Beyond Rhetoric: Techniques for Using the Black Aesthetic in Group Counseling and Guidance

This article presents a small sample of the kinds of things that can be done in group work with Blacks seeking to advance our fight for freedom and dignity. We have used these techniques in a variety of settings, and we go beyond rhetorical assertiveness in saying that, “It does indeed work.” Black children, adolescents, and adults all benefit greatly from guidance stemming from a philosophical orientation anchored in an African way of life. These techniques are a practical extension of the prophetic wisdom of the Black artist, coupled with the expressive styles of Black people. Just as we searched and found a philosophical base in the cultural artifacts of Black life, we have, too, searched and found cathartic, curative, and educational aids in music, drama, poetry, folklore, expressive movement, and graphic expression, making our methods consistent with the creative Black spirit. The techniques that follow are not meant to be complete in any sense, but, rather, are offered to stimulate readers to unleash their creative potential as they seek to assist Blacks with their problems to enable them to persist in struggle.     

Reinforcement strength in classical conditioning of leg flexion,freezing, and heart rate in cats

Stable leg-flexion CRs were successfully elaborated in cats receiving tone-strong shock pairings, but not in cats receiving tone-weak shock pairings. Both shock USs elicited reliable flexion URs in the presence of the CS, thus satisfying the contiguity requirement basic to the Pavlovian paradigm. Elaboration of the flexion CRs required a large number of trials relative to the conditioned freezing and decelerative heart rate responses which appeared after only a very few trials in the strong-US cats. As with flexion CRs, freezing and heart-rate responses never developed with the weak-shock US. When the weak-US cats were later switched to the strong US, freezing and heart-rate CRs quickly appeared and flexion CRs appeared after fewer strong-US trials than in cats receiving the strong shock originally. The results were interpreted as supporting a reinforcement conception of classical defense conditioning and as indicating the importance of using a US capable of eliciting emotional responses.     

Stimulus correlates of tachistoscopic discrimination-recognition performance: Compactness,jaggedness, and areal asymmetry

The utility of three physical dimensions (compactness, jaggedness, and areal asymmetry) of four-sided random forms on discrimination-recognition performance was examined. Six experimental conditions were defined by constructing discrimination-recognition problems wherein forms were paired on the basis of a high or low value on each of the three physical dimensions. Twenty-six Ss were randomly assigned to each experimental condition and were tested on five problems, four times at each of five single form duration times. Each problem presentation consisted of selecting which of two forms had been previously exposed at the selected duration. Analyses of the number of correct responses indicated support for the existence of a selective attention process and the utility of the compactness physical dimension.