Behavioral genetic methods

Traditional behavioral genetic methods involve the use primarily of family, twin, and adoption correlations to estimate the relative contributions of genetic and environmental influences in the etiology of individual differences. These methods and representative results for personality are described. However, newer methods are emphasized: structural models and model-fitting, multivariate analysis, genetic change and continuity in development, shared and non-shared components of environmental variance, and genetic components of "environmental" variation. Because most applications of these behavioral genetic methods to the study of personality involve self-report omnibus questionnaires, an important direction for future research in this area is to use these methods to explore new issues and new measures that have emerged from personality theory and research during the past decade.     

Behavioral intervention to reduce physical restraint of adolescents with developmental disabilities

Physical restraint procedures sometimes are approved for implementation in human service settings for children and adults who have developmental disabilities and seriously challenging behaviors. Although use of restraint may be clinically justified to manage behavior disorders and prevent injury to self and others, procedures should be evaluated to decrease, and possibly eliminate, such methods. This study addressed the effects of restraint‐reduction procedures with two adolescents who had developmental disabilities and displayed severe aggression. Clinically significant reductions in the frequency of physical restraint were achieved through a treatment package that included the behavior‐specific criterion for the application of restraint and antecedent control approaches. The implementation of strategic interventions to decrease physical restraint utilization is discussed. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Behavioral trainings and manipulations to reduce delay discounting: A systematic review

In everyday decision-making, individuals make trade-offs between short-term and long-term benefits or costs. Depending on many factors, individuals may choose to wait for larger delayed reward, yet in other situations they may prefer the smaller, immediate reward. In addition to within-subject variation in the short-term versus long-term reward trade-off, there are also interindividual differences in delay discounting (DD), which have been shown to be quite stable. The extent to which individuals discount the value of delayed rewards turns out to be associated with important health and disorder-related outcomes: the more discounting, the more unhealthy or problematic choices. This has led to the hypothesis that DD can be conceptualized as trans-disease process. The current systematic review presents an overview of behavioral trainings and manipulations that have been developed to reduce DD in human participants aged 12 years or older. Manipulation studies mostly contain one session and measure DD directly after the manipulation. Training studies add a multiple session training component that is not per se related to DD, in between two DD task measurements. Ninety-eight studies (151 experiments) were identified that tested behavioral trainings and manipulations to decrease DD. Overall, results indicated that DD can be decreased, showing that DD is profoundly context dependent and changeable. Most promising avenues to pursue in future research seem to be acceptance-based/mindfulness-based trainings, and even more so manipulations involving a future orientation. Limitations and recommendations are discussed to identify the mechanistic processes that allow for changes in discount rate and behavior accordingly.

     

Behavioral methods of assessing forgiveness

One problem in forgiveness research is the reliance on one method (i.e. having people recall an offense and complete self-report measures). Thus, we present two strategies for studying forgiveness-related behavior. First, we adapted the Cyberball paradigm, which is a game of toss where two computer players (ostensibly virtual players) exclude the participant from play. We adapted Cyberball to include a second round that gave participants the opportunity to retaliate or forgive the player who excluded them. Self-reported forgiveness predicted the first toss and total number of tosses to the offender in the subsequent round. Second, we had participants describe an offense (as is typical with the recall method), but then also complete an activity in which they listed as many positive qualities as they could about the offender. Self-reported forgiveness predicted the number of positive qualities listed. We discuss the contribution of these studies to the multimodal study of forgiveness.     

Treatment of compulsive shoplifting by altering social contingencies

and (1968) described the successful treatment of a three-year-old child with chronic constipation by a simple rearrangement of social contingencies. It was felt therefore that it might be worthwhile briefly reporting a case of compulsive shoplifting, where treatment was effected by an alteration in social contingencies.     

Behavioral phenotyping in zebrafish: Comparison of three behavioral quantification methods

The zebrafish has been popular in developmental biology and genetics, but its brain function has rarely been studied. High-throughput screening of mutation or drug-induced changes in brain function requires simple and automatable behavioral tests. This article compares three behavioral quantification methods in four simple behavioral paradigms that test a range of characteristics of adult zebrafish, including novelty-induced responses, social behavior, aggression, and predator-model—induced responses. Two quantification methods, manual recording and computerized videotracking of location and activity, yielded very similar results, suggesting that automated videotracking reliably measures activity parameters and will allow high-throughput screening. However, observation-based event recording of posture patterns was found generally not to correlate with videotracking measures, suggesting that further refinement of automated behavior quantification may be considered.     

Behavioral approaches to neuropsychological rehabilitation

Behavioral approaches have been applied to a wide variety of behavioral and cognitive disturbances resulting from brain damage or disease. This article provides a comprehensive and critical review of the literature concerned with behavioral interventions in neuropsychological rehabilitation. The article examines six categories of target behavior: inappropriate social behavior, attention and motivation, unawareness of deficits, memory, language and speech, and motor disturbance. The efficacy of behavioral approaches for treatment of the neurologically impaired and implications for the future role of behavioral approaches in neuropsychological rehabilitation are discussed.     

Interventions to reduce epilepsy-associated stigma

Epilepsy-associated stigma has long been recognized as a significant cause of psychosocial morbidity for people with epilepsy. This paper reviews the available literature addressing interventions aimed at reducing epilepsy-associated stigma and briefly discusses future that may assist in the development of effective interventions.     

Behavioral Strategies to Reduce School Violence

SUMMARY

Public schools that use punitive approaches toward student discipline can unwittingly promote violence and other antisocial behavior. This article reviews constructive and preventive methods to reduce school violence and vandalism. Various strategies are presented and discussed.     

Behavioral Approaches to Low Back Pain

Abstract

A review of the literature shows that low back pain is a perplexing disorder which is prevalent and costly. Further, treatments based on the medical model often fail because an accurate diagnosis of organic abnormalities cannot be made. However, two behavioral approaches are examined which are based on psychological rather than organic processes. First, the “muscle relaxation” method contends that low back pain results from muscle contraction. Consequently, learned muscle relaxation is deemed at the best method of alleviating the pain. The second treatment considers pain to be a set of overt responses which are maintained by the prevailing reinforcement contingencies. Treatment is therefore centered on altering the contingencies to extinguish pain behaviors and to reinforce other behaviors. While conclusive evidence is not available, these two behavioral approaches seem to be positive alternatives to medical approaches. However, additional systematic studies are badly needed to clarify the efficiency of these treatments.     

从行为控制到行为选择—试论行为治疗由“物”化处理向“人”化处理的转变

在行为主义的治疗流派中 ,先后有两种最具典型意义 ,分别代表了科学主义立场和人文主义立场的两极 ,即激进行为主义的治疗方法—行为疗法和哲学行为主义的治疗方法—表演疗法。在激进的行为主义者看来 ,所谓心理治疗实际上就是行为治疗。而行为治疗的实质是对人类行为的一种控制方式。凡是适应不良的行为 ,都需要进行治疗。“心理治疗机构就是一种行为控制机构”。[1] 作为社会力量对其成员进行控制的一种特殊形式 ,心理治疗师在一定程度上扮演着精神警察的角色。行为疗法发展于本世纪 50年代末 6 0年代初 ,以斯金纳 (Ｂ .Ｆ .Ｓｋｉｎｎｅ…     

A Behavior-Analytic Approach to Behavioral Reflexivity

The Psychological Record - The purpose of this paper is to examine the issue of behavioral reflexivity from a behavior-analytic perspective. Two quotations from behavioral researchers are first...     

Cognitive and Behavioral Responses to Trauma

In order to identify cognitive and behavioral responses to trauma, we have studied responses to mass casualty body handling following the Gander, Newfoundland, plane crash of 1985 and the 1989 USS Iowa disaster, and responses to a simulated chemical and biological warfare environment. Individual and group trauma behaviors show prominent: (a) thinking by similarity (identification, and looking for the familiar/ seeing the past in the present); (b) attribution of meaning (rituals, symbols, language, and rumors); and (c) contagion of behavior. These processes highlight the importance of the study of responses to different traumatic stressors in order to identify cognitive mechanisms and behaviors activated by trauma. Such phenomena may be important to our understanding of the effects of traumatic stress and their acute and long-term health outcomes.     

a consensus method to reduce conflict

The authors describe a five-step model of conflict reduction suitable for use by practicing counselors. They present the model in how-to-do-it fashion, supplementing it with illustrations. They describe the reactions of eight counselors who used the model in 37 conflict cases and present the responses of the persons involved in the conflicts.     

肥胖症患者的行为治疗与干预

行为疗法是治疗肥胖症常用、有效地一种方法。国外行为治疗一般有评估阶段、实际治疗阶段、治疗过渡阶段和治疗保持阶段,包括认识行为改变的准备动机、认知重组、目标确定、自我监督、刺激控制、应激处理、社会支持、反弹干预等组成成份。行为治疗需和其他方法整合有效治疗肥胖症。