The present study hypothesized that requiring use of an integrated learning system (ILS) would yield a learning benefit in a classroom situation. Two sections of an introductory psychology course taught by the same instructor and using the same text and exams differed with respect to whether online quizzing and concept mastery exercises in an ILS were required or optional. Students in the ILS-required section received substantial course credit for achieving a criterion of 100% correct on each online quiz, with unlimited retakes, and mastery of 25 key concepts per chapter. Results showed better exam performance for the ILS-required class across items keyed to different levels in Bloom’s taxonomy. Students in the ILS-optional class failed to use these online resources consistently, suggesting that graded incentives may be needed to justify their use in classroom situations.
The advent of the integrated learning system (ILS) offers instructors opportunities to provide students with feedback-enabled, interactive learning exercises as online supplements to assigned textbooks. Major college publishers are now bundling an ILS with many of their textbook offerings in undergraduate courses in psychology and other fields. We incorporated an ILS in two separate classes in introductory psychology and evaluated the learning benefits of requiring ILS quizzing and concept-building exercises embedded within the ILS. The two classes were taught by different instructors using the same textbook and course examinations. We incentivized use of these ILS resources by allocating a substantial portion of the student's grade to performance on online assignments. Our findings suggest potential learning benefits of requiring these ILS resources. As learning benefits were limited to students in the upper third of the class distribution, additional efforts may be needed to help poorer performing students utilize online resources more effectively.
Efforts to understand personality features of people who use psychoactive substances have a long history, dating back to early psychoanalytic conceptualizations. Advancements in the field have focused on applying multidimensional personality inventories to better understand personality differences between substance users and non-users, and between different substance use types, with respect to both psychopathological traits and broad dimensional factors. A brief review of this evidence highlights personality features of persons with alcohol and other substance use problems and between users of different types of substances, especially alcohol and opioid substance use disorder patients. A better understanding of personality profiles of substance use disorder groups may be useful in tailoring treatment approaches based on profile characteristics.Medical and psychological research literature documents a long history of attempts to identify and characterize personality profiles associated with problematic substance use. Approaches to this question have varied, utilizing objective, projective, dimensional, and categorical measures of personality as well as psychoanalytic formulation of substance use behavior. Studies initially focused on examining evidence for the existence of an "alcoholic" or "addictive" personality structure that may predispose individuals to engage in problematic alcohol and drug use.Research efforts have shifted away from attempts to identify an overriding concept of a single personality type 1 . More recent work seeks to develop etiologic predictive models that identify and compare personality profiles of users and nonusers and between users of different substances. Furthermore, these newer approaches have increasingly used more complex and integrative models incorporating both biological and socioeconomic factors. The current paper provides a brief narrative review of research evidence exploring personality profiles of individuals with substance use disorders as well as differences in personality traits among users of different substances. Understanding differences in personality patterns may help inform targeted intervention efforts to address personality-level factors that underpin substance use and risk factors in substance use disorders, which may differ among individuals who use different substances.
Psychoanalytic ApproachesEarly psychoanalytic approaches emphasized drives toward libidinal gratification and defenses against aggressive impulses as the basis for addiction and substance use [2][3][4] . Moreover, fixation at
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