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Many special education students have the knowledge but are unable or unprepared to demonstrate that knowledge while taking a test. © 1988, SAGE Publications. All rights reserved.

This paper describes an approach to cognitive assessment that involves a synthesis of the traditional psychometric approach and the more recent information-processing approaches. In this combined approach, psychometric tests arc supplemented by tasks adapted from information-processing research. The paper focuses on the use of the approach with disabled readers, although the approach may be generalized to many different populations. The Test of Syllable and Phoneme Counting, a measure of awareness of the sound structure of speech, is described, as an example of an information-processing task that would be useful with younger disabled readers. Guidelines for using information-processing measures are also discussed. © 1986 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.

This paper reconsiders the significance of the Emmanuel movement, a pre- Freudian psychotherapeutic system founded by Dr. Elwood Worcester as a method of church-sponsored healing. Its significance lies in three areas: (1) Historically, it was a popular effort by Protestant clergy to claim religious authority over psychological and psychosomatic ailments, a struggle that the medical profession eventually won almost completely. (2) The Emmanuel movement was an effort to combat the scientific materialism and medical somaticism of its time, including the excessive use of drugs. It aimed at greater individual control over emotional wellbeing through a self-help movement taught by religious leaders using some Christian ideas. Significant parallels can be found with present-day holistic health efforts. (3) Theoretically, Worcester's conception of the "person" is of interest as an effort to construct a nonreductionist view of the interactions of body, mind, and spirit. © 1984 Institutes of Religion and Health.

Historically, social workers have been aware of the power of group resources and the importance of networking for their clients and for themselves as professionals. This article is the outgrowth of a collaboration paper presented by the authors at the Association of Baccalaureate Social Work Program Directors Annual Conference on September 22, 1986 in San Antonio, Texas. Four separate social work education programs within a state university system formed an informal collaborative association to address common concerns, develop strategies to enhance resources and to foster mutual support. The context, developmental process, barriers, activities, issues, outcomes and benefits of the collaborative association are described. © 1989 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study examined the association among suicide attempts, parental alcoholism, psychopathology and drinking history in a sample of hospitalized alcoholics. Suicide attempters were found to have multiple psychiatric diagnoses (e.g., depression, antisocial personality disorder and substance abuse) and more severe psychiatric symptoms than nonattempters. Alcoholic suicide attempters also tended to have a parental history of alcoholism and began abusing alcohol at an early age. Alcohol abuse symptoms during the month before, and 6 month before, the current hospitalization were generally similar for suicide attempters and nonattempters. Clinical implications of the findings are discussed.

The present study assessed the presence of testing effects arising from the repeated administration of both the Beck and Zung depression scales to a group of 60 inpatient alcoholics. Thirty-seven men and 23 women were randomly assigned to one of three groups and administered the depression scales on one, two or three occasions, in successive weeks of treatment. Although the between group comparisons of initial test administration did not indicate a true change in depression, a within group comparison of initial with subsequent test administrations indicated a clear improvement in depression scores on both scales. Apparently the result of the reactive effects of testing, the within group differences could easily mislead a researcher into believing depression was alleviated when in fact it was not. This sizeable testing effect has obvious implications for studies which repeatedly assess depression. © 1987 Medical Council on Alcoholism.

This paper analyzes the sources of strain between the professions of medicine and social work. The two professions are compared in relation to (1) the organization and socialization process of professional training; (2) perspectives on patient care, illness and role of the health care professional; (3) attitudes toward knowledge and data; (4) attitudes toward and preparation for teamwork; (5) perspectives on the role of the patient; (6) perceptions of social work’s function. © 1985 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

Genetic counselling represents a new and important health service, but little is known about how the clients of genetic clinics actually experience and view the genetic counselling process. This paper reports on the evaluations made by clients of a genetics clinic and their recommendations for ways to improve and expand this service. In their comments, clients stressed the need for more time and individual attention from genetic counsellors, additional follow-up and supportive counselling, and increased efforts to educate the general public about birth defects. Their recommendations are discussed in terms of the implications for developing and improving genetic counselling services.

In three experiments, pigeons chose between two alternatives that differed in the probability of reinforcement and the delay to reinforcement. A peck at a red key led to a delay of 5 s and then a possible reinforcer. A peck at a green key led to an adjusting delay and then a certain reinforcer. This delay was adjusted over trials so as to estimate an indifference point, or a duration at which the two alternatives were chosen about equally often. In Experiments 1 and 2, the intertrial interval was varied across conditions, and these variations had no systematic effects on choice. In Experiment 3, the stimuli that followed a choice of the red key differed across conditions. In some conditions, a red houselight was presented for 5 s after each choice of the red key. In other conditions, the red houselight was present on reinforced trials but not on nonreinforced trials. Subjects exhibited greater preference for the red key in the latter case. The results were used to evaluate four different theories of probabilistic reinforcement. The results were most consistent with the view that the value or effectiveness of a probabilistic reinforcer is determined by the total time per reinforcer spent in the presence of stimuli associated with the probabilistic alternative. According to this view, probabilistic reinforcers are analogous to reinforcers that are delivered after variable delays. 1989 Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior

The effect of vasopressin on memory of a brightness discrimination reward task was investigated in 20 male Sprague-Dawley rats. Two measures of retention were used: resistance to extinction and savings scores on a reacquisition task given 45 days after the completion of extinction training. The effect of the peptide on both memory consolidation and retrieval was assessed. There were two major findings: (a) The peptide enhanced memory consolidation of the task whether measured after a short time interval (6 days) or after a long time interval (45 days after completion of extinction training) using a measure of trials to relearn the task, and (b) the peptide had no effect on memory retrieval. These results were compared to those of other studies designed to access memory consolidation and retrieval on appetitive tasks. The mechanisms of the peptide's effect on memory was briefly discussed with respect to three theories on the subject. This study extends the vasopressin research on memory consolidation by suggesting that it pertains to appetitive as well as to aversive tasks.

The study compared 71 patients diagnosed as schizophrenic or within the schizophrenia spectrum according to the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-II) with 66 patients who received similar diagnoses according to the third edition of the same manual (DSM-III). On measures of premorbid competence and role orientation, DSM-II and DSM-III schizophrenic patients obtained comparable scores. The DSM-III patients with schizophrenic versus schizophrenia spectrum diagnoses also obtained comparable scores on these measures. The gender differences in premorbid competence and role orientation that have consistently characterized DSM-II schizophrenics continued to characterize DSM-III schizophrenic and schizophrenia spectrum patients. The results suggest that findings previously obtained with DSM-II schizophrenics concerning premorbid competence and role orientation can be generalized to DSM-III schizophrenics. © 1987 American Psychological Association.

The Mini‐Mult and MMPI were administered in random order to 60 blind male veterans admitted to a residential rehabilitation program. Mini‐Mult scores predicted the presence or absence of MMPI pathology in 81.7% of the cases. Correlations between the individual Mini‐Mult and MMPI scales were significant at the p < .01 level, but not of sufficient magnitude to permit their interchangeability or to allow for profile diagnosis on the basis of Mini‐Mult scores. Analysis of the false negatives raises questions about the clinical significance of an abnormal MMPI in the population studied. The results support the value of the Mini‐Mult as a screening device, but not as a substitute for a detailed psychological assessment of the blind. Copyright © 1986 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company

The relation between premorbid social competence and outcome was examined in 448 (228 male and 220 female) first-admission, nonschizophrenic, state-hospital patients. For both sexes, higher social competence was related to more favorable outcome as reflected in shorter initial hospitalizations and shorter rehospitalizations. Consistent with a developmental formulation, these results provide further evidence that the relation between premorbid competence and outcome is not unique to schizophrenia but can be found for patients of both sexes across a range of diagnoses. © 1986 American Psychological Association.

Age at first hospitalization, premorbid social competence, and developmental categorizations of symptomatology were examined in 228 male and 220 female patients in three diagnostic categories: Major affective disorder, neuroses, and personality disorder. High social competence patients were older at first hospitalization than low competence individuals. Younger first admission patients showed more symptoms in the action category and in the role orientation of turning against others. Older patients more frequently displayed symptoms of the thought variety and of turning against the self. Gender differences in age at first hospitalization were not found. With respect to all developmental variables examined, the results suggest that a broader view of prognosis proposed in research with schizophrenic patients is applicable to nonschizophrenic groups. © 1985 by The Williams & Wilkins Co.

The relation between premorbid social competence and length of initial hospitalization was examined in 381 male state hospital patients in four diagnostic categories: Schizophrenic, affective reaction, psychoneurotic, and personality disorder. A significant relation was discovered between diagnosis and outcome, with schizophrenic patients having the longest and personality disorder patients the shortest lengths of initial hospitalization. Premorbid social competence was related to outcome, as assessed both by length of initial hospitalization, and by whether the patient was rehospitalized. These two outcome measures were found to be positively related, thus supporting the developmental formulation that premorbid social competence is indicative generally of prognosis. The findings were employed to generate the inference that patients at differing levels of premorbid social competence require different treatment modalities. © 1981 by The Williams & Wilkins Co.