Showing papers in "Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology in 1980"

Psychotherapy and Religious Values

Abstract: This is reprinted from th Journal of Consulting and Clincal Psychology 1980 Vol. 48, No. 1, 95-105. It is an abridged sythesis of several lectures he delivered in symposia on the outcome of therapy Psychotherapy sponsored by the Institute for the Study of Human Knowledge, the University of Southern California, College of Continuing Education and Psychology Department, the Albert Einstein Medical College, and the European Conference of the Scoiety fro Psychotherapy Research (delivered in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York and Oxford, England, in January, February, April and July 1979, respectively). Brother Bergin expresses gratitude to Victor Brown, Truman Madsen, Spencer Palmer, Jeff Bradshaw, and Karl White for their helpful suggestions. He also indicates that he does not take credit for these ideas, but recognizes that they are inherent in the Gospel. He also expresses the feeling that the reason his lectures have been so widely and favorbly received is that so many people everywhere respect these values. We are grateful to him for expressing them so clearly and eloquently!

Assessment of childhood depression.

Abstract: The psychometric properties of the newly developed Peer Nomination Inventory of Depression (PNID) were examined within a cross-validation model. Subjects were 452 boys and 492 girls whose combined mean age was 10.24 years (SD = .78). Consisting of 13 depression, 4 happiness, and 2 popularity items, the PNID was group administered to the children, who were distributed among 61 classes of 10 public schools. Self-ratings, teacher ratings, pupil personnel records, and census tract data were also obtained. Reliability assessed through coefficient alpha, item-total correlations, test-retest coefficients, and interrater agreement proved highly acceptable. Content validity was determined by experts' judgments. Measures of concurrent validity comprised of self-ratings and teacher ratings were significantly correlated with the PNID, as were 13 of the 15 variables used to assess construct validity. Subjects with high PNID scores exhibited depressed intellectual functioning, poor social behavior, and diminished ebullience. They perceived control over events as external and had poor school attendance. The purpose of the present study was to explore the feasibility of constructing a reliable and valid peer nomination technique to assess symptoms of depression in a normal population of prepubertal children. No standardized assessment method exists that can be used in research addressing the epidemiological and longitudinal questions regarding these symptoms. The most salient questions concerning

Measurement of the impact of psychotherapy sessions.

Abstract: The Session Evaluation Questionnaire (SEQ), which consists of 22 bipolaradjective scales in semantic differential format, was completed by boththerapists and their adult clients following 113 individual psychotherapysessions. Factor analysis of session ratings (the first half of the SEQ) showedtwo distinct factors, called depth/value and smoothness/ease, in both clientand therapist data. Clients and therapists tended to agree on their session'sposition on these two dimensions. Clients' postsession feelings (measured bythe second half of the SEQ) were more positive following smooth, easysessions; therapists' postsession feelings were more positive following deep,valuable sessions. The SEQ is proposed as a measure of session impact andhence as a useful bridge between psychotherapy process and outcome.Whereas direct comparisons of specific interaction processes with long-termoutcome are seldom feasible, comparisons of process measures with theimpact of single sessions and comparisons of the impact of many sessionswith measures of eventual outcome are feasible and may permit in-ferences about which interventions or techniques contribute to therapeuticbenefit.

Classroom Observation Code for Hyperactive Children: A Replication of Validity

Abstract: This study was designed to replicate the validity of a modified State University of New York at Stony Brook classroom observation code to distinguish normal children from children evaluated as hyperactive by their teachers. All previously obtained code results were cross-validated: The code category cutoff scores clearly distinguished hyperactive from normal children; the combination of categories into dyads yielded better discrimination between hyperactive and normals than did single categories; the behavioral dyad of interference and off task was the most discriminating. Other findings pertinent to the evaluation of hyperactive children were replicated. Namely, age was found to be inversely related to level of observed classroom behavior, and hyperactive children had greater day-to-day within-subject variability than did normals. In addition, no observer effect on the children's behavior was found. This replication gives strong support to the reliability and discriminative validity of the code and documents its utility in studies of hyperactive children.