Impact of neighborhood disadvantage on overt behavior problems during early childhood

Researchers have yet to examine the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on early child behavior problems (BPs) longitudinally. We examined the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on overt BPs in a low-income, urban sample of 281 African American and European American boys followed longitudinally from toddlerhood to school entry. Measures included census data and maternal report of BPs, sociocultural factors, parental criminality, and maternal depressive symptomatology. After controlling for age 2 overt BPs, family selection variables, and residential instability, neighborhood effects on boys' behavior emerged, but only at age 6 and only at the extreme of neighborhood disadvantage (i.e., underclass). Findings suggest boys in underclass neighborhoods are at risk for overt BPs as they make the transition to elementary school.     

Book reviews

Form and Validity in Indian Logic. Vijay Bharadwaja, 1990. Simla, Indian Institute of Advanced Study. 127 pp.

The Word and The World: India's Contribution to the Study of Language. Bimal Krishna Matilal, 1990 Delhi, Oxford University Press ix+189pp., Rs175.00

The Basic Ways of Knowing. Govardhan P. Bhatt, 1989 Delhi, Banarasidas xxviix+435 pp.

The Quest for Man. J. Van Nispen & D. Tiemersma (Eds), 1991 Assen/Maastricht, Van Gorcum ix+203 pp., Dfl39.50

Muslim‐Christian Encounters: Perceptions and Misperceptions. William Montgomery Watt, 1991 London, Routledge 164 pp.

Socrates in Mediaeval Arabic Literature. Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Science, Texts and Studies Vol. X. Ilai Alon, 1991. Leiden: E. J. Brill/Jerusalem, The Magnes Press. pp. 198, US$50

Tsung‐mi and the Sinification of Buddhism. Peter N. Gregory, 1991 Princeton, Princeton University Press 368 pp., US$49.50

Modern Civilization: A Crisis of Fragmentation. S. C. Malik, 1989. New Delhi, Abhinav Publications. 182 pp., Rs 150.00

Nature in Asian Traditions of Thought: Essays in Environmental Philosophy. J. Baird Callicott & Roger T. Ames (Eds), 1989 Albany, NY, State University of New York Press 335+xxi pp., US$16.95     

The modification of delusional beliefs: A single-subject evaluation

The multiple-baseline across responses design was used to assess the effectiveness of a belief-modification treatment package to alter the intensity of three delusional beliefs of a chronically mentally ill inpatient. Results revealed reductions in belief intensity to zero levels for all three beliefs. Generalization effects were obtained for an individualized interview and psychiatric rating scale. These results were maintained through a 6-month follow-up period.     

Discrimination of picture requests for missing items among young children with developmental disabilities

Two experiments were conducted to assess discrimination of picture requests for missing items among young children with developmental disabilities. In Experiment 1, three children were first taught to request one object when it was missing from a set of two related leisure items. In Experiment 2, two children were taught to request one object belonging to a set of three leisure items. In both studies the requesting response consisted of pointing to a photograph of the missing item. After acquisition of the initial request, discrimination of picture requests was assessed when the second item (Experiment 1) and second or third item (Experiment 2) was missing. Requests for the untrained items emerged in the presence of natural maintaining contingencies and in the absence of instructional prompts for all but the third child in Experiment 1. This child required continued intervention on the initial request. The results suggest that for some children a sequence of intervention and the programming of natural maintaining contingencies may prove effective in promoting the discrimination of picture requests for missing items among young children with developmental disabilities.     

Deconstructing the Enterprise Culture

A notion as pervasive and much-used as 'enterprise' will, inevitably, have done harm as well as good. The core concepts in the notion are explored, and examples are examined of how they have been put to teachers and counsellors in careers education and guidance work. While the libertarian text of education for enterprise may be unacceptable to many, the struggle to deal with it has forced a realisation of its more valuable subtext. This illustrates how 'education for enterprise', or any other change, cannot be implemented without paying attention to the organisation and management of change as well as to its intended outcomes, and how this process may have its own sometimes more beneficial effects.     

Taste aversion learning: simulation of interference with the gustatory cue during conditioning

Rats were taught an aversion to a sucrose taste cue of varying strengths. The concentration of the sucrose solution was either, 10, 7.5, 5, 2.5, 1, 0.5, or 0.25% which the animals drank for 5 min. Thirty minutes later they were poisoned with lithium chloride. On the test day all animals had access to a 10% sucrose solution regardless of the concentration they had drunk on the conditioning day. Animals conditioned with a 10, 7.5, or 5% sucrose cue subsequently displayed an identically strong aversion to the 10% cue. Only those animals conditioned with a sucrose cue which was 1% or less displayed a significantly weaker aversion to the 10% cue. The results are discussed in terms of the theory that interference with taste aversion learning by such agents as pentylenetetrazol and electroconvulsive shock may have their effect by disrupting the gustatory engram. If this assumption is correct then it suggests that the memory of the gustatory cue may be stored, at least prior to poisoning, in a quite labile state and an apparently limited disruption of taste aversion learning may in fact represent a substantial amnesic effect.     

MANIPULATION OF POTENTIAL PUNISHMENT PARAMETERS IN THE TREATMENT OF SELF-INJURY1

The self-injurious behavior (SIB) of a blind, profoundly retarded male was observed within a field setting as multiple forms of punishment were applied. The effects of hair-tug punishment were first systematically examined, then hair-tug and electric shock punishment were administered in varing ratios (of punishment deliveries per SIB response) supplemented by continuous restraint contingencies and made contingent on recurrent antecedents of SIB cycles. Treatments were applied over six months of consecutive daily sessions ranging from 30 min to 8 hr duration. Posttreatment followup observations were taken 12, 24, and 34 months after treatment. Partial suppression was produced as a direct function of hair-tug punishment in the initial phase. A generally progressive decrement was produced on already lowered SIB rates with the succeeding components of the treatment package. Extended periods of total SIB suppression occurred as punishment was rendered contingent on antecedent components of each SIB response cycle. Followup observations of nearly 3 yr duration indicated total suppression generalized over all settings in which the subject functioned. The findings were related to the contrasting limits prevailing in most reports of punishment-based SIB suppression.     

Indian students' perceptions of the ideal self, the ideal leader, the ideal teacher, Indira Gandhi and the business executive.

The Activity Vector Analysis (AVA) was administered to three samples drawn from a population of graduate students at an Indian university. Results indicated a high positive relationship among the perceptions of the ideal self, ideal teacher, and ideal leader. Likewise, the consensual profile of Indira Gandhi was found to be quite similar to the ideal self cluster (r = .96). The collective perception of the business executive, however, was only remotely similar to the other two character profiles.     

Disinhibition of aggression through diffusion of responsibility and dehumanization of victims

The present study tested derivations from social learning theory on the disinhibition of aggression through processes that weaken self-deterring consequences to injurious conduct. Subjects were provided with opportunities to behave punitively under diffused or personalized responsibility toward groups that were characterized in either humanized, neutral, or dehumanized terms. Both dehumanization and lessened personal responsibility enhanced aggressiveness, with dehumanization serving as the more potent disinhibitor. Escalation of aggression under conditions of dehumanization was especially marked when punitiveness was dysfunctional in effecting desired changes. The uniformly low level of aggression directed toward humanized groups, regardless of variations in responsibility and instrumentality of the conduct, attested to the power of humanization to counteract punitiveness. Results of supplementary measures are consistent with the postulated relationship between self-disinhibiting processes and punitiveness. Dehumanization fostered self-absolving justifications that were in turn associated with increased punitiveness. Findings on the internal concomitants of behavior performed under different levels of responsibility suggest that reducing personal responsibility heightens aggressiveness more through social than personal sources of disinhibition.     

Emotional arousal and persuasion effects in flooding

The effects of a single session of imaginal flooding were studied in female students unable to touch a harmless spider. All combinations of continuous vs. discontinuous presentation and highly arousing vs. less arousing material were used in a factorial design, to test the hypothesis that highly arousing material is beneficial only when presented under massed conditions. Results were clearly against prediction and suggested that immediate attitude change was maximal following less arousing material, irrespective of method of presentation; while behaviour change was greatest when less arousing material was presented continuously.

In a second experiment, subjects were exposed to both types of theme material in either a low-high or a high-low order. Some evidence was found for the postulated attitude changes and contrast effects, which favoured the use of a high-low order. Possible explanations for earlier contradictory evidence, and implications for clinical treatment are discussed.