Reliable Coding System Research Articles

Correction criteria for the qualitative analysis of the prison population: drugs possession/consumption and gender violence.

People with language difficulties cannot face challenges related to social skills. Those language disorders affect academic, work environments, and social interaction, leading to maladaptive and aggressive behaviors. Young inmates are at high risk of experiencing unrecognized language deficiencies. It is, therefore, necessary to analyze linguistic pathologies that can influence criminal behavior (drugs possession/consumption and gender violence crimes). There are many standardized tests to evaluate and detect language difficulties in adults in English. However, there are relatively few options in Spanish; there are no tests that evaluate language qualitatively and in depth. Most of the research is conducted with children and adolescents. To propose a reliable coding system for the correction and interpretation of narratives (essays and narratives) from the Battery for the Evaluation of Writing Processes (PROESC) in the prisoners charged of drugs possession or consumption and gender violence crimes. The sample was composed of 287 men. They completed the Demographic, Offense, and Behavioral Interview in Institutions, the International Personality Disorders Examination (IPDE), and PROESC. We found that the proposed coding system presented high concordance, that is, high inter-rater reliability. The classification system for the correction and interpretation of narratives was shown to be reliable.

Historical trends in reporting effect sizes in clinical neuropsychology journals: A call to venture beyond the results section.

For decades, quantitative psychologists have recommended that authors report effect sizes to convey the magnitude and potential clinical relevance of statistical associations. However, fewer than one-third of neuropsychology articles published in the early 2000s reported effect sizes. This study re-examines the frequency and extent of effect size reporting in neuropsychology journal articles by manuscript section and over time. A sample of 326 empirical articles were drawn from 36 randomly selected issues of six neuropsychology journals at 5-year intervals between 1995 and 2020. Four raters used a novel, reliable coding system to quantify the extent to which effect sizes were included in the major sections of all 326 articles. Findings showed medium-to-large increases in effect size reporting in the Methods and Results sections of neuropsychology journal articles that plateaued in recent years; however, there were only very small and nonsignificant changes in effect size reporting in the Abstract, Introduction, and Discussion sections. Authors in neuropsychology journals have markedly improved their effect size reporting in the core Methods and Results sections, but are still unlikely to consider these valuable metrics when motivating their study hypotheses and interpreting the conceptual and clinical implications of their findings. Recommendations are provided to encourage more widespread integration of effect sizes in neuropsychological research.

Empathic communication in dignity therapy: Feasibility of measurement and descriptive findings.

Dignity therapy (DT) is a guided process conducted by a health professional for reviewing one's life to promote dignity through the illness process. Empathic communication has been shown to be important in clinical interactions but has yet to be examined in the DT interview session. The Empathic Communication Coding System (ECCS) is a validated, reliable coding system used in clinical interactions. The aims of this study were (1) to assess the feasibility of the ECCS in DT sessions and (2) to describe the process of empathic communication during DT sessions. We conducted a secondary analysis of 25 transcripts of DT sessions with older cancer patients. These DT sessions were collected as part of larger randomized controlled trial. We revised the ECCS and then coded the transcripts using the new ECCS-DT. Two coders achieved inter-rater reliability (κ = 0.84) on 20% of the transcripts and then independently coded the remaining transcripts. Participants were individuals with cancer between the ages of 55 and 75. We developed the ECCS-DT with four empathic response categories: acknowledgment, reflection, validation, and shared experience. We found that of the 235 idea units, 198 had at least one of the four empathic responses present. Of the total 25 DT sessions, 17 had at least one empathic response present in all idea units. This feasibility study is an essential first step in our larger program of research to understand how empathic communication may play a role in DT outcomes. We aim to replicate findings in a larger sample and also investigate the linkage empathic communication may have in the DT session to positive patient outcomes. These findings, in turn, may lead to further refinement of training for dignity therapists, development of research into empathy as a mediator of outcomes, and generation of new interventions.

Dreams and Trauma Changes in the Manifest Dreams in Psychoanalytic Treatments – A Psychoanalytic Outcome Measure

Although psychoanalysts are interested in symptom reduction as an outcome, they are looking for instruments to measure sustaining changes in the unconscious mental functioning. In this article it is discussed that conceptually well-founded transformation of manifest dreams analyzed with precise empirical methods could be considered as a promising indicator for such therapeutic changes. We are summarizing a dream generation model by Moser and von Zeppelin which has integrated a large interdisciplinary knowledge base of contemporary dream and sleep research. Based on this model the authors have developed a valid and reliable coding system for analyzing manifest dreams, the Zurich Dream Process Coding System (ZDPCS). One exemplary dream from the beginning and one from the third year of a severely traumatized, chronic depressed patient from the LAC Depression Study collected in psychoanalytic sessions as well as in the sleep laboratory have been analyzed applying the ZDPCS. Authors hypothesize that transformation in dreams as measured with the ZDPCS is the result of memory processes of traumatic embodied memories in the state of dreaming.

Reliable Physical-Layer Network Coding Supporting Real Applications

This paper presents the first reliable physical-layer network coding (PNC) system that supports real TCP/IP applications for the two-way relay network (TWRN). Theoretically, PNC could boost the throughput of TWRN by a factor of 2 compared with traditional scheduling (TS) in the high signal-to-noise (SNR) regime. Although there have been many theoretical studies on PNC performance, there have been relatively few experimental and implementation efforts. Our earlier PNC prototype, built in 2012, was an offline system that processed signals offline. For a system that supports real applications, signals must be processed online in real-time. Our real-time reliable PNC prototype, referred to as RPNC, solves a number of key challenges to enable the support of real TCP/IP applications. The enabling components include: 1) a time-slotted system that achieves $\mu s$ -level synchronization for the PNC system; 2) reduction of PNC signal processing complexity to meet real-time constraints; 3) an ARQ design tailored for PNC to ensure reliable packet delivery; and 4) an interface to the application layer. We took on the challenge to implement all of the above with general-purpose processors in PC through an SDR platform rather than ASIC or FPGA. With all of these components, we have successfully demonstrated image exchange with TCP and two-party video conferencing with UDP over RPNC. Experimental results show that the achieved throughput approaches the PHY-layer data rate at high SNR, demonstrating the high efficiency of the RPNC system.

A mega-analysis of memory reports from eight peer-reviewed false memory implantation studies

ABSTRACTUnderstanding that suggestive practices can promote false beliefs and false memories for childhood events is important in many settings (e.g., psychotherapeutic, medical, and legal). The generalisability of findings from memory implantation studies has been questioned due to variability in estimates across studies. Such variability is partly due to false memories having been operationalised differently across studies and to differences in memory induction techniques. We explored ways of defining false memory based on memory science and developed a reliable coding system that we applied to reports from eight published implantation studies (N = 423). Independent raters coded transcripts using seven criteria: accepting the suggestion, elaboration beyond the suggestion, imagery, coherence, emotion, memory statements, and not rejecting the suggestion. Using this scheme, 30.4% of cases were classified as false memories and another 23% were classified as having accepted the event to some degree. When the suggestion included self-relevant information, an imagination procedure, and was not accompanied by a photo depicting the event, the memory formation rate was 46.1%. Our research demonstrates a useful procedure for systematically combining data that are not amenable to meta-analysis, and provides the most valid estimate of false memory formation and associated moderating factors within the implantation literature to date.

Successful Treatment of Suicidal Risk.

In this article we focused on analyzing surveyed patient-generated responses based on two outcome questions derived from a suicide-specific framework called the Collaborative Assessment and Management of Suicidality (CAMS): Q1 - "Were there any aspects of your treatment that were particularly helpful to you? If so, please describe these. Be as specific as possible." Q2 - "What have you learned from your clinical care that could help you if you became suicidal in the future?" To develop a reliable coding system based on formerly suicidal patients' responses to two open-ended prompts and examine most frequently identified themes. The present study utilized a consensual qualitative research process to examine responses of clinically resolved suicidal patients, based on the CAMS resolution criteria (i.e., three consecutive CAMS sessions reporting the effective management of suicidal risk), to two Suicide Status Form (SSF) outcome questions (n = 49 for Q1, and n = 52 for Q2). Reliable coding systems were developed and used to determine major themes of successful patient responses. The results of this study provide insight into patients' experiences of a successful treatment for suicidal risk with larger implications for suicide-specific treatments in general.

Psychoeducation as a Mediator of Treatment Approach on Parent Engagement in Child Psychotherapy for Disruptive Behavior

Parent engagement in treatment for child disruptive behavior has been associated with improved child outcomes in care. However, many families who enter care do not receive an adequate dose of treatment, and parents are often not involved. We examined therapists’ use of psychoeducation, a therapeutic practice used to present factual information about target problems and treatments, and its association with parent engagement in child psychotherapy. Participants were drawn from the Child System and Treatment Enhancement Projects’ multisite trial contrasting standard evidence-based treatments, modular treatment, or usual care. We included an ethnically diverse sample of 46 youth (ages 7–13) who received treatment for disruptive behavior in modular treatment or usual care. A reliable observational coding system was developed to assess therapists’ in-session use of psychoeducation strategies (e.g., discussing causes of misbehavior, describing and providing rationale for treatment, etc.), as well as other engagement strategies (e.g., collaborative goal setting, managing expectations, etc.), in the early phase of treatment. Findings revealed that modular treatment therapists provided more psychoeducation and other engagement strategies compared with usual care therapists. Furthermore, psychoeducation strategies employed by therapists early on uniquely predicted subsequent parent involvement in treatment, over and above the use of other engagement strategies. Finally, therapists’ use of the psychoeducation strategy of discussing causes of child's misbehavior mediated the effect of treatment condition on parent involvement in their child's therapy. These findings suggest that the implementation of psychoeducation strategies upon entry into care promotes parent involvement in child psychotherapy for disruptive behavior.

A Proposed Chaotic-Switched Turbo Coding Design and Its Application for Half-Duplex Relay Channel

Both reliability and security are two important subjects in modern digital communications, each with a variety of subdisciplines. In this paper we introduce a new proposed secure turbo coding system which combines chaotic dynamics and turbo coding reliability together. As we utilize the chaotic maps as a tool for hiding and securing the coding design in turbo coding system, this proposed system model can provide both data secrecy and data reliability in one process to combat problems in an insecure and unreliable data channel link. To support our research, we provide different schemes to design a chaotic secure reliable turbo coding system which we call chaotic-switched turbo coding schemes. In these schemes the design of turbo codes chaotically changed depending on one or more chaotic maps. Extensions of these chaotic-switched turbo coding schemes to half-duplex relay systems are also described. Results of simulations of these new secure turbo coding schemes are compared to classical turbo codes with the same coding parameters and the proposed system is able to achieve secured reasonable bit error rate performance when it is made to switch between different puncturing and design configuration parameters especially with low switching rates.

The Meaning of Loss Codebook: Construction of a System for Analyzing Meanings Made in Bereavement

Recent research on grieving populations has emphasized the role of meaning making in adaptation to bereavement, typically relying on simple self-reports of the extent to which respondents have been able to find sense or benefit in their loss. The present article reports the development of a reliable and comprehensive coding system for analyzing meanings made in the wake of the death of a loved one, yielding a 30-category codebook demonstrating excellent reliability, and comprising both negative and positive themes that arise as grievers attempt to make sense of loss. Based on an intensive qualitative analysis of a diverse sample of 162 adults mourning the natural or violent death of a variety of loved ones, the Meaning of Loss Codebook could prove useful in process-outcome studies of grief therapy, analysis of naturalistic first-person writing about bereavement experiences in grief diaries and blogs, and clinical assessment of meanings made in the course of bereavement support or professional intervention.

The Body Action and Posture Coding System (BAP): Development and Reliability

Several methods are available for coding body movement in nonverbal behavior research, but there is no consensus on a reliable coding system that can be used for the study of emotion expression. Adopting an integrative approach, we developed a new method, the body action and posture coding system, for the time-aligned micro description of body movement on an anatomical level (different articulations of body parts), a form level (direction and orientation of movement), and a functional level (communicative and self-regulatory functions). We applied the system to a new corpus of acted emotion portrayals, examined its comprehensiveness and demonstrated intercoder reliability at three levels: (a) occurrence, (b) temporal precision, and (c) segmentation. We discuss issues for further validation and propose some research applications.

Couples' Reports of Relationship Problems in a Naturalistic Therapy Setting

Understanding couples' relationship problems is fundamental to couple therapy. Although research has documented common relationship problems, no study has used open-ended questions to explore problems in couples seeking therapy in naturalistic settings. The present study used a reliable coding system to explore the relationship problems reported by 108 couples. The most common problems were related to communication, emotional affection or distance, specific areas of the current relationship, and lack of physical affection or sex. Comparisons of therapeutic mandates revealed that commitment or security problems and infidelity or flirting problems were more common among couples pursuing an ambivalence resolution mandate than among couples pursuing an alleviation of distress mandate. Results demonstrated the importance of identifying distinct therapeutic mandates in couple therapy.

The Development of a Systematic Coding System for Elementary Students’ Drawings of Engineers

The Draw an Engineer Test (DAET) is a common measure of students’ perceptions of engineers. The coding systems currently used for K- 12 research are general rubrics or checklists to capture the images presented in the drawing, which leave out some of the richness of students’ perceptions, currently only captured with an accompanying student interview. The purpose of this study is to build a reliable coding system, which first establishes an inventory of pictorial elements irrespective of their potential relationship with engineering and second captures aspects of students’ engineering perceptions inductively (from the ground up) while at the same time incorporating categories from previous research. The coding system will be used to help researchers understand how young students’ perceptions of engineering, engineers, and the work of engineers evolve and are impacted by interventions. The longterm goal of this project is to create a standalone measure that can be broadly applied to diverse populations, and to create a large multiinstitution student database, with both K- 12 and university populations represented. This database would provide a rich dataset for better understanding common misconceptions about engineering and thus enabling the development of methods to address them.

Tracking novelties in psychotherapy process research: The innovative moments coding system

This article presents a method for the assessment of innovative moments, which are novelties that emerge in contrast to a client's problematic self-narrative as expressed in therapy, the innovative moments coding system (IMCS). The authors discuss the theoretical background of the IMCS as well as its coding procedures. Results from several studies suggest that the IMCS is a reliable and valid coding system that can be applied to several modalities of psychotherapy. Finally, future research implications are discussed.

Program Ratings Do Not Predict Negative Content in Commercials on Children's Channels

The aim of this study was to determine the presence of negative content in commercials airing on 3 children's channels (Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, and Cartoon Network). The 1681 commercials were coded with a reliable coding system and content comparisons were made. Although the majority of the commercials were coded as neutral, negative content was present in 13.5% of commercials. This rate was significantly more than the predicted value of zero and more similar to the rates cited in previous research examining content during sporting events. The rate of negative content was less than, but not significantly different from, the rate of positive content. Thus, our findings did not support our hypothesis that there would be more commercials with positive content than with negative content. Logistic regression analysis indicated that channel, and not rating, was a better predictor of the presence of overall negative content and the presence of violent behaviors. Commercials airing on the Cartoon Network had significantly more negative content, and those airing on Disney Channel had significantly less negative content than the other channels. Within the individual channels, program ratings did not relate to the presence of negative content. Parents cannot assume the content of commercials will be consistent with the program rating or label. Pediatricians and psychologists should educate parents about the potential for negative content in commercials and advocate for a commercials rating system to ensure that there is greater parity between children's programs and the corresponding commercials.

Brief Report: Why Suicide? Perceptions of Suicidal Inpatients and Reflections of Clinical Researchers

Qualitatively oriented research (e.g., studies of suicide notes) has shed valuable light on the phenomenology of suicidal states. However, one draw back to this approach is that conclusions drawn from such data are inferential. In the current study, we took a more direct approach by having a sample of 52 suicidal inpatients provide written responses to the following query: Why suicide? A reliable coding system was developed that captured seven distinct response types to our prompt (i.e., suicide was seen as: the easy way out, a permanent solution, an escape from pain, the only option, self-oriented, related to hopelessness, and relationally-focused). In our discussion, we further reflect on these patient perceptions of suicide in terms of theory, research, and practice.

Sharing decisions in breast cancer care: Development of the Decision Analysis System for Oncology (DAS-O) to identify shared decision making during treatment consultations.

Shared Decision Making (SDM) is widely accepted as the preferred method for reaching treatment decisions in the oncology setting including those about clinical trial participation: however, there is some disagreement between researchers over the components of SDM. Specific standardized coding systems are needed to help overcome this difficulty. The first objective was to describe the development of an oncology specific SDM coding system, the DAS-O. The second objective was to provide reliability and validity data supporting the DAS-O. Consultation data were available from tertiary cancer center out patient oncology clinics in: Australia, New Zealand (ANZ), Switzerland, Germany and Austria (SGA). Patients were women with a confirmed diagnosis of early stage breast cancer. Reliability data were from 18 randomly selected coded transcripts drawn from ANZ and SGA. Concurrent validity data are from 55 (ANZ) consultations. Inter and Intra rater reliability data was evaluated using Kappa correlation statistics and correlation coefficients. Correlation coefficients were used to assess concurrent validity between the DAS-O and two other SDM coding systems, OPTION and DSAT. Inter and Intra rater reliability for the system were high with average Kappas of 0.58 and 0.65 respectively. Correlation coefficients between DAS-O and OPTION was 0.73 and >0.5 for DSAT. We have developed a reliable and valid coding system for identifying and rating the quality of SDM in breast cancer consultations.

Designing Highly Reliable Fiducial Markers

Fiducial markers are artificial landmarks added to a scene to facilitate locating point correspondences between images, or between images and a known model. Reliable fiducials solve the interest point detection and matching problems when adding markers is convenient. The proper design of fiducials and the associated computer vision algorithms to detect them can enable accurate pose detection for applications ranging from augmented reality, input devices for HCI, to robot navigation. Marker systems typically have two stages, hypothesis generation from unique image features and verification/identification. A set of criteria for high robustness and practical use are identified and then optimized to produce the ARTag fiducial marker system. An edge-based method robust to lighting and partial occlusion is used for the hypothesis stage, and a reliable digital coding system is used for the identification and verification stage. Using these design criteria large gains in performance are achieved by ARTag over conventional ad hoc designs.

Caregiving behavior and interactions of prenatally depressed mothers (antidepressant-treated and non-antidepressant-treated) during newborn acute pain.

This exploratory study aimed to examine time-based measures of the behaviors and interactions of prenatally depressed serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SRI)-medicated mothers to their infant's pain (n = 10) by comparing them with similar measures obtained from prenatally depressed nonmedicated mothers and their infants (n = 10), and nondepressed mothers and their infants (n = 10). During the second trimester of their pregnancy, the 30 study mothers were assessed for depression and anxiety, with no further measures of maternal mood taken. Maternal and infant interactions were continuously videorecorded while the infant underwent a scheduled heel lance for routine blood screening that occurred when study infants were between the ages of 24 and 60 hr. Maternal behavior and infant cry, for all 30 cases, were coded second-by-second for the full duration of each infant's heel lance using a reliable coding system and analyzed using odds ratio and regression analyses. Infants exposed to prenatal SRIs and depressed maternal mood were more likely to have lower Apgar scores and to exhibit weak and absent cry. Even when duration of the heel lance was controlled for, women with depression during the second trimester were more likely to exhibit depressed behavior at 2 days' postpartum despite sustained SRI antidepressant treatment. Both groups of prenatally depressed mothers were more likely to exhibit diminished response to their infants' pain cue although nonmedicated mothers' expressions of depressed behavior were more similar to healthy controls. Comprehensive understanding is essential to optimize the clinical care of mothers and their infants in this complex setting. This study contributes preliminary new findings that warrant prospective and longitudinal studies to clarify further the impacts of prenatal SRI and maternal mental mood (e.g., chronic depression and anxiety) effects on the mother-infant interaction and infant pain and stress reactivity.

Obesity in Print: An Analysis of Daily Newspapers

Background: Stigmatizing attitudes towards obese people are common in the public. Based on findings that portrayals of obesity in entertainment media foster weight-related stigmatization, the goal of the current study was to analyze media coverage of obesity in daily newspapers. Methods: For the year 2006, all 1,563 issues of five high-circulation daily newspapers (two national newspapers, one tabloid newspaper, and two local newspapers) in Germany were systematically searched for obesity-related terms. Out of these issues, 222 articles about human overweight were identified and subjected to a quantitative content analysis using a reliable coding system. Results: The national and local newspapers examined offered more comprehensive and less incorrect information about obesity than the tabloid newspaper. Compared with the other types of papers, the information about obesity in the local papers was less negative and less catastrophizing. The national newspapers presented more attributions of obesity to internal, controllable causes than the other newspaper types, and the tabloid newspaper used more personalized descriptions of cases with extreme features. Conclusion: The current coverage of obesity in daily newspapers may contribute to stigmatization. Future research should examine readers’ reception of newspaper information and potential destigmatization through more precise and less subjective coverage of obesity.