Mental Health Provision in Northern Canada: Practitioners’ Views on Negotiations and Opportunities in Remote Practice

The focus of this article is on the final expanded qualitative findings and meta-analysis of a northern Canada study involving a four-phase, 3-year research design. The qualitative findings from interviews with twenty informal and formal mental health practitioners focus on the broader themes found within the meta-analysis in an attempt to answer a recent call for more proactive literature emphasizing opportunities for counselling and mental health support. The results explored included helping professional and paraprofessional development within remote settings, visions for the provision of community supports to assist them in providing services, and components of a conceptual model of mental health practice in the Canadian North.     

Learning and the wisdom of the body

According to Spence, the learning researcher’s task is to explain the relationship between experimental variables and behavior changes occurring with practice. Spence eschewed biological speculation. In contrast, for a biologist, “explanation” consists of ascertaining how the observed behavior increases reproductive success. Fundamental to achieving reproductive success is survival to sexual maturity, and such survival depends on homeostatic mechanisms attenuating the effects of physiological disturbances that threaten existence. Drugs are one way of disrupting homeostatic functioning, and studies of drug effects indicate that homeostatic mechanisms are engaged not just by pharmacological perturbations, but also by stimuli that signal such perturbations. Similarly, we attenuate the effects of a variety of nonpharmacological stimuli by such anticipatory homeostatic adjustments. The learning researcher is a homeostasis researcher.     

The development of emotion expression during the first two years of life

This study examines the course of emotion expression development over the first 2 years of life in a sample of full-term and preterm children. 58 mother/infant pairs were videotaped at infant ages of 2 1/2, 5, 7 1/2, and 22 months, recording face-to-face interaction involving play and separation/reunion sessions. The tapes were coded on a second-to-second basis using Izard's facial affect coding system. Data analysis focused on (1) differences in expressive behavior at 22 months as a function of risk status, gender, attachment status, and patterns of earlier maternal contingency behavior; (2) stability of specific emotional expressive patterns across assessment periods; and (3) the relation of expressive behavior and security of attachment at 2 years to qualities of earlier affective interchange. Mother's contingency behavior (both general level and specific contingency patterns) appeared to have a material effect on the course of emotional development, as did birth status and gender. Prematurity was associated with differential socioemotional development well into the second year, much in contrast to the "catch-up effect" observed in linguistic and cognitive functioning. Discrete emotions analysis of attachment groups yielded differentiation along a broad negative/positive dimension, but it also showed that insecurely attached children can be characterized as showing inhibited anger expression. The results of this study are discussed within the framework of organizational models of infant affective development; attachment theory and discrete emotions approaches were found to yield different yet equally informative data on the course of socioemotional development.     

!Kung Infancy: The Social Context of Object Exploration

The present study consists of new analyses of systematic observations of Kung infants made by Konner during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Our intent was to examine claims about the role of object sharing in development by describing how Kung infants develop interest in objects and how their caregivers act toward them when they are engaged in object-related acts. Results indicated that infants first displayed sustained interest in objects beginning at 4 months of age and that, beginning at about 8 months, they also began to engage in relational play and to give objects to others. Others tended to ignore infants during episodes of object manipulation and play, but moments of object offering were often socially embedded. These findings provide support for claims that there are universal changes in infants' involvement with objects and that their involvement is channeled in a culturally relevant manner by their caregivers.     

I'm Happy with My Mommy: Low-Income Preschoolers' Causal Attributions for Emotions

This study examined low-income African American and European American preschoolers' socioemotional causal attributions. Forty-seven Young (M = 48 months) and Old (M = 62 months) preschoolers were asked to justify a puppet's current emotion and to talk about their past emotional experiences. Responses were coded for Causal Theme and Clarity. Old preschoolers were twice as likely to attribute interpersonal themes, and Young preschoolers were 4 times more likely to generate causal themes that were uncodeable. In terms of clarity, children provided clearer responses for anger and fear than they did for happiness. Old preschoolers' explanations for emotions were clearer than young preschoolers' and young African Americans', who had the most difficulty explaining emotions. Results indicate that younger preschoolers, particularly young African Americans, may need help articulating emotions. Suggestions for how adults can scaffold preschoolers' emotional reasoning are discussed.     

Sympathy for the Devil

Since Melvin Burgess published his first childrens book, The Cry of the Wolf (1989) he has had the reputation of being a powerful and challenging writer, discussing issues that many other writers have shunned. But it was with Junk (Smack in the US) in 1996 that he became a notorious media figure. This Carnegie winning novel showed teenagers not only taking drugs, but enjoying them, and sex, too! As a whole, though, this book also showed the dangers of hard drugs, and did anything but glamorise addiction. The book was also innovative in using multiple narrative voices, so that moral certainties are continually being challenged, shown to be but partial. Burgess continued this technique in Bloodtide (1999), which is undoubtedly his most powerful book yet (a second volume is on its way), updating the Icelandic Volsunga saga in a bleak, futuristic London. Lady: My Life as a Bitch (2001) and Doing it (2003) also brought much media attention, both dealing explicitly with teenage sex. These are the main books that Burgess talks about in his article. However, his range is far wider, and his other texts should not be forgotten: he has written several novels for younger readers, a picture book, The Birdman (2000) and an excellent novelisation of the film Billy Elliot (2001). His ability to write gripping, absorbing stories with memorable characters is always foremost, whatever other issues might be addressed.     

Evaluating test validity: reprise and progress

The AERA, APA, NCME Standards define validity as ‘the degree to which evidence and theory support the interpretations of test scores for proposed uses of tests’. A century of disagreement about validity does not mean that there has not been substantial progress. This consensus definition brings together interpretations and use so that it is one idea, not a sequence of steps. Just as test design is framed by a particular context of use, so too must validation research focus on the adequacy of tests for specific purposes. The consensus definition also carries forward major reforms in validity theory begun in the 1970s that rejected separate types of validity evidence for different types of tests, e.g. content validity for achievement tests and predictive correlations for employment tests. When the current definition refers to both ‘evidence and theory’ the Standards are requiring not just that a test be well designed based on theory but that evidence be collected to verify that the test device is working as intended. Having taught policy-makers, citizens, and the courts to use the word validity, especially in high-stakes applications, we cannot after the fact substitute a more limited, technical definition of validity. An official definition provides clarity even for those who disagree, because it serves as a touchstone and obliges them to acknowledge when they are departing from it.     

Self-punitive avoidance behavior in the mouse

Mice were trained to avoid shock by leaving a startbox and traversing a straight alley. During the first extinction phase (Phase I), two groups were given 30 regular extinction (RE) trials, while another two received punished extinction (PE) trials in the center of the alley. During the last 50 extinction trials (Phase II), conditions were reversed for one of the two groups receiving the same treatment in Phase I. This resulted in two nonshifted groups (RE-RE and PE-PE) and two shifted groups (RE-PE and PE-RE). PE treatment led to higher running speed in both phases and reversed an extinction trend. Furthermore, punishment-induced facilitation was greater for the group receiving PE following RE than for the group receiving PE immediately after avoidance training.