The problem-solving aspect of suicide.
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Humans↗
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Results for “Problem Solving”
Explore indexed PubMed citations for clinical trials, systematic reviews and public health research. Read source abstracts and follow each citation to its original PubMed record.
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The impact of a brief problem-solving training intervention for relatives of recently diagnosed breast cancer patients.
Previous studies have found high levels of psychological distress in women who have a family history of breast cancer. We evaluated a brief Problem-Solving Training (PST) intervention designed to reduce distress among women with a first-degree relative recently diagnosed with this disease. Participants were randomly assigned to either the PST group (N = 144) or a General Health Counseling (GHC) control group (N = 197). At baseline, these groups did not differ on any sociodemographic, risk factor, or psychological distress variables. We evaluated the impact of PST, relative to GHC, at the three-month follow-up assessment using a 2 (treatment group) x 2 (time of assessment) mixed factor analysis of variance (ANOVA). Although there were significant decreases in both cancer-specific and general distress in both the PST and GHC groups, the magnitude of these decreases did not differ. However, when PST participants were divided into those who regularly practiced the PST techniques and those who did not, significant differences emerged. Participants who regularly practiced the PST techniques had significantly greater decreases in cancer-specific distress [Impact of Event Scale (IEs) intrusion and avoidance subscales] compared to infrequent practicers and GHC participants. Effects on general distress were not found. Additional studies are needed to identify ways to promote the practice of PST techniques and to evaluate other psychosocial interventions for female relatives of breast cancer patients.
Adaptation, Psychological↗
Improving patient care through problem-solving groups.
In a competitive healthcare environment where as much attention must be given to quality of care as to cost containment, hospitals must learn to involve their lowest-paid paraprofessionals in decision making, since often these people have as much or more contact with patients than do physicians and nurses. One effective employee-involvement technique is the problem-solving group (PSG), which works to identify, analyze, choose, and implement solutions to various problems that influence the quality of patient care. A PSG project involving a typical paraprofessional unit was begun in spring 1985 at Emory University Hospital, Atlanta. The project's developmental stages were the following: Gathering data; Identifying problems; Providing feedback; Selecting PSG members; Focusing on problems; Generating solutions; Choosing the best solution; Implementing solutions; Managing successful outcomes. The PSG project was successful in addressing almost all the 15 identified problems in the department. Involving the staff in the PSG project resulted in higher morale, greater satisfaction with management, and a more favorable attitude toward their jobs.
Attitude of Health Personnel↗
Conceptual problem-solving in highly verbal, nonretarded autistic men.
Nine highly verbal, nonretarded men, ages 18 to 39, with clearly documented childhood diagnoses of infantile autism were studied with the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, a measure of conceptual problem solving sensitive to frontal system dysfunction, and with a measure of social-adaptive functioning. Their performances were compared with 10 controls matched for age, sex, education, and IQ, as well as with published norms for various groups of brain-damaged patients. Significant deficits in the formulation of rules and significant perseverative tendencies were documented in the autistic sample. No significant correlation between these deficits and social-adaptive deficits was seen. These findings were discussed with respect to the heterogeneity of the autistic disorder and Damasio's hypothesis concerning frontal-subcortical dysfunction in autism.
Adolescent↗
The relationship between problem solving and activity level in the elderly.
Research stemming from disengagement and activity theory has recently focused on individual differences in establishing and maintaining interpersonal relationships. A specific intervening variable which has been hypothesized to be related to social activity level is interpersonal cognitive problem solving skills (ICPS). The present study identified two groups of elderly veterans on the basis of their ICPS skills. Those who generated a high number of solutions to interpersonal problems reported significantly more time spent in social and isolated goal-directed tasks than the group generating fewer solutions when age, educational level, and length of institutionalization had been covaried. The results suggest the potential usefulness of the ICPS approach as a means of identifying socially active individuals and as an intervention or training technique for less able institutionalized residents.
Aged↗
Clinical problem solving and clinical knowledge.
Videotape and simulated patients were used for evaluating third year medical students' performances in solving familiar and unfamiliar clinical problems. To assist the doctor to rate the students' performances by the review of videotapes, criteria were set up for students' behaviours that could be construed as evidence that the students recognized cues obtained by interviewing the patient and the information content of such cues. Criteria for data use by the students were also set. A mean of 90% of the pertinent medical history data was collected by the students. The amount of pertinent historical data collected was found to correlate very closely with student-patient interaction analysis score for the familiar and unfamiliar problems (r = 0.89 and r = 0.92, respectively). Significant differences in mean scores for data generation (P less than 0.001) and for data use (P less than 0.01) were found between those students who solved and those who failed to solve the familiar problem. With the unfamiliar problem a significant difference was found between the mean scores for data generation (P less than 0.01), but not for data use. The implications of these findings in medical education are discussed.
Clinical Competence↗
On the correlation of brain size and problem-solving behavior of ring doves and pigeons.
The behavior of 12 adult ring doves [a small-brained species of Columbidae] was compared with that of 12 adult pigeons [a large-brained species of Columbidae] in a detour problem to see if Rensch's hypothesis of increased brain size being correlated with increased capability can be extended to a perceptual problem-solving task. Three detour dependent variables were intercorrelated with seven gross brain indices obtained from each bird. There were no species differences in terms of detour behavior, and no correlational trends of brain-behavior relationships were discernible. It was concluded that Rensch's hypothesis may not be generalizable to all types of behavior capabilities.
Animals↗
Strategy guidance and memory aiding in learning a problem-solving skill.
Guidance can help learners overcome the difficulties of getting started in a novel domain, but it is often ineffective in promoting learning and transfer. This article examines two aspects of guidance--communicating solution strategies for a problem domain and providing working memory support--in learning a novel problem-solving skill. Subjects in two experiments learned to troubleshoot simulated information networks. The learning environment varied in type of guidance provided--none, variable template, fixed template, and procedural instruction--and in availability of memory aiding. Variable-template guidance was effective when memory aiding was provided, and procedural instructions produced effective learning with or without memory aiding. However, fixed-template guidance was not effective, and there was no consistent effect of memory aiding in unguided, discovery learning conditions. The results have theoretical implications for the locus of guided-learning effects and suggest practical guidelines for the design of guided-learning environments.
Computer Communication Networks↗
TIPS: telephone intervention--problem solving for persons with schizophrenia.
A prospective experimental design was used to examine whether face-to-face meetings designed to establish rapport had an effect on the verbal responses of persons with schizophrenia in subsequent Telephone Intervention--Problem Solving (TIPS). Verbal responsiveness was operationalized as length of telephone conversation, number of feeling statements expressed, and number of one-word responses. Experimental participants met with the TIPS provider twice during hospitalization, while controls did not meet with the TIPS provider. All subjects received TIPS weekly from a psychiatric nurse for six weeks after hospital discharge. Compared to controls, experimental participants conversed longer at every measurement point, and significantly longer during weeks one through three. Experimental participants were approximately twice as likely to make a feeling statement as those in the control group. These data suggest that psychiatric nurses who would like to employ TIPS to support clients in the community should plan for at least two face-to-face interventions to establish rapport prior to initiating TIPS.
Adult↗
Medical problem-solving: a reanalysis.
Data derived from high-fidelity simulation studies of medical diagnostic reasoning are reanalyzed and critiqued. Results from the reanalyses do not support the earlier findings. The reanalyses also raise questions about the validity of a psychological model of diagnostic inquiry that formed the foundation of the high-fidelity simulation research. Suggestions regarding alternate methods for conducting research on diagnostic problem-solving are offered.
Diagnosis↗
Tracing problem solving in real time: fMRI analysis of the subject-paced Tower of Hanoi.
Previous research has found three brain regions for tracking components of the ACT-R cognitive architecture: a posterior parietal region that tracks changes in problem representation, a prefrontal region that tracks retrieval of task-relevant information, and a motor region that tracks the programming of manual responses. This prior research has used relatively simple tasks to incorporate a slow event-related procedure, allowing the blood oxygen level-dependent (BOLD) response to go back to baseline after each trial. The research described here attempts to extend these methods to tracking problem solving in a complex task, the Tower of Hanoi, which involves many complex steps of cognition and motor actions in rapid succession. By tracking the activation patterns in these regions, it is possible to predict with intermediate accuracy when participants are planning a future sequence of moves. The article describes a cognitive model in the ACT-R architecture that is capable of explaining both the latency data in move generation and the BOLD responses in these three regions.
Adolescent↗
What can robots tell us about brains? A synthetic approach towards the study of learning and problem solving.
This paper argues for the development of synthetic approaches towards the study of brain and behavior as a complement to the more traditional empirical mode of research. As an example we present our own work on learning and problem solving which relates to the behavioral paradigms of classical and operant conditioning. We define the concept of learning in the context of behavior and lay out the basic methodological requirements a model needs to satisfy, which includes evaluations using robots. In addition, we define a number of design principles neuronal models should obey to be considered relevant. We present in detail the construction of a neural model of short- and long-term memory which can be applied to an artificial behaving system. The presented model (DAC4) provides a novel self-consistent implementation of these processes, which satisfies our principles. This model will be interpreted towards the present understanding of the neuronal substrate of memory.
Animals↗
A theory-based empirical classification of family problem-solving behavior.
A method for classifying family interaction behavior is presented that underlies several related studies of variation in families' modes of interpreting and interacting with the social environment. Evidence is presented for the existence of three dimensions of family problem-solving behavior that: (a) are consistent with theory of variation in families' orientations to the environment; (b) are useful for interpreting differences within nonclinical as well as clinical samples of families; and (c) have been shown, with current samples' ranges, to be essentially independent of surface markers of family variation and accumulated skills of family members.
Character↗
The treatment effectiveness project. A comparison of the effectiveness of paroxetine, problem-solving therapy, and placebo in the treatment of minor depression and dysthymia in primary care patients: background and research plan.
This report describes the background, rationale, and research plan for a comparative treatment trial of the effectiveness of paroxetine, problem-solving therapy (PST-PC), and placebo in the treatment of minor depression and dysthymia in primary care patients. Patients were recruited from a variety of primary care practice settings in four separate geographic locations (Hanover, New Hampshire; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, San Antonio, Texas; and Seattle, Washington). Patients were randomly assigned to each of the three intervention conditions the medication/placebo conditions were double-blinded. The treatment trial was 11 weeks, with independent assessments of patient clinical status at baseline, 6 weeks, and 11 weeks. There was a follow-up at 25 weeks. Since there are relatively few placebo-controlled trials in primary care settings on patients with these disorders, the background of this project and a description of it are presented at this time, prior to the availability of outcome data, to provide methodological detail and to increase awareness in the research community of this treatment trial, with results to appear subsequently.
Antidepressive Agents↗
Schooling and traditional collaborative social organization of problem solving by Mayan mothers and children.
Traditional indigenous social organization in the Americas has been characterized as involving horizontal multiparty engagements, in contrast with schooling, which often relies on hierarchy and division of labor. This study examined whether the social organization of problem solving of Guatemalan Mayan indigenous mothers and children varied with the mothers' extent of experience with school. We observed 47 mothers as they constructed a puzzle with 3 children (ages 6-12 years). Mayan mothers with little schooling (0-2 grades) were involved more in horizontal, multiparty engagements, whereas Mayan mothers with extensive experience with schooling (12 or more grades) were involved more in hierarchical, division-of-labor engagements with the children. The results suggest that Western formal schooling contributes to the reshaping of traditional collaborative social organization among indigenous Mayan people.
Child↗
Comparative effectiveness of social problem-solving therapy and reminiscence therapy as treatments for depression in older adults.
Compared the effects of 2 psychotherapies based on divergent conceptualizations of depression in later life. Seventy-five older adults diagnosed with major depressive disorder were assigned randomly to problem-solving therapy (PST), reminiscence therapy (RT), or a waiting-list control (WLC) condition. Participants in PST and RT were provided with 12 weekly sessions of group treatment. Dependent measures, taken at baseline, posttreatment, and 3-month follow-up, included self-report and observer-based assessments of depressive symptomatology. At posttreatment, both the PST and the RT conditions produced significant reductions in depressive symptoms, compared with the WLC group, and PST participants experienced significantly less depression than RT subjects. Moreover, a significantly greater proportion of participants in PST versus RT demonstrated sufficient positive change to warrant classification of their depression as improved or in remission at the posttreatment and follow-up evaluations.
Aged↗
Problem-solving strategies and manifest brain asymmetry.
The dichhaptic stimulation procedures developed by Witelson (1974) for the study of brain lateralization in children were modified and extended for use with adults. Consistent with findings in children, an overall left hand advantage was found under conditions of simultaneous or dichhaptic stimulation, although it was not found under conditions of monohaptic stimulation. The major purpose of the study was to determine whether in adults hand differences (assumed to reflect hemisphere utilization) could be influenced by the use of differential problem-solving strategies. Half the Ss were instructed to approach the haptic learning and recognition problems in a "sequential" or "analytic" manner, and half to approach them in a "holistic" or "Gestalt" manner. The results indicated that the degree of left hand superiority was indeed influenced by this manipulation, although it is to be noted that the actual basis of the effect is unclear. The results were consistent with the idea that brain lateralization must be defined, not strictly by tasks, but by strategies used by subjects to perform the tasks used to detect and study that lateralization. It is suggested that this immensely complicates the issue of interpreting the origin and basis of individual and group differences in laterality effects.
Adult↗
Prosthetic rehabilitation in temporomandibular disorder and orofacial pain patients. Clinical problem solving.
Good clinical decision making represents an integral part of quality care. A definition of the dental problem and its significance from a dental point of view, in combination with a good working hypothesis of the nature of the concurrent TMD condition are prerequisites of any successful clinical problem solving. It is hoped that, with time, we will be in a position to call upon hard data on the probability and utility of successful outcome for each treatment alternative. This will bring the needed structure and scientific validity to a terribly complex albeit clinically important problem.
Decision Trees↗