A BEHAVIORAL INTERVENTION FOR IMPROVING VERBAL BEHAVIORS OF HEROIN ADDICTS IN A TREATMENT CLINIC

Positively reinforcing appropriate behaviors improved verbal behaviors of opioid-dependent patients in a buprenorphine treatment clinic. During B phases of an ABAB design, clients received stickers for engaging in appropriate verbal or nonverbal behaviors. Each sticker provided a chance of winning $25. No reinforcement was provided during the A phases. Appropriate verbal behaviors increased during reinforcement periods, and inappropriate verbal behaviors decreased.     

Continuation of Pregnancy Following the Diagnosis of a Fetal Sex Chromosome Abnormality: A Study of Parents' Counseling Needs and Experiences

Parents who decide to continue a pregnancy diagnosed with a sex chromosome abnormality (SCA) experience a variety of emotions as they deal with complex medical and genetic information. To better understand these individuals' psychosocial, educational, and support needs, 26 parents who received prenatal diagnosis of an SCA after 1989 and who had decided to continue their pregnancy were interviewed by telephone. Twenty (77%) reported they initially had a poor understanding of the predicted syndrome. All parents later met with a genetics professional. Twenty-two (92%) parents considered sterility and underdevelopment of secondary sexual characteristics to be the most negative aspects of SCAs. Contact with other parents of children with SCAs and with support organizations were generally viewed as helpful experiences. Insight gained from this study should be useful for genetic counselors and other health care providers involved with patients who have received abnormal prenatal diagnosis results.     

Uncovering Strengths of Children of Alcoholic Parents

Being a child of an alcoholic (COA) is neither a diagnosis nor a psychosocial death sentence. Neither alcoholic families nor COAs are monolithic. A variety of factors converge in developmental trajectories resulting in diverse individual outcomes. Supportive relationships with non-substance using parents and siblings and appropriate levels of parentification all may enable a significant proportion of COAs to enjoy high self-esteem, lack of problematic substance use, and good adaptive capability. Therapists and clients should refrain from looking at COAs through a deficit framework and instead should look for evidence of relational resilience in alcoholic families of origin. Such strengths-based assessments will increase therapeutic leverage with COAs seeking treatment for a range of presenting problems.     

Engineering responsibilities in lesser-developed nations: The welfare requirement

Increasing numbers of engineers from developed countries are employed during some part of their careers in lesser-developed nations (LDN’s), or they may design products for use in LDN’s. Yet determining the implications of professional engineering codes for engineers’ conduct in such settings can be difficult. Conditions are often substantially different from those in developed countries, where the codes were formulated. In this paper I explore the implications of what I call the “welfare requirement” in engineering codes for professional engineering conduct in LDN’s. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Engineering Foundation Conference on “Ethics for Science and Engineering Based International Industries”, Durham, NC, USA, 14–17 September 1997.     

An information processing view of framing effects: The role of causal schemas in decision making

People prefer a sure gain to a probable larger gain when the two choices are presented from a gain perspective, but a probable larger loss to a sure loss when the objectively identical choices are presented from a loss perspective. Such reversals of preference due to the context of the problem are known asframing effects. In the present study, schema activation and subjects’ interpretations of the problems were examined as sources of the framing effects. Results showed that such effects could be eliminated by introducing into a problem a causal schema that provided a rationale for the reciprocal relationship between the gains and the losses. Moreover, when subjects were freed from framing they were consistently risk seeking in decisions about human life, but risk averse in decisions about property. Irrationality in choice behaviors and the ecological implication of framing effects are discussed.     

Gender and aggression I: Perceptions of aggression

To investigate how gender and ethnicity influence evaluation, perceptions, and stereotyping of aggression, two studies were conducted with 115 college students (56% male; 50% Anglo and 26% Hispanic) and 79 individuals (72% male; 92% Anglo) who worked on a military base. Participants were asked to respond to four scenarios depicting aggressive interactions in which the gender of the protagonists varied, give their perceptions of 25 potentially aggressive incidents, and answer questions concerning stereotypes of gender related to these incidents and personal aggressive behaviors. Consistent with previous research on gender and aggression, both studies found that the aggressor, target, and respondent all affected perceptions of aggression and likelihood of aggressive behaviors. Aggression from a male and aggression directed towards a female were particularly likely to be evaluated negatively. Age and educational level were both negatively related to tolerance for aggression, and Anglo vs. Hispanic ethnicity was also associated with perceptions of aggression.We would like to thank Angela Bennett, Gail Bliss, Kayleigh Carabajal, Julie Depree, Carmen Gonzales, Deborah Good, Scott Griffin, Gladys Herrera, George Selix, Ruth Tangman, and Jon Woodland for their assistance with the development, distribution, and coding of the questionnaire.     

Depressive Symptoms in African-American Women

This project examined the prevalence of depressive symptoms in an African-American female college student sample. Concordance rates between two of the most widely used psychometric instruments in clinical settings, the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, revised edition (MMPI-2; Hathway & McKinley, 1967) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck, Ward, Mendelson, Mack, & Erbaugh, 1961), were examined. Results revealed that the MMPI-2 was a more conservative scale than the BDI in identifying depressive symptom levels. Both scales, however, identified 12% to 18% of the sample as experiencing severe symptoms. Results were interpreted in light of the stress model of depression. Participants who experienced many symptoms also had high levels of anxiety and passive coping styles. One significant covariate in this sample was mother's education level. Participants whose mothers had college experience had fewer depressive symptoms than their first-generation college-experience peers. Results were interpreted in light of the possible ways mothers inoculate their daughters from stressful environments because of their experiences and possible ways to use this process to assist first-generation college students.     

The expectation of guilt and resistance to temptation

Children's expectations about the emotions that surround a moral transgression were examined. In experiment 1, children aged 4-6 years and 8-9 years listened to a story about a child who resisted but then yielded to the temptation to take a sweet without permission. In line with earlier findings (Nunner-Winkler and Sodian, 1988), older children were more likely than younger children to expect the wrongdoer to feel pleased at resisting, but to feel bad after yielding to, temptation. In experiment 2, the relation between expectations of emotion and actual resistance to temptation was studied. Children aged 5-6 years again made judgements about a story character who eventually yielded to temptation. Their own resistance to temptation was assessed by means of a cheating task: children were given an opportunity to cheat by peeking during the experimenter's absence. Children who did not peek were more likely to attribute morally oriented feelings to the story protagonist. The results suggest that children who readily anticipate the emotional consequences of wrongdoing are more likely to resist the temptation to transgress.     

The role of religion in heart-transplant recipients' long-term health and well-being

While religion has long been recognized clinically to provide important coping strategies in the face of serious health problems, there has been little systematic consideration of its role in organ transplant recipients' long-term reactions and adjustment to this experience. This study examines these issues through qualitative and quantitative evaluation of longitudinal data collected from 40 adult heart recipients followed during their first year post-transplant. Large proportions of recipients expressed strong beliefs and were able to increase religious participation over the 12-month study period. They delineated specific ways in which their faith had provided them support, as well as ways in which the transplant experience itself further strengthened their beliefs. We found empirical evidence that recipients with strong beliefs who participated in religious activities had better physical and emotional well-being, fewer health worries, and better medical compliance by the final 12-month assessment. The findings suggest the development of specific nursing, social-service, or pastoral-involvement strategies, continuing staff education about the role of religion in patient care. The implications of such interventions for maximizing quality of life in transplant recipients are discussed.This study was funded by grants from the National Institute of Mental Health.     

Waiters,Customers, and Service: Some Tips About Tipping1

In order to investigate factors that influence the size of tips given in restaurants, 107 waiters (Study 1) and 137 customers (Study 2) were asked various questions about tipping. The findings confirmed a number of hypotheses. Respondents said that they themselves tip more than most people. Waiters indicated that they were more generous tippers and were more accurate in their estimate of 15% of the bill than customers. Tip size was reportedly increased by friendly service, good suggestions, excellent food, prompt delivery of the main course and check, a self-introduction by the waiter, and receiving separate checks. The tip was decreased by waiting a long time for a beverage and being seated in a bad location. Waiters identified more variables than did customers as being significantly associated with tip size, and they felt that excellent food, being in an expensive restaurant, and being seated in a bad location had greater effects on tipping than did customers. When asked about characteristics of waiters who receive large or small tips, most waiters and customers mentioned the waiter's attitude and quality of service. There was much less consensus on the characteristics of high and low tippers. Gender was not significantly related to any responses. In general, although waiters and customers share many beliefs about tipping, waiters may be more aware than customers of the relevant characteristics of the situation and of the individuals involved.