Teaching children with autism to seek help when lost in public

Children with autism may not develop safety skills (e.g., help-seeking behaviors) without explicit teaching. One potentially hazardous situation is when a child with autism becomes separated from caregivers in a retail establishment or other public setting. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a treatment package (rules, role playing, and praise) delivered in the natural environment for teaching 3 boys with autism to seek assistance from store employees when they became lost. Treatment was effective, and help-seeking behaviors generalized to untrained stores for all participants.     

Caregiver-conducted experimental functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behavior

The purpose of the current study was to replicate the use of parents as therapists for experimental functional analyses of inappropriate mealtime behavior with multiple participants while measuring procedural integrity. Clear functions were identified, and high percentages of procedural integrity were obtained.     

Using stimulus variation to increase reinforcer efficacy of low preference stimuli

Recent research findings suggest that low preference stimuli can be effective reinforcers. This study compared responding to high preference and low preference stimuli under continuous reinforcement. Results demonstrated that responding was greater when a high preference stimulus was presented. Other research findings suggest that stimulus variation increases the potency of reinforcers perceived to be of high preference. This study extended this line of research by evaluating whether stimulus variation would increase the potency of low preference stimuli. Results demonstrated that when three low preference stimuli were presented in a varied fashion, responding corresponded with the levels obtained when a high preference stimulus was presented. Furthermore, a varied reinforcer presentation of low preference stimuli was found to increase and maintain high percentages of correct responding and on‐task behavior to levels equal to those obtained with a high preference stimulus during a discrete trial preparation. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changing Meanings Through Art: A Systematization of a Psychosocial Intervention with Chilean Women in Urban Poverty Situation

This study explores the experiences that women in urban poverty situation have about their participation in a psychosocial group intervention mediated by artistic techniques. An investigation was done using a qualitative methodology. Participants were ten women older than 21 years old who live in Santiago de Chile in poverty situation. Two group evaluations were performed during the intervention process and once it was completed, ten individual semi-structure interviews. The information was analyzed following the proposals of Grounded Theory, identifying negative experience about tiredness and sacrifice related to the circumstances they live in. It was possible, at the same time, to describe the benefits of an artistic activity including a psychosocial work over the individual well-being. The artistic creation was revealed as a way of expression, of re-viewing oneself and the environment, and relaxation. Transformation is discussed concerning self-affirmation, reparation and transference of this experience in their lives, as a preventive and protective resource to overcome their problems.     

Self-esteem among college students from four Arab countries

This study had three objectives: (a) to compare undergraduates from four Arab countries on self-esteem, (b) to explore the sex-related differences in self-esteem in these four Arab countries, and (c) to examine the association of self-esteem with both per-capita income and unemployment rate. Four samples of 2,643 students were recruited from Egypt (n = 576), Kuwait (n = 674), Lebanon (n = 826), and Oman (n = 567). They responded to the Arabic version of the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Kuwaiti and Omani men had a significantly higher mean score on self-esteem than did Egyptian and Lebanese men. Egyptian women scored significantly lower than the Omani women, but the effect size was small. Regarding the sex-related differences in self-esteem, Kuwaiti men had a significantly higher mean score than did their female peers, but the effect size was small, whereas there were no significant sex differences in the other samples. The sex-related difference in self-esteem is a controversial result and it may not be replicable in different countries. It was suggested that self-esteem is associated with high per-capita income and low unemployment rate.     

Sufficient completeness verification for conditional and constrained TRS

We present a procedure for checking sufficient completeness of conditional and constrained term rewriting systems containing axioms for constructors which may be constrained (by e.g. equalities, disequalities, ordering, membership, …). Such axioms allow to specify complex data structures like e.g. sets, sorted lists or powerlists. Our approach is integrated into a framework for inductive theorem proving based on tree grammars with constraints, a formalism which permits an exact representation of languages of ground constructor terms in normal form.The procedure is presented by an inference system which is shown sound and complete. A precondition of one inference of this system refers to a (undecidable) property called strong ground reducibility which is discharged to the above inductive theorem proving system. We have successfully applied our method to several examples, yielding readable proofs and, in case of negative answer, a counter-example suggesting how to complete the specification. Moreover, we show that it is a decision procedure when the TRS is unconditional but constrained, for an expressive class of constrained constructor axioms.     

Jealousy Workshop: A Conceptual Base and Format

Jealousy is a problematic aspect of relationships that has received a minimal amount of attention in the research and professional intervention strategies. A discussion of a six-session workshop on the theme of jealousy includes theoretical issues, conceptual framework of the program, overview of procedures for each session, and a summary of participant feedback.