Behavioral Skills Training With Teachers: Booster Training for Improved Maintenance

Behavioral skills training (BST) has been employed within many different populations for the reduction of problem behaviors and acquisition of new skills; however, these changes have not always maintained over time. This study evaluated the effects of a booster training for re-establishing the classroom management proficiencies that teachers had acquired previously, but had declined over a 12-month period. The single-subject experimental results showed the booster training to be effective in re-establishing teacher performance of skills as measured by both analogue role-play and in situ postassessments within the classroom. These findings suggest that a booster training utilizing BST may be an important strategy for maintaining skill performance over time.     

BEHAVIORAL GERONTOLOGY: APPLICATION OF BEHAVIORAL METHODS TO THE PROBLEMS OF OLDER ADULTS

Elderly persons are under-represented in research and clinical applied behavior analysis, in spite of data suggesting that behavior problems are quite prevalent in both community dwelling and institutionalized elderly. Preliminary investigations suggest that behavioral procedures can be used effectively in treating various geriatric behavior problems. We discuss a number of areas within behavioral gerontology that would profit from additional research, including basic field study, self-management, community caregiver training, institutional staff training and management, and geriatric behavioral pharmacology. Special considerations for adapting behavioral procedures are discussed, and suggestions for expanding the role of behavior analysis in geriatric care are offered.     

The Importance of Theory in Cognitive Behavior Therapy: A Perspective of Contextual Behavioral Science

For the past 30 years, generations of scholars of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) have expressed concern that clinical practice has abandoned the close links with theory that characterized the earliest days of the field. There is also a widespread assumption that a greater working knowledge of theory will lead to better clinical outcomes, although there is currently very little hard evidence to support this claim. We suggest that the rise of so-called “third generation” models of CBT over the past decade, along with the dissemination of statistical innovations among psychotherapy researchers, have given new life to this old issue. We argue that theory likely does matter to clinical outcomes, and we outline the future research that would be needed to address this conjecture.     

Behavioral analysis of clinical cases

The behavior-analytic approach to clinical phenomena is presented. An operationalized framework for conducting behavioral analysis with clinical cases is provided. Idiographic analysis and treatment innovation are conceptualized and conducted within the framework of the experimental method. Differences between technological and behavior-analytic approaches are illustrated.     

Behavioral momentum in college basketball

Three classes of events were scored from videotapes of 14 college basketball games during the 1989 National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament: reinforcers (such as points and favorable turnovers), adversities (such as missed shots, unfavorable turnovers, and fouls), and responses to adversities (favorable or unfavorable outcomes of the first possession of the ball following an adversity). Within-game and within-team analyses of these data supported three findings. First, a team's favorable response to an adversity generally increased as the rate of reinforcement increased 3 min preceding the adversity. Second, basketball coaches called time-out from play when being outscored by their opponents an average of 2.63 to 1.0. Third, calling time-outs from play appeared to be an effective intervention for reducing an opponent's rate of reinforcement. Rates of reinforcement during the 3 min immediately after a time-out were nearly equal for both teams. Results are discussed within a behavioral momentum framework.     

Focus,Scope, and Practice of Behavioral Consultation to Public Schools

SUMMARY

Public school districts frequently seek professional consultation to improve educational services. This article is an overview of the focus, scope, and practice of behavioral consultation to public schools. A four-stage process of consultation is described, followed by a discussion on the expanding role of behavior support intervention. Next, the involvement of consultants in the design of individual-student, classroom-wide, and whole-school programs is considered. Contemporary approaches to consultation are presented such as positive behavior support, functional behavioral assessment, and efficacy evaluation that targets natural data sources. A concluding section sets forth recommendations for the successful practice of public school behavioral consultation.     

INCREASING DISTANCE AND INDEPENDENCE OF AMBULATION IN ELDERLY NURSING HOME RESIDENTS

We tested the effectiveness of a prompt-and-praise procedure for increasing walking distance and independence in eight nursing home residents. Walking distance and method of ambulation were observed just prior to mealtimes; in addition, mobility and social interaction were time-sampled in the living areas throughout the day. Treatment was lagged in a multiple baseline design across lunch and dinner meals within subjects, and across subjects within each of three units. In the mealtime setting, two subjects began walking the maximum scored distance during baseline; the other six subjects showed a marked increase in walking beginning with the first meal in which the intervention was applied. Six of the eight subjects also progressed to more independent means of ambulation. Generalization of walking to the second meal was observed in all four of the subjects in whom this could be assessed. Generalization across subjects was not observed nor was generalization to the living areas. Staff successfully implemented the procedures in the mealtime settings and the effects were maintained at the 4-month follow-up.     

A Behavioral Health Screening Measure for Use with Young Adults in Primary Care Settings

Many healthcare professionals argue that mental health assessment should be routinely incorporated into young adults' medical health care. This project is an evaluation of the Behavioral Health Screening Measure (BHSM) that could be integrated into a primary healthcare setting to aid in the identification of mental illness in young adults. First, Receiver Operating Characteristics analysis was used to calculate a cutoff score that distinguishes a sample of 134 young adult outpatients and 233 young adult nonpatients. Second, a sample of 120 young adults that completed BHSM was divided into two groups by using the cutoff score. Analyses suggested that the two groups had significantly different scores on various measures of depression, anxiety, and general well-being. Results suggest that BHSM would be a valid screening instrument for detecting emotional problems in young adults.     

Application of Problem Solving Therapy for Late-Life Anxiety

Cognitive behavioral therapy for anxiety has demonstrated lower efficacy in older compared with younger adults. Yet, few other evidence-based options for late-life anxiety have been examined. This case series aimed to demonstrate the application of Problem Solving Therapy (PST) to older adults with anxiety disorders building on PST’s strong empirical support for treating late-life depression. PST was implemented to treat three older primary-care patients diagnosed with anxiety disorders. We present treatment outcomes and discuss the feasibility and acceptability of using PST to treat these patients. Implications and lessons learned from these patients are discussed to inform further development of PST to better meet the needs of older patients suffering from late-life anxiety.     

WHY NO GUIDELINES FOR BEHAVIOR MODIFICATION?

This paper reviews the guidelines for behavioral programs published by the National Association of Retarded Children. The review discusses a number of reasons why guidelines should not be enunciated for behavior modification, e.g., the procedures of behavior modification appear to be no more or less subject to abuse and no more or less in need of ethical regulation than intervention procedures derived from any other set of principles and called by other terms. The review recommends alternative methods for protecting the rights of clients who participate in behavioral programs. Specifically, behavioral clinicians, like other therapists, should be governed by the ethics codes of their professions; also, the ethics of all intervention programs should be evaluated in terms of a number of critical issues.     

Self- and cross-citations in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior: 1983-1992

We examined self- and cross-citation practices in JABA and JEAB from 1983 through 1992. Mean levels of self-citation for JABA and for JEAB were 22.6% and 36.1%, respectively. Overall, 2.4% of JABA citations were JEAB articles, and 0.6% of JEAB citations were JABA articles, which suggests limited integration of basic and applied research.     

Treating Young Adult Depression With Text-Delivered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Young adults (ages 18 to 25) in the U.S. suffer from the highest rates of past-year major depressive episode and are the least likely to receive treatment compared to other age groups. As such, we examined the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a text-message delivered cognitive behavioral therapy: CBT-txt with young adults. The study was a 2-month pilot RCT to test a 4-week intervention for depression that contained 197 text messages (average 12 texts every other day). The sample, recruited via Facebook and Instagram, was 102 U.S. young adults who presented with at least moderate depressive symptomatology. Assessments occurred at baseline prior to randomization and at 1 and 2 months post enrollment. The primary outcome, severity of depressive symptoms, was assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory II. Feasibility benchmarks were met and participants reported high levels of engagement with and acceptability of the intervention. Logistic regression indicated that treatment participants were three times as likely to have minimal or mild depression symptoms at 2 months compared to waitlist control participants. Latent change score modeling found that the strongest significant treatment effect appeared at the 1-month follow-up period, particularly for participants who began with severe depressive symptoms. Mediation analysis revealed significant indirect treatment effects of increases in behavioral activation on reducing depressive symptoms, suggesting a mechanism of change. Limitations were that the sample was relatively small and consisted of primarily women. These results provide initial evidence for the feasibility, acceptability, and efficacy of a text-delivered treatment for young adult depression.     

When Psychologists Work with Older Adults: A Survey of Ethical Beliefs and Practices

Despite the number of publications concerning legal and ethical issues faced by psychologists, and despite the increased interest in addressing specific concerns related to aging, little is known about the actual beliefs and practices of psychologists when they work with older adults. Given the changing demographics in the United States, many mental health professionals will have contact with older adult clients, and the focus of the present study was to examine the extent to which psychologists are prepared to work competently with older adult clients. Survey data were collected from 156 APA Division 12 (Clinical Psychology) and 17 (Counseling Psychology) members regarding the degree to which they engaged in each of 50 behaviors and the degree to which they considered each behavior ethical. Findings are presented in terms of percentages of responses to items on the questionnaire, and ANOVAs were performed on important demographic items to identify statistically significant differences among variables. Coursework in geropsychology or aging, specialization with older adults, and working with a high percentage of older adults were related to higher scores on the Overall Ethical Behavior scale. Females scored higher than males on the Overall Ethical Belief scale.     

Visualized prosocial behavior and emotion in late life

Correlational research suggests that among older adults prosociality relates to positive emotions; yet causality remains unclear. We conducted an experiment to investigate whether visualizing a prosocial action would experience enhanced positive and lower negative emotion, and whether this would be particularly true for those with certain altruistic personality traits. Participants aged sixty and above were primed with a prosocial (helping a needy stranger), social (going out with friends), or neutral (walking down the street) induction. Results indicated that positive affect was highest among those who visualized a prosocial interaction, and that this effect was strongest among those higher in social responsibility. In contrast, less altruistically oriented participants reported higher negative affect in the prosocial condition. Thus, while prosociality promoted positive affect particularly among the socially responsible, it led to increased negative affect among those lower in altruistic orientation. Results suggest that individual differences influence older adults’ responses to exposure to prosocial involvement.     

Applied behavior analysis is ideal for the development of a land mine detection technology using animals

The detection and subsequent removal of land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) from many developing countries are slow, expensive, and dangerous tasks, but have the potential to improve the well-being of millions of people. Consequently, those involved with humanitarian mine and UXO clearance are actively searching for new and more efficient detection technologies. Remote explosive scent tracing (REST) using trained dogs has the potential to be one such technology. However, details regarding how best to train, test, and deploy dogs in this role have never been made publicly available. This article describes how the key characteristics of applied behavior analysis, as described by Baer, Wolf and Risley (1968, 1987), served as important objectives for the research and development of the behavioral technology component of REST while the author worked in humanitarian demining.