Language delay and associated mother-child interactions.

Assessed the home environments and mother-child interactions of a language-delayed group and a matched control group of normal preschool children using the Caldwell Inventory of Home Stimulation (CIHS). 20 language-delayed children were defined by a discrepancy between their Stanford-Binet, language-based, IQ score and their Leiter, non-language-based, IQ score, and by a language evaluation. Children in both groups were distributed across all socioeconomic strata. The language-delayed group had significantly lower scores in 5 of the 6 subcategories of the CIHS. Greatest differences were found in the involvement and responsiveness of the mother and in her avoidance of restriction and punishment. Low CIHS scores were found through the socioeconomic strata, indicating that language delay had a stronger influence on mother-child relationships than did socioeconomic factors. (39 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The hippocampus is not necessary for a place response but may be necessary for pliancy.

Rats with kainate-colchicine hippocampal lesions (HL) and controls (C) were initially trained in the Morris water maze with procedures that deterred their prepotent thigmotaxic response. Training began with an escape platform that occupied nearly the entire pool. The area to which the rats could escape was made smaller by substituting smaller platforms as training progressed. In contrast to standard procedures, HL rats and C rats showed comparable performance during acquisition and preferentially searched the goal quadrant on probe trials during which the platform was removed. In a follow-up experiment, the platform was moved to a random position along the wall, which required a switch to a thigmotaxic response for most effective escape. HL rats that were thigmotaxic before place training did not switch to a thigmotaxic response as readily as did controls, behavior consistent with the view that hippocampal damage reduces pliancy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Sufficient and necessary conditions: Misused terms.

Notes that although the terms sufficient and necessary are absolute in nature and allow no counterexamples, psychologists inappropriately apply them to probabilistic outcomes. Misuse of the terms leads to confusion and the creation of pseudoissues, as illustrated in the argument over whether therapist warmth is a necessary or sufficient condition in behavioral desensitization. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Reassessing Rogers' necessary and sufficient conditions of change.

This article reviews the impact of Carl Rogers' postulate about the necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic change on the field of psychotherapy. It is proposed that his article (see record 2007-14630-002) made an impact in two ways; first, by acting as a spur to researchers to identify the active ingredients of therapeutic change; and, second, by providing guidelines for therapeutic practice. The role of the necessary and sufficient conditions in process-experiential therapy, an emotion-focused therapy for individuals, and their limitations in terms of research and practice are discussed. It is proposed that although the conditions are necessary and important in promoting clients' affect regulation, they do not take sufficient account of other moderating variables that affect clients' response to treatment and may need to be balanced with more structured interventions. Notwithstanding, Rogers highlighted a way of interacting with clients that is generally acknowledged as essential to effective psychotherapy practice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The amygdala is necessary for the expression of conditioned but not unconditioned analgesia.

Lesions of the basolateral region and central nucleus of the amygdala prevent conditioned analgesia (F. A. Helmstetter, 1992). In general, these regions of the amygdala are more critically involved in the expression of conditioned reactions to aversive events than in the mediation of unconditioned reactions. The impact of amygdala lesions on both conditioned and unconditioned analgesia was explored in Sprague-Dawley rats. The lesions completely prevented the expression of conditioned analgesia, but had no effect on unconditioned analgesia. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Conditional reasoning: The necessary and sufficient conditions.

Five experiments, with 163 university students, investigated 2 theories of conditional reasoning (CDR). The pragmatic schema theory posits that CDR is mediated by context-sensitive inference rules. According to the contextual cuing theory, inferences are based on a mental model that represents necessity and sufficiency relations. Both schematic relations and necessity relations predicted responses on a 4-card selection task. In contrast, after the effects of perceived necessity had been partialled out, schematic relations did not predict responses to either a conditional arguments task or a task in which Ss judged the similarity of "if then" and "only if" statements. Findings question the assumption that reasoning is mediated by schematic rules, which presumably apply regardless of task. A reconceptualization of the pragmatic reasoning schema is proposed. (French abstract) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.

This reprinted article originally appeared in Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1957(Apr), Vol 21(2), 95-103. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1959-00842-001.) "For constructive personality change to occur, it is necessary that these conditions exist and continue over a period of time: (1) Two persons are in psychological contact. (2) The first, whom we shall term the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious. (3) The second person, whom we shall term the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship. (4) The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client. (5) The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client's internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client. (6) The communication to the client of the therapist's empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved." (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The necessary and sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.

(This reprinted article originally appeared in the Journal of Consulting Psychology, 1957, Vol 21, 95–203. The following abstract of the original article appeared in PA, Vol 33:842.) For constructive personality change to occur, it is necessary that these conditions exist and continue over a period of time: (1) Two persons are in psychological contact. (2) The first, whom shall be termed the client, is in a state of incongruence, being vulnerable or anxious. (3) The 2nd person, whom shall be termed the therapist, is congruent or integrated in the relationship. (4) The therapist experiences unconditional positive regard for the client. (5) The therapist experiences an empathic understanding of the client's internal frame of reference and endeavors to communicate this experience to the client. (6) The communication to the client of the therapist's empathic understanding and unconditional positive regard is to a minimal degree achieved. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Early intervention and early experience.

For 4 decades, vigorous efforts have been based on the premise that early intervention for children of poverty and, more recently, for children with developmental disabilities can yield significant improvements in cognitive, academic, and social outcomes. The history of these efforts is briefly summarized and a conceptual framework presented to understand the design, research, and policy relevance of these early interventions. This framework, biosocial developmental contextualism, derives from social ecology, developmental systems theory, developmental epidemiology, and developmental neurobiology. This integrative perspective predicts that fragmented, weak efforts in early intervention are not likely to succeed, whereas intensive, high-quality, ecologically pervasive interventions can and do. Relevant evidence is summarized in 6 principles about efficacy of early intervention. The public policy challenge in early intervention is to contain costs by more precisely targeting early interventions to those who most need and benefit from these interventions. The empirical evidence on biobehavioral effects of early experience and early intervention has direct relevance to federal and state policy development and resource allocation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An early intervention model for pediatric settings.

Four groups of preschool children are likely to present to pediatricians in private or hospital practice: those with (a) developmental disabilities identifiable at a young age, (b) illnesses or handicaps, (c) temperamental traits predisposing to parent–child interaction problems, and (d) behavior problems. Parents view pediatricians as experts in child development and thus seek their guidance. Yet, many of these children will require treatment beyond the pediatrician's office. The Early Intervention Program (EIP) for Preschoolers and Parents is intended for such children. Organized into modules that focus on specific needs of the child and/or the parent–child interaction, EIP emphasizes parent training and skills development through applying behavioral–social learning principles. The modules include individual tutoring in speech and self-help skills, toddler management for behavioral compliance, and classrooms for developing school readiness skills and cooperative peer relationships. EIP is consistent with the treatment orientation of pediatricians and can serve as a useful training resource for pediatric residents. (15 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Expert judgment: Some necessary conditions and an example.

Studied characteristics of expertise in situations where judges deal with multidimensional information. Psychometric criteria were advocated as being indicative of expert judgment: (a) Experts should tend to cluster variables in the same way when identifying and organizing cues; (b) expert judgment should be highly reliable (intrajudge reliability), show both convergent and discriminant validity, and be relatively free of judgmental bias when measuring cues; and (c) experts should weight and combine information in similar ways. These criteria were applied to data obtained when 3 medical pathologists rated the amount of histological signs in biopsy slides. Results show that these experts generally met the criteria, although they did not seem to weigh information similarly. (20 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Discerning the future of early childhood intervention.

Examines the recent history of early childhood intervention efforts. Major views and principles that guided the formation of intervention programs in the 1960's and 1970's are considered: the deficit model, the focus on intelligence, the critical period formulation, and the overriding spirit of optimism. A major focus is the Head Start program and lessons learned from its development. Issues involved in evaluating intervention programs are discussed, including the nature of appropriate measures, timing, and persons to be assessed. Intensive and structured programs are compared with ones following a looser family-support approach. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Screening and early intervention for COPD

Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is on the increase. Therapeutic improvement is limited by the irreversible nature of lung tissue loss. Basic lung function tests can detect early loss of function, which may facilitate smoking cessation and other interventions likely to delay disease progression. The advent of inexpensive portable spirometers promises to permit such testing in the primary care physician's office.     

Trainees with professional competency problems: Preparing trainers for difficult but necessary conversations.

Trainees with professional competency problems, also called problems of professional competence (PPC), are frequently encountered by faculty and supervisors and often are challenging for trainers and educational/training systems. This article underscores the importance of trainers addressing graduate students and interns with PPC for whom regular summative and formative feedback has not been effective by engaging in the often difficult, but necessary, conversations as a first step in many remediation processes. These conversations are framed as an ethical responsibility and suggested as a core competency for trainers. Attention is paid to the myriad barriers that trainers often encounter in engaging in difficult conversations, including personal factors, training setting and systems issues, and the relationship between personal and contextual factors. Strategies are offered with regard to overcoming these barriers. In addition, recommended steps and tools for effective difficult conversations are provided. Implications of this work for trainers and training programs are noted. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

On the enduring and substantial influence of Carl Rogers' not-quite necessary nor sufficient conditions.

Carl Rogers' 1957 paper (see record 2007-14639-002) is arguably the most successful of his many attempts to clarify and render testable the ideas behind client-centered therapy. While each of the conditions that Rogers postulated has been linked to positive therapeutic outcome, taken together they have never been conclusively proved (nor disproved) to be either necessary or sufficient for positive outcome. Nevertheless, the overriding "take-home" message in this classic paper--that the therapist's attitude and caring presence is critical for therapeutic success--is one that has had virtually unparalleled influence in every segment of the psychotherapeutic community. Clinical and theoretical innovations in the psychoanalytic community serve as examples of the following proposition: that Rogers' concepts, while accepted more than ever by a remarkably wide variety of psychotherapists, remain essentially unacknowledged as originating with him or in the tradition of humanistic and client-centered therapy. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

My personal reactions to Rogers (1957): The facilitative but neither necessary nor sufficient conditions of therapeutic personality change.

In this brief commentary regarding Rogers' (1957) paper (see record 2007-14639-002), I comment on Rogers' statement about personality change, the six conditions, and the resulting hypotheses. I conclude that the construct of therapeutic personality change needs to be reformulated to include interpersonal changes, and that the six conditions can facilitate therapeutic personality change, but are neither necessary nor sufficient for therapeutic personality change. I also suggest that several components from current common factors models (e.g., building expectations of change, encouraging corrective experiences) and a consideration of boundaries need to be included into a reformulation of Rogers' propositions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Relative efficacy of a brief motivational intervention for college student drinkers.

The authors evaluated the efficacy of Brief Alcohol Screening and Intervention for College Students (BASICS; L. A. Dimeff, J. S. Baer, D. R. Kivlahan, & G. A. Marlatt, 1999), a single session of drinking-related feedback intended to reduce heavy drinking and related harm. 84 college student drinkers (N?=?99) were assigned to BASICS, an educational intervention, or an assessment-only control group. At 3 months post-intervention, there were no overall significant group differences, but heavier drinking BASICS participants showed greater reductions in weekly alcohol consumption and binge drinking than did heavier drinking control and education participants. At 9 months, heavier drinking BASICS participants again showed the largest effect sizes. BASICS participants evaluated the intervention more favorably than did education participants. This study suggests that BASICS may be more efficacious than educational interventions for heavier drinking college students. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevention and early intervention for anxiety disorders: A controlled trial.

The Queensland Early Intervention and Prevention of Anxiety Project evaluated the effectiveness of a cognitive-behavioral and family-based group intervention for preventing the onset and development of anxiety problems in children. A total of 1,786 7- to 14-year-olds were screened for anxiety problems using teacher nominations and children's self-report. After recruitment and diagnostic interviews, 128 children were selected and assigned to a 10-week school-based child- and parent-focused psychosocial intervention or to a monitoring group. Both groups showed improvements immediately postintervention. At 6 months follow-up, the improvement maintained in the intervention group only, reducing the rate of existing anxiety disorder and preventing the onset of new anxiety disorders. Overall, the results showed that anxiety problems and disorders identified using child and teacher reports can be successfully targeted through an early intervention school-based program. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

"Marital quality and mother-child and father-child interactions with school-aged children": Correction to Brody and Pellegrini.

Reports an error in "Marital quality and mother-child and father-child interactions with school-aged children" by Gene H. Brody, Anthony D. Pellegrini and Irving E. Sigel (Developmental Psychology, 1986[May], Vol 22[3], 291-296). In the article, the second author's name was misspelled in the issue's table of contents, title of the article, and page headings of the article. The name appears correctly in this erratum. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 1986-24288-001.) Mother-child and father-child teaching interactions of 60 families (parents aged 31-37 yrs, children aged 5.5-7.5 yrs) were videotaped, from which frequency counts of efficacious teaching behaviors were obtained for each parent-child teaching interaction. Parents completed the Scale of Marriage Problems. A dyad score of marital problems was formed by adding the husbands' and wives' scores, and a 2-level variable of marital problems was then derived by performing a median split on the marital problem dyad scores. Normative comparisons suggested that the couples whose scores fell below the median were characterized as nondistressed and the couples whose scores fell above the median were characterized as slightly discontented with their marital relationship. Few differences in teaching styles were found between mothers and fathers in the nondistressed group. Mothers in the slightly discontented group used more questions, positive feedback, informational feedback, and verbal task management and intruded less often into their children's learning effort than did the fathers in this group. Fathers with increased reports of marital problems used less positive feedback and were more intrusive; mothers in this group appeared to compensate for a less-than-satisfactory marriage by being more involved in teaching their children. In turn, children of slightly discontented mothers were more actively responsive to their teaching behaviors than were children of nondistressed mothers. (27 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Prevention and early intervention for depression in adolescence and early adult life

We present a retrospective study in order to analyze the abnormalities noted on MRI in 27 cases of myelopathy excluding tumors, explored between 1994 and 1996. The different lesions were: Multiple Sclerosis (n = 11), Spondylotic myelopathy (n = 3), Neurosarcoidosis (n = 4), CMV Myelitis (n = 1), Radiation Myelopathy (n = 1), Spinal Dural Arteriovenous Fistula (n = 1), Intramedullary Cysticercosis (n = 1), Infarct (n = 5). The exams have been made on 1.5 Tesla Magnetom Vision Siemens or GE Signa machine. All patients have had axial and sagittal views with coronal complementary study in 4 cases. Sequences were Spin echo pT1 (TR: 560, TE: 12), Fast Spin echo pT2 (TR: 3 500, TE: 99 or 128), and gradient echo pT2 (TR: 700, TE: 22, Angle: 25 degrees). Intravenous injection of Gadolinium has been made in 16 cases (0.1 mmol/kg). We have studied the presence or not of a signal abnormality in pT1 and/or in pT2, of enhancement, and its topography (cervical, thoracic, lumbar). We classified lesions in central and/or peripheral and according, to their topography in anterior, posterior or lateral type. The form has been classified in four types (nodular, triangular, "pen like", plage). Extension in transversal (superior or inferior to half medullary surface) and cranio-caudal directions (inferior to one vertebrae, between one and two vertebrae, superior to two vertebrae) has been also classified. Others intra or perimedullar and encephalic abnormalities have been noted. We analyzed the results for each pathology and underline the essential diagnosis criteria noted (low cranio-caudal and transversal extension with frequent triangular form of Multiple Sclerosis lesions, frequent suggestive abnormalities of the encephale (82%) in Multiple Sclerosis, intra and perimedullar enhancement with deformations of the surface of the spinal cord in Sarcoidosis' lesions, extended dorsolumbar "pen like" lesions with inconstant enhancement of infarcts, focal plage lesions centered on degenerative changes of the spinal canal in spondylotic myelopathy, bony lipomatous involution in front of intramedullary radiation plage lesion...) and also review the literature and confront their results to it. We insist on the difficulties in classifying myelopathy (radio-clinical terminology discordances, identical signal abnormalities frequently caused by different illness, necessity to compare to pathologic results). We propose a MRI study protocol that should interest the whole spinal cord and comport T1 weighted without and after gadolinium sequences, T2 weighted sequences (with always a gradient echo type). 2 or better 3 different plans should be made. A complementary study of the brain by MRI is often useful. Clinical study, biology, evolution, MRI and when possible pathology all are necessary to better understand myelopathy's mechanisms.