| Saturday at the APS Conference | | Date Created: 02 Oct, 2004, 10:26 AM |
Caught up with the news at the Conference via the Internet Kiosk supplied by a local Sydney supplier, Hire Intelligence. Had to yank an ethernet cable from the back, and locate the machine IP information from a Windows 2000 box - there are seven in the bank, and one by one under the hard work they have been enduring they are slowly dropping out of the network. But maintenance has kept them working well.
The first symposium I attended started at 9am. This was an Internet assessment and therapy-based theme, from the work being done at Monash University under the guidance of Professor Jeff Richards (Update: Jeff died subsequently, and a very sad loss to the world of internet-based research).
Paper 1: Administering Questionnaires via the internet - Brett Klein
A Ph.D. student presented his research by reviewing firstly some of the advantages of assessment this way. Including lowering costs and geographic distribution.
Disadvantages: Can't enter the home or workforce, and so can't control for distraction.
Technical issues such as mismatching software and hardware configurations, time of day issues leading to fatigue, and lack of access were issues raised. Where was fraud I wonder?
Some of these issues were also present in face to face paper issues, as well as those posted to people.
Is it the poor cousin of paper-based administration of tests?
Social desirability issues were suggested to be less than paper-based, but only if respondents could "backtrack" and revise answers. Technically this is easily performed.
Equivalency has been demonstrated via studies for a variety of scales including
a variety of clinical scales.
In the current study, three questionnaires were evaluated:
1. Body sensations Questionnaires (useful in panic disorder)
2. Agoraphobic Cognitions
3. Mobility Inventory (useful to measure avoidance behaviours)
All are brief, using Likert scales, and quite suitable for internet veiwing.
24 panic disorder patients were selected with no co-morbid presentations and no confounding physiological factors.
The ADIS-IV was presented by telephone, then subjects with panic disorder were selected into two experimental grouips, paper vs internet, with one group doing both several days apart.
There were high interclass correlations between the tests, so there was strong relations between the different presentations of the tests.
Order of administration (paper then internet, and v.v.) was not a factor.
In concluding the two types of administration were comparable. A useful outcome especially for agoraphobic typologies.
The second paper looked at panic disorder treated via the web...Marlies Alverenger
Starting with some background on panic disorder (6% of primary care patients have panic disorder over a 12 month period).
She laid out the CBT basis for treatment, which includes, assessment, education, breathing retraining, cognitive therapy, and graded exposure.
The next slides looked at the success of CBT-based treatment and follow-up, and noted how those in rural and remote areas had limited access to specialist mental health care.
The current research being reported had its origins in 1998.
We then saw loads of slides showing quantitative slides of experimental results, presented in a dull monotone. Try as I might to be sympathetic, it was just too early in the morning to be bombarded this way, and I dipped out and checked my email.
Paper 3: The problem of attrition - Jeff Richards
Jeff reported on a number of studies conducted on the internet reporting high rates of attrition of subjects, in some cases higher than 50%.
Most excitedly, Jeff spoke of his work with BP Australia, and a Pace Heart Lifeskills program to reduce cardiovascular risk. Particularly looked at were stress factors, but I wondered where the psychology information was for medication, dietary and exercise compliance. This seemed rather '"in the box" psychology rather than thinking outside. They were also given heart rate monitors, and ask to complete online questionnaires.
There is also a face to face assessment in Melbourne for those living locally.
Attrition rates are very high it seems - why aren't they using audio or videoconferencing I wonder? Perhaps drop-outs are occurring for positive reasons?
Paper 4 was presented by a medical anthropologist looking at random controlled studies on the internet. Prepared by Jenny Advocat.
This was from a patient's perspective and apparently is unique research, especially focussing on online trials.
Jenny spoke of e-mental health research and papers in a government workshop, and the results of a brainstorming session looking at advantages and otherwise of using the net for mental health work.
The researcher sent out 65 letters, form which eventually 9 were interviewed (7f, 2m)
Various questions about the online trials they participated in and internet use in general were covered, in open interviews.
She was interested in comparing face to face stories and internet/email.
Local contact with trial participants was deemed important. Anonymity was rated highly, allowing more honesty and freedom from feeling judged.
Ideas of control were also discussed. Many liked being in control via the internet, but I wondered if this just reinforced avoidance behaviour, especially in panic disorder patients.
The last area examined was one she called responsibility... that is how they were expected to behave during the random trials.
Afternoon Session: Workplace Issues and research
The first afternoon session looked at organisational issues, with the first paper looking at unusual workplaces. In this case, Antarctica. Author: A Sarris, Ph.D Adelaide Uni.
117 men and women were involved in Australian research in that desolate land; 1 in 8 were women, and they came from a variety of professions and support staff spread out over several locations in Antarctica.
Measures included surveys trying to assess organisational culture, using the Organisational Culture Profile. Also measured were outcome variables such as job satisfaction, intention to recommend others to the same organisation, intention to return, and their actual return to Antarctic-based work. There were also subjectively-based questions. The season (winter vs summer) was also a variable included in the study.
Person-culture fit was the principle outcome being measured, and it accounted for significant independent outcomes.
Interestingly, rather than subjective fit, age and expedition year were better predictors of whether someone actually returned to Antarctia. This isn't consistent with traditional workplace settings.
The presenter made some conclusions based on this data, including having a better mix of people. A profile has been developed as a result of the research. and reflects the evolution of culture during Australia's time spent in Antartica. Perhaps Antarctica is an analogue for culture in space research and other remote missions.
The second paper looked at Workplace Incivility - Roberta Martin, U. New England
It looked at rude and potentially harmful non-physical interactions between employees, and the job and psychological outcomes in such environments.
A scale for incivility has been developed called the "Workplace incivility scale" (WIS), a seven item single-factor scale (!)
The presenter was not enamoured of this instrument as it seems fairly weak.
Her study aimed to developed a new questionnaire to improve on the previous scale and to address the limitations of the WIS.
Target and experts were sampled, and some 327 items were generated. Further review using expert groups yielded a final item tally of 127 questions.
Submitted to hundreds of targets yielded a 25% return rate, and this eventually led to a factor analysis.
We were then showed a number of slides demonstrating the statistical properties of the questionnaire, looking at various validity measures, and subscales.
Conclusions confirmed that incivility is a multidimensional process, can be measured using the current measure, which is an improvement on the WIS.
The five factors that the current questionnaire pointed to included:
verbal abuse, inconsiderate behaviour, exclusionary behaviour, gossiping, and privacy invasion.
I spoke to Roberta after and suggested that Employee Assistance organisations would likely be interested in taking her work and developing a set of interventions. She seemed surprised that her work might have utility like this. I got the feeling that she was quite happy to move on from her research to find other enjoyable things to do!
The second paper looked at sexual harassment in the workplace, from Don Hine.
Almost every study shows more females are harassed than males. In this study, the group wanted to examine more specific sub-types, and differential outcomes for males and females.
Some 327 employees in a variety of workplaces were sampled, and they were all in non-management positions.
The Sexual Experiences Questionnaire was used and looks at various factors, such as gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and the more sexual coercion which relates job outcomes to sexual co-operation.
The main outcome that seemed surprising was that men were willing to put their hand up and say, "yes, we've been harassed and we don't like it!"
It's one of the few papers that the media has picked up on, and in the words of the presenter, they really haven't reported it accurately. The trouble with the research is its total reliance on correlational statistics, making inferences very difficult to confirm in any sort of causal manner.
Late afternoon session: Looking at Safety in the Workplace. G. Fogarty
The next session looked at risky behaviour and occupational safety within safety climates in organisations.
The current research looked at using the Accident Risk Management Questionnaire (ARM-Q) which uses 117 items to measure five dimensions:
Safety control (locus of control)
Risk Avoidance
Stress Tolerance
Driver attitude
Quality Control
Scores here are combined to form a Safety Index scale, with distortion and impression scales included.
In the current study, almost 160 participants were presented with the questionnaire with lots of redudancy reported, and not factorily pure.
The study then moved to examining 680 employees in 14 different road transport companies, and looked at eventualities over a six month period.
Number of accidents, absence from work, cost of accidents and workers compensation were some of the outcomes measured.
Best predictors of accidents were the variables Safety Control and driver attitude, especially with regard for road regulations.
Stress Tolerance best predicted workers' compensation.
The suggested deductions from this study were the psychological variables do play a role in safety performance, and while soft in some ways, do represent some "real world" and useful data.
This data can help lead to interventions so as to decrease workplace incidents.
The next paper in this session looked at risk management behaviour in pilots from Brett Molesworth from the Human Factors and Performance Lab of MARCS Auditory Laboratories.
(Oh dear - loads of Powerpoint slide with cut and pasted sentences we are all reading, but not listening to the speaker - we are being asked to do competing activities!)
I tried as hard as I could to follow, but this was a good example of a great study needing better audiovisual presentations given the complexity of the data, and the nature of the research. Some video of what occured during the study would have brought it more to life, and impressed upon the audience the signifance of the research. Write to Brett here: b.molesworth@uws.edu.au
APS Annual General Meeting 2004: Election results and motion outcomes
Results of contested positions for Board membership.
President: Amanda Gordon
Director of Branch and Regional Operations - Ted Campbell
Director of Professional Practice: Mr Hugh Woolford
No motions at the AGM required the use of proxies. Governance motion was carried.
All motions put to the meeting were carried.
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