AN ANALYSIS AND REDUCTION OF DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR ON SCHOOL BUSES

Thousands of children are injured or killed each year in school bus accidents. A significant number of these tragic incidents is precipitated by disruptive child behavior that distracts the drivers from their difficult task. Two experiments were conducted which addressed this problem. For both experiments an automated sound recording device (referred to as a Noise Guard) selectively responsive to frequencies above 500 Hz (i.e., unresponsive to bus drone) recorded both the duration and frequency of noise outbursts above a tolerable threshold. Additionally, an observer made in situ measurements of other disruptions including roughhousing and getting-out-of-seat. In the first experiment, following baseline measurements of these behaviors, middle-school students received feedback for noise outbursts. That is, when “Noise Guard'” was activated, it in turn operated one of several lights on a panel visible to all passengers. Each day students were allowed to listen to high-appeal taped music while riding the bus and to participate in a raffle for prizes, provided the number of outbursts on the preceding day remained below a specified criterion indicated on the light panel. This intervention resulted in drastic reductions of noise outbursts with a concomitant reduction in other disruptive behaviors. Comparable results were obtained in the second experiment which eliminated the raffle from the intervention.     

Low platelet monoamine oxidase activity in sensation-seeking bullfighters

In this study, we attempt to demonstrate an association between low platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity, as assessed by isotopic methods, and the stable behavioral pattern of sensation- and risk-seeking of professional bullfighters. Sixteen professional bullfighters were studied and compared with a control group of 46 healthy control subjects who did not engage in risky jobs or activities. The group of bullfighters had significantly reduced platelet MAO activity compared with the control group (P<0.05). Bullfighters were shown to be significantly more extroverted and sensation-seeking than controls on various temperament scales. A predisposition to engage in risky activities (eg, bullfighting) and sensation-seeking could be partly conditioned by the presence of biological components of personality manifested by a significantly decreased platelet MAO activity.     

What Makes Susie Cry? A Symptom-Context Study of Family Therapy

The aim of this investigation was to examine the context of recurrent crying episodes during family therapy sessions. We tested the relative contribution of social versus individual intrapsychic variables within a 10-session, videotaped, structural family therapy. Segments of therapy before crying episodes when compared with control (non-crying) segments were found to have higher levels of the following variables: involvement with others in the room, rejection, and concern about supplies. Two family variables were also higher before crying episodes: family discussion about patient, and patient receives hostility. A stepwise discriminant function analysis using these variables indicated that family discussion about the patient was most important in signaling onset of crying. The results are discussed in terms of individual and family theories of symptom formation as illuminated through this case study.     

Modification of school attendance for an elementary population

The staff and students of a school composed of Grades 1 through 3 participated in a program to increase school attendance. Children earned the opportunity to attend part or all of a monthly party by their attendance. Immediate feedback occurred each morning by placing stars on a classroom chart for each child present. The school's attendance during the program was compared both with attendance during preceding years and with attendance at other schools. The experimental school's attendance improved dramatically to become the best of all elementary schools in the system.     

Induction of intellectual gains in blind children

Twenty blind children (5–10 years old) were taught the concept of seriation by a learning set procedure. Ten of the children were also taught a simple classification concept to see if developing both abilities would produce more general intellectual gains. Children in a control group had training sessions matched in timing and extent, but differing in content. The results indicate that mastery of the concepts of seriation and classification can be accelerated through training. Training also affected WISC and SIT IQ scores; for these measurements, the seriation-classification group showed the greatest increase. Training had no effect on measures of psychological and social adjustment. The findings suggest that learning set training of Piagetian concepts can be effective in overcoming some conceptual deficiencies found in blind children. It may be profitable to test similar procedures with other children who are biologically mature but lagging in conceptual development.     

Inpatient adolescent group therapy as a social system

This paper describes a method of group therapy that 1) utilizes open systems theory to describe the social structure of group therapy, and 2)presents interventions drawn from Masterson's ideas for treating borderline personality disorders. Illustrations from a group therapy program for chemically dependent adolescents in a short-term, inpatient treatment unit of a general hospital are offered. It is proposed that under constrained conditions of treatment, such as those described, group therapy can be effective if there is precision about the system boundaries of task, role, time and place, and if group interventions are based upon a theoretically and clinically consistent model such as Masterson's.     

THE EFFECT OF CULTURE AND GENDER ON SELF-REPORTED ASSERTIVE BEHAVIOR

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the relationship between cultural affiliation, gender and assertive behavior in two distinct socio-cultural groups. Ninety-seven Israeli Arab students and 97 Israeli Jewish students, of both sexes, filled out the Assertion Inventory (Gambrill and Richey 1975) during a class meeting. Analysis of the results indicated differences between the two cultural groups. In general, Arab participants showed a lower level of assertiveness than their Jewish counterparts. Differences between gender and interaction of culture x gender were found in certain factors related to behavior in specific social situations. These findings were discussed on the basis of accepted social behavior within various cultural contexts.     

Evidence for abstract response codes: Ear-hand correspondence effects in a three-choice reaction-time task

A three-choice reaction-time task was used to investigate the source-of-stimulation effect, that is, the tendency for subjects to react faster and more accurately to a stimulus if the spatial locations of the stimulus and the response correspond than if they do not. Auditory stimuli varied on dimensions of tonal frequency and spatial location, although only the former was relevant for response selection. Responses were found to be faster for the conditions in which stimulus location and response location corresponded than for those in which they did not, but stimulus location had no effect on differences between the two hands with bimanual responses. These results support the hypothesis that the source-of-stimulation effect is due to response plans which interact at a level prior to the programming of the motor response.