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Cognitive studies of clinical comprehension reveal that expert clinicians are distinguished by their superior ability to recognize meaningful patterns of data in clinical narratives. For example, in psychiatry, the findings of hallucinations and delusions suggest the subdiagnostic hypothesis of a psychotic episode, which in turn suggests several diagnoses, including schizophrenia. This dissertation describes the design and evaluation of a system that aims to simulate an important aspect of expert comprehension: the ability to recognize clusters of findings that support sub-diagnostic hypotheses. The broad range of content in psychiatric narrative presents a formidable barrier to achieving this goal, as it contains general concepts and descriptions of the subjective experience of psychiatric patients in addition to general medical and psychiatric concepts. Lexically driven language processing of such narrative would require the exhaustive predefinition of every concept likely to be encountered. In contrast, Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) is a corpus-based statistical model of language that learns human-like estimates of the similarity between concepts from a text corpus. LSA is adapted to create trainable models of sub-diagnostic hypotheses, which are then used to recognize related elements in psychiatric discharge summary text. The system is evaluated against an independently annotated set of psychiatric discharge summaries. System-rater agreement approached rater-rater agreement, providing support for the practical application of vector-based models of meaning in domains with broad conceptual territory. Other applications and implications are discussed, including the presentation of a prototype user interface designed to enhance novice comprehension of psychiatric discourse.

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The School Psychology Multicultural Competence Scale (SPMCS) is a 45-item, self-report measure designed to assess the multicultural competence of school psychologists and school psychology trainees. The SPMCS was developed to address the need for a multicultural assessment tool specific to school psychology. The purpose of the present study was twofold: to determine the underlying factor structure of the SPMCS and to determine which characteristics of training programs and individual trainees were related to higher self-reported scores on multicultural competence. Participants in this study were 312 school psychology specialist and doctoral students enrolled in NASP approved and/or APA accredited school psychology programs in the United States. All students completed the SPMCS and a brief demographic survey in which they were asked about coursework in multicultural and diversity issues and practicum experiences with culturally and linguistically diverse populations. The results of the factor analysis demonstrated that a four factor solution best fit the data obtained from the sample of graduate students who completed the SPMCS. The four factor subscales were Cultural Knowledge/Skills, Cultural Appreciation, Basic Skills, and Cultural Awareness. These four subscales may provide a clearer and more accurate description of multicultural competence in professional psychology. Overall, education and training (i.e., advanced standing in graduate program, multicultural/diversity coursework, practicum with culturally and linguistically diverse clients, and internship) were associated with higher self-reported scores of multicultural competence. Female trainees, ethnic minority trainees, and bilingual/multilingual speakers also reported higher multicultural competence than male, Caucasian, and monolingual trainees. These results lend tacit support for an integrated-separate course model of multicultural training with explicit coursework in multicultural issues, integration of multicultural content into all coursework, and practicum experiences with culturally and linguistically diverse clients. / School Psychology

No / This article explores the need for a framework that will assist social workers to identify when religion and belief are significant in the lives and circumstances of service users and how to take sufficient account of these issues in specific pieces of practice. It outlines the Furness / Gilligan framework and suggests that such frameworks should be used as a part of any assessment, while also being potentially useful at all stages of intervention. It reports on feedback gathered by the authors from first and final MA Social Work students who were asked to pilot the framework. It analyses their responses, in the context of national and international literature. It concludes that such a framework provides the necessary structure and challenge to assist social workers in acknowledging and engaging with issues arising from religion and belief that otherwise may remain overlooked, ignored or avoided, regardless of how significant they are to service users.

With the help of semi-structured interviews relational practices are analyzed through Swedish teachers perspectives. In addition to providing possible descriptions of relational competence as a phenomenon, the study also presents the practical arguments that Swedish teachers put forward to support the multiple nature of relational competence. The reasoning that is carried out about relational techniques, past events and experiences is in part consistent with the previous research and theory that is available. In addition to these, three more relationship-building tools stand out: the mother role, humor and the Swedish subject’s content. The last mentioned, which due to its curriculum and personal aspect, is at the forefront in regard to students motivation and self-esteem for education and the flourishing of teacher-student-relationships. Furthermore the teachers reasoning is put in relation to theories of motivation concerning Aspelin's competence model, Self determination theory and Self-efficacy theory. Finally, the essay provides information on whether the Swedish teachers reasoning about relational competence is consistent with the previous research that is available.

Cultural competence is defined as having the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to interact and assist people from culturally and ethnically diverse backgrounds (Sue, 2001). People who are culturally competent are aware of their own cultural background and the backgrounds of groups that are different. These individuals understand and appreciate a variety of cultures. Much of the research on cultural competence has focused on practitioners or graduate students in medicine, psychology, education, and social work (Eunice, 2004). Primarily, this research has looked at the training that these individuals have received and their attitudes about interacting with diverse groups. Howard-Hamilton, Richardson, and Shuford (1998) proposed that a set of competencies be developed for college students similar to those created for practitioners. Examples of those competencies include an understanding the cultural backgrounds of other groups, being able to interact with diverse individuals, an appreciation for diversity and valuing social justice for all cultural groups, etc. Research on cultural competence and college students has primarily focused on attitudes of college students towards diverse individuals (Hu & Kuh, 2005; Nelson-Laird, Engberg, & Hurtado; 2005; Pascerella & Terenzini, 2005; Pacerella, Edison, Nora, Hagedorn, & Terenzini, 1996; Whitt, Edison, Pascerella, Terenzini, & Nora, 2001). Students' in and out-of-class experiences give them a holistic education in which they develop an appreciation of individuals whose cultures are different (Kuh, 1995). Yet, very little research has focused on students' experiences learning about and interacting with individuals from other cultures. The purpose of this study was to gain insight from students participating in a cultural awareness program regarding their experiences before and during college that shape their cultural competence. Specifically, I examined students' perspectives on pre-college and college experiences that influence their values and beliefs about their own and others' racial/ethnic culture. The participants of the study were college students who participate in a cultural awareness grant program. This study is phenomenological by nature. Data was obtained from interviews, field notes, and students' journals. Three interviews were conducted with each of the participants. In the first interview, the students were asked about their backgrounds and how they describe their racial or ethnic culture. In second interview, the participants were asked about their interactions and experiences with other racial or ethnic groups on campus. The third interview focused on students' opinions about learning about issues of race and ethnicity. The data were analyzed using constant comparative analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1998), inductive analysis (Patton, 2002) and open coding (Rossman & Rallis, 2003). Profiles of the participants were created from the interview transcripts and field notes (Seidman, 2006). The background, experiences, and perspectives of students were described in narrative form. Results of this study indicate that four factors have an impact on participants becoming culturally competent: (a) family influences, (b) formal learning, (c) encounters with others, and (d) personal interests. / Ph. D.

This study examined the relationship between the perceptions of physical competence and patterns of physical activity of 83 5th and 7th grade children in one school in rural southwest Virginia. Gender and grade level differences in perceptions of competence and physical activity patterns were also investigated. The Perceived Physical Competence Subscale for Children (PPCSC) (Harter, 1982) was modified to measure children's perceptions of physical competence (26 self-efficacy questions). Children's patterns of physical activity were measured by a modification to Sallis & McKenzie's Self Administered Physical Activity Checklist (SAPAC). Each item on the PPCSC was matched with an activity on the SAPAC scale. Modifications to both scales were made as a result of pilot testing performed with the sample population. A significant positive linear relationship was found between children's perceptions of competence and their amount of physical activity. Significant positive correlations were also found for a number of self-efficacy measures and the amount of time children chose to engage in these specific activities. Significant gender differences were found between boys and girls in overall perceptions of competence, as well as in a number of self-efficacy measures. Boys were typically higher is self-efficacy on most physical activities with the exception of gymnastics, dance, and jump rope. The 7th grade boys had the highest perceptions of competence, while 7th grade girls were the lowest of all four groups. These perceptions of competence were reflected in whether children chose to participate in an activity or not. Children generally chose to engage in activities that they perceived themselves competent . There also appear to be very powerful socio-cultural influences on the types of activities that boys and girls choose (Lirgg, 1992). Girls were significantly more active in health enhancing lifetime physical activities such as walking, jogging, and bicycling, and chose activities of a lower intensity level than boys. Contrary to the literature, this study found no significant differences in the total amount of physical activity between boys and girls. It was hypothesized that the rural setting in which this study was conducted may have influenced this outcome. No significant differences were found between grades in perceptions of competence or physical activity time. / Ph. D.