Habituation,memory, and the evaluative dimension of meaning

Two groups of subjects were exposed to a series of 20 either positively evaluated words (E⁺ group) or negatively evaluated words (E^? group). On the twenty-first trial, half the subjects in E⁺ group (the E^+? group) received a negatively evaluated word while the other half of the subjects received a further positively evaluated word (E⁺⁺ group). A similar subdivision was made with the E^? group to yield E^?+ and E^?? groups. Skin conductance responses to all stimulus words were measured. The responses of the E^+? and E^?+ groups were compared to those of their control groups (E⁺⁺ and E^??) for stimulus words 21 and 22. The results of these analyses, and the data concerning responses prior to stimulus word 21, indicated that subjects habituated to semantic stimuli of the same evaluative meaning. Memory for the words was assessed postexperimentally and its relationship to the orienting response in discussed.     

Are women invisible as leaders?

This study shows that women are unlikely to be seen as leaders. Subjects (n=448) rated each member of a five-person group (shown in a photograph) on leadership attributes and also chose one of the five as “contributing most to the group.” Eight different stimulus slides were used. In two slides the “head-of-the-table” cue to group leadership was pitted against sex-role stereotypes. A man seated at the head of the table in a mixed-sex group was clearly seen as leader of his group, but a woman occupying the same position was ignored. The head-of-the-table cue identified women as leaders only in all-female stimulus groups. The data were consistent with the hypotheses that sex stereotypes still control social judgments, and that discrimination operates nonconsciously and in spite of good intentions.     

A comprehensive dining program for mentally retarded adults

Twenty-six types of behavior (e.g. uses fork in socially appropriate manner, chews food before swallowing) were treated in a course of independence training, using 80 institutionalized retarded adults (40 experimentals and 40 no-treatment controls). The 3-month long training phase incorporated a number of treatment components including in vivo modeling, peer social reinforcement, self-evaluation and monitoring; then a four-month follow-up. A group (i.e. experimentals and controls) by sex, by time, analysis of variance was computed with repeated measures on the last dimension (pre, post, follow-up measures = time). A significant difference was obtained between the experimentals and controls on post-test and follow-up     

Psychotherapy and the locus of control

Underlying various actions of both the therapist and the patient are expectations about the measure to which an individual's experiences are the product of powerful external forces or of the person's own actions and decisions. While most of our anthropological theories support the notion that a person's experience is subject to an external locus of control, neither that view nor the opposite emphasizing freedom and autonomy is adequate for the therapeutic enterprise. THere are elements of truth in both positions that ned to be incorporated in therapeutic expectations if the enterprise is to proceed in an orderly fashion.     

Family demographics of clinically referred children: What we know and what we need to know

Published empirical studies were reviewed to establish family demographics of clinically referred children and adolescents. Data on parental marital status were collected from studies of referred and nonreferred children and adolescents in six empirical journals. Data on family socioeconomic status (SES) and child race or ethnicity were also collected. Based on 86 studies that presented parental marital status, 56.4% of clinically referred children and adolescents live with both their biological mother and biological father. Family SES data were difficult to summarize because of the different methods of presenting this information. When considering race and ethnicity, 86% of the children and adolescents in the clinical samples were Caucasian American. Of the studies that were originally reviewed, 80.4% did not include parental marital status and 36. 7% did not include SES, race, or ethnicity of the participants. There were no significant differences between journals in the rates of inclusion of family demographic data. In addition to revealing family demographic information about children and adolescents who participate in clinical research, these data highlight the lack of consistency in the presentation of family demographic data in published research. Suggestions are provided to help researchers colled and present meaningful family demographic data in clinical and nonclinical research with children and adolescents.This study was completed with support from the Division of Sponsored Research at the University of South Florida and preparation of this article was supported in part by National Institute of Mental Health Grant R29 49601-02 to the first author. We express our gratitude to Georgetta Bosco and Tracy Burbine for their diligent data collection in the library.     

Metacognition and mathematics strategy use

The role of children's metacognitive knowledge in their mathematics strategy use was studied by a longitudinal examination of second graders' effort attributions, metacognition for mathematics, and strategy use while solving mathematics problems. Children's correct use of retrieval, internal and external strategies, and the prevalence of strategy use were assessed in September and the following January. Effort attributions for success and failure were also assessed at both points in time. In January, metacognitive knowledge about mathematics strategies was measured. Second graders possess metacognitive knowledge about mathematics strategies, and this knowledge is correlated most strongly with the tendency to use internal strategies in September and correct internal strategy use in September. Effort attributions measured at both timepoints were significantly related to metacognition. Effort attributions in January also correlated with the tendency to use internal strategies in January. In general, the results are consistent with self-system theories, which posit that metacognition, motivation, and strategy use work together to promote learning.     

Sapphires-in-Transition: Enhancing Personal Development Among Black Female Adolescents

The author describes a counselor intervention program used for facilitating the personal development of adolescents. Intervention occurred through activities that were designed for Black female adolescents in a secondary public school. Goals were met through structured developmental activities, counseling sessions, and organized network support. Results indicated the program was successful.     

Morality and the practice of psychotherapy

The morality of psychotherapy is challenged in terms of its effects on patients, their families, and the community. This paper discusses the issue of moral neutrality in therapy, the distinction between real and neurotic guilt, and offers suggestions as to how moral discourse might be incorporated in therapy.     

Emotional relief for parents: Is rational-emotive parent education effective?

The effects of a rational-emotive parent education program were studied on forty-eight parents from a nonclinical population using a pre-test, post-test control group design. The RET parenting program included four components: a) reducing emotional stress through disputing irrational beliefs, b) implementing rational discipline methods, c) rational problem solving skills and d) fostering rational thinking traits in their child. Four dependent variables were studied: parent irrationality, parent emotionality, parent perceptions of child problems and the perception of participants' parenting by their spouses. Results showed that for experimental group subjects there was a statistically significant reduction in parent irrationality, parent guilt and parent anger. An exploratory ten month follow-up suggested maintenance of effects, a reduction in perceived child behavior problems, and changes in parental irrational beliefs regarding self worth.     

Making sense of sensitivity in the human operant literature

Human operant behavior is often said to be controlled by different variables or governed by different processes than nonhuman operant behavior. Support for this claim within the operant literature comes from data suggesting that human behavior is often insensitive to schedules of reinforcement to which nonhuman behavior has been sensitive. The data that evoke the use of the terms sensitivity and insensitivity, however, result from both between-species and within-subject comparisons. We argue that because sensitivity is synonymous with experimental control, conclusions about sensitivity are best demonstrated through within-subject comparisons. Further, we argue that even when sensitivity is assessed using within-subject comparisons of performance on different schedules of reinforcement, procedural differences between studies of different species may affect schedule performance in important ways. We extend this argument to age differences as well. We conclude that differences across populations are an occasion for more precise experimental analyses and that it is premature to conclude that human behavior is controlled by different processes than nonhuman behavior.