Identifying empirically supported treatments for phobic avoidance in individuals with intellectual disabilities

This paper reviews the literature regarding the treatment of phobic avoidance in individuals with intellectual disabilities. Criteria for classifying interventions as empirically supported, developed by the American Psychological Association (APA) Division 12 Task Force on Promotion and Dissemination of Psychological Procedures, were used. For studies employing single case experimental designs, criteria developed by APA Division 16 (Kratochwill & Stoiber, 2002; Shernoff, Kratochwill, & Stoiber, 2002) were used to supplement Division 12 criteria. Results indicate that behavioral treatment can be designated as a well-established treatment for phobic avoidance in individuals with intellectual disabilities.     

Choice Models of Deterrence: Another Look

Choice models of deterrence emphasize the importance of including rewards and costs for both crime and noncrime in capturing the process whereby criminal decisions are made. A review of the literature indicates that these models also include probabilities as well as magnitudes for both rewards and costs of crime, but exclude probabilities for law-abiding behavior, treating rewards for noncrime as opportunity costs while eschewing their chance of occurrence. Here we provide experimental data comparing the explanatory power of 2 choice models, one that includes probabilities for rewards and costs for noncrime and another that omits these probabilities altogether. Findings show that the more inclusive model explains approximately twice as much variation in the dependent variable, thereby providing additional support for earlier findings.     

Contents Just Are In The Head

The purpose of the paper is to show that semanticexternalism – the thesis that contents are notdetermined by ``individualistic' features of mentalstates – is mistaken. Externalist thinking, it isargued, rests on two mistaken assumptions: theassumption that if there is an externalist wayof describing a situation the situation exemplifiesexternalism, and the assumption that cases in which adifference in the environment of an intentional stateentails a difference in the state's intentional objectare cases in which environmental factors determine thestate's content. Exposing these mistakes leads to seethat the conditions that are required for thetruth of externalism are inconsistent.     

The effects of mental context reinstatement on children's accounts of sexual abuse*

Forensic interviewers guided 46.4‐ to 13‐year‐old alleged victims of sexual abuse to recall the context in which the reported incidents had taken place. A comparable group of 50 alleged victims were interviewed using an interview protocol that was identical except that the mental context reinstatement (MCR) techniques were not included. MCR did not increase the total number of event‐related details reported, but it did lead children to reported proportionally more details (55% versus 46%) in response to invitations rather than focused prompts. Such information is more likely to be accurate. MCR had an especially powerful effect on the youngest children (4‐ to 6‐year‐olds) studied. The results suggest that non‐suggestive contextual cues may indeed be useful in forensic interviews. Published in 2001 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An analysis of the selective effects of NCR with punishment targeting problem behavior associated with positive affect

Among individuals with developmental disabilities and behavioral problems, self‐injury and aggression are often associated with negative affect such as crying. In the current report, we present data on two children who displayed problem behaviors (screaming and self‐injury) that were often associated with positive affect. In contrast to their other problem behaviors that were socially mediated, these behaviors were maintained independent of social consequences. One concern about treating problem behavior associated with positive affect is that the treatment may produce generalized reductions in positive affect. In both cases presented in the current study, the reductive effects of a treatment targeting these behaviors were highly selective, producing decreases in screaming and self‐injury, while minimally affecting affect. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Common Factors Approach to Psychotherapy Training

This article addresses training in psychotherapy integration from the perspective of common factors. Problems related to this training perspective are first reviewed. As an attempt to deal with such problems, current teaching and supervision efforts by the author are briefly described. Based on a developmental model of clinical learning, a sketch of a more comprehensive program of integrative psychotherapy training is advanced.     

TARGETING SOCIAL SKILLS DEFICITS IN AN ADOLESCENT WITH PERVASIVE DEVELOPMENTAL DISORDER

Social skills deficits are a defining feature of individuals diagnosed with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders (PDD), which can impair functioning and put the individual at higher risk for developing problem behavior (e.g., self‐injury, aggression). In the current study, an adolescent with PDD displayed inappropriate social behavior (inappropriate comments, social withdrawal, and touching others without their permission) during social interactions. An intervention using instructions, differential reinforcement, and corrective feedback successfully reduced inappropriate social behaviors.     

How does the extraversion personality trait influence false recall with the Deese–Roediger–McDermott (DRM) paradigm?

Relative to more introverted persons, extraverts have been found to exhibit better recall and recognition in a range of memory paradigms including demonstrating a superior semantic priming effect. The present study sought to establish whether this aspect of personality might be associated with the false memory paradigm developed by Deese, Roediger, and McDermott (the DRM paradigm). Lists containing semantically related words were presented to extraverts, ambiverts, and introverts. Compared to the other two groups, extraverts falsely recalled more critical lures (words that although semantically related were not in the original lists) and non-list words. The results are discussed in relation to the concept of spreading activation.     

Suggested visual hallucinations in and out of hypnosis

We administered suggestions to see a gray-scale pattern as colored and a colored pattern in shades of gray to 30 high suggestible and eight low suggestible students. The suggestions were administered twice, once following the induction of hypnosis and once without an induction. Besides rating the degree of color they saw in the stimuli differently, participants also rated their states of consciousness as normal, relaxed, hypnotized, or deeply hypnotized. Reports of being hypnotized were limited to highly suggestible participants and only after the hypnotic induction had been administered. Reports of altered color perception were also limited to high suggestibles, but were roughly comparable regardless of whether hypnosis had been induced. These data indicate that suggestible individuals do not slip into a hypnotic state when given imaginative suggestions without the induction of hypnosis, but nevertheless report experiencing difficult suggestions for profound perceptual alterations that are pheonomenologically similar to what they report in hypnosis.