Behavior Analytic Contributions to the Study of Creativity

As researchers continue to study creativity, a behavior analytic perspective may provide new vistas by offering an additional perspective. Contemporary behavior analysis began with B. F. Skinner and offers a selectionist approach to the scientific investigation of creativity. Behavior analysis contributes to the study of creativity by investigating the controlling variables for novel behavior that people often times designate as creative. Specific environment‐behavior relations producing novelty include imitation, instructions, variability, interconnection of repertoires and contingency adduction.     

FORMATIVE EVALUATION: AN INTEGRATIVE PRACTICE MODEL AND CASE STUDY

Training evaluation research and practice has been dominated by a focus on outcomes of completed training programs, or on methods used to assess these outcomes. This focus has largely neglected formative evaluation, which involves evaluating training during design and development. The purpose of this paper is to review existing models of formative evaluation and suggest an integrative practice model that is specifically targeted at improving training delivered in work organizations.     

Defining and Assessing Problem‐Solving Style: Design and Development of a New Tool

VIEW: An Assessment of Problem Solving Style (Selby, Treffinger, & Isaksen, 2002) is a new instrument for assessing problem‐solving style, for use with individuals from ages 12 through adult. It measures three dimensions of style relating to creative problem solving and change management. In this article, we discuss the construction of the instrument, the initial evidence supporting the instrument's reliability and validity, and a very brief overview of the instrument's foundations. Our reliability data involve both stability and internal consistency. We report evidence for the criterion‐related validity, based on correlational studies with relevant measures of learning style, cognitive style, and psychological type. We also conducted principal components factor analyses that support our three‐factor structure. Researchers and practitioners studying and applying Creative Problem Solving and change management methods can use VIEW in several ways. Finally, we identify several research directions that will contribute to the refinement and development of the instrument as well as to a better understanding of the “problem‐solving style” construct.     

How Clients Are Harmed by Sexual Contact with Mental Health Professionals: The Syndrome and Its Prevalence

Research concerning the prevalence, varieties, contributing factors, and harmful consequences of sexual intimacies with clients (occurring either prior to or subsequent to termination) is reviewed. The sequelae of therapist-client sex may form a distinct syndrome, with similarities to Rape Response Syndrome, Battered Spouse Syndrome, reaction to incest, response to child abuse, and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Aspects of Therapist-Patient Sex Syndrome include: (a) ambivalence, (b) a sense of guilt, (c) feelings of emptiness and isolation, (d) sexual confusion, (e) impaired ability to trust, (f) identity, boundary, and role confusion, (g) emotional lability (frequently involving severe depression and acute anxiety), (k) suppressed rage, (i) increased suicidal risk, and (j) cognitive dysfunction (especially in the areas of attention and concentration, frequently involving flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive thoughts, and unbidden images).     

Social support in spouses of cancer patients: What do they get and to what end?

Using a retrospective design, the authors assessed several different aspects of social support (perceived, received, satisfaction with received, and support seeking) in 95 spouses of cancer survivors. The goals of the investigation were to (a) describe in detail the differences between husbands and wives on these support dimensions and (b) explore whether the relation between support and adjustment was different for husbands as compared to wives. While husbands and wives were generally similar-in their general perceptions of available support and in the amount of support they reported seeking, consistent with our hypothesis, compared to husbands of breast cancer victims, wives of prostate cancer victims reported receiving more support and being more satisfied with the support they received. Measures of social support predicted husbands’reports of marital satisfaction and adjustment, but not wives’reports. Partial correlation analyses indicated that sex differences in these support-adjustment links were not attributable to differences in age, or in the time between completing treatment and participating in the study. Sex differences observed in the present study are interpreted as highlighting the need for theory development to account for the complex mechanisms underlying links between supportive transactions and marital satisfaction and adjustment.     

SOURCES OF VARIATION IN JOB SATISFACTION: JOB SIZE EFFECTS IN A SAMPLE OF THE U. S. LABOR FORCE

Survey data were used to examine hypotheses about job size and satisfaction in a broad spectrum of jobs. Job size, higher-order need importance, urban-rural residence, and blue- or white-collar job category were tested as predictors of satisfaction ( N = 2,094). Job size, need importance, and job category all related to job satisfaction. In constrast to earlier findings among blue-collar workers, there was no evidence that either the urban-rural variable or need importance moderated the job size-satisfaction relation. Job category did not moderate these results, indicating that the present results extend to white-collar workers. It was possible to control for income in a subsample ( N = 753). Controlling for income's effect, job size, need importance, and job category still related to satisfaction; again, no moderating effects were observed. Results are discussed in terms of three potential sources of variation in satisfaction: job, person, and interaction of job and person.     

Dear diary: logs in group counseling

Logs written by group members after a session can be a powerful tool in group counseling. This article explores the uses of logs and suggests how they can further the success of group counseling in all settings. If used properly they heighten the awareness of personal and group dynamics and smooth the flow of communication.     

Phenomenological note on belief-feeling and the relation between affect and belief

It is asserted that there are two kinds of belief-feeling, i.e., feeling (confident) that something is true or real. The difference between α-feeling and β-feeling of belief is analogous to the difference between having a sensory impression and merely imagining the impression. An α-belief is a concomitant correlate of affect and it tends to be stronger than the corresponding β-belief.     

The incongruent color-words paradigm and language lateralization: An EEG-study

The present study utilizes an incongruent color-words paradigm, where color-words are briefly flashed either to the left or to the right of the center of futation. The hypothesis is that a greater conflict between the word and the color the word is written in will occur in the left hemisphere than in the right hemisphere, if the task of the subject is to report only the color. In previous studies, however, only behavioral measures, like vocal reaction time and error frequency, have been used to assess asymmetry. In the presented experiment we have added analysis of the 8–13 Hz EEG alpha difference between the hemispheres, predicting greater alpha reduction to the color-words in the left hemisphere, but not to the control stimuli. Twenty intact, male, dextrals participated. Results supported the prediction, witha 8.3% reduction of alpha activity in the left hemisphere to the color words, compared to a 1.9% reduction in the right hemisphere. No difference was found to the control stimuli.