The Effectiveness of Substance Abuse Treatment in Reducing Violent Behavior

The use of alcohol and other drugs has long been associated with violence. Yet relatively little is known about the effect of treatment on specific violent behaviors. This study examines violent behaviors in the National TreatmentImprovement Evaluation Study (NTIES), and assesses the extent to which treatment appears to reduce violence for each measured behavior. It also examines these reductions by gender, treatment modality, and whether the client wasa victim of violence in addition to being a perpetrator. The results indicate large reductions in violence among clients actively violent during the pretreatment period, with virtually no increase in violence among clients not actively violent during that same period, irrespective of gender, modality, or victimization status. On their face, the results strongly suggest that substance abuse treatment is effective in reducing violent behavior. Alternative explanations areproposed and assessed, followed by implications for policy, practice, and future research.     

Stimulus intensity,catch trial effects,and the speed-accuracy tradeoff in reaction time: A variable criterion theory interptation

Ss responded to a 1,000-Hz tone of 50, 80, or 100 dB. Catch trial conditions were none, blank trials, a red light, a noise, and an 1,800-Hz tone. Auditory catch signals were of the same intensities. RT distributions in the first three conditions were well described by a family of exponential growth functions dependent upon stimulus intensity and by the parameters of normal criterion distributions dependent upon catch trial conditions and between-session variability. Performance in the auditory catch trial conditions was not dependent upon the same set of sensory growth functions. Performance in these conditions was described by a two-dimensional analysis of information transmitted as a function of time and interpreted in terms of variable criterion theory. The speed-accuracy tradeoff in this situation appears to depend upon differential rates of growth of intensity and associative information and the criterion used in responding to this information.     

A scale for the psychological magnitude of number

A scale of the “psychological magnitude” of number was constructed from similarity ratings of the 45 number pairs that can be obtained from a set of 10 integers. A nonmetric analysis of these similarity ratings showed that “psychological number” was a power function of number.     

A Note on Suicidal Behaviors among Intimates

ABSTRACT: This paper presents a breif report of four (of 62) cases in which a relative or intimate friend made a suicide attempt within a month of the significant other's suicide, usually using a similar method.     

The line-in-object superiority effect in perception: It depends on where you fix your eyes and what is located at the point of fixation

Williams and Weisstein (1978) reported that briefly presented line elements could be more accurately discerned in three-dimensional, coherent contexts than when presented alone. A series of five studies investigated this effect. The first study demonstrated that the general assumption that three-dimensional and coherent contexts are necessary conditions for demonstrating a line-in-object superiority effect is in error, and a robust effect can be demonstrated with contexts lacking coherence and depth. The remaining studies focused on a potentially more important determinant of the line-in-object effect. Evidence is presented that whether a given context facilitates, impairs, or has no effect on line detection is determined by the location of the fixation point and the amount of line detail at the fixation point. Proposals outlining processes assumed to underlie this fixation-location effect are advanced.     

BEHAVIORAL CONTROL OF MEDICINE COMPLIANCE

This study examined the effectiveness of several behavioral techniques on compliance of college students taking vitamin C on q.i.d. regimen. Compliance was assessed by a new technique using a variation of the urine tracer procedure designed specifically for this study. Subjects were provided vitamin C tablets, with three tablets per week containing phenazopyridine, a drug that produces a bright red-orange urine discoloration. Subjects were requested to indicate when urine discolorations occurred, and compliance was assessed by comparing the time of their report to the time predicted on the basis of the scheduled sequence of vitamin C and phenazopyridine tablets. Baseline compliance was assessed for 72 subjects over a three-week period, with the 40 most noncompliant subjects randomly assigned to four groups for Treatment I. The groups were: self-monitoring, taste, taste and self-monitoring, and a no-treatment control group. The self-monitoring procedure involved recording the time medicine was taken; the taste procedure involved providing the subjects with flavored tablets to increase the saliency of tablet taking; and the self-monitoring and taste procedure involved providing subjects with flavored tablets and asking them to record the flavor of each tablet they ingested. At the end of six weeks, half the subjects in each of these groups participated in response-cost procedures while the remaining subjects continued with their previous procedures. Response-cost procedures were implemented by returning a portion of the subjects' deposit only if a preset compliance criterion was met. Treatment II procedures were implemented for an additional three weeks. Results indicated the self-monitoring and taste plus self-monitoring procedures were superior during Treatment I. The implementation of response cost during Treatment II was associated with a marked improvement in compliance, independent of the history of noncompliance. The effects of the taste plus self-monitoring procedure were maintained during Treatment II and results obtained by this procedure were not significantly different from effects of response cost.     

The effects of concentrated and distributed attention on peripheral acuity

Two experiments studied the peripheral discriminability of a target differing in its line slope (a tilted T) and in its line arrangement (an L) when presented in briefly flashed displays of upright Ts. The results showed that: (a) an L and a tilted T were equal in discriminability when attention was focused or concentrated on one display position, (b) the discriminability of an L decreased while the discriminability of a tilted T was not statistically significantly affected as the number of display positions that attention needed to be paid to increased, and (c) the reaction time to find a disparate tilted T was less than that to find a disparate L. The results are interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that, under distributed attention in peripheral vision, the visual system is more sensitive to differences in line slope than to differences in line arrangement The results are discussed in connection with hypotheses of how selective attention affects the discriminability of a target.     

Judgment stability and pseudorecognition of random and patterned configurations

Thirty six simple patterns were judged as “random” or “patterned” by adult Ss. Category judgments were consistent whether Ss were told that 1/4, 1/2, or 3/4 of the patterns were random or if no proportion was specified. In a second experiment, Ss viewed a series of slides previously judged patterned followed by a recognition series with two additional patterned slides inserted in a series of otherwise random slides. Although slides were never labeled random or patterned, Ss made the most false recognitions for the two patterned slides. In another condition where random and patterned slides were reversed, most false recognitions were made for the two random slides. Both Gamer’s notion of hypothetical set size and an analysis of balanced elements fit the results, but the adequacy of both hypotheses can be questioned when applied to previous results with more complex patterns.     

Parent and child causal attributions related to the child's clinical problem

Parents and children were asked to give causal attributions related to the child's learning or behavior problems and an area of success. Actor-observer differences and tendencies of actors to make differential attributions for their positive and negative outcomes were examined. A significant number of parents and childen were in disagreement regarding the cause of the child's problem. Parents made significantly more internal than external attributions for children's presenting problems. In contrast, children were evenly distributed in problem attributions. Both parents and children made significantly more internal success attributions. Research with clinical child populations is highlighted as a valuable way to validate, expand, and refine attribution theory while clarifying its practical applications.Portions of the data included here served as the basis for a presentation by the first author at the annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, New York, 1979. The authors wish to thank the Fernald research group for their comments, and the staff of the San Fernando Valley Child Guidance Clinic, the Fernald office staff, and Perry Nelson for assistance.