered high school (pre-training) and again three years later. Here we show that in-school music training begun in high school prolongs the stability of subcortical sound processing and accelerates maturation of cortical auditory responses. Although phonological processing improved in both the music training and active control groups, the enhancement was greater in adolescents who underwent music training. Thus, music training initiated as late as adolescence can enhance neural processing of sound and confer benefits for language skills. These results establish the potential for experience-driven brain plasticity during adolescence, and demonstrate that in-school programs can engender these changes

Accumulation of Sellafield-derived radiocarbon (14C) in Irish Sea and West of Scotland intertidal shells and sediments

The nuclear energy industry produces radioactive waste at various stages of the fuel cycle. In the United Kingdom, spent fuel is reprocessed at the Sellafield facility in Cumbria on the north west coast of England. Waste generated at the site comprises a wide range of radionuclides including radiocarbon (14C) which is disposed of in various forms including highly soluble inorganic carbon within the low level liquid radioactive effluent, via pipelines into the Irish Sea. This 14C is rapidly incorporated into the dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) reservoir and marine calcifying organisms, e.g. molluscs, readily utilise DIC for shell formation. This study investigated a number of sites located in Irish Sea and West of Scotland intertidal zones. Results indicate 14C enrichment above ambient background levels in shell material at least as far as Port Appin, 265 km north of Sellafield. Of the commonly found species (blue mussel (Mytilus edulis), common cockle (Cerastoderma edule) and common periwinkle (Littorina littorea)), mussels were found to be the most highly enriched in 14C due to the surface environment they inhabit and their feeding behaviour. Whole mussel shell activities appear to have been decreasing in response to reduced discharge activities since the early 2000s but in contrast, there is evidence of continuing enrichment of the carbonate sediment component due to in-situ shell erosion, as well as indications of particle transport of fine 14C-enriched material close to Sellafield

Temporal trend in the transfer of Sellafield-derived 14C into different size fractions of the carbonate component of NE Irish Sea sediment

From 1994 onwards, 14C discharges from the Sellafield nuclear fuel reprocessing plant have been made largely to the Northeast Irish Sea. They represent the largest contributor to UK and European populations of the collective dose commitment derived from the entire nuclear industry discharges. Consequently, it is important to understand the long-term fate of 14C in the marine environment. Research undertaken in 2000 suggested that the carbonate component of Northeast Irish Sea sediments would increase in 14C activity as mollusc shells, which have become enriched in Sellafield-derived 14C, are broken down by physical processes including wave action and incorporated into intertidal and sub-tidal sediments. The current study, undertaken in 2011, tested this hypothesis. The results demonstrate significant increases in 14C enrichments found in whole mussel shells compared to those measured in 2000. Additionally, in 2000, there was an enrichment above ambient background within only the largest size fraction (>500 μm) of the intertidal inorganic sediment at Nethertown and Flimby (north of Sellafield). In comparison, the present study has demonstrated 14C enrichments above ambient background in most size fractions at sites up to 40 km north of Sellafield, confirming the hypothesis set out more than a decade ago

Individual differences in rhythmic skills: links with neural consistency and linguistic ability

Durational patterns provide cues to linguistic structure, and so variations in rhythm skills may have consequences for language development. Understanding individual differences in rhythm skills, therefore, could help explain variability in language ability across the population. We investigated the neural foundations of rhythmic proficiency and its relation to language skills in young adults. We hypothesized that rhythmic abilities can be characterized by at least two constructs, which are tied to independent language abilities and neural profiles. Specifically, we hypothesized that rhythm skills that require integration of information across time rely upon the consistency of slow, low-frequency auditory processing, which we measured using the evoked cortical response. On the other hand, we hypothesized that rhythm ic skills that require fine temporal precision rely upon the consistency of fast, higher-frequency auditory processing, which we measured using the frequency following response. Performance on rhythm tests aligned with two constructs: rhythm sequencing and synchronization. Rhythm sequencing and synchronization were linked to the consistency of slow cortical and fast frequency-following responses, respectively. Furthermore, while rhythm sequencing ability was linked to verbal memory, reading, and nonverbal auditory temporal processing, synchronization ability was linked only tononverbal auditory temporal processing. Thus, rhythm perception at different time scales reflects distinct abilities, which rely on distinct auditory neural resources. In young adults slow rhythmic processing makes the more extensive contribution to language skill