David V. Perkins

Gainful Employment Reduces Stigma Toward People Recovering from Schizophrenia

Stigma impedes the social integration of persons recovering from psychiatric disability, especially those with criminal histories. Little is known about factors that lessen this stigma. Four hundred and four adults listened to one of four vignettes describing a 25-year-old male with schizophrenia and responded to a standard set of items measuring social distance. The individual who was gainfully employed (vs. unemployed), or who had a prior misdemeanor (vs. felony) criminal offense, elicited significantly less stigma. Employment may destigmatize a person coping with both psychiatric disability and a criminal record. Mental health services should encourage paid employment and other paths to community integration.

Cognitive transformation as a marker of resilience

Individuals often report positive, transformative changes in response to adversity. Cognitive transformation involves a turning point in a persons life characterized by: (1) the recognition that coping with adversity resulted in new opportunities; and, (2) the reevaluation of the experience from one that was primarily traumatic or threatening to one that is growth-promoting. Cognitive transformation often signifies enhanced adaptation to adverse circumstances, and thus, is a marker of resilience. The present study examined the relationship of cognitive transformation to indicators of resilience among 35 acutely bereaved young adults and a nonbereaved comparison group. Findings strongly supported the hypothesis that transformation predicts resilience, and may reduce ones risk trajectory to enhance adaptation. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for research on resilience, and on recovery from acute or chronic adverse circumstances, including addiction.

Program evaluation from an ecological perspective: supported employment services for persons with serious psychiatric disabilities.

Results of large-scale program evaluations supplement other kinds of evidence regarding interventions for psychiatric disabilities. This paper describes an ongoing 11-year effort to evaluate supported employment services provided to persons with serious psychiatric disabilities by community mental health centers in one Midwestern state. Using an ecological perspective, the evaluation emphasizes multiple kinds of products and the careful development and maintenance of stakeholder relationships. Data from over 4600 individuals in supported employment programs demonstrate that services are effective and efficient, that these employees and employers are satisfied, and that stable employment may sharply reduce the overall costs of mental health care.

Behavior setting theory and community psychology: An analysis and critique

Although Barkers “behavior setting theory” (Barker, 1968; Price, 1976) is widely cited for its potential applications to community psychology, critical examination of this conception reveals significant limitations in its operational definition of “community” and in the extent to which predictions regarding direct influences on behavior have been validated in natural settings. From the perspective of community psychology there is also reason to question behavior setting theorys fundamental emphasis on the structural form of settings rather than on the functions they fulfill for their participants. Adopting new units of analysis and placing greater emphasis on the intended and unintended satisfactions that settings produce will make behavior setting theory more relevant to several problems in community psychology, including community assessment, person-environment interaction, and community change.

An assessment of physicians attitudes toward community mental health

AbstractThe present study was an attempt to assess systematically the attitudes held by physicians in one county in northern Ohio toward the community mental health center in that county and toward community mental health in general. The results indicated a very wide range of activity in and attitudes toward community mental health. It was found that this variation was not a function of medical specialty or geographic location. Physicians held attitudes toward community mental health less favorable than one might expect on the basis of data from other populations sampled, and they were not involved in the community mental health programs.

Interpersonal reactions to a depressed, schizotypal, or normal individual : an attributional perspective

Abstract Research on Coynes interpersonal theory of depression has not adequately examined the attributional process between depressives and others that produces rejection of the depressive and negative mood induction in the other. In the present study, male and female subjects viewed one of six videotapes portraying a normal, depressed, or schizotypal female who recently had either been fired from her job for chronic lateness or permanently laid-off when her plant was sold. Depressed targets were rejected more than normals, but not more than schizotypals, and female subjects rejected all targets more than did male subjects. Schizotypal targets elicited higher reported anxiety in subjects, while depressed targets elicited more fatigue and the depressed-fired individual the most sadness. As a whole, these results provide qualified support for an attributional view of interpersonal reactions to depression and other conditions.

A Behavior Setting Assessment for community programs and residences

Using the concept of person-environment fit to determine the effectiveness of residential and program placements for chronic psychiatric clients requires systematic and concrete information about these community environments in addition to information about the clients themselves. The conceptual and empirical development of the Behavior Setting Assessment (BSA), a measure based on Barkers behavior setting theory, is described. Use of the BSA with 28 residences (117 settings) and 11 programs (176 settings) from two community support systems demonstrated that all 293 settings assessed could be described and analyzed in terms of differences in their demands for self-care skills, food preparation and consumption, verbal/cognitive responses, and solitary or group activities. The BSA is an efficient measure for obtaining specific, concrete information about the behavioral demands of important community environments.

Bayesian inference from qualitative and quantitative data in program evaluation

Current practice in program evaluation relies strongly on quantitative measurement and classical (sampling-theory) statistical inference, methods that invariably fail to use all of the relevant information available to the evaluator. The use of Bayesian methods to combine inferences from quantitative and nonquantitative data is described and illustrated. The reporting of results based on multiple distributions that express contrasting assessments of prior information is recommended in order to acknowledge and control for differences in subjective points of view. Advantages of using Bayesian inference in program evaluation include the possibility of generating inferences when little or no quantitative data are available, its applicability to evaluation at all stages of program development, and its requirement that evaluators be explicit regarding the influence of qualitative information and alternative points of view in the evaluation of social programs.

Using Live Drama to Promote Engagement in a Large Introductory Psychology Class

Many college instructors struggle to engage students in large introductory lecture classes. One way to facilitate engagement is to involve students directly or indirectly in the classroom teaching and learning process (Yoder & Hochevar 2005), which can be challenging in large lecture hall classes with hundreds of students. We used process drama (Heathcote 1984), where students act out roles to better understand and remember a situation or event, to stimulate emotions, and create suspense (Cherney 2011; Lowman 1995) in students taking a large introductory course. The specific topic was “family sculpting,” where each family member physically arranges the family using posture and spatial closeness/distance to express visually the different emotional relationships within the family (Sherman & Fredman 1986). Kolb’s (1984) fourstage experiential learning model guided our activity: Participants role-played different family members (concrete experience), shared their perspectives in small groups and then with the class (reflective observation), wrote a short essay on the role they most identify with (abstract conceptualization), and shared their perspectives with each other (active experimentation). To evaluate process drama effectiveness, two sections of the course, taught by different instructors, included identical information about family therapy. One of those sections (process drama section) included a demonstration of the family sculpting technique, scripted with hypothetical role play information. In this section, some students volunteered to play familial roles on stage while the rest of the students comprised the audience. No demonstration occurred in the control section. Multiple-choice test questions confirmed that students in the two sections were equally likely (58% in each section) to know that an emphasis on relationships is a distinguishing feature of family therapy. However, students in the process drama section were significantly more likely than those in the control section to identify family sculpting as a technique for arranging people in ways that symbolize emotional relationships. Eighty-six percent of these students demonstrated knowledge retention four weeks later. In addition, preand post-demonstration essays from the process drama section showed that, after the demonstration, students understood generational perspectives, were less stereotypical in their family role expectations, recognized the legitimacy of others’ perspectives, and personally identified with the experience. The family sculpting demonstration promoted engagement while successfully teaching content knowledge to a large, diverse group of introductory students. All students played a significant role in the experience, either as performers or attentive audience members. Performing in a large setting enhanced the dramatic effects, turning the disadvantage of a lecture hall into a pedagogical advantage. Given that such active learning is viewed by many authorities as more beneficial than lecture-only teaching (Prince 2004), we urge instructors to find their own ways of bringing drama into the classroom. Through applying Kolb’s (1984) experiential learning model and incorporating a dramatic demonstration into their regular instruction, instructors can capture students’; attention, encourage class interaction, and provide students with real-world examples of terms and themes that they can apply in their daily lives.

Employment considerations for individuals with psychiatric disabilities and criminal histories: Consumer perspectives

The purpose of this qualitative project was to explore employment-related considerations through the perspectives of supported employment consumers with both psychiatric disabilities and criminal offense histories. Fourteen individuals partici- pated in semi-structured interviews. Resulting themes included the importance of nonvocational services; relationship between mental illness and criminal activity; impact of mental illness and offense history on employment; helpful elements of supported employment; and recovery and advice to others. These findings help to explain how supported employment can mitigate social underachievement and social decline in an especially high need population.