Multiple randomized clinical trials have shown that cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and prolonged exposure (PE) are evidence-based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, additional research should verify the effectiveness of CPT and PE in conditions more reflective of clinical practice. The present study evaluated the effectiveness of CPT and PE at reducing veterans' self-reported PTSD symptoms as measured by total scores on the PTSD Checklist (PCL). This study involved a retrospective review of 2,030 charts. 750 veterans from 10 U.S. states who received CPT or PE in individual psychotherapy from the Veterans Health Administration were included in the study (N participants in CPT = 376; N participants in PE = 374). The study used multilevel modeling to evaluate the absolute and relative effectiveness of both treatments and to determine the relationship between patient-level factors and total PCL scores during treatment. Results showed that both CPT and PE were equally effective at reducing total PCL scores, but that the effectiveness of both therapies was reduced when compared to results obtained in randomized clinical trials. Patients who completed therapy reported significantly larger reductions on the PCL than patients who did not complete therapy. On average, patients who did not complete a full course of therapy reported little to no improvement on the PCL. Encouragingly, as a group these patients did not report an increase in the severity of their total PCL scores prior to dropping out from therapy. Patients who reported more severe total PCL scores at baseline experienced significantly larger reductions in PCL scores during therapy, but veterans at all levels of initial PTSD symptom severity benefited from treatment. Older veterans and Hispanic veterans had higher total PCL scores at baseline.However, veterans across all ages and three racial/ethnic groups (Caucasian, African American, Hispanic) experienced equivalent rates of symptom reduction. Therapist effects were small, but -ivstatistically significant. The study discusses the significance of these findings in light of prior research on trauma-focused therapy, future directions for research, and implications for practice.-v- Acknowledgements

Vocational psychology has a long history of acting as a lens that focuses research in basic sciences on the particular experience of work in people’s lives. This article presents several areas on the ascendancy in the broader scientific literature and ask how vocational psychology might apply them to issues of work in people’s lives. The authors’ observations tend to revolve around the growing view of humans as less rational and more intuitive than our earlier understanding. In that vein, the authors discuss (a) differences between the environment in which we evolved and the one in which we currently exist; (b) the singularity of our evolutionary impetus to survive and reproduce (that excludes our current emphasis on happiness); (c) the modular, two-system brain that includes our unconscious/intuitive system and our conscious/rational system; and (d) several recent developments in psychotherapy that recognize and respond to some of these new understandings. For simplicity sake, our questions might be subsumed under the larger question: How do we apply post-rational theory to hyperrational humans? Rejuvenation of the field might be tied to our willingness to listen to science being done around us, and not relying too heavily on the excellent work accomplished by those who came before us.

Alternate assessments based on modified achievement standards (AA-MAS) are designed to measure the academic achievement of students with disabilities who are not expected to reach grade-level standards but who do not qualify for alternate assessments based on alternate achievement standards (AA-AAS). This article describes the 2010 participants of one state's AA-MAS. AA-MAS test-takers included a higher proportion of males than were recorded for the general test, and they were more likely than other students with disabilities to be of minority ethnicity, to be English language learners, and to experience poverty. AA-MAS participants were representative of groups who are more likely than average to drop out of school due to these risk factors. Understanding the characteristics of these students will be crucial as the Common Core State Standards are widely adopted and new assessments are created to measure these standards without special testing considerations for this population.