A preliminary consideration of cue-exposure,response-prevention treatment for pathological gambling behaviour: two case studies

Cue-exposure, response-prevention, a promising treatment for cigarette-smoking, substance abuse, obsessive-compulsive disorder, etc. has not been fully utilized as a treatment for pathological gambling. Two case-studies, modelled on work by R. Self (1989), with cigarette smoking behaviour, report on an active and thorough application of this treatment to pathological gambling. In both cases, self-report of gambling behaviour and urges to gamble in any situation were found to decrease substantially. Outcome differences between participants were discussed with reference to different levels of pathological gambling as measured by the South Oaks Gambling Screen. It was concluded that cue-exposure, response-prevention should be given more serious consideration as a treatment approach for pathological gambling.     

Organizational diagnosis in practice: a cross-classification analysis using the DEL-technique

In this paper, an empirical research about organizational diagnosis in The Netherlands is presented. The main research question is whether the usage of the kind of conceptual organizational diagnosis model and computer support in diagnosing problem situations is contingent upon background characteristics of management consultants and their agencies. The DEL-technique was applied to test a number of propositions among 72 respondents of a random sample of 300 Dutch consulting agencies. The results indicate that size of an agency, educational specialization, and work experience are important characteristics with respect to their usage of conceptual organizational diagnosis models. Computer support was not found to be dependent on management consultant and agency characteristics in the specific hypothesized relationships.     

Media Exposure, Aggression and Prosocial Behavior During Early Childhood: A Longitudinal Study

Preschool children (N = 78) enrolled in multi‐informant, multi‐method longitudinal study were participants in a study designed to investigate the role of media exposure (i.e., violent and educational) on concurrent and future aggressive and prosocial behavior. Specifically, the amount of media exposure and the nature of the content was used to predict concurrent and future physical, verbal and relational aggression as well as prosocial behavior for girls and boys. This two‐year longitudinal study found that media exposure predicted various subtypes of aggression and prosocial behavior. These findings are qualified by the gender of the focal child. That is, parental reports of media exposure were associated with relational aggression for girls and physical aggression for boys at school. Ways in which these findings extend our understanding of the role of media during early childhood are discussed.     

Siblings of individuals with first-episode psychosis: understanding their experiences and needs

The growth of early intervention in psychosis services (EIPS) has prompted needed research to provide a robust evidence base to underpin practice. The typical service model embraces key psychosocial interventions, including family interventions. A literature review revealed a number of relevant studies that recognized the role of siblings in families affected by severe mental illness or mental impairment, but little was found about the impact of first-episode psychosis on siblings. To address this apparent oversight, we conducted a study to gain an understanding of sibling experiences. Ten siblings (ages 16 to 30) with a brother or sister diagnosed with first-episode psychosis took part in individual semi-structured interviews. The key findings were grouped in regard to emotional impact, relationships in the family, and siblings' roles and coping patterns. The study also revealed that families are able to identify positive gains out of a fundamentally negative experience.     

Children's Moral Reasoning Regarding Physical and Relational Aggression

Elementary school children's moral reasoning concerning physical and relational aggression was explored. Fourth and fifth graders rated physical aggression as more wrong and harmful than relational aggression but tended to adopt a moral orientation about both forms of aggression. Gender differences in moral judgments of aggression were observed, with girls rating physical and relational aggression as more wrong and relational aggression as more harmful than boys. In addition, girls were more likely to adopt a moral orientation when judging physical and relational aggression and girls more often judged relational aggression than physical aggression from the moral domain. Finally, moral reasoning about aggression was associated with physically and relationally aggressive behavior. Considered together, the results indicate that children tend to adopt a moral orientation about aggression, but that they nonetheless differentiate between physical and relational aggression in their moral judgments.     

Further Evaluation of the Accuracy of Managerial Prediction of Employee Preference

Previous research (i.e., Wilder, Rost, &; McMahon, 2007 Wilder, D. A., Rost, K. and McMahon, M. 2007. The accuracy of managerial prediction of employee preference: A brief report. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 27(2): 1–14. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) has suggested that managers perform poorly when predicting items and activities which their employees state that they might like to earn as part of performance improvement programs. The purpose of the current study was to replicate the earlier study conducted by Wilder et al. (2007 Wilder, D. A., Rost, K. and McMahon, M. 2007. The accuracy of managerial prediction of employee preference: A brief report. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 27(2): 1–14. [Taylor &; Francis Online], [Web of Science ®] , [Google Scholar]) with a larger and more diverse sample of managers and employees. One hundred employees and 15 managers were asked to rank order a list of items/activities they thought their employees would most prefer to be incorporated into a performance improvement plan. Next, employee preference for these same items was directly assessed using an employee reinforcer survey. Kendall rank-order correlation coefficients were used to compare the results of the managerial rank with the employee reinforcer survey. Correlations ranged from ?.6 to 1, with a mean of .25.     

Involving People with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities in Social Work Education: Building Inclusive Practice

Abstract

Service user and carer engagement is a foundational requirement of social work education. Despite this, questions remain about how diverse experiences are represented and who might be excluded from involvement. This paper focusses on one group of people who it is suggested are excluded from involvement, people with profound and multiple learning disabilities. Evidence is presented which demonstrates the extent to which this group have been marginalised and excluded from processes of involvement. The paper then provides a case study of one universities’ experience of developing work in this area, when a man with profound and multiple learning disabilities was commissioned to design and deliver specialist teaching for a group of qualifying social work students. We argue that the main barrier to inclusive involvement for people with profound and multiple learning disabilities is the attitudes and assumption of others about what they are capable of. We demonstrate how involvement in social work education helps to address these barriers by challenging the assumptions of students, the academy and society more broadly.