Mark H. Licht

A comparison of objective classroom measures and teacher ratings of Attention Deficit Disorder.

Children identified as Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) on the basis of teacher ratings using the SNAP Rating Scale were compared to non-ADD children on objective classroom measures including observations of classroom behavior, examination of the organization of children’s desks, and scoring of daily academic work. Analyses provided some support for the ability of the objective measures to differentiate between teacher-identified ADD and non-ADD children, though there was considerable overlap on the distributions of most variables between groups. Six measures chosen by a discriminant analysis combined to predict teacher ratings in 83% of the cases. The inclusion of academic, observational, and desk measures in the discriminant function indicates the importance of a multivariate assessment of this construct.

The differential validity of teacher ratings of Inattention/Overactivity and Aggression

The ability of school-based measures of child behavior to predict differentially the IOWA Conners teacher rating scale Inattention/Overactivity (IO) and Aggression (A) factors was evaluated in a sample of 71 schoolaged boys. Multiple measures and multiple methods of assessment were utilized to provide a comprehensive assessment of social and academic behavior. These included direct observations of children in the classroom and on the playground, examination of the organization of childrens desks, measures of academic performance, peer nominations of popularity and rejection, and sociometric ratings using the Pupil Evaluation Inventory. Despite moderately high correlations between the teacher rating factors (r=.60),considerable evidence was provided for differential validity on measures of academic performance, peer rating measures, and measures of disruptive or inappropriate classroom and playground behavior. These differences between IO and A factors indicated that the factors were logically independent in important ways, supporting prior work validating separate hyperactivity and aggression dimensions.

Clinical presentations of naturally occurring canine seizures: similarities to human seizures

The clinical presentations of 119 canine seizures from 41 Standard Poodles and 11 Dalmatians were classified according to a modified version of the International League Against Epilepsy (ILAE) seizure classification system. Standardized use of the ILAE system with dogs not only should facilitate research in veterinary medicine, which has no standard criteria for seizure classification, but also should facilitate comparisons between canine and human seizures. We found that for more than 80% of both breeds, at least some of their seizures had partial onsets. However, because it was common for partial seizures to secondarily generalize, the majority of Poodles (81%) and Dalmatians (91%) experienced at least some generalized seizures. Among partial seizures, complex partial were more frequent than simple partial. For both breeds, two thirds of those with partial onset seizures had exclusively complex partial. Among dogs with primary or secondarily generalized seizures, 80% of both breeds had tonic-clonic seizures.

Contributions of disease severity and perceptions of primary and secondary control to the prediction of psychosocial adjustment to Parkinson's disease.

Seventy-four people with Parkinsons disease (PD) completed questionnaires and were interviewed to determine the degree to which the severity of PD and perceptions of primary and secondary control over PD predicted psychosocial adjustment. Significant unique contributions to PD-related participation restrictions were made by disease severity (positive relationship) and perceived internal secondary control (negative relationship). Also, participation restrictions had a significant direct effect, and disease severity and perceived internal secondary control significant indirect effects, on both depressive symptomatology and life satisfaction. Results are consistent with theories that suggest the importance of enhancing internal secondary control processes in situations in which actual control over objective circumstances is limited, such as with chronic and progressive diseases like PD.

The Staff-Resident Interaction Chronograph: Observational assessment of staff performance

An overview of a direct observational system for continuous assessment of staff performance in residential treatment programs — the Staff-Resident Interaction Chronograph (SRIC) — is presented. Included are descriptions of data collection and summarization procedures, interobserver reliability data obtained over 4 1/2 years of ongoing use and during multi-institutional data collection, results of an evaluation of a self-contained package for training professional observers, and a brief description of normative-feasibility data collected across a wide range of adult residential treatment programs.

False Positives among Adolescent Sex Offenders: Concurrent and Predictive Validity of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory.

Abstract The ability of the Millon Adolescent Clinical Inventory(MACI; Millon, 1993) to identify serious adolescent, male sexual-offenders and to predict their recidivism following treatment was examined. MACI scores were evaluated for 381 adolescent, male sexual-offenders adjudicated delinquent for felony crimes and given maximum sentences, and, on the basis of detailed court and clinical records, diagnosed as conduct-disordered (79.5%) or antisocial-behaviored (20.5%). No mean MACI Base Rate Scores exceeded the clinically significant threshold, indicating low sensitivity from the MACI for identifying individuals as belonging in this extreme population of offenders and no ability from the MACI for predicting recidivism in this group on community release following treatment. The MACI, and possibly self-report instruments in general, is simply not sufficient for these purposes.

Evaluation of self-contained training procedures for the Time-Sample Behavioral Checklist

The comparative effectiveness of two time-limited modes of training observers to code the behavior of clients in residential treatment programs on the Time-Sample Behavioral Checklist (TSBC) was evaluated. The susceptibility of training procedures to consensual observer drift and the predictability of TSBC mastery from trainee characteristics were also examined. Two equated groups of undergraduate students (N=15 each) participated in full-time training on the TSBC and another instrument for 27 days, followed by criterion testingin vivo and on videotapes. One group was trained by experienced personnel using procedures known to be effective but potentially subject to consensual observer drift. The other group was trained using a previously untested set of written and videotape procedures that do not rely on experienced personnel. Comparative effectiveness and observer drift were evaluated by multivariate and univariate ANOVAs on mastery scores reflecting both pattern agreement and level differences between each trainee and criterion codings. The new, more efficient training procedures were found to be as effective as the original training procedures in the degree of mastery achieved by trainees. Original training procedures were found to be resistant to consensual observer drift, with such a phenomenon appearing in only 1 instance of 156 opportunities. The high degree of mastery achieved by trainees during the time-limited training period was comparable to that previously achieved with the original training procedures. No meaningful predictions of coding mastery were found, with only one trainee characteristic being significantly related to one of six mastery criteria. The results document procedures that are both efficient and resistant to invalidity for training observers in the use of multidimensional observational systems, as well as providing guidelines for the development of standardized procedures.

Assessment of Client Functioning in Residential Settings

Residential treatment settings for the chronically mentally ill, including mental hospitals, mental health centers, and community residential facilities, provide 24-hour care and treatment. Although this restriction of the clients’ freedom allows comprehensive and intensive treatment commensurate with the severity of the clients’ disability, it also requires, on both humanitarian and economic grounds, research to increase our understanding of the disorders and our knowledge of effective treatment. Residential treatment requires more complex organization and entails greater risks of abusing the legal and ethical rights of both clients and staff than do outpatient treatment programs. To assure that the multitude of decisions made every day in residential settings for the chronically mentally ill reflect these clinical, managerial, legal/ethical, and scientific considerations, accurate information based on objective and reliable assessment is required. Following the logic and terminology of Mariotto and Paul’s (this volume) detailed description of these decisions, the information required to make the decisions, and the criteria for evaluating procedures for obtaining that information (i.e., the “four R’s”), this chapter will summarize the assessment approaches typically used to obtain one informational domain, that of client functioning. I shall also describe a new, cost-efficient assessment technology designed to provide replicable and representative information on client functioning relevant to the broad range of decisions required in residential settings for the chronically mentally ill.

The comparative effectiveness of two modes of observer training on the Staff-Resident Interaction Chronograph

The comparative effectiveness of two time-limited modes of training observers to code activity on the Staff-Resident Interaction Chronograph (SRIC) in residential treatment programs for mentally disabled adults was evaluated. The susceptibility of training procedures for consensual observer drift was also examined, as was the predictability of SRIC mastery from trainee characteristics. Two equated groups of undergraduate student trainees (N=15 each) participated in full-time training for 27 days, followed by two weeks of criterion testing in vivo and on videotapes. One group received training by experience personnel using procedures known to be effective (original method). The other group received training via a previously untested set of written and videotaped procedures that do not rely on experienced personnel (package method). Multivariate and univariate analyses of variance found both methods to be equally effective in the degree of mastery achieved by trainees, without evidence of observer drift. No meaningful predictions of coding mastery were found, but conceptual mastery was predictable from individual characteristics. Differences were obtained for both groups between in vivo versus videotaped criterion tests. The results document procedures that are both efficient and resistant to invalidity for complex observational methodology as well as feasible for standardizing assessment of staff functioning across residential settings.

An Active-Learning Approach to Fostering Understanding of Research Methods in Large Classes:

The current investigation tested the effectiveness of an online student research project designed to supplement traditional methods (e.g., lectures, discussions, and assigned readings) of teaching research methods in a large-enrollment Introduction to Psychology course. Over the course of the semester, students completed seven assignments, each representing a stage of the research process. Students formed hypotheses, tested their hypotheses using data from the class, interpreted their results, generated future directions, created PowerPoint slides summarizing their projects, and presented their results in a poster session. We found support for the hypothesis that the research methods intervention would lead to better performance on a research methods quiz compared to students in a nonintervention section taught by the same instructor. This intervention demonstrated that it is feasible to use project-oriented active-learning techniques to foster understanding of research methods in large classes.