PsycWord: A Windows program for preparing clinical documentation in psychology

PsycWord is designed to guide the user through the process of rapidly producing psychological reports. Modules may be mixed to produce a variety of reports. Windows controls and standardization decrease the time needed for creating clinical reports, while flexibility is built in to encourage customization and the use of professional judgment. The program is most suitable for adult outpatients, but may be useful with other populations as well.     

The treatment of youthful sexual offenders

Approximately 20% of all rapes and between 30% and 50% of child molestations are perpetrated by adolescent males. These statistics underscore the need for improved understanding of youthful sexual offending so that effective prevention measures may be utilized for those adolescents at risk of offending and effective treatments may be utilized with those adolescents who have already committed sexual offenses. In this article we review the current knowledge of the characteristics of youthful offenders, proposed etiologies of youthful offending, proposed typologies of, assessment protocols, and treatments for youthful offenders. Finally we discuss the need for further research in the area of youthful sex offending.     

A COLLATERAL EFFECT OF REWARD PREDICTED BY MATCHING THEORY

Matching theory describes a process by which organisms distribute their behavior between two or more concurrent schedules of reinforcement (Herrnstein, 1961). In an attempt to determine the generality of matching theory to applied settings, 2 students receiving special education were provided with academic response alternatives. Using a combined simultaneous treatments design and reversal design, unequal ratio schedules of reinforcement were varied across two academic responses. Findings indicated that both subjects allocated higher rates of responses to the richer schedule of reinforcement, although only one responded exclusively to the richer schedule. The present results lend support to a postulation that positive reinforcement may have undesirable collateral effects that are predicted by matching theory (Balsam & Bondy, 1983).     

Comorbidity of ADHD and reading disability among clinic-referred children

Of a consecutive series of 115 boys diagnosed in a university outpatient clinic as ADHD, 39% also demonstrated a specific reading disability. Pure ADHD patients were compared with mixed ADHD + RD and normal controls on a battery of cognitive and attentional measures. The aim was to determine whether a distinct pattern of deficits would distinguish the groups. Both ADHD subgroups performed significantly worse than controls on measures of sequential memory and attentional tasks involving impulse control andplanful organization. Only ADHD+RD boys differed from controls on measures or rapid word naming and vocabulary. The reuslts are discussed within the framework of an automatic versus effortful information-processing model.     

A functional assessment of heterosocial initiation behaviors in adults

The present investigation was designed to assess the relationship between empirically defined behavioral strategies and ratings of social effectiveness, liking, and skill. Female subjects rated audiotapes of dyadic heterosocial interactions. The dyads' verbal behavior was manipulated experimentally such that each male actor exhibited one of two strategies, other-enhancement and positive self-presentation, and each female coactor exhibited one of two responses, encourages and discourages. After each audiotaped interaction, subjects rated each male on five questions: liking, continued interaction, effectiveness, social skill, and similarity. The results indicated that subjects distinguished between effective and ineffective strategies. The data obtained from all questions indicated that subjects preferred the male who was encouraged irrespective of what strategy he used. This study analyzed relevant variables within an interactional framework allowing for a functional, rather than topographic, analysis of social behavior. From this functional perspective, topographically different heterosocial initiation strategies may be viewed as appropriate or effective based on the reactions of the other person in the interaction.