George F. Ronan

Guidelines for cognitive behavioral training within doctoral psychology programs in the United States: report of the Inter-organizational Task Force on Cognitive and Behavioral Psychology Doctoral Education.

The Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies initiated an interorganizational task force to develop guidelines for integrated education and training in cognitive and behavioral psychology at the doctoral level in the United States. Fifteen task force members representing 16 professional associations participated in a year-long series of conferences, and developed a consensus on optimal doctoral education and training in cognitive and behavioral psychology. The recommendations assume solid foundational training that is typical within applied psychology areas such as clinical and counseling psychology programs located in the United States. This article details the background, assumptions, and resulting recommendations specific to doctoral education and training in cognitive and behavioral psychology, including competencies expected in the areas of ethics, research, and practice.

Violent Couples: Coping and Communication Skills

Twelve married couples court-ordered to attend a violence reduction treatment program completed self-report measures of anger, social problem-solving skills, and strategies employed for dealing with high-conflict situations. They were subsequently videotaped while discussing 3 different scenarios. Three raters independently coded the videotapes for the use of effective and ineffective communication strategies used by the participants. Aggregate reliability estimates were acceptable. No gender-based differences were found on the self-report measures or the communication skill ratings. When couples discussed low-conflict situations use of effective skills exceeded use of ineffective skills, and when couples discussed high-conflict problems use of ineffective skills exceeded use of effective skills. Implications for treatment of spousal assault are presented.

An Examination of Attitudes and Behaviors Presumed to Mediate Partner Abuse A Rural Incarcerated Sample

Partner abuse is frequently conceptualized as a special form of violence, and batterers are usually separated from other violent offenders. Variables associated with partner assault were investigated using three groups of incarcerated men. Men convicted of domestic assault (n = 20) were compared with men who reported aggression toward other men but not their female partners (n = 19) and with nonviolent offenders (n = 20). Incarcerated men were used to control for a variety of nonspecific attitudes and experiences that often systematically vary when contrasting batterers with nonbatterers. No between-group differences were found for feminist measures related to sexist attitudes and beliefs. Group differences emerged for the skill-based variables of interpersonal aggressiveness, trait anger, and personal problem solving. Discriminant function analyses supported using skill-based variables to classify the samples. Overall, little empirical support was found for viewing batterers as distinct from other violent offenders.

Modeling Patient Decision-Making: The Role of Base-Rate and Anecdotal Information

Guidelines for managing patient–physician relationships often stem from either paternalistic or shared decision-making perspectives. Despite a number of advantages shown for the shared decision-making model, questions remain as to whether lay people make the most optimal decisions about their health care. This study explored the influence of anecdotal and base-rate information on health-care decisions. Three hundred and seventeen undergraduates read two vignettes describing a fictitious disease, followed by a description of two potential treatment protocols. The comparison treatment was 50% effective and accompanied by an anecdote that described a patient whose treatment resulted in an ambiguous outcome. A second treatment was presented as 30, 50, 70, or 90% effective, and accompanied by an anecdote that described a patient whose treatment resulted in a positive, ambiguous, or negative outcome. Subjects weighted anecdotal information more heavily than base-rate, or statistical, information when the anecdotal information was clearly positive or negative. Subjects presented with ambiguous anecdotal information weighed base-rate information most heavily. Implications for enhancing patient decision-making are discussed.

The Moderating effects of Cluster B Personality Traits on Violence Reduction Training: A Mixed-Model Analysis

Cognitive behavioral therapies have positive effects on anger and aggression; however, individuals differ in their response to treatment. The authors previously found that dynamic factors, such as increases in readiness to change, are associated with enhanced outcomes for violence reduction training. This study investigated how less dynamic factors, specifically Cluster B personality traits, moderate the effects of violence reduction training. The authors used mixed modeling to fit growth curves to 14 weeks of anger strategies data and evaluated whether the presence of Cluster B traits affected pretreatment anger levels and rates of change. As expected, overall levels of negative anger strategies decreased across the 14-week treatment. Participants with antisocial, borderline, and histrionic personality features reported higher rates of negative anger strategies, whereas those with narcissistic personality features reported fewer negative anger strategies. Those with antisocial personality features improved at a rate similar to the overall trend of those without Cluster B traits. Those with borderline and histrionic features improved at an accelerated rate.

Binge Drinking and College Students: An Investigation of Social Problem-Solving Abilities

We examined social problem-solving skills and binge drinking among 286 undergraduate men (N = 90) and women (N = 196).The sample consisted of primarily first-year students (39%), sophomores (27%), juniors (21%), and seniors (13%), with an average age of 20. The makeup of the sample was predominantly Caucasian. Men were more likely than women to be classified as binge drinkers, but women had less effective social problem-solving skills, generally. Women who were binge drinkers had less effective social problem-solving abilitiesthan women who were not binge drinkers. Implications for interventions and prevention programs are discussed.

An analysis of survival time to re-arrest in treated and non-treated jailers

Incarceration is a costly intervention that does not always prevent future crime. Clinicians working in criminal justice settings are in a unique position to monitor programming to reduce recidivism. We investigated the impact of self-control training on re-arrest in a jail population. Treatment that allotted more time for behavioral rehearsal was expected to reduce future arrest. One hundred inmates completed measures of problem-solving and self-control skills. Forty participants received group training in self-control skills, 40 received the same protocol plus 10 minutes for behavioral rehearsal, and 20 served as a no-treatment comparison group. Participants who completed treatment were less likely to recidivate three years after release from jail, with a trend toward lower recidivism rates for self-control training plus behavioral rehearsal. Training in self-control skills can be useful for preventing re-arrest and these effects may be enhanced by adding a brief behavioral rehearsal of the targeted skills.

Relevance of a stage of change analysis for violence reduction training

Although studies have supported the efficacy of treatment aimed at reducing levels of violence, a significant number of individuals fail to either complete or benefit from treatment. A widely speculated reason for treatment failure centers on the lack of readiness to change. We assessed the impact of a stage of change analysis on the skill acquisition of 265 adults enrolled in a 14-week violence reduction protocol based on a social problem-solving model. Readiness to change, strategies for resolving high conflict situations, and social problem solving skills were assessed pre- and posttreatment. A significant increase in the use of effective strategies for resolving conflicts and social problem solving skills was observed from pre- to posttreatment. Skill acquisition was independent of initial stage of change scores. Moreover, a significant percentage of participants reported decreases in their readiness to change at posttreatment, and this reversal had discernable impact on skill acquisition. We outline the need for additional theoretical and empirical work integrating the topography of violent behavior into the readiness to change construct is necessary.

Health and relationships in violence reduction participants: indirect effects of angry temperament

Treatment compliance is a considerable challenge for participants in anger management and violence reduction programs. Participants often exhibit low readiness to change, deficient problem-solving skills, and poor problem awareness. The legal and social consequences of unregulated anger and violence have been well established; however, the personal impact of these behaviors on the functioning of perpetrators has not been as well investigated. We addressed this gap in the literature by examining the relationships between angry temperament, conflict management tactics, social problem-solving, and quality of life factors in participants court-ordered to violence reduction treatment. Bootstrapped mediation models indicated that angry temperament had a significant indirect effect on subjective health through negative problem orientation. These findings have important implications for enhancing readiness to change and the quality of life among violent offenders.

A time-series analysis of the effectiveness of sex offender notification laws in the USA

Archival crime data of forcible rapes for all 50 states of the United States dating from 1960 to 2008 were analyzed using an interrupted time-series design. For each state, rates of forcible rape prior to the passage of sex offender legislation were compared to rates of forcible rape after the passage of sex offender registration and notification laws. The results were mixed, with 17 states demonstrating a significant drop in rates of forcible rape following implementation of sex offender notification laws, and 32 states demonstrating no discernable change. Potential explanations for the obtained results were explored including the effect of differences in notification practices, registration practices, and the availability of sex offender treatment. Implications for future research are discussed.