Modification of interactive behaviors in chronic mental patients

Four chronic mental patients, residents of a token economy treatment unit, were randomly assigned to an experimental or control condition and attended 10 thirty-minute treatment sessions. For the two experimental subjects, contingent reinforcement was received for interacting with each other according to instructions in four distinct phases of interpersonal behavior: talking to another person, attending and talking to another person, asking and answering questions in a dyad, and working cooperatively in the dyad to solve problems. The two control subjects were instructed to perform the same behaviors but received non-contingent reinforcement. The results indicated a strong contingent reinforcement effect on the performance of the treatment sessions' target behaviors. Several baseline, treatment, and post-treatment response measures indicated that the treatment effects had generalized to other areas of social behavior away from the treatment setting.     

Service planning for chronic mental patients: some principles

Services for chronic mental patients in this era of deinstitutionalization present a major challenge to clinicians and planners alike. The complexity of these patients' clinical and other programmatic needs requires that an array of viable comprehensive services be made available to them. Following certain established principles of service planning will help facilitate patients' longitudinal, psychological, financial, and geographical access to care.     

Increased communications of chronic mental patients by reinforcement and by response priming

An attempt was made to increase the frequency with which chronic schizophrenic patients suggested feasible improvements in their treatment. A response priming procedure was devised that was comparable to a previously developed reinforcer exposure procedure. The patients were required to attend a structured meeting during which they were prompted to make suggestions. This priming procedure was compared with the more usual procedure of "welcoming" attendance and suggestions. It was found that more suggestions were made when attendance was required, rather than optional. This increase occurred during a group as well as a private meeting. An attempt was then made to analyze the probable reinforcer for the suggestions by experimentally varying the percentage of suggestions followed. Different staff members served as the discriminative stimuli within a multiple schedule. It was found that the number of suggestions was a direct function of the percentage followed. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the priming procedure as an adjunct to reinforcement procedures for increasing desired behaviors of mental patients. Few suggestions were made when reinforcement or priming were used alone.     

Record keeping guidelines

These guidelines are designed to educate psychologists and provide a framework for making decisions regarding professional record keeping. State and federal laws, as well as the American Psychological Association's "Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct," generally require maintenance of appropriate records of psychological services. The nature and extent of the record will vary depending upon the purpose, setting, and context of the psychological services. Within these guidelines, more directive language has been used when a particular guideline is based specifically on mandatory provisions of the Ethics Code or law. However, some areas are not addressed in those enforceable standards and regulations. In these areas, more aspirational language has been used. This document aims to elaborate and provide assistance to psychologists as they attempt to establish their own record keeping policies and procedures.     

On mental multiplication and age.

In 2 experiments, younger and older adults were presented with simple multiplication problems (e.g., 4 x 7 = 28 and 5 x 3 = 10) for their timed, true or false judgments. All of the effects typically obtained in basic research on mental arithmetic were obtained, that is, reaction time (a) increased with the size of the problem, (b) was slowed for answers deviating only a small amount from the correct value, and (c) was slowed when related (e.g., 7 x 4 = 21) versus unrelated (e.g., 7 x 4 = 18) answers were presented. Older adults were slower in their judgments. Most important, age did not interact significantly with problem size or split size. The authors suggest that elderly adults' central processes, such as memory retrieval and decision making, did not demonstrate the typical age deficit because of the skilled nature of these processes in simple arithmetic.     

Reinforcement and instructions with mental patients

An attempt was made to modify a socially desirable response of mental patients. It was found that instructions to the patients had no enduring effect unless accompanied by reinforcement. Also, it was found that reinforcement was not effective unless the reinforcement procedure was accompanied by instructions that specified the basis for the reinforcement. Maximum change in behavior was obtained when the reinforcement procedure took advantage of the existing verbal repertoire of the patients. A significant methodological finding was that substantial modification of the behavior of psychotics could be achieved by briefly delaying, rather than withholding, food reinforcement.     

Identification with arts‐based groups improves mental wellbeing in adults with chronic mental health conditions

People experiencing chronic mental health conditions (CMHC) often report feeling socially marginalised. There is emerging evidence that social and mental wellbeing can be enhanced through participation in arts‐based programmes. In this paper, a social identity theoretical approach was applied to explore how participation in the arts may improve mental health in a longitudinal study. A one‐year prospective study of 34 choir members and 25 creative writing group members (M_age = 46, 51% female) with CMHC, involved three assessments of participants’ group identification and mental wellbeing, measured by the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale. The programmes were community‐based and facilitated by arts professionals. Multilevel modelling analyses demonstrated that participants’ mental wellbeing significantly improved over time. Greater identification with their arts‐based group (ABG) was significantly related to an increased rate of improvement in mental wellbeing. The trajectory of improvement in mental wellbeing did not differ between participants partaking in the choir or creative writing group. This study demonstrates that participation in ABGs can be effective in improving mental wellbeing in adults with chronic mental health problems, particularly for those who strongly identify with the group. This study supports ABG participation as an accessible component of mental health services.     

On keeping your enemies close: powerful leaders seek proximity to ingroup power threats

Throughout history, humans have had to detect and deflect myriad threats from their social and physical environment in order to survive and flourish. When people detect a threat, the most common response is avoidance. In the present research, the authors provide evidence that ingroup power threats elicit a very different response. Three experiments supported the hypothesis that dominant leaders seek proximity to ingroup members who pose a threat to their power, as a way to control and downregulate the threat that those members pose. In each experiment, leaders high (but not low) in dominance motivation sought proximity to an ingroup member who threatened their power. Consistent with the hypothesis that increased proximity was designed to help leaders protect their own power, the proximity effect was apparent only under conditions of unstable power (not stable power), only in the absence of intergroup competition (not when a rival outgroup was present), and only toward a threatening group member (not a neutral group member). Moreover, the effect was mediated by perceptions of threat (Experiment 1) and the desire to monitor the threatening group member (Experiment 3). These results shed new light on one key strategy through which dominant leaders try to maintain control over valuable yet potentially threatening group members. Findings have implications for theories of power, leadership, and group behavior.