Constructing case vignettes for evaluating clinical judgment: An empirical model

Studies of clinical judgment are frequently based on analogue research, which uses experimenter-controlled stimuli to elicit judgments. The stimuli may be live models, audio- or video-taped models, or written case vignettes describing a clinical encounter. A major challenge of analogue research is to construct stimuli that maintain a balance between experimental rigor and clinical reality. An ideal set of case vignettes, for example, will contain summaries that resemble actual case histories and that are varied only on the specific clinical factors being studied. The model presented here demonstrates the empirical development of written case analogues in which several variables are studied simultaneously. The model can be adapted to any setting in which professionals are required to make judgments or decisions about individuals. The vignettes described here have been used in a variety of clinical settings to assess the reliability of clinicians'judgments and to aid in evaluation and program planning.     

Questions and Answers

This paper applies some of the current methodology and thinking of operations research to an analysis of the cumulative flow of water in the bathtub. The analysis presented herein is an extension of a paper that recently appeared in this journal, viz. Operations Research at the Kitchen Sink and Other Applications.     

'School was just a nightmare': childhood abuse and neglect and school experiences

Children who have experienced abuse display significant difficulties in dealing with all aspects of the school environment. This paper examines the experiences at school of a group of respondents who had been subject to abuse and neglect during their childhood and adolescence. A qualitative research approach, utilizing in-depth interviews, was used to explore their perspectives and insights in relation to their experiences. The findings of this study show how the various forms of abuse and neglect experienced in their families had consequences for them in the school setting. A further important finding was a lack of professional student welfare support for the interviewees at school. Implications for prevention and intervention approaches in relation to both policy and service delivery are outlined.     

Domestic Abuse Against Elder Women and Perceived Barriers to Help-Seeking

The study's (n = 447) purposes were to (1) describe relationships of abuser behavior to elder women's perception of barriers to help-seeking; (2) compare fit of model to participants' levels of abuse, race-ethnicity, age, and gender and relationship of identified close other; and (3) determine extent to which the model differentiated relationship of abuser to participant and level of abuse. Analyses identified six factors contributing to the overall barrier score, accounting for 84% of total variance (χ²/df = 1.527, CFI = .989, RMSEA = .034), including three internal and two external factors and a single abuser behavior factor that were invariant across participant characteristic; however, covariances did differ.     

Sexual motivation

We discuss the long‐standing “sex‐as‐drive‐or‐appetite” controversy—whether sexual desires may arise on their own, from internal states, or whether they only arise when attractive stimuli are presented. The issue is approached through integration of sexual motivation within an umbrella theory of motivational systems that closely follows currently dominant incentive motivation theories. In this formulation sexual motivation, like hunger or thirst, emerges from an interaction of external incentives and internal states. Deprivation acts to enhance the palatability of incentives but does not create an internal goad. That is, there is no aversive internal sensation associated with sexual deprivation. Through this perspective we integrate sex with findings from other motivational systems such as hunger or thirst and clarify otherwise puzzling phenomena: why orgasm and sexual motivation can be decoupled; how female sexual motivation arises and is similar to males'; how novel stimulation affects sexual motivation; and why measured sexual motivation seems to vary with experimental technique. Sexual self‐stimulation is accounted for under this model. Predictions are generated for the outcomes of both human and animal experiments. Finally, practical implications are discussed.     

Development and Validation of the Social Worker’s Attitudes Toward Disability Scale

Interdisciplinary doctoral education is being strongly encouraged by government agencies (e.g., the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health) and universities. This position is predicated on the idea that integrating the perspectives of different disciplines is necessary for developing meaningful answers to complicated social problems. The purpose of this brief teaching note is to describe the development of a new interdisciplinary PhD program at Tulane University. The program is called City, Community & Culture, and it confers degrees in social work, sociology, and urban studies.     

Work-related episodic memories can increase or decrease motivation and psychological health at work

ABSTRACT

Research on the psychological mechanisms underlying employee motivation and psychological health at work has been limited to general and chronic workplace factors, such as job strenuousness or management style. In two studies, we examine how unique and time-specific work life events encoded as episodic memories can influence employee motivation and psychological health at work as a function of how these events are recalled having been experienced in terms of need satisfaction. In Study 1, participants described a self-defining work-related memory and rated it for need satisfaction. They also completed scales of need satisfaction at work, self-determined motivation, and positive and negative indicators of psychological health (i.e. work satisfaction and burnout). In Study 2, participants completed the same tasks and scales, but they did it again two years later. Results revealed that need satisfaction in self-defining work-related memories was associated with self-determined motivation and indicators of psychological health at work, over and above demographics (age, sex, weekly hours worked, education) and general perceptions of need satisfaction at work. Moreover, it predicted increases in self-determined motivation and in work satisfaction and decreases in burnout over two years. The present findings underscore the importance of considering unique work life events encoded in memory.