COMPONENT ANALYSIS OF BEHAVIOR SKILLS TRAINING IN FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS

Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is an effective training package that consists of instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. Although the efficacy of BST has been demonstrated, previous research has not clearly delineated its active components. This study used an alternating‐treatment design embedded within ABC and ABCD designs to evaluate the independent effects of all components of BST for training teachers to conduct functional analyses. Prior to baseline, teachers reviewed written instructions. Following baseline, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback training occurred independently during the first training phase and in combination during subsequent training phases. Rehearsal was ineffective, whereas feedback was effective at improving the performance of all teachers. Modeling was less effective than feedback, such that improvements only occurred for some teachers and some functional analysis responses. Thus, feedback, and to a lesser extent, modeling are the effective and perhaps necessary components of BST. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

BEHAVIOURAL DIMENSION ANALYSIS

H erbst , P. G. Behavioural dimension analysis. A theoretical note. Scand. J. Psychol ., 1972, 13 , 1–4.—The method of dimensional analysis, applied to variables measured by means of ratio scales, leads to laws which take the form of multiplicative power functions. It is shown that the method can be extended to variables measured by means of non-metric scales, and thus applied to a wider range of problems of the type encountered in psychology.     

FEMINIST POSTSTRUCTURALISM AND DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

In this article I suggest that feminist poststructuralism (Weedon, 1987) is of great potential value to feminist psychologists seeking more satisfactory ways of theorizing gender and subjectivity. Some key elements of this theoretical perspective are discussed, including an understanding of knowledge as socially produced and inherently unstable, an emphasis on the importance of language and discourse, and a decentering of the subject. Discourse analysis is discussed as one way of working that is consistent with feminist poststructuralist theory. To illustrate this approach, an example is presented from my work on the sexual coercion of women within heterosexual relationships.     

THE ANALYST'S HATRED OF ANALYSIS

Analytic work is loved and hated. Both attitudes deserve scrutiny, but the analyst's hatred of analysis, which transcends countertransference responses to individual patients, represents an impediment to gratifying analytic work whose recognition and conceptualization has been resisted. The author suggests that antipathy among analysts toward analysis and the analytic situation is normative and expectable, yet commonly experienced as shameful. He speculates that it is sometimes disavowed and projected. Training institutes might inadvertently foster this sense of shame rather than promote its working through. The recognition that analytic identity functions as both a loving and a persecutory internal object has implications for psychoanalytic education and practice.     

SELF-ASSESSMENT: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

A critical analysis is provided of self-assessment (SA) as an area of investigation. It is argued that there are numerous deficiencies in SA work pertaining to theoretical foundations, measurement, and behavioral focus. Several suggestions are made for advancing the nature and scope of SA theory and research.     

APPLYING BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS TO CLINICAL PROBLEMS: REVIEW AND ANALYSIS OF HABIT REVERSAL

This article provides a review and analysis of habit reversal, a multicomponent procedure developed by Azrin and Nunn (1973, 1974) for the treatment of nervous habits, tics, and stuttering. The article starts with a discussion of the behaviors treated with habit reversal, behavioral covariation among habits, and functional analysis and assessment of habits. Research on habit reversal and simplified versions of the procedure is then described. Next the article discusses the limitations of habit reversal and the evidence for its generality. The article concludes with an analysis of the behavioral processes involved in habit reversal and suggestions for future research.     

A MODEL OF CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS

Abstract: In this article I identify the conceptual tools needed to establish claims for the existence of conceptual ties, along with the principles governing the use of those tools, and present a model of conceptual analysis. I identify and justify those principles in the light of the conditions for the meaningfulness of expressions in language, which I extract from an analysis of the concept of meaning. The conclusions of this analysis are organized into a schematic model of the workings of a language. According to this model, the meaning of every word in any language is determined by its role in the systematic mapping of all possible states of affairs included in its conceptual scheme.     

A CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS OF RAPE VICTIMIZATION

Recent prevalence studies have suggested that 15-22% of women have been raped at some point in their lives, many by close acquaintances, although few victims seek assistance services or professional psychotherapy immediately post-assault. Surveys have revealed that 31–48% of rape victims eventually sought professional psychotherapy, often years after the actual assault. These observations suggest that the primary role of clinicians in the treatment of rape victims is the identification and handling of chronic, post-traumatic responses to a nonrecent experience. However, it is concluded that most of the existing literature on rape treatment addresses only the target symptoms that represent the immediate response to rape. In this article, contemporary theoretical and empirical discussions of stress, cognitive appraisal, cognitive adaptation, and coping are used to conceptualize the long-term impact of rape and the process of resolution. Directions for future research on the clinical treatment of rape are suggested.     

THE APPLICATION OF EXPLORATORY FACTOR ANALYSIS IN APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: A CRITICAL REVIEW AND ANALYSIS

Although factor analysis has been a major contributing factor in advancing psychological research, a systematic assessment of how it has been applied is lacking. For this review we examined the Journal of Applied Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Performance , and Personnel Psychology over a ten-year period (1975–1984) and located 152 studies that employed factor analysis. We then analyzed the choices made by the researchers concerning factor model, retention criteria, rotation, interpretation of factors and other issues relevant to factor analysis. The results indicate that choices made by researchers have generally been poor and that reporting practices have not allowed for informed review, cumulation of results, or replicability. A comparison of results by time interval (1975–1979; 1980–1984) revealed minimal differences in choices made or the quality of reporting practices. Suggestions for improving the use of factor analysis and the reporting of results are presented.     

JOB ANALYSIS MODELS AND JOB CLASSIFICATION

Recent research in job classification has focused on the appropriate data analysis model for analyzing the similarities and differences among jobs. In the present research, the data analysis model is held constant, and the type of job analysis data is varied to examine the effect on the resulting job classification decisions. Seven foremen jobs in a chemical processing plant were analyzed using three different levels of job analysis data: task-oriented, worker-oriented, and abilities-oriented. All three sets of data were analyzed using the same hierarchical clustering procedure. Results indicated that the number and type of resulting job clusters was clearly dictated by the type of job analysis data that was used to compare the foremen jobs. Practical implications of these findings are presented.     

THE FALSE PROMISES OF RISK ANALYSIS

The relatively new discipline of risk analysis promises to provide objective guidance in some of the most controversial issues in modern high-technology societies. Four conditions are discussed that must be satisfied for this promise to be fulfilled. Since none of these conditions is satisfied, risk analysis does not keep its promise. In its attempts to reduce genuinely political issues to technocratic calculations, it neglects many of the factors that should influence decisions on risk acceptance. A list of tentative guidelines is given for numerical decision support that encourages democratic decision-making instead of trying to evade it.     

ANALYSIS OF REPEATED MEASURES AND OTHER DESIGNS

For small and balanced analysis of variance problems, standard computer programs are convenient and efficient. For large problems, regression pro- grams are at least competitive with analysis of variance programs; and, when a problem is unbalanced, they usually provide the only reasonable solution. This paper discusses procedures for using regression programs for the computing of analyses of variance. A procedure for coding matrices is described for experimental designs having nested and crossed factors. Several illustrations are given, and the limitation of the procedure with large repeated measures designs is discussed. A second algorithm is offered for obtaining the sums of squares for nested factors and their interactions in such designs.     

WHAT SIN IS: A DIFFERENTIAL ANALYSIS

Sin is clearly evil, but what differentiates sin from evil? The idea that sin is moral evil is widely held, but important theological arguments have been posed against it. Theologians who reject sin moralism have, however, found it hard to distinguish sin from evil—partially because they share hidden assumptions with sin moralists. Helped by a philosophical theology of deep responsibility, I propound sin responsibilism: sin is culpable evil. This analysis of sin is open to multiple accounts of sin's relation to morality or theories of responsibility, and thus of sin's scope—but I defend a non‐moralistic, compatibilist sin responsibilism.     

A TRANSACTIONAL ANALYSIS OF COMPLIANCE-GAINING BEHAVIOR

This study investigated how persuasive agents modify their compliance-gaining message strategy selection when they are confronted with noncompliant male and female persuasive targets in a variety of relational contexts. Based on instrumental learning theory, it was hypothesized that persuasive agents in noninterpersonal contexts would respond to noncompliant persuasive targets by increasing their preference for punishment-oriented message strategies and decreasing their preference for reward-oriented message strategies, whereas persuasive agents in interpersonal contexts would increase their preference for reward and punishment-oriented message strategies. Results confirmed the hypothesis. Moreover, males were expected to respond to noncompliant persuasive targets with more punishment-oriented strategies than females, and females were expected to use more rewarding strategies to secure compliance from noncompliant persuasive targets. However, results indicated that females responded to noncompliant persuasive targets with more punishment and reward-oriented strategies than males. Results also showed that the effects of persuasive agents' gender on message selection is mediated by the gender of persuasive targets and the duration of the relational consequences.     

FACTOR ANALYSIS OF A NEUROTICISM INVENTORY

The Lidvall neuroticism inventory is comprised of 25 questions referring to symptoms presumed to be connected with manifest neurotic anxiety. It was presented to 377 persons, an unscreened group with respect to neurotic symptoms, and a factor analysis with rotation to simple structure was performed.—Four factors could be identified: (1) manifest neurotic anxiety, (2) neurotic difficulties in interpersonal relations, (3) neurasthenic symptoms and (4) obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The factor scales were correlated with Neuroticism and Extraversion in MPI. Neuroticism was shown to be a heterogeneous factor. The correlation between Factor (2) and Extraversion was high.     

THE EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF COGNITION IN ANIMALS

Abstract— The origins and current status of comparative cognitive psychology are examined. Great strides have been made in the last 20 years, but two problems are identified as obstacles to future progress. One is the very limited number of species studied by comparative cognitive psychologists. The second is the conflict between the increasing use of complex stimulus discriminations and the need for precise stimulus control in animal experiments. An expanded examination of more species as selected by phylogenetic and ecological considerations and an unwavering demand for the experimental identification of the controlling features of complex discriminations are suggested as solutions to these difficulties.     

EMPLOYING CONJOINT ANALYSIS IN MAKING COMPENSATION DECISIONS

A method employing conjoint analysis that generates utility/cost ratios for various elements of the compensation package is described. Its superiority to simple preference surveys is examined relative to optimizing the level of employee satisfaction at any given expenditure level. Results of a study of the use of this method in fringe benefit planning in a large financial institution are reported.