An elementary student as a behavioral engineer

Four first-grade public school students exhibited non-study behaviors during a period when all children were to study individually. A fifth-grade student modified the maladaptive behaviors of the four first-grade students. Lights on the four students' desks, which were associated with opportunity for reinforcement, rapidly brought study behavior under stimulus control. Differential reinforcement of other behaviors dramatically decreased studying. Reinforcement was reinstituted and studying returned to a high and stable rate. Surreptitious post-experimental observation using closed-circuit TV indicated that the behavioral changes effected during the experimental phases were partially maintained by the regular classroom environment. A replication of the baseline phase with the observer in the classroom produced an increase in the rate of study behavior, indicating that the observer's presence acted as a discriminative stimulus for studying. An additional contingency requiring improved academic behavior was imposed before the fifth grader was given the opportunity to engage in the behavior modification experiment.     

The psychiatric nurse as group psychotherapist

An overview of current dimensions of group psychotherapy practice by psychiatric-mental health nurses is presented. The relationship between graduate education and the characteristics of the nurses' current practice is demonstrated. The psychiatric-mental health nurse's involvement in the general health care arena with nonpsychiatric populations is highlighted. Future trends for the practice of group by nurses is explicated and projected. In addition, implications for the education and practice of other group practitioners is drawn.Marianne DiMinno, R.N., M.S.N., assisted in the development of the survey questionnaire.     

Engineering the behavioral engineer

Twenty-eight nursing staff members treated, by operant methods, a simulated headbanging patient. They were randomly assigned to four experimental conditions, involving improvement versus non-improvement of the "patient" and promise of reward versus no promise of reward. The promise of reward significantly improved accuracy of treatment. Improvement of the patient, however, did not improve accuracy.     

The psychiatric patient as a person

The dehumanization which is so much a part of a technological society is keenly felt by psychiatric patients. Pastors must treat them with care if they are to recover their personhood. The author suggests certain pastoral approaches intended to reflect the values of the inherent worth of persons and their moral responsibility and right to self-fulfillment. Included in the approach is the need to gather the facts, establish rapport, empathize, listen with love, interpret, and have a plan of action.Professor Barnette is Professor of Christian Ethics Emeritus at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He presently serves as Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Louisville School of Medicine, Louisville, Kentucky 40201.     

The rabbit as a subject in behavioral research

Domestic rabbits were exposed to a wide variety of variables employed in behavioral research. It was found that: (1) Although food could be used as a reinforcer, the long periods of severe deprivation required to reduce body weight made its use impractical. (2) Water was an efficient reinforcer in that it maintained high rates of behavior after 22 hr of deprivation. (3) Except that rates of responding were higher, fixed-ratio and variable-interval schedules of reinforcement produced patterns of behavior similar to those demonstrated by rats and pigeons. (4) Although the duration of the post-reinforcement pause was a function of the duration of the interval under fixed-interval schedules, scalloping, as defined as a gradually increasing rate of responding between reinforcement, was not evident. (5) When provided with the means to both turn on and turn off intracranial stimulation, the duration of the stimulation and the frequency with which it was turned on and off was a function of the intensity of the stimulation. (6) Electric shock could suppress behavior and maintain escape responding, but would maintain avoidance responding only in a few subjects.     

The good engineer

Conclusion So why be a good engineer? There are basically three reasons: 1) possible detection and the harm that dishonorable acts might cause, 2) a common responsibility to the professional engineering community, and 3) a negative impact on one’s own integrity when one behaves badly. But what if, in the face of these arguments, one is still not convinced? I must admit that there appears to be no knock-down ethical argument available to change the mind of a person set on behaving badly. There remains the option to act in whatever way one may wish. Engineers must realize however that bad manners and/or immorality and/or illegality, even if undetected, will most likely result in harm to themselves and thus rational behavior should result in honorable conduct of professional duties. While the Viking society of northern Europe was in many ways cruel and crude, they had a very simple code of honor. Their goal was to live life so that when they died, others would say “He was a good man”. The definition of what they meant by a “good man” might be quite different by contemporary standards but the principle is important. If engineers conduct their professional lives so as to uphold the exemplary values of engineering, the greatest professional honor would be to be remembered as a good engineer.     

The school psychologist as behavioral ecologist

Some psychologists involved in the implementation of applied behavioral psychology in educational systems must increasingly attend to the ecological impact of such interventions. An ecological orientation emphasizing system-like interdependencies among environment, organism, and behavior suggests several substantial additions to conventional role functions of behavioral school psychologists. Such functions involve taking an active part in evaluating and assessing second-order consequences of behavioral interventions. Recommendations for functional and procedural changes are provided within this framework.     

The use of teachers as behavioral observers

The effect of using teachers as behavioral observers on both student and teacher behavior was examined with eight teachers and 32 elementary school children. The frequency of prompts (but not praise or criticism) to those students observed by the teacher increased significantly from nonobserver to teacher observed experimental phases. In addition, students observed by the teacher showed more change in appropriate behavior than students who were not observed. The significance of these findings for research and therapy is discussed.     

Paired baseline performance as a behavioral ideal

Several recent theories view performance under the constraints of a schedule as an attempt to approach the basepoint, the total amount of the instrumental response and the total amount of the contingent response seen in the absence of schedule constraint. Some new analyses of experiments on concurrent ratio schedules, and simple ratio schedules offering an optional magnitude of contingent reward, tested this view directly. In each of the five experiments examined the organism rejected the chance of a closer approach to the basepoint, and thereby failed in addition to maximize the rate of reinforcement.     

The Last-Weiss Rorschach Ego-Strength Scale as a prognostic measure for psychiatric outpatients

This study tested the hypothesis that the Last and Weiss (1976) Rorschach Ego-Strength Scale (sigma E) would predict outcome among a representative sample of never-hospitalized psychiatric outpatients. 78 patients were assessed with structured symptom, psychiatric history, and social data interviews at the time of initial clinic contact and at 2-yr. follow-up. Outcome measures included the Menninger Health-Sickness Scale, a multidimensional variable involving social and work functioning and recent symptom level, symptom measures, and an index of diagnostic severity. sigma E, controlled for number of responses, correlated significantly with Health-Sickness, neurotic symptoms, diagnostic severity, and psychotic symptomatology. Among the components of sigma E, M+, and FC+ had significant relationships or contributed to significant relations with outcome variables. Considered with an earlier study of inpatients, in which S+ sigma E component correlated inversely with outcome, this study suggested that sigma E components have differing prognostic significance, depending on adaptational level of the patient.     

The Last-Weiss Rorschach Ego-Strength Scale as a prognostic measure for psychiatric inpatients

This study tested the hypothesis that the Last-Weiss (Last & Weiss, 1976) Rorschach Ego-Strength Scale would predict outcome among a representative sample of first-lifetime psychiatric admissions. One hundred seventeen patients were assessed with structured symptom, psychiatric history, and social data interviews at hospital admission, and 2-year follow-up. Outcome measures included a multidimensional variable involving rehospitalization time, social and work functioning, and recent symptom level and symptom measures. Unexpectedly, the Last-Weiss Sum E variable correlated significantly with negative multidimensional outcome, a result that was strengthened when any possibly confounding effects of social class, IQ, and number of Rorschach responses were partialled out. It was found that Sum E's predictive value for poorer outcome was due to the space response (S+) component of the ego-strength variable. Possible explanations of the findings and implications for the previously validated Klopfer's Rorschach Prognostic Rating Scale are discussed.     

The Good Behavior Game: a best practice candidate as a universal behavioral vaccine

A behavioral vaccine provides an inoculation against morbidity or mortality, impacting physical, mental, or behavior disorders. An historical example of a behavioral vaccine is antiseptic hand washing to reduce childbed fever. In current society, issues with high levels of morbidity, such as substance abuse, delinquency, youth violence, and other behavioral disorders (multiproblems), cry out for a low-cost, widespread strategy as simple as antiseptic hand washing. Congruent research findings from longitudinal studies, twin studies, and other investigations suggest that a possibility might exist for a behavioral vaccine for multiproblem behavior. A simple behavioral strategy called the Good Behavior Game (GBG), which reinforces inhibition in a group context of elementary school, has substantial previous research to consider its use as a behavioral vaccine. The GBG is not a curriculum but rather a simple behavioral procedure from applied behavior analysis. Approximately 20 independent replications of the GBG across different grade levels, different types of students, different settings, and some with long-term follow-up show strong, consistent impact on impulsive, disruptive behaviors of children and teens as well as reductions in substance use or serious antisocial behaviors. The GBG, named as a best practice for the prevention of substance abuse or violent behavior by a number of federal agencies, is unique because it is the only practice implemented by individual teachers that is documented to have long-term effects. Presently, the GBG is only used in a small number of settings. However, near universal use of the GBG, in major political jurisdictions during the elementary years, could substantially reduce the incidence of substance use, antisocial behavior, and other adverse developmental or social consequences at a very modest cost, with very positive cost-effectiveness ratios.     

The honest mirror: Morality as a moderator of spontaneous behavioral mimicry

Two studies examined whether morality-related information has a greater impact than sociability- or competence-related information upon the spontaneous mimicry of an interaction partner. Participants were video recorded during an interaction with a confederate previously presented as moral versus lacking morality, or sociable versus lacking sociability (Study 1), or competent versus lacking competence (Study 2). Two coders rated the extent to which participants imitated the gestures of the confederate, participants’ postural openness, and the general smoothness of the interaction. When the confederate lacked moral qualities, mimicry and postural openness were lower, and the interaction was less smooth than when the confederate was highly moral, unsociable, or incompetent. Moreover, our findings showed that global impression is the key mediating mechanism driving such an effect. Indeed, knowing that another person behaved immorally resulted in a negative impression, which in turn hindered behavioral mimicry.     

Foreign citizens as patients at a psychiatric clinic

On 98 hospitalizations of foreign patients admitted to psychopathic wards of the mental hospital of Karl-Marx-Stadt from 1983 to 1987 is reported. Basing upon whose course of the disease and under consideration of special literature of medicine, selected questions concerning boundary-exceeding psychiatry are discussed. The proceeding practical importance of questions regarding intercultural psychiatric problems is mentioned.     

MMPI validity scales and behavioral disturbance in psychiatric inpatients.

Sixty psychiatric inpatients were assigned to one of three groups on the basis of F and K MMPI validity scales. Staff ratings of patient behavior and recorded incidents of "acting-out" behavior were obtained for patients with: (a) "plea for help" validity profiles, (b) hyper-defensive profiles, and (c) average profiles. Patients with "plea for help" profiles were perceived as "acting-out" more frequently and engendering more feelings of frustration than patients in the other groups. These patients account for 77% of the incidents of inappropriate, destructive behavior and 83% of the seclusions in the patients sampled. Although the "plea for help" profile is considered invalid in some scoring systems, results suggest that this validity profile may be useful in treatment planning.