A two year follow-up study of public vocational school graduates

A 2-year follow-up study of public vocational school graduates revealed that the graduates successfully obtained jobs. Among the factors deemed important by both graduates and employer, communication skills were mentioned as vital. Counseling and preparation in getting along with others were perceived by graduates as inferior. Except for cooperative work program graduates, adjustment to an 8 hr workday caused some problems.     

Obsessive ruminations : a controlled trial of thought-stopping technique

Thought-stopping treatment for obsessive ruminations was described by Wolpe and Lazarus (1966) and more recently there have been several case-reports in some of which components of the method were unsystematically varied (Stern, 1970; Kumar et al., 1971; Yamagami, 1971). The present study examined one of these variables while holding constant the other components. When thought-stopping is given, the subject is usually relaxed (using a standard set of instructions to relax his muscles) and then asked to ruminate about the obsessive thought. The therapist then shouts ‘Stop’ while making a sudden noise at the same time. At this point the patient is told that he must stop thinking his obsessive idea ; after a pause, this interruption is repeated several times until the obsessional rumination ceases. This procedure was compared to a similar technique in which the patient imagined a neutral (‘control’) thought instead of an obsessive one prior to the onset of the ‘stop’ instruction. In every other way the two procedures were identical.     

Effects of temporal placement of response prevention on extinction of avoidance in rats

Two experiments investigated the effects of prior extinction trials upon the effectiveness of response prevention procedures (flooding) in facilitating extinction of avoidance in rats. The results showed that both prior CS only extinction trials and response prevention independently hastened extinction and that response prevention is enhanced if prior extinction has already taken place. The results were interpreted as being consistent with a relaxation interpretation of extinction of avoidance behavior providing a ‘distraction’ or ‘attention shift’ factor is incorporated into theory.     

Looking as a Measure of Attraction1

Byrne's reinforcement theory of attraction is almost exclusively based upon studies that use the Interpersonal Judgment Scale (IJS) as their measure of attraction. The present study used Byrne's general experimental procedure but employed an unobtrusive “looking” measure of attraction as well as the more familiar IJS measure. The degree of attitude similarity between women subjects and a female stranger was not significantly related to the IJS measure of attraction but was significantly related to the proportion of looking time measure (p < .01). This was true for both subjects who verbalized and did not verbalize awareness of the relationship between the independent variable and the dependent measures of the study.     

EMPLOYMENT SERVICES FOR YOUTH

Youth unemployment has remained a social and economic problem for over a quarter of a century. Experience in the U.S. Employment Service and in schools and other agencies in the community indicates that special advocates, i.e., youth employment specialists, are needed to work with youth and employers if young people are to get their full share of the job opportunities and are to achieve maximum utilization of their talents as new entrants into the labor market.