CORRESPONDENCE TRAINING: AN EXAMPLE OF RULE-GOVERNED BEHAVIOR?

Two groups of six mentally retarded adults were exposed to either a “say/do” correspondence training program or a “do only” reinforcement procedure to evaluate the suggestion of Rogers-Warren and Baer (1976) that reinforcement of the nonverbal target behavior in the absence of the relevant verbal behavior may account for the behavior changes seen in correspondence training. The participants worked in an experimental setting on a variety of manipulatory responses leading to various auditory and visual consequences. Analysis of individual patterns of responding indicated no apparent differences between the groups during training; four individuals in each group appeared to develop generalized correspondence skills. We conclude that the outcome of correspondence training may not necessarily be verbal regulation of behavior as is assumed. Rather, we suggest that the notion of rule-governed behavior can best account for the type of behavior changes seen in correspondence studies.     

Histories of sexual abuse in adolescent male runaways

In this study, data on sexual victimization in the histories of 89 Canadian male runaways as well as information on physical victimization, family structure, family financial stability, delinquent and criminal activities, and reasons for running away from home were evaluated. The population of male runaways evidenced dramatically higher rates of sexual and physical abuse than did randomly sampled populations. Sexually abused and nonsexually abused male runaways shared characteristics noted in the literature as common to runaways: problem families, high rates of delinquency, depression, tension, low self-image, and history of physical abuse. Sexually abused male runaways differed from nonsexually abused runaways in their reactions to their runaway event, with sexually abused male runaways responding in highly avoidant patterns coupled with extreme withdrawal from all types of interpersonal relationships. These differences are explained as consistent with known sequelae of sexual abuse, and the implications for treatment by runaway shelters and for further research are suggested.     

Cognitive impairment in preschoolers: Identification using the personality inventory for children-revised

This study evaluated the clinical validity of the Intellectual Screening, Development, and Achievement scales of the Personality Inventory for Children-Revised (PIC-R), as well as the newly derived PIC-R Factor IV scale, in identifying cognitive impairment in a clinic-referred sample of preschoolers. The clinical validity of these PIC-R subscales was also compared to that of the Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI). The results showed that the PIC-R scales and Factor IV were reasonably successful in identifying cognitively impaired preschoolers, but much less successful in identifying cognitively normal preschoolers. Overall, the MCDI was the most successful in correctly identifying the preschoolers' cognitive status.     

GENERALIZATION OF OBJECT NAMING AFTER TRAINING WITH PICTURE CARDS AND WITH OBJECTS

Generalization of four retarded children's object naming responses to stimuli in the natural environment was assessed after training with either objects or pictures of the objects. Generalization was typically greater after training with objects. In a second experiment, half of the stimuli that showed little generalization were retrained by alternating the original training object with an object that belonged to the same stimulus class as the training stimulus. The other half were simply retrained using the object. The alternating procedure resulted in substantial increases in generalization to untrained objects.     

Emotions as social relationships

While emotions are usually treated as internal states, it is possible to view them as social relationships. From this perspective, the different emotions are not primarily understood in terms of facial expression, physiological pattern, hedonic tone, or level of arousal, but as different transformations of the relationship between person and other. To demonstrate the value of this approach, judgments of the similarity between different emotions were submitted to multidimensional scaling. It is shown that the resulting dimensions describe different aspects of the relation between self and other. These dimensions provide us with a taxonomy of emotions that makes some important distinctions between closely related emotions and leads to some interesting predictions about personality differences.The authors would like to thank David Stevens for his assistance with the statistical analysis, Eric de Rivera for drafting the three-dimensional figures, and James D. Laird and Shula Sommers for their helpful commentary.     

Assessing depression in community samples of children using self-report inventories: Ethical considerations

Although the methodological problems associated with the use of children's self-report depression inventories have previously been discussed in detail, the ethical problems related to the use of these instruments have been largely ignored. The primary purpose of this survey study was to determine how childhood depression researchers have prepared for and responded to children from community (i.e., nonclinic) samples whose nonanonymous scores on self-report depression inventories have indicated that they might be severely depressed or suicidal. Several recommendations, based upon (a) the results of this survey study, (b) the existing literature relevant to the ethical responsibilities of investigators who conduct research with children, and (c) our own experiences with these instruments and populations, are made to assist researchers in their attempts to use these inventories in an ethical manner.The authors would like to thank those childhood depression researchers who were kind enough to return completed surveys.     

Effects of treatments and their outcomes on peer perceptions of a hyperactive child

In an exploration of the social impacts of treatments for hyperactivity, two age groups (kindergarteners and first-graders vs. fourth- and fifth-graders) heard about a hyperactive child whose problem was treated either by an internal and controllable means (effort) or by an external and uncontrollable means (medication) and whose behavior either did or did not improve. The attributions and affective responses of both age groups were influenced by both the nature and the effectiveness of treatment, and there was only weak support for the hypothesis that younger children are more influenced by treatment outcome than older children are. However, older children, conforming to attribution theory predictions, held target children more accountabe for the success or failure of their own efforts than for the outcomes of medication, particularly valuing the child whose own efforts succeeded. By contrast, young children judged the child whose efforts failed as more worthy of pride and more likable than the child whose medication failed. Implications for peer acceptance of hyperactive children over the childhood years are discussed.Portions of this paper were presented at the annual meeting of the Southeastern Psychological Association, Atlanta, March 1985. Thanks are extended to the staff and students of the Model Laboratory School.